12-15-13 Sermon

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12-15-13 Sermon

THE DRAWING POWER OF GOD         Matthew 2:1-2, 9-12

2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem ² and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

⁹ After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. ¹¹ On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. ¹² And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

Judaism was to be a missionary religion but as it evolved it became a ___________________

Genesis 12:3 And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

The Messiah would not just be for Jews but for _______________________

 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious. Isaiah 11:10

¹⁸ “And I, because of what they have planned and done, am about to come and gather the people of all nations and languages, and they will come and see my glory.²³ …, all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the Lord. Isaiah 66:18, 23

The true light that gives light to EVERY man was coming into the world.  John 1:9 

If I be lifted up, I will draw ALL men unto me. John 12:34

People who truly seek God, ________________________________

I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.  Proverbs 8:17

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,
² turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—
³ indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,
⁴ and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,
⁵ then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2:1-5

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

12-15-13 Sermon

THE DRAWING POWER OF GOD         Matthew 2:1-2, 9-12

The coming of the wise men to see the Christ child is a significant event for all of us.  It was not merely one of the extraordinary events of our Lord's infant life.  It affirms one of the most fundamental and vital features of Christianity; one of the great distinctions, in fact, between Christianity and Judaism.  The Jewish religion was a religion of a race.  If a man was born of the seed of Abraham and was circumcised on the eighth day, he was in covenant with God.  If the blood that flowed in his veins was Greek or Roman or anything other than Jewish, he was a stranger to the covenant of promise.  He could at best convert to Judaism and then be regarded as a second class Jew. 

But that is not the way it started out.  That is not the way God intended Judaism to be.  Originally, Judaism was to be a missionary religion but as it evolved it became a religion of race.  Originally Abraham was told that he was being blessed to be a blessing to others.  In Genesis 12:3 he is told And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. 

It was this question of missionary religion versus racial religion that Paul had to struggle with.  Was God the God of the Jews only or was he the God of the Gentiles also?  Was a merely national religion like this a full unveiling of the Mind of the common Father of the human family?  Was God's eye ever to rest in love and favor only on the hills and valleys of Israel?  Was there to be no place in His heart for those races who lay east and west and north and south of the favored region? 

The Jewish religion contained within itself the secret and reason for its vanishing away.  The blood of bulls and goats could never finally atone for human sin.  The sacrifices foreshadowed the coming of one who would be the perfect sacrifice.  But that messiah would not just be a messiah for the Jews, he would be a messiah for all people.  Of the messiah:  Isaiah 11:10 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious.

The Jewish prophets looked forward to the time when all people would come to God.  Isaiah wrote--¹⁸ “And I, because of what they have planned and done, am about to come and gather the people of all nations and languages, and they will come and see my glory.²³ …, all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the Lord.

The prophet Joel saw a future time when God’s spirit would be poured out on all people.  And on the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out  and people from many nations were present and filled with the Spirit.  Peter stood up and said that what happened that day was a fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy.

The first step in the fulfillment of these predictions took place when the wise men crossed the desert on their visit to the Christ child at Bethlehem.  That visit opens a new era in the religious history of the world.  We Gentiles of today, who have gathered here to worship our Divine Redeemer, owe everything to that grace which led those Gentiles of old to come to Christ's light.  It fulfills what John the gospel writer wrote in John 1:9  The true light that gives light to EVERY man was coming into the world.  It was a fulfillment of what Jesus said in John 12:34--If I be lifted up, I will draw ALL men unto me.  Let us then, look at what this remarkable event has to teach us.

This visit of the Wise Men shows us, first of all, how differently God speaks to us; how many are the voices whereby he calls us out of darkness into his marvelous light, if we are willing.  He uses a language for each person, which each person can understand. 

The home of the Wise men was probably in Persia, modern day Iran.  They belonged to the Order or caste of Magi, who for many centuries represented the current wisdom of the East.  They were looking for some deliverer from evils of which they felt the influence without being able to define and describe them.  Paul said that the Jewish law, like a slave assigned to lead his master's sons to school, led Jewish people to Jesus Christ; so the natural law, written on the hearts of Gentiles, did a similar work.  It made the Gentiles conscious of that moral evil from which they could not free themselves; it made them long for deliverance.  It was the drawing power of God.

Can you imagine how hard it was for the wise men to make that trip?  It must have been very much like Abraham's leaving Ur of the Chaldeans to go to a land that God would show him.  The wise men were leaving their land to follow a star to find a king.  They didn't know where they were going.  They didn't know how long they would be gone.  They didn't know for sure if they would ever be able to find this king.  They traveled hundreds of miles.  But, in faith they left their land and followed a star. It was the drawing power of God.

They were drawn to Jerusalem in Judea.  And there they needed to receive more light to complete their trip.  They needed to know exactly where the messiah, the king of the Jews, would be born.  And the answer to that question was found not in the stars, not in some warm religious feeling, but in the scriptures.  They needed the light of the scriptures to add to the light that they had already received and responded to.  But because they responded positively to the light they had received, they received more light.  They arrived at their goal and they not only paid homage to a king and presented him with gifts, they worshiped him.

Worship was an action to be given to God, not a mere king.  Yet somehow these wise men were not only on a physical pilgrimage to present gifts to a king, they were also on a spiritual pilgrimage.  At the end of their spiritual pilgrimage they presented their gifts and they worshiped.  Who knows what new spiritual insights they took back with them to Persia?  Who knows how many people they talked to during the hundreds of miles of travel on their way back to Persia?

The drawing power of God has been demonstrated for centuries.  Anthropologists are finding that as you press the religious beliefs of ancient civilizations back toward their beginnings you find that most believed not in many gods, but in one God who was the creator and ruler of the world.  The idea of many gods arose later. And missionaries have been astounded as they have gone into many parts of the world that the people that they have come to reach already have a rudimentary knowledge of the true God.  Paul tells us in Acts 14 God has not left himself without a witness.  And God builds on that witness that people have within them to lead them to greater knowledge if they are open to that. In many cases the people that the missionaries meet tell of an elder in the past who prayed to this creator God and the creator God spoke to the elder through a dream or a vision and provided a correction for their spiritual pilgrimage and a promise of more light to come.

Even today, the drawing power of God can be seen in our world.  The Middle East is still much on our hearts and minds.  Out of the trauma of war and dislocation have come unprecedented opportunities to display the power of God in the heart of the Islamic world.

Perhaps the most under reported story of the Holy Spirit's activity in the Mideast can be found in Kurdistan, a rugged territory that stretches from eastern Turkey across northern Iraq and into northwestern Iran.  Until recently, the Kurds have remained isolated from the gospel behind thick political and cultural barriers.  The Kurds ancestors were the Medes and it is highly likely that the wise men from the east who came to worship the baby Jesus were Medes.  Medes were mentioned among those who were among the 3,000 converted on the Day of Pentecost.  They were the first gentiles to recognize and worship the messiah. 

The Kurds are the 4th largest people group of the middle east.  With a population of some 25 million, they represent one of the world's largest unreached people groups.  But this is beginning to change, probably due to a growing disillusionment with the failed systems of Marxism and Islam.  Apparently, Kurds are rejecting Islam because they don't want a religion capable of producing a Sadaam Hussein.  Hussein instructed his armies to go into Kurdistan and to leave neither man nor beast alive but his plans were thwarted when he lost the war in Kuwait.  The ancestors of the Kurds were forcibly converted to Islam in 900 AD.  They have been persecuted by Muslims ever since.  Today a majority of Kurds under age 40 are negative toward Islam and actively seeking a new religion. 

The U.S. military began a great relief effort among the Kurds.  This cleared the way for concerned Christians to build more than 4000 houses for Kurdish war victims in 1992 alone.  More than 90% of relief efforts in Iraqi Kurdistan were sponsored by Christian organizations.  How are these Christians being received?  They have been invited to share their faith everywhere and Christian literature is in great demand.  One Arabic-speaking evangelist said he distributed 172 gospel portions on a street corner in less than 40 minutes and that border agents have been asking for their own copies.  Some Kurds have come to Christ as a result of intercessory prayer and supernatural dreams and visions. 

In fact, across the middle east, even in countries like Saudi Arabia that allow no bibles and no churches, God has reached out to Muslims in supernatural dreams and visions and thousands have been coming to the Lord. 

In formerly segregated South Africa the Alpha bible study program that we had used here at Forest Grove has been used in Anglican and Methodist churches to break down former racial barriers and draw people to Christ from all races.  Thousands have come to Christ.  It has impacted prisons and homeless shelters.    Gang leaders and murderers are coming to Christ there through the Alpha program.  Since 1976, Alpha has spread across the world through churches of many kinds, of differing faith approaches, of varying theological stances.  In ten years it grew from 5 courses for 4,800 people to 16,000 courses for 1.5 million people.  It is the drawing power of God

Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelago--a group of more than 13,000 islands stretching almost as wide as the continental US.  Despite the growing threat of Islam and violence thousands have come to Christ and many miracles have been documented as members from the various congregations have reached out to nonbelievers around them.  Churches are being burned by Islamic fundamentalists.  Several were bombed one Christmas Eve,  but thousands continue to come to Christ.  It is the drawing power of God.

In the Methodist Church of Cuba congregations are filled with cheerful, enthusiastic young people.  They don’t just sing about God they sing TO him with an intimate intensity.  It takes at least 9 months of training and teaching to become a member of the Methodist Church of Cuba.  Members learn to count the costs--and this includes their responsibilities regarding sharing their faith and tithing.  Since 1992, Communist party members have been permitted to attend churches. In some situations, members have turned in their communist membership cards because they are simply too busy with church activities to be active communists.  It is the drawing power of God. 

What is happening around the world is due to the drawing power of God.  People are earnestly responding to that drawing power and God is sending more light where people desire it.  People who truly seek God, find God.  Proverbs 8:17 says  I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.

Proverbs 2 tells us

2 My son, if you accept my words
    and store up my commands within you,
² turning your ear to wisdom
    and applying your heart to understanding—
³ indeed, if you call out for insight
    and cry aloud for understanding,
⁴ and if you look for it as for silver
    and search for it as for hidden treasure,
⁵ then you will understand the fear of the Lord
    and find the knowledge of God.

People all over the world are finding that this scripture is true!  It echoes what Jesus said in Mt 7: 7-8 ⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Pray that God will continue to draw people all over the world to Jesus Christ.  One of the things that I did when I came to be your pastor about 9 years ago, something that I have done in each of the churches that I have served, is start a missions program in the church.  Churches need to reach out beyond themselves, beyond their own needs, to their communities, to their country, and to the rest of the world.  So, as part of the missions program at Forest Grove we support the Joelton Hope Center, locally, and Aldersgate Renewal Ministries, nationally, and  Shores of Grace in Brazil, and Joy in the Harvest in Tanzania, and Oasis in a middle eastern country.  And  some of you have supported Peg and I as we have gone on international mission trips around the world. Pray for our missionaries, pastors and others who serve God by preaching the gospel and planting churches and making disciples that they would teach the scriptures clearly, providing the light that those in darkness need.

Pray especially for those you know who need to be drawn to Christ.  If God can draw three men to make a trip of hundreds of miles to an unknown land to kneel before a baby in a manger, he can draw those you are concerned about too! There is one in my family who I am praying that God would draw to himself.  Pray that they will respond in a positive way to the light they already have.

Lost people matter to God. I believe he wants his lost people found.  And there are plenty of lost people right here in our neighborhoods that he wants found.  How many of those do you think God wants to be a part of this church?

Let’s depend on prayer and the drawing power of God.  I wonder how many of you will covenant with me to pray regularly for God to draw more people into this church who will not just visit but stay and be a part of our congregation.  I have been told by several of our members that God told them to come to this church.  That they drove by our church a number of times and finally God told them that this is where they were to come.  One had been given a picture of our church in a dream and when she saw our church, she knew that was the one for her.  That is the drawing power of God.  I wonder how many other people are driving by our church every day to and from work, who God wants to draw into our church. 

I wonder how many of you will pray that our people, including yourself, will be made willing to change whatever is needed to invite and retain new people.  I wonder how many of you will pray that God will give you an opportunity, even this week,  to speak about him to a person not attending any church.  I invite you to begin praying for “unchurched Harry and Sally” we will call them, who God wants to draw to himself through this church. 

Our Administrative Council met on Tuesday night to look over some statistical studies about the people who live in an 8 mile radius of our church.  One of the interesting things we learned is that over 47% of the people in an 8 mile radius of our church consider themselves to be a spiritual person.  They may not go to church right now, but they consider themselves to be a spiritual person. 

In other studies researchers have found that Christmas Eve is one of the top times of the year that people who are not currently attending a church are most open to accepting an invitation to come to a church service with you. 

And we all know family, friends and even church members who knew God at one point, but who have wandered away from God and his church family.  They like the lost son in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, have gone off, away from closeness with the Father.  I believe we need to pray for the drawing power of God to draw them back into fellowship with the Father and his other children. 

If you would like to pray about God drawing more people into this church, and God drawing people back who have wandered away this morning, you are welcome to come forward and join me in prayer during the singing of our closing hymn.