“Typical Responses” – FBC Morning Light (10/14/2024)

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good Monday morning to you. How was your weekend? Did you gather with God's people yesterday and enjoy some good time of worship and fellowship with one another?

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I trust so. I trust the Lord spoke to you as the Word was preached and taught, and you gained much from being in the house of the

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Lord. Well, today in our Bible reading, we're reading the narratives of Jesus' birth in Matthew chapter 2, as well as in Luke chapter 2.

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Of course, Matthew 2 is the account of the visit of the Magi, but in Luke 2, we have the announcement of Jesus' birth to the shepherds, and they're going to see

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Jesus, and so forth. So, as I was reading, as I was reading the passage about the shepherds and the angels coming to the shepherds and announcing

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Jesus' birth to them, I was reminded that the ministry, the life and ministry of Jesus on earth, is bookended by angelic visitation.

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You ever observe that, or has that ever struck you? So, when Jesus was born, it was angels that came and announced his birth to the humble shepherds, and then when

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Jesus ascended into heaven to depart from this earth, it was also angels that came and announced that Jesus would come again, that he would return to this earth.

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He announced that to those humble apostles who would be responsible for, you know, spreading the gospel in the days to come.

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So, I just found that to be an interesting observation. But when I thought about it, when

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I read about the account of the Magi coming to visit, worship

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Jesus, it struck me how, at the very beginning of Jesus' life on earth, he experiences really what's been true ever since, right?

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Think about the different responses to Jesus that you read about in Matthew chapter 2.

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You have the worship and the praise of some, the Magi, as in Luke chapter 2, the shepherds.

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Also in Luke 2, the worship of Simeon and Anna.

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So you have the worship of some, you have the animosity of others. In Luke chapter 2, you've got

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Herod, who wants to destroy this one who's been born King of the Jews.

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And then you have the, really, the indifference of most.

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All Jerusalem, who heard about the birth of the King of the Jews, they seem to,

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I mean, they're troubled about it, they don't want to be bothered by the Romans for that possibility.

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You have the scribes, the chief priests, who are asked where the

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Messiah was to be born. They knew, but they didn't really do anything about it. Just kind of like indifferent.

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And what has changed through the centuries ever since?

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Still today, you have the same same responses. Hopefully, yesterday, when you gathered with God's people, you were gathering with people who were filled with a sense of praise and worship of our

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God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all he has done for us. But also in our culture, our society today, we're met with those who have nothing but disdain for Jesus and the message of the

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Gospel. And then, of course, but the vast majority of people, they're just going about their lives wholly indifferent to the things of God, and clearly indifferent to it all.

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It's a sad thing, but it's really, I think, an expected thing. Jesus met it at his birth, he will meet it in the proclamation of his

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Gospel, and it'll still be the same when he comes again. Well, the other thing

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I wanted to point out is, in Luke's Gospel, the way the book of Luke, the chapters, chapter 2 of Luke ends, is it just tells us that Jesus grew in wisdom, and stature, and in favor with God and with man, and that was the kind of like the summary statement after, when he was 12 years old, he went into the temple, and so forth.

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So you have this long period of silence from the visit of the shepherds, visit of the

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Magi, settling into Nazareth. You have this long period of silence, probably 10 years or so, until this brief insight in that visit to Jerusalem, and then nothing.

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Nothing again for 18 years, until Jesus is baptized by John. And what strikes me about that, those 30 years of obscurity in the part of Jesus, and how much life was invested in actual public ministry.

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One -tenth of the years of obscurity. And I think that indicates the value of being shaped patiently and lovingly, shaped in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.

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We live in an instant society, we live in a culture where, you know, we want everything now.

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Young people can grow up and enter into the workforce, and they go to college maybe, and when they graduate from college they think they should be able to go out and get a job right then and there that's going to pay them what their parents are earning, and you know, that kind of impatience flies in the face of even what

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Jesus experienced in preparation, if you will, for those three years of public ministry.

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So I think we should be appreciative of those years of obscurity, those times in our lives where there's not a whole lot happening other than what's being developed in our own hearts and minds as we grow in wisdom and understanding.

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Let's not disdain that, let's appreciate it. Well, our Father and our God, we thank you for the

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Lord Jesus coming into this world. Thank you for the praise and the worship that he rightly received, but Father I thank you also that from those various responses at his birth we can have insight into how people even respond to this day.

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Give us patience, O Lord, in your working in our lives, and help us to grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ and in wisdom and in stature before others.

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We pray it in Jesus' name, amen. All right, listen, have a good rest of your Monday, hope your week gets off to a great start.