The Third Day

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. (1 Corinthians 15:1-5)

Nowhere in Scripture is the gospel (“good news” about Jesus) articulated so succinctly as in 1 Corinthians 15:1-5. The gospel can be explained in different ways to emphasize the rich and diverse dimension of Jesus’ person and work on our behalf. However we frame the gospel, two elements are essential in a full presentation of the good news: 1) Jesus died for our sins, and 2) Jesus was raised from the dead. The Apostle Paul was crystal clear about those two fundamentals to saving faith in 1 Corinthians 15.

There is more. Paul added that Jesus was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. I wouldn’t want to argue that those eight words are necessary every time we tell someone about Jesus. Still, those extra words place the resurrection in a very limited historical context and a specific prophetic expectation. Jesus resurrection, according to Paul, was foretold in the Scriptures.

So what did the Scriptures in Paul’s possession (the Old Testament, but not the New Testament) say about new life on the third day? That’s a tantalizing question for both skeptics and believers.

Andrew Wilson can offer us a clue: “Even before the coming of Christ, a ‘third day’ refrain runs through Scripture…. There are clear proof texts [in the Old Testament] for the Crucifixion, like Isaiah 53, but no equivalent for the Resurrection, let alone resurrection on the third day. Yet this is not because the idea of rising to new life on the third day is nowhere in Scripture. In fact, it’s everywhere in Scripture.” (CT, March 2024, p. 28)

Tomorrow at New Life Church, we’ll search the Scriptures for the “third day.” What we find may surprise and delight us. If you live in the Clarkfield area, you’re welcome to join us for an Easter celebration. You can find more information about our church family here.

 

 

The Tree of Salvation

Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle. (John 19:16-18)

We’re accustomed to seeing crosses in many places. In churches. On churches. In cemeteries. On graves. In worship videos. On tattoos. To most of us, crosses are a symbol of faith.

In the Roman world, there were crosses in public places, too. But those crosses were not a symbol of faith; they were weapons of torture and death. People would see crosses frequently, often with a naked figure hanging on it–alive or dead. Rome crucified thousands of people, most of them slaves or criminals. There is a record of Roman soldiers crucifying an entire village simply because they wanted to occupy that territory. One way Rome kept the peace was by the terror of crucifixion. They used timber configured as a cross to crucify their victims or they used whatever tree happened to be available.

Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on a Roman cross outside Jerusalem. We remember that event on Good Friday.

Brian Zahnd writes: When the blood of the Son of God stained the wood that stood upon Skull Hill, it became the tree of life. What once was lost behind the closed gates of Eden has now been found…. The cross of Christ is the wood between the worlds—the world that was and the world to come…. As in C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, the wood between the worlds is a portal.” (The Wood Between the Worlds, p. 16)

To the Apostle Paul, the cross was a scandal. He wrote, “We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block [skandalon] to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” (1 Corinthians 1:23)

The scandal was not that crucifixion was a horrific and cruel practice. No, the crucifixion of human beings–guilty or innocent–was a common sight in Roman-occupied Israel. The scandal was that a cross would become Good News to the world. The heart of the gospel is the cross.

What turned a scandal into Good News was the third day. We’ll consider that next time.

When an Irresistible Voice Meets an Immovable Objection

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us  keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. (Galatians 5:22-26)

Dr. Alistair Begg, renowned senior pastor at Parkside Church in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, has been an irresistible voice of the gospel to many people for decades. Thousands of congregants gather to hear Pastor Begg’s sermons every Sunday. Millions more have heard him preach on radio broadcasts or through the internet.

The first church I pastored lay within driving distance of Parkside Church. On rare occasions, I created an excuse to visit Parkside Church for one event or another. I can testify that Pastor Begg’s preaching is golden. His fidelity, clarity, charity, and Scottish accent all combine to make his voice irresistible. His ministry and influence grew over decades.

Then quite suddenly last month, something Pastor Begg had spoken months earlier on a radio broadcast resurfaced and sparked a firestorm of social media criticism. It arose from a Q&A session with a grandmother who was deeply torn about whether or not she should attend her grandchild’s transgender wedding, a struggle of conscience.

For the purpose of this blog post, the counsel Pastor Begg offered to the grandmother–the conditions, the caveats, the clarifications, and the corollaries are all irrelevant. That information, along with ad nauseum analysis, is available in minute detail on a hundred websites.

The response from vast, black hole of social media, nearly all of it, objected to Pastor Begg’s advice to the grandmother and called for him to repent of his egregious error and sin. More than a few of Begg’s critics “canceled” him, announcing they would no longer listen to his preaching or support his ministry. Some detractors called him “woke” or “weak.” When Begg refused to recant or repent, one major right-wing Christian network promptly dropped his radio program.

A few commenters contended that Pastor Begg’s long record of faithfulness had earned him a benefit of the doubt. They left open the possibility that Begg might be displaying a wisdom beyond their maturity and understanding. I came across only one ministry website which aggressively defended Begg’s advice to the grandmother. Perhaps the reason for such paucity is that those who might concur with Begg about the question in dispute generally don’t traffic in, interact with, or respond to social media controversies.

I doubt that the echo chamber of conservative social media accurately reflects the nuanced perspectives of many wise pastors and theologians. In the narrow rigidity of right-wing Christian media, any view contrary to the party line would be summarily discarded, if not openly ridiculed. To many followers of Jesus, the consequent tempest negates any reason for engagement.

Pastor Begg himself referred to this controversy as “a storm in a teacup.” True to form, the gale may be abating. As clouds clear from the sky, Alistair Begg has not admitted error or repented. Nor have his critics retreated. As near as I can discern from online posts, nobody has moved so much as an inch in this contest. Begg’s unstoppable voice still sings out the same song of divine compassion. The immovable objection remains entrenched in a myriad of grandiose arguments.

I learned long ago from painful experience that when an irresistible voice meets an immovable objection, the voice is resisted and the objection is unmoved. My voice is far from irresistible, but on a few occasions I have placed my pastoral influence, limited as it is, on the line. In one collision decades ago, my voice was rejected and the immovable objection remained in place. Within weeks, I was forced to resign as pastor of that church. Another episode in in a different church led to immediate calls for my repentance or resignation.

If the irresistible voice of the esteemed Alistair Begg is uniformly and summarily dismissed by thousands of fundamentalist Christians, the rest of us don’t have a chance against such immovable objections. The objection always wins such a contest.

Immovable objections aren’t swayed by an irresistible voice. Strongholds, like massive rocks, are broken down slowly through a relentless perseverance of love and good will over a very long time. Tiny droplets of grace upon grace, more than mighty hammer-blows of truth,  break down immovable objections. Even the irresistible voice of Jesus, a force immeasurably greater than Alistair Begg, was resisted by an immovable opponents. Jesus himself was canceled, all the way to the cross.

Jesus’ crucifixion wasn’t the end of the story, of course. His resurrection, his ascension, his present intercession, his second advent, and his future rule in the fullness of the Kingdom will carry our Savior’s story to its joyful conclusion. In the end, nobody will resist the voice of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Ultimately, there will be no immovable objections.

In the meantime, Alistair Begg’s irresistible voice has not, and will not, overcome the immovable objections of his critics. Continuous argument will prove to be fruitless. God has a better plan, the way modeled by Jesus. Moment by moment and day by day, incessant love and grace, not hammer blows of truth, will diminish the stronghold of immovable objections.

Our fallacy is the illusion that we must be right and land inside predetermined boundaries. Being right is an impossible standard for anyone who sees dimly as in a mirror. We all stumble in many ways, especially with our tongue. We all need to repent daily. Being faithful is about looking intently into the face of our Savior, not about arriving at the right answers to difficult questions. Being right is not included among the fruit of the Spirit. Love is first in that list. The fruit of the Spirit should be sufficient to navigate this storm.

The grand narrative is about Jesus. It’s not about Alistair Begg or his critics. It’s not about you and it’s not about me. God is not gazing over heaven’s balcony with a red pen in hand, ready to record whatever errors we have committed. Rather, the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him (cf. 2 Chronicles 16:9). The abiding strength from the everlasting arms isn’t given because we’re right. It’s given because we’re His. I’ll wager that God quietly strengthens the hearts of his servants through many storms such as this.

Tempest in a teacup, indeed!

Providence

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

I often teach that there are three great works of God. The first two works, creation and redemption, usually gain most of our attention. We can easily overlook the third great work of God, but we depend on it every day. It is God’s providential care for all his creation, especially his covenant people. Jesus high­lighted God’s work of providence when he observed that God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45).

The life application Jesus gave us regarding God’s providence is nothing short of stunning. Most of us couldn’t name it if we had 20 guesses. Our Savior stated it clearly in the previous verse (Matthew 5:44). And just to make sure we don’t miss it, he doubled down on it in the follow­ing verse (Matthew 5:46). If we ever become good at this one thing, we will be on mission as a church. (No, I didn’t give away the answer. You’ll have to look it up!)

We can’t take a single breath of air or eat a single bite of food apart from God’s providence; he supplies all the air we breathe and provides all the food we eat. A farmer can plant, water, and weed, but God provides the increase.The clothes we wear and the houses in which we shelter are all provisions of our loving, heavenly Father.

As we age, our capacity for self-reliance wanes and our dependence on God’s provi­dence becomes more apparent. We can deny our need for his providence, but we can’t escape it, regardless of our age or abilities.

When God reminded captive Israel that, in his provi­dence, he had good plans for their future (Jeremiah 29:11), their hope was revived. Exiled Israel wasn’t a victim nation, after all. They could go about their daily life in Babylon – planting gardens, building homes, getting married and having children – all with purpose and hope. Even more, they could seek prosperity, not judgment, for their captors. Did you look up the life application Jesus gave regarding God’s providence? It fits here as well.

 

Similarly, the Apostle Paul encouraged the church in Philippi with the providence of God when he wrote that “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus,” (Philippians 1:6). He wrote those words of hope with joy from a prison cell, illustrating that the good news of Jesus was not—is not, and cannot be— confined by chains.

 

The words Jeremiah penned to the remnant of Israel applies to the New Testament church, which God has grafted in to participate in Israel’s redemptive blessings. My assurance to followers of Jesus is that God has plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. And I know that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

A Season of Waiting

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope–the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (Titus 2:11-14)

As a child, I was fascinated by the Advent wreath at our church. I carefully followed the four candles in the outer rim and longed for the large, white candle in the middle to be lit on Christmas Eve. One year, I was so excited that I threw up my partially digested supper at church on Christmas Eve. To be honest, I probably was waiting for someone other than Jesus that Christmas Eve.

Advent simply means coming or arrival. The season of Advent signals that Jesus is coming soon. He’s not here yet, so we wait with excitement. During Advent, we look back in  history and wait with expectation for his arrival in Bethlehem. We also look ahead to the second coming of Jesus and wait with anticipation for his return, our blessed hope. “Look back, look ahead,” is Paul’s word to Titus and to us this Christmas. Jesus appeared once. Jesus will appear again.

These two appearances of Jesus teach us “to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.” God is redeeming and purifying his people. Waiting upon God is part of the process of life change–our sanctification. Advent provides us an opportunity to exercise this difficult discipline of waiting.

In my study for Advent this month, I discovered an old hymn of the church which I had never heard, I Cannot Tell Why He, Whom Angels Worship. The lyrics were penned about 100 years ago by William Young Fullerton. They are an inspiring reflection of the person and work of Christ. The tune is the beautiful and familiar Londonderry Air (Danny Boy). I looked it up on YouTube and immediately fell in love with it.

I cannot tell why he, whom angels worship,
   should set his love upon the sons of men,
or why, as Shepherd, he should seek the wanderers,
   to bring them back, they know not how or when.
But this I know, that he was born of Mary
   when Bethl’em’s manger was his only home.
and that he lived at Nazareth and laboured,
  and so the Saviour, Saviour of the world, is come.

I cannot tell how silently he suffered,
   as with his peace he graced this place of tears,
or how his heart upon the cross was broken,
   the crown of pain to three and thirty years.
But this I know, he heals the broken-hearted,
   and stays our sin and calms our lurking fear,
and lifts the burden from the heavy laden;
   for still the Saviour, Saviour of the world, is here.

I cannot tell how he will win the nations,
   how he will claim his earthly heritage,
how satisfy the needs and aspirations
   of east and west, of sinner and of sage.
But this I know, all flesh shall see his glory,
   and he shall reap the harvest he has sown,
and some glad day his sun will shine in splendour
   when he the Saviour, Saviour of the world, is known.

I cannot tell how all the lands shall worship,
   when at his bidding every storm is stilled,
or who can say how great the jubilation
   when all our hearts with love for him are filled.
But this I know, the skies will fill with rapture,
   and myriad, myriad human voices sing,
and earth to heav’n, and heav’n to earth, will answer,
   “at last the Saviour, Saviour of the world, is King!”

Suffering at Christmas

 

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:25-27)

Humanity has experienced suffering ever since sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden. While sitting in agony on a pile of ashes, Job lamented that “man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). Moses wrote that “we finish our years with a moan (Ps. 90:9). Even Jesus was homeless for much of his life (cf. Luke 9:58). Paul’s physical sufferings would have been a medical insurance company’s worst nightmare (cf. 2 Cor. 11:23-28). Throughout the Bible, suffering in this present age is regarded as both universal and normal.

Our awareness of  humanity’s pain is intensified at Christmas by the familiar angelic announcement which echoes in the Christmas carols, “Peace on earth, goodwill to men.” At Christmas in 2023, world headlines are about suffering in Israel and Gaza as the world grapples how to respond to ongoing terrorism and a humanitarian crisis of proportions unparalleled since World War II.

It seems that Job was right. Mankind is born to trouble, even at Christmas.

Have you ever noticed that those who suffer the least seem to complain about it the most? Some three decades ago, I heard a missionary who was serving the Lord faithfully in the jungles and deserts of Africa say, “Comfort is important.” He was speaking as one who had left the comforts of the United States to serve in the extreme discomforts of primitive Africa. To this man, a day of comfort meant a walk with his family to the cool waters of a river for a picnic in the shade, if they could find any. Never mind the snakes, crocodiles, or hippos!

This godly servant was communicating that when we choose suffering to follow Jesus, we need momentary reprieves to regroup and recover. By what he didn‘t say, he communicated that those who suffer the most complain about it the least.

Two months ago–just three days after the terrorist attack in Israel–our district superintendent, Dr. Dan Scarrow, spoke to District and Prayer Conference about suffering in ministry from Luke 14:25-27. I found his words helpful, especially because it seems more and more Christians are enticed by a prosperity gospel to turn off the narrow path of following Jesus with a cross on our shoulders. Here are Dr. Scarrow’s three applications:

1) In order to be fully engaged in an important task, you must pre-decide your commitment to the inevitable suffering…. A necessary precondition for total engagement is acknowledgement of suffering as a likely outcome of this decision.

2) You’re only truly committed to those things or people you’re willing to suffer for. If you want your church to care about the lost, maybe you need to teach them about suffering. Maybe instead of trying to develop a program to teach them how to evangelize, we need to say, “this is going to be hard.”… I wonder what the teaching of suffering would look like reintroduced into our church in this culture.

3) Much of our stress is created by the expectation of comfort in life or ministry or relationships in the midst of our encounter with suffering. And you when encounter suffering but you really expect comfort, it creates a dissonance in your spirit.

In our district superintendent’s message, I find a challenge and an explanation. First, it challenges me to apply Jesus’ call to suffering in Luke 14:26-27 instead of rationalizing it away. Second, it explains to me why fewer Christians raised in comfort are engaging in cross-cultural ministry, especially in the hard places of the world. Even rural churches in America are having trouble finding pastors.

In a world of intensified and unresolved conflict, this Christmas we worship a Child who, someday, will establish genuine justice and peace. We can shout the angelic announcement with joy and hope to a suffering world. Merry Christmas!

The Second Half of Forgiveness

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:14-15)

When evangelicals articulate the gospel, usually there is an emphasis on God forgiving our sins. The healing of the paralyzed man is a classic example (Matt. 9:1-8, Mark 2:3-12, Luke 5:17-26). Jesus declared the lame man’s sins were forgiven and then–in order to prove his sins were forgiven–Jesus commanded the man to rise and walk.

There is less emphasis in most gospel presentations that receiving forgiveness from God means we, in turn, must forgive others as well. Jesus was insistent about this second half of forgiveness. First we are forgiven. Then we forgive. It’s so crucial that the Savior made the second half of forgiveness a condition to the first half. We can’t experience forgiveness ourselves if we deny forgiveness to others. The Lord’s Prayer has several lines, but the necessity of for­giving others is the only part of the prayer which Jesus explained to his disciples.

The New York Times recently reported on the fury of Ukrainians in Odesa against Russians. Nina Sulzhenko, 74, said, “I don’t have the words to say what we should do to them…. Look at what they did! The fact that those who live next to us, and lived among us, could do this to us — we can never forgive this. Never.”

Such anger is easy to understand. The war instigated by Russia has devastated the Ukrainians, resulting in untold human suffering. Vengeance is only natural. But when we follow Jesus’s model in prayer, we enter the supernatural realm. Forgiveness is a God thing. Only God can forgive us our sins. And only God can help us forgive others who sin against us. We can’t do that on our own. But we must forgive others if we are to follow Jesus.

Jesus made several intimidating statements in the Sermon on the Mount. This warning at the end of the Lord’s Prayer is one of them. I shudder to think of the consequence of not forgiving others. Do you?

Another Look at Anger

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” (Matthew 5:21-22)

Last Saturday, a friend asked me a thoughtful question: “Is it ever right to be angry?”

While I was pondering his query, I happened to encounter news from Minnesota in The New York Times. Last Friday at a high school in Saint Paul, a 16-year-old student murdered a 15-year-old student with a knife. What a tragedy! The story was so sensational that the Times posted it on their front page online. After the sordid details were presented, the president of a teacher’s union in Saint Paul was quoted as saying, “I’m enraged.”

Suddenly my friend’s question was no longer hypothetical. It became specific. Was the Saint Paul union president right to be enraged? I, for one, will not write a letter to the editor criticizing her anger. Even if the anger is wrong (and I’m not saying it is), there is a much greater evil in that news story – the murder itself. We live in a society which has embraced anger as a response to evil. In our society, anger is normal, righteous or otherwise.

Can sinful, though redeemed, people rightly harbor anger against evil? That’s a hard question for me. I cannot rule out the possibility of righteous anger. But once we stick our foot in an open door to justify human anger, bad things happen. The question for me is this: “Does my anger toward the bad things people do turn into anger against the people who do bad things?” For me, the answer is, “Always.” The Scriptures warn us repeatedly about the perils of anger, especially as it enables vengeance, which invariably is directed toward people themselves, not the mere deeds of evil.

Somebody might object, “Don’t we need righteous anger to motivate us to do the right thing against evil?” I’d propose love as a better motivation for righteous action than anger (cf. Romans 5:8). If anger motivates you to do the right thing in the right way with the right measure at right time for the right person, then I guess someone could try it. But I still wonder how the anger of man can bring about the righteousness of God (cf. James 1:20). I can’t help but anticipate a bad outcome with “righteous anger.”

I’ve written and preached often about anger in recent years. This has been triggered by my own struggles with anger. It’s also a pastoral response to the rage all around us, driven by various media, yet absorbed by the evangelical church. I’ve pushed in only one direction: “Anger is dangerous.” “Avoid anger.” “Dismantle your anger!” “Repent from anger.” For me as a recovering anger-holic, abstinence is the only path forward.

For others who may have more self control than me, perhaps there is an open door for righteous anger. God revealed himself as “slow to anger” in Exodus 34:6, a passage cited elsewhere in Scripture more than any other passage. God has been angry toward evil with a righteous anger. We can witness his anger in history. Humans are created in the image of God, which includes his capacity for anger. Therefore, our capacity for anger is rooted in the character of God. This means anger is not inherently evil.

God’s anger is always righteous. Our anger, obviously, is not always righteous. But can it be righteous sometimes, despite the our fallen sinful nature? Ah, I’m right back where I started, pondering my friend’s question and grieving the sudden and senseless murder of a high school student last week. Jesus warned us that murder begins as anger in one’s heart. One student’s anger was not dismantled in his heart. Another student is dead as a result. Now there are two grieving families and a wounded school community.

I can’t think of a single occasion in my life when my own anger produced righteousness. I can’t look back on any outburst and say, “I’m so glad I got angry, and so are the other people who were the objects of my anger!”

Does anyone reading this blog have something good to say about their anger?

Mundane & Miraculous

The entrance of Jesus into the world was a messy, convoluted series of miracles wrapped in mundane events. An elderly priest and his barren wife unexpectedly became first-time parents. An obscure girl in a remote village anticipated her wedding. Then an angel interrupted her plans with shocking news. Her wedding was called off, then put back on. The long trip after their wedding was not a honeymoon. What is more mundane than paying a census tax?

If you miss the miracles in the birth of Jesus, you’re left with only the mundane. Zechariah the priest missed the miracle in the angelic message. As a result, he couldn’t speak for months. The innkeeper missed the miracle in  the expectant couple he turned away. He slept away the one night in his life he should have been awake. King Herod missed the miracle, too. As a result, innocent babies in Bethlehem paid the ultimate price for a non-existent threat against the evil king. Mothers wept.

Christmas is a blend of mundane and miraculous. God interfered with human affairs. But it was easy to miss the miraculous. Most people who were there at the time missed it.

On December 17, 1903, Orville & Wilbur Wright achieved the first powered, controlled and sustained flight of a heavier-than-air machine. They immediately sent a telegram to their father in Dayton, Ohio. It read, Success. Four flights Thursday morning. All against twenty-one-mile wind. Started from level with engine power alone. Average speed through air thirty-one miles. Longest fifty-nine seconds. Inform press. Home Christmas. Their sister Katherine rushed to the Dayton newspaper office and thrust the cable to the the editor. He read it, smiled and said, “Well, well, how nice. The boys will be home for Christmas!”

Dick Innes has pointed out that the editor totally missed what could have been, for him, the news scoop of the century. He didn’t print the amazing story of powered flight in his newspaper. The editor saw only the mundane, not the miraculous. He did not print the first newspaper story about two local citizens who had invented a flying machine.

For many people, December is the hardest month of the year. It can be dominated by shopping, baking, decorating, family gatherings, and often travel. By New Year’s Day many people need a vacation from their holiday vacation. Toil and exhaustion are rampant this season. We can’t escape the mundane at Christmas. Please don’t miss the miraculous.

In Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth, the shepherds were lost in a mundane task when Jesus was born. It was the first Christmas. Don’t miss the miracle:

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” (Luke 2:8-11)

 

Name Games

You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:31-33)

Shortly before my dad died, I asked him why he and mom had named me “Douglas.”

Dad replied with clear irritation in his voice, “Oh Doug, I don’t remember.” No doubt, it wasn’t important to him. Prob­ably not back then. Certainly not now. End of conversation.

“Douglas” is a fairly obscure, though not rare, handle. It’s listed on one website as a unisex name, though I’ve never met a girl named “Douglas.” The name comes from Scottish and Gaelic ori­gin, meaning “dark or black river.” It was most used as a name for boys in the 1940s and 50s, probably because of the fame of Douglas Fairbanks and Douglas MacArthur.

“Douglas” climbed as high as 44^th on the baby name chart a few years before I was born. Since the 1950s, use of the name “Douglas” has fallen to 1531^st position. Not a winning name for babies born in the 2020s!

I’d guess most Americans are named for four reasons: 1) to honor a relative or family friend, 2) to mimic the name of a famous person, 2) to reflect the name’s etymo­logy, especially religious names, or 4) the parents simply like the sound of the name. Sometimes alliteration plays a role in choosing a baby’s name. If all the children in a family bear the same initials, it’s probably not an accident!

Several years ago I read an article about interesting names for people. Here are some of them: Candy Barr was living in Vermont. April May March was a teenager in Tennessee. Country Musick lived in Davenport, Iowa. Heaven Leigh Friend was a teen in Kansas City, Missouri. Blue Hothouse was a pastor in Oklahoma. James and Ethel Outlaw were living in Georgia and had been married for 66 years. That’s a case when the in-laws really were Outlaws!

As a child, my wife knew a family which included a girl named Mid Knight and another family which included a Candy Dish. Unfortunately, the girls suffered occasional ridicule for their funny names.

In ancient times, names involved a whole lot more than alliteration and attempts at humor or word play. They carried a designation of character or future prophecy. The writers of Scripture recorded many names which indicated significant meanings. Sometimes people were renamed to reflect a major change in their destinies: Abram became Abraham. Jacob became Israel. Simon became Peter (Cephas). Saul became Paul.

Most meaningful of all biblical names are the names and titles assigned to Jesus. They were not humorous, yet Jesus suffered ridicule because of them. A study of the names of Jesus is rich and complex. Here’s quick flyover:

Jesus is the name given to the baby born of Mary (Matthew 1:21, 25). “Jesus” is Greek for the Hebrew name “Joshua” (Yeshua). It means “The Lord saves” or “The Lord is salvation.” The Apostle Paul designated Jesus as the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

Savior is a title derived from the name Jesus. The Apostle Peter described Jesus as Savior when he was put on trial before the Sanhedrin: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

Christ (or Messiah) is a title attributed to Jesus over 500 times in the New Testament. It means “anointed one” and refers to three key anointed offices in Israel which the Jesus fulfilled: Prophet, Priest and King. As prophet, Jesus spoke to the people for God and as God. As Priest, Jesus spoke to God for the people and offered himself as a sacrifice for the people on the cross. As King, Jesus rules the church and will rule in a future kingdom. His kingdom is both “now and “not yet.”

Immanuel (or Emmanuel) is a name given to Jesus as a fulfillment of prophecy by Isaiah. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). (Matthew 1:22-23)

The Word of God is a name of Jesus attested by the Apostle John in a vision of the end times. Its significance includes Jesus as our creator (John 1:1,14) and his rule over creation: He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. (Revelation 19:13-16)

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace is one of the most complete names of Jesus. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6). In this array of titles, Jesus is both personal and powerful; he is both perpetual and peaceful.

I AM is a name of divinity claimed by Jesus himself (John 8:58). His enemies regarded it as stunning blasphemy. In fact, it would have been blasphemous were it not true. It’s the name of God himself, the self-existent one. It’s translated in our Bibles as The LORD or The LORD GOD. In Hebrew the name is YHWH (Yahweh or Jehovah). This name is so holy that the Jewish people would not pronounce it when they came to it in their Scriptures. Yet Jesus applied the name to himself.

Moreover, Jesus added attributes to the Lord’s name. He said, “I am the bread of life.” “I am the light of the world.” “I am the door (gate).” “I am the good shepherd.” “I am the resurrection and the life.” “I am the way and the truth and the life.” “I am the true vine.” (John 6:35, 8:12, 10:7, 10:11, 11:25, 14:6, 15:1)

How rich are the names of Jesus! He is the most unique Person who has ever lived. His name is not a game; it’s a game changer. Let’s bow before Jesus and worship him as our Creator, our Savior, our Messiah, our Immanuel, our Wonderful Counselor, our Mighty God, our Everlasting Father, our Prince of Peace, our King!

He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.” (Revelation 21:6-7)