religion

The Birth of Christ

/ Neal Embry

My favorite line in any Christmas carol is the first line in the third verse of “O Come All Ye Faithful,” which, in our modern renditions, reads like this: “Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning.”

I love waking up on Christmas morning and remembering that Christ was born, and that it was indeed a happy morning because of Him. Because of Him, we can have salvation; we can be forgiven; we can know God; we can live forever.

It is impossible to exaggerate the enormity of Christ’s birth, but, in this post, I’ll discuss four aspects of His birth that teach us vital, God-glorifying truth.

First, there is the sheer grace of Christ’s birth itself. Jesus comes to us, instead of the other way around. Romans 3:23 says we have all fallen short of God’s glory; we have all sinned against God. We deserve hell, eternal separation from God and the experience of His wrath, because we have turned against the Creator and spat in His face.

And yet, in His in-explainable, unwarranted, ridiculously good grace, God comes to us. It would have been gracious enough if God had given us a way to save ourselves, to climb our way back to Him. But, aware that the task was impossible for us, God humbles Himself and comes to us. The incarnation of Jesus Christ flips every other religion, every other teaching about God and man’s relationship, about salvation itself, on its head, for only in Christianity do you find a God willing to humble Himself and become a man, to be killed by man, to save man. Instead of calling on us to rectify our situation, God comes to do it Himself. Our God does not call on people to help themselves; our God saves the dead!

There is also the way in which Christ is born. Look at Luke 2 with me. Mary and Joseph are in Bethlehem, about to give birth to Jesus.

“And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”–Luke 2:6-7

Jesus is born in a manger. A manger is where animals feed. It’s certainly not a place any mother would want to place her newborn. But this is what the King of the universe is born into….a disgusting, not-so-royal feeding slab for barn animals.

There’s also the matter of the shepherds who show up a few hours later: Shepherds aren’t exactly in the upper echelon of Jewish society, of any society, for that matter. They were often hired hands, and if you were responsible for putting together a guest list for the birth of the King, you probably wouldn’t list any shepherds. There are no other kings at Jesus’ birth. There are no rich donors or Pharisees. Instead, there’s His parents, some lowly shepherds and barn animals.

What does all this mean? It means that Jesus came to associate with the lowly. While all can be saved by Christ, regardless of socioeconomic status, Jesus comes to those who are outcast and rejected by society because they are, most often, the most aware of their need for grace, and most aware of their unworthiness. As He said, Jesus came to call the sick, not the righteous, to repentance.

So if you are despised and rejected, Jesus came for you. In fact, Jesus Himself was despised and rejected FOR you, Isaiah 53 says. If you feel outcast, like you don’t belong, Jesus came for you. In fact, Jesus was cast outside the camp, killed and buried outside of the city of God so that you could be let in through His merits. Jesus came for those who are undeserving, who are lowly, who are weak. Before God, truly, we all are weak and undeserving. But good news: Christ has come for us!

Jesus also comes from a line of sinners. In the genealogy given in Matthew 1, here’s some highlights from Jesus’ family tree: Jacob, who cheated his brother out of his inheritance; Rahab, a prostitute; David, who used his position as king to force a married woman to sleep with him and then murdered her husband; Solomon, who fell away from God and went after wealth and concubines; Manasseh, who failed to follow his father Hezekiah’s ways and “did evil in the eyes of the Lord,” and the list goes on and on.

Jesus comes from a line of sinners to show that He came not only for the lowly, for those who feel outcast and abandoned, but also for those who have sinned against God and have no way of saving themselves (hint: that’s all of us). Jesus is not afraid to associate with sinners. In keeping with what we discussed with the first point, Jesus comes, not to call man to earn their way back to God, but to be God with us, Emmanuel, and to die in our place and bring us to God, as His dearly beloved children.

Lastly, we also remember that Jesus comes from a royal line. It is a royal line of sinners, but it is a royal line, nevertheless. And if we would celebrate Jesus this Christmas season, we must know Him as Savior and King. We will never follow Jesus perfectly as King, and we will confess our failure to follow Him as King on a daily basis, but we reject everything that keeps us from following this King, trust in His grace to forgive us, grant us His righteousness, and cleanse us from sin as we set out to live a new life of love and obedience to Jesus as the King of our lives.

The birth of Jesus tells us much of God’s character: of His grace, His love, His desire to be with us. I pray we would slow down and remember all that He’s done for us in the birth of Christ.

Lord, may we treasure your birth and not just know of it. May we love the glorious truth that you came for us when we could not come to you. May we rest in your grace, and may we rejoice that you came for lowly, outcast sinners like us. May we follow you as King, and may we model that grace to a world in desperate need of it.

God bless,

Neal E.

Pray Big Prayers: Mark 11:20-25

/ Neal Embry

When was the last time you prayed for something big? For the salvation of a lost loved one, or a much-needed change in your community? For victory over a besetting sin? For the salvation of an entire people group? For help in memorizing large chunks of God’s Word?

Jesus Himself authorized “big” prayers. Let’s take a look in the Gospel of Mark:

“As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”–Mark 11:20-25

Jesus has just kicked out the greedy businessmen in the temple, turning over tables and getting on the bad side of those who have gotten on God’s bad side. He’s made it clear that the temple of God was to be a house of prayer. Many commentators say the fig tree that withers represents the temple, which has “withered,” fallen away, from its intended purpose. So now, where do the disciples go to pray? How do they pray?

Jesus instructs them to pray to God by themselves or in a community of believers. One of the wonderful things Christ does for us in His death and resurrection is clears the way for us to have access to God through Him; that is, if we go to God trusting in the person and work of God the Son which cleanses us from the sin that keeps us from God, we can have fellowship with God without needing to go to a temple to worship because Christ has sent the Spirit into our hearts (Eph. 1:13). The veil is torn, and mankind can now go to God without the help of an earthly priest or temple.

Because of this, Jesus says we could literally pray to toss a mountain into a sea. We now have the Son of God interceding on our behalf and God the Spirit dwelling in our hearts. We have access to the power of God, which could toss Mt. Everest like a beach ball.

Now, should we actually pray for that? Probably not, as Jesus makes it clear in the Lord’s Prayer and also in 1 John 5:14 that believers are to pray “according to God’s will,” and for God’s will to be done on Earth and in our lives. In my few short years of following Jesus and studying Scripture, I don’t see anything showing that God’s will is to toss a mountain into a sea just for sake of it.

But the point is that we ought not be afraid to go to God with big prayers, with world-changing, eternity-shaping prayers that would make tamer people question our sanity! We ought to pray that God save lost people, that God be glorified in our lives as we overcome sin, that God bring reconciliation between families and friends and churches and communities, that God work through His church to change the world.

Jesus says we ought not doubt, because if we pray in this way, it will be done for us! If you pray for the salvation of lost people, God will save lost people! If you pray for help in overcoming sin, you will overcome sin! If you pray for God’s work to be done in the world, you get to see God at work and join Him in it!

Now, a couple of caveats. While all of this is true, we must understand it rightly to avoid making God a genie or having false views of who God is.

  1. We pray according to God’s will. It’s worth repeating: God is not the genie from Aladdin; He is not your fairy-godmother, and He does not exist simply to grant your wishes and make you happy. He exists to glorify Himself and by His grace He created us so as to allow us to find joy in worshiping Him and find ultimate purpose in glorifying Him. Prayer is one tool we have to enjoy God and glorify Him. We shouldn’t expect God to answer prayers that would rob Him of glory and cause us to sin.
  2. We are to forgive others (verse 25). If we are praying for God’s will to be done, for God to do big, God-glorifying things in our life through prayer, obedience is expected. After all, part of God’s will is that we forgive others. If we have forgiveness in Christ, we are to forgive others. So, if you pray for God to be faithful, seek to be faithful in your own life.

But what if God doesn’t answer the way I wanted Him to? What if I don’t understand? Has he failed to answer?

While God has promised to answer prayers according to His will, He has not promised we will understand, or even like, the way He answers. Remember, we pray, not to glorify ourselves or accomplish our will, but to glorify God and do His will. If we pray according to God’s will, it follows God will answer according to His will.

We may not understand His answers, but God is faithful. And we can trust Him. So pray big prayers. Change the world through prayer. Join God in His work through prayer.

Lord, may we pray big prayers. May we trust your faithfulness, even and especially when we don’t understand your answers. May we seek to advance your kingdom and your will on Earth through prayer. May we always pray in a way that glorifies you.

God bless,

Neal E.