When He Talks / A Savior is Born!
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Straight to the Cross
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Today on Forthright:
When He Talks, by Barry Newton
A Savior is Born! by Mitchell Skelton
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COLUMN: Hands-on Faith
When He Talks
by Barry Newton
Several years ago on TV a commercial would begin
with a group of people happily and noisily
chatting. But as a certain man began to speak,
suddenly the crowd would go silent and strain to
hear every word which would fall from his lips. A
narrator would announce, "When E. F. Hutton talks,
people listen."
This commercial exaggerates the respect and
behavior people show for those whom they respect.
But such riveted attention is appropriate for how
we should respond to Jesus.
While Jesus was fully human just as we are/1, he
was also much more than just another prophet
announcing God's message. The Word which was with
God in the beginning and which was God and through
whom the world had been made took on flesh, blood
and bone in order to live among us./2 Jesus was
the Son of God./3
Accordingly, Jesus cried out to the crowds, "I
have many things to speak and to judge concerning
you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things
which I heard from Him, these I speak to the
world."/4 "I speak the things which I have seen
with My Father."/5
For us to comprehend and embrace Jesus' teachings
about himself, frees us from the apathy and
ambivalence which comes from doubting whether
truth is knowable. Jesus' teachings recast our
lives within the mold of assurance, meaningfulness
and certainty. Their importance for our lives is
seen in his pronouncement:
"If anyone hears My sayings, and does not keep
them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to
judge the world, but to save the world. He who
rejects Me, and does not receive My sayings, has
one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will
judge him at the last day. For I did not speak on
My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent
Me has given Me commandment, what to say, and what
to speak."/6
What did Jesus teach?
+ If we are left to ourselves, we will not
receive eternal life.
+ He has made it possible for us to receive
eternal life.
+ He came and died in order that we might
be saved.
+ Unless we believe what He has taught
about himself and respond appropriately,
we will die in our sins.
+ It is foolish to ignore Him in order to
pursue other goals thus losing our own
life in the end.
+ To follow Jesus involves dying to
ourselves in order to live for God. This
path of following Jesus is not a
difficult burden.
While God used man to write down His message, the
Bible is the Word of God, not a human product. May
we all listen appropriately to the message of the
Word which became flesh and was laid in a manger.
__________
1/ Hebrews 2:17; 1 John 4:2
2/ John 1:1-3,14
3/ John 1:17
4/ John 8:26 (NASB)
5/ John 8:38 (NASB)
6/ John 12:47-49 (NASB)
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COLUMN: The X-Files
A Savior is Born!
by Mitchell Skelton
I love Christmas. There is no one facet of
Christmas that makes the season so charming to me.
I think it is the combination of all the different
aspects. I enjoy the family gatherings, the food,
giving gifts, the eyes of little children as they
set their gaze upon Santa Clause, and, of course,
there is the receiving of gifts. Christmas became
much sweeter to me when I became a father. Nothing
thrills me more than to watch my children as they
unwrap that one special gift; the one Santa always
puts way behind the tree so that you inevitably
open it last.
One thing that has always puzzled me about
Christmas is the zealot-like effort that some men
put forth to show that Jesus really wasn't born on
December 25th. The reality that Jesus was or was
not born on this specific day really does not
matter in the big scheme of things. Nowhere in the
Bible are we commanded to celebrate the birth of
Christ and yet nowhere in the Bible are we told to
ignore his birth either.
Like it or not, the majority of people in the
world still celebrate December 25th as the
birthday of Jesus Christ. Rather than ignore his
birth or, worse yet, try to discredit the holiday
and those who observe it, I believe we should
embrace this holiday as an evangelistic
opportunity.
One of the first examples of evangelism was Philip
and the Ethiopian eunuch. Philip found the eunuch,
a religious man, reading prophesies about Christ
from Isaiah 53. The Bible tells us; "Then Philip
began with that very passage of Scripture and told
him the good news about Jesus" (Acts 8:35). Philip
did not assume that the eunuch was naive or
unlearned in the Scripture, yet he knew there was
more he needed to know. The eunuch needed to hear
the good news about Jesus. The eunuch had an
obvious interest in God and a desire to know about
the prophesied Messiah. Philip capitalized on this
man's desire to learn about Christ and the eunuch,
after being baptized, "went on his way rejoicing."
We, too, should learn from Philip's example.
Wherever we find a seeker of Christ, there is
where we should start teaching them the good news.
With so many seekers of Christ focusing on his
birth during this Christmas season we would be
careless, even negligent, if we did not start from
"that very passage of Scripture" and tell them the
good news about Jesus.
The birth of Jesus was good news for all people.
"But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I
bring you good news of great joy that will be for
all the people" (Luke 2:10). Jesus' birth was good
news because it brought light into the darkness of
the world. "I am the light of the world. Whoever
follows me will never walk in darkness, but will
have the light of life" (John 8:12). Jesus' birth
was necessary for our atonement. For Jesus to take
away our sins he had to become human. "Since the
children have flesh and blood, he too shared in
their humanity so that by his death he might
destroy him who holds the power of death, that is,
the devil and free those who all their lives were
held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely
it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's
descendants. For this reason he had to be made
like his brothers in every way, in order that he
might become a merciful and faithful high priest
in service to God, and that he might make
atonement for the sins of the people" (Heb.
2:14—17).
The birth of Jesus was a demonstration of God's
grace. The birth of Jesus was God's declaration to
mankind that he takes sin seriously. Jesus came to
take away the sin of the world. "But he was
pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for
our iniquities; the punishment that brought us
peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are
healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each
of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has
laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isa. 53:5—6).
Jesus came to give us the gift of grace. "But the
gift is not like the trespass. For if the many
died by the trespass of the one man, how much more
did God's grace and the gift that came by the
grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to
the many!" (Rom. 5:15—17).
The news of a gracious Savior requires man to act.
The shepherds' example in the birth narrative of
Jesus shows us the urgency of seeking Christ. Upon
hearing the news of the birth of a Savior the
Bible says, "They hurried off and found Mary and
Joseph, and the baby" (Luke 2:16). In Matthew's
account of Jesus' birth, we find the story of the
Magi or Wise Men who sought out the newborn King
of the Jews. What we know to be true of these men
is still true today; wise men still seek Him!
"Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and
consider the great love of the LORD" (Ps. 107:43).
This Christmas season, do the right thing
concerning true seekers of Christ. Take them from
where they are and teach them the good news!
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