Jesus’ Life Teaches God Is In Control
The whole of the Old Testament has one message= Somebody’s coming! We get the earliest reference of this in Gen. 3 when God tells the Devil “Her seed will crush your head.” The one coming is going to give the serpent of old a bad time.
The one coming is called the Lawgiver out of Judah, who will have the scepter in his hands. He is depicted as a rock that is smitten but gives water to the people, a Passover lamb that takes the place of the firstborn that they might live. He was shown as an uplifted serpent that would heal all those bitten by The serpent and were venom filled; you had to look to Him for this healing.
He was seen as a refuge for all those who had broken the law. We flee to refuge in Christ, because we too have felt the heals of someone after us for what we have done; Jesus is our refuge. The one to come was typified as someone who would bring us rest; He is also a high priest, as well as the crucified and resurrected one. He would be the very one who built the foundations of heaven and earth; He would be the stone the builders rejected, but in the end He would be the capstone of it all.
Isa. says He will be the virgins’ son, He’s David’s son sitting on the throne, He is called the everlasting Father, the prince of peace, the mighty God, and counselor. He is called the suffering servant, who will be beat up and all the people will say He deserves what God is doing to Him. But, the prophet tells us, we didn’t know it, but he was being hit for us. His stripes heal us, he said. We thought He was smitten of God and afflicted, but what we didn’t know was He was God afflicting himself to bring us home to Him. This message is the Old Testament message.
So, when the scholars of old tell us the Old Testament says, somebody’s coming, they are absolutely right! Even at the end in Malachi 4, we see the Son of righteousness and He’ll arise with healing in His wings! So, just when we put all that together and we could put more in there; what does that tell us about the Christ and His coming to us?
People have actually done the work and recorded over 300 distinct prophecies of Jesus in the Old Testament. Does that tell us anything?
One thing it tells us is, that the life of Jesus here among us was no accident! It tells us there is and grand mastermind behind it all. Now, often times, when we read from Genesis to Malachi, we get lost and could swear there are long periods of time where it looks like no one is running anything. But, if we look at with this bigger lens and see the whole, we see all kinds of indicators that someone’s in control.
If you were stranded on a deserted island and no one was there, but you came across a shoe, a piece of clothing; even if no one was to be found, you would know someone was there. If you survey all human history, it may often, maybe even most of the time look like there’s no rhyme or reason for any of it; that no one is in control. But, then you look at the life of Christ and you see, somebody’s in control. That should be a great comfort to us.
I mean, even in my own short life, many times I have felt no one is controlling my life. Many times I feel I’m a walking contradiction, a civil war. Some days and times I am holy and thinking purely and uprightly, and sometimes I even handle mistreatment and abuse, but on other days, that’s all I hand out. Some days, it hard to think even one pure thought. I think to myself, if I were running my own life, I’d do it better than this. Scripture says, but it isn’t me, but sin that dwells in me!
The enemy of course is giving me a hard time too, pushing me toward sin, but it’s still me doing it. But, then I can see other days too, where I can say, you know Tony God is really helping you and growing you. I’m not all bad, I’m not all good either, but I’m not all bad. I do see tokens of growth in my life. Yet, we have bad days and they cause us to get down on ourselves for our spiritual idiocy and lunacy, but we can’t let that control us and beat us down. We must look to God and His Word and His word doesn’t lie to us; I do some times, but It doesn’t!
I don’t trust in me, I trust in Him and His Word and the life of Christ tells us, somebody’s in control and running the whole show. I’m saying all this, because I want you to know what the birth of Christ, His coming into the world really says to us. The birth of Jesus tells us a number of things:
1. God is no racist! Someone put it this way about us; “the earth is a place where people fight over ruins, stabbing it’s lovely lambs with deep atomic wounds.
Daily taking overdoses of hatred, hatred on every side, hatred that expresses itself in this ungodly thing we call racism.”
Jesus the Christ, the Son of God was born a Jew! Blah – pew, blah! People of that day would do that and worse when they hear Jew and still do today. Ikeman said, he would jump into his grave laughing that he had a part in killing 6 million Jews; he was pleased about it. You know the history of how Jews have never really ever been liked by the rest of the world, not just now, been in all history.
Here’s the thing, My Master was born into a fourth rate nation! God sent Him here; He could have been born anywhere God chose, but He chose Israel. He could have been born in Athens, one the great cities of the world. He could have done whatever He wanted; He could have started it all differently than He did. He could have chosen one of the mighty nations of the world at the time. He chose to be born in a nation that was considered by other nations as the outcasts of the world.
The Master of the universe is against racism and I don’t care who’s got it, or who preaches it, we shouldn’t tolerate it for a second. It is unlike God to be a racist; we see it in the birth of Jesus. Scripture tells us where God stands on it clearly in places like Gal. 3 where it says, there is neither slave nor free, Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, but we are all one in Christ. Racism is a tool of the devil and we need to be clear about it; Jesus’ life teaches it.
2. The birth of Christ also teaches us that God is unashamed of poverty. We can see from His very life that poverty is acceptable. I’m not saying there is anything holy about being poor; I’m just saying God is telling us it is okay. He is so unlike us most of the time. It’s simply amazing how much snobbery is all around us!
People who are more well of than others and they are looking down their noses at those who have nothing. People, who are educationally smart, look down on those who have little education. People who are the “noble” looking ones looking down on the commoners. What utter garbage it all is!
God choosing to born in poverty teaches us something about all our snobbery, however it expresses itself.
Whether it’s financial, intellectual, or social status; all such egotism is of the devil and does not belong to Christ. How perverse and idiotic it is for someone who has been blessed to educate themselves to look down on those who haven’t the same blessings in life. How ugly it is to look down on others no matter the reason. My Master says, away with such thought and practice and He didn’t just teach it, He lived it!
Jesus’ birth teaches us God is no racist, he’s no snob of any kind. Did you know Jesus was mocked even by His own people, because He chose to live in Galilee and He spoke in a funny accent because of it? The southerners snickered at Him because His grammar wasn’t like theirs and He just isn’t an educated man like us. Here we have God bearing all these criticisms of all of us down below. He chose this for a reason, are we hearing?
3. The life of Jesus teaches us the central thing in life is being absorbed in God! By the way, being absorbed in God always translates into, being absorbed in people; you can’t escape it. The very first recorded words of Jesus were said to His mother ‘mother why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know that I must be about my father’s business?”
What we learn from Jesus about being about His father’s business is about how you treat other people. Scripture tells us what kind of reaction He got from those He taught in the temple as a young lad. It says, they were amazed, not at just His answers, but His questions as well. Did you ever think about it? Did you know Jesus thought He could be taught?
God, who manifested Himself in the flesh, not only talked, but He listened. I pray to God that we would learn this! He listened, which often is too scarce a commodity in our world today. Jesus’ life teaches us the importance to speak, but also the importance of listening.
4. You can serve God anywhere, doing anything in life. We lose sight of Jesus from ages 12-30, the so-called silent years. Yet what do we learn of Him during this time? One thing scripture tells us is He was a carpenter. What do we learn about the life of Christ in that? I learn we can serve God doing anything, with no ballyhoo at all!
We really don’t hear from Him in all those years, but what does that tell us? What was He doing? He was serving His father with His life!
A carpenter was a hard job back then and wasn’t all that good a paying job, as it is now. But He did it, no trumpets blowing, no red carpets, no ticker tape parades through the streets of Nazareth; He was simply an ordinary man, living an ordinary life. He served God without having to be constantly praised and recognized for it. I really think you and I need to learn to live life without thinking we need a constant stream of praise to do it.
We’re so whiny! “No one appreciates me, no one accepts me, or recognizes if I live or die!” How often do we think and even say such things? I’m not saying we shouldn’t encourage one another, you know we should, but think on Jesus; put your eyes on Him for a bit. For about 30 years of His life he lived His life and did His job without any, wow! Without any, how marvelous, how wonderful You are!
We need to live our lives, do our jobs, for Him, believing He’s watching, believing He cares what we do and how we do it. We need to see Him rejoicing when you give your daily life in all you do for Him. You need to believe He believes in you even if nobody tells you how well you are doing. He knows all about you; he made you and rejoices in you, so glorify Him in all that you do.
Hey listen, He knows you need someone to drop you a line once in while, give you a smile and He gives us those people. But, say it doesn’t come often, then do it for Him, because He knows and He is pleased with you. God knows we need people who really care and they let us know, but in the mean time what are you going to do? Do what He did, which was living your life in service to Him wherever you are, whatever you are doing; with no trumpets or red carpets needed.
Jesus’ life as a carpenter teaches us that the ordinary is terrific with God. The ordinary pleases God to no end, when you give it to Him. You don’t have to be some head honcho of a big movement to be fully pleasing to God. Do the ordinary stuff for God and He rejoices.
You don’t think God doesn’t notice the ordinary everyday stuff? You remember when He went to visit at Simon’s house? Simon didn’t do the mundane, ordinary common courtesies of the day for Jesus.
No common greeting, no hug, or kiss, no water for his feet; all Jesus was to Simon was a celebrity and he just wants Him in his house to check him out. He didn’t do the common things one does to properly treat someone well who comes to visit you. You think Jesus doesn’t notice you when you do those things? Doesn’t He?
When the prostitute started kissing His feet and pouring oil on Him, He looks to Simon and says; do you not see what she is doing for me? You didn’t do anything for me when I came into your house, nothing! She’s washing my feet with her tears and drying them with her hair, and anointing me with oil. Doesn’t He notice when we don’t treat each other well? We’re just talking common courtesies here and Jesus is saying by not giving me just the common treatment, you mistreat me.
Jesus taught many times and as clear as possible in Mathew 25 where He identifies Himself with those who are needy, lonely, the sick, the hungry and thirsty. What’s He saying; one thing is the ordinary is extraordinary to God. If God came down from Heaven what Job would He choose? Of all the Jobs there are which one? Well, someone says, He’d be the biggest preacher of the biggest church in the entire world!
No, He chose to be a carpenter. That’s what He would choose, because that is what He chose. If He came today, maybe he’d chose to be a mechanic, or a bank clerk, or store keeper, I don’t know, but I know it would be ordinary, because that’s what He did. You see the truth is God doesn’t see what we call extraordinary as extraordinary.
God doesn’t believe that preachers/pastors and spiritual leaders are the only real proclaimers of God in the world. God doesn’t believe that only Bible studying, song singing, praying times are the only times we really please Him. He believes the ordinary given to Him for His glory is extraordinary!
What do we learn from the years Jesus spent as a carpenter; why am I taking so long on this one? This is where we live most of our lives and it means something big to God. It means we can serve God mightily without any ballyhoo, or rah, rah rah! We learn the ordinary pleases Him.
Being courteous to your parents, being fair to your customers, being honest with our debts, smiling for each other, weeping with each other and listening to each other; all great acts unto God and He notices! Jesus’ life teaches us this!
5. What does His death teach us? His death is part of His life; absolutely necessary for us all and gives life to us all, so what do we learn? One thing His death tells us is sin is the one unendurable thing in the universe. It is the one thing God cannot and therefore will not tolerate. He can’t leave sin undealt with.
How did God deal with our sin? Some say, send everyone to hell! Oh no a thousand times no, that is not how He dealt with it! He took it right in His own chest is how he dealt with it. He sent His Son, not just to be born in a manger as awesome as that is, or to be a carpenter giving glory to God in the ordinary, which encourages us to live well too. But, He sent His Son, who represents the whole of the Godhead and tells Him, you go handle the problem of sin in the world and Jesus said, okay I will.
I’ll handle it for you Father, for me, and for the Spirit; for the whole Godhead, I’ll solve this problem. He didn’t come here with thunderbolts sending everyone to damnation! No! He said, I’ll stand before all the dumb little Pilate’s and I’ll take all the criticisms and I will take in my stomach and my feet and my hands and my head, all the pain brought on by sin that has ever or will ever be. I’ll handle it all and He did.
What sins did He handle? All of it, you know the real ugly stuff like, envy. Remember Pilate knew that it was because of envy they delivered Jesus up to be crucified. No special sin of the extraordinary kind. No! Just the same old garden-variety kind of sin I got involved in myself yesterday, today, and tomorrow. That ugly ordinary stuff we see and do everyday. It was loose in the first century and God came into the middle of it and it grabbed Him and killed Him!
On that day, it was God against God; the Father against the Son to deal with sin and that’s how God handled our sin. Grace isn’t cheap folks! Forgiveness didn’t come easy; it was terribly expensive. When Christ reaches out His hand in forgiveness towards you and me it has a big old bad whole it! When He takes you close to His heart, He’s got a big rip in His side. My Mater never forgave you cheaply. Sin was paid for.
6. Death was not the end of His life, for He conquered the grave and arose! What does His resurrection tell us? It tells us that goodness and kindness runs the universe and the good news! Someone once asked if you could ask the universe one question what would it be, and someone answered and asked, are you friendly?
Haven’t you ever wondered how people live without Christ, without the Bible, without the knowledge that God is there and that He cares? How do they do it? I find it totally inexplicable. I have no idea how to live anymore without Jesus. I used to, but I don’t know anymore. The resurrection says goodness runs the whole show.
It tells us God has in store for each of us glory and life everlasting with Him. It tells us this body will be transformed and made new and ready for our new home. That’s what the resurrection tells us. The end of the story for you and me is not the tomb, or the graveyard and this brings us great joy.
One of these days, we are going home! Jesus’ life, death, and life again teaches us God is in control of this life. Pray that we can show the world through our lives that He is in control of the whole show.
Conclusion: God is in control of it all; His coming teaches us this.
There is no favoritism with God; he’s no snob in anyway. Even poverty is not evil and we can look at even the poor with dignity.
Jesus’ life teaches us the ordinary things done in service to God and others glorify God. So, let all your life be absorbed in God and people. Knowing He sees it all, so give it all to Him.
His life teaches us God will not let sin just go by; He must deal with it. He did in His own Son and even though a great price was paid, His resurrection shows us even if we don’t understand everything around us, we can know our God is good and He will give us great things yet to come. His coming, His birth and His life here teach us all will be made good in the end.
