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Psalm 27; John 1-5, 9; Revelation 1:9-18
27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold1 of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When evildoers assail me
to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes,
it is they who stumble and fall.
3 Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
yet2 I will be confident.
4 One thing have I asked of the LORD,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to inquire3 in his temple.
5 For he will hide me in his shelter
in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
he will lift me high upon a rock.
6 And now my head shall be lifted up
above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the LORD.
7 Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud;
be gracious to me and answer me!
8 You have said, “Seek4 my face.”
My heart says to you,
“Your face, LORD, do I seek.”5
9 Hide not your face from me.
Turn not your servant away in anger,
O you who have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not,
O God of my salvation!
10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
but the LORD will take me in.
11 Teach me your way, O LORD,
and lead me on a level path
because of my enemies.
12 Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;
for false witnesses have risen against me,
and they breathe out violence.
13 I believe that I shall look6 upon the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living!
14 Wait for the LORD;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the LORD!
[1] 27:1
[2] 27:3
[3] 27:4
[4] 27:8
[5] 27:8
[6] 27:13
(ESV)
1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life,1 and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own,2 and his own people3 did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son4 from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.5 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God,6 who is at the Father’s side,7 he has made him known.
19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight8 the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”
24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25 They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, 27 even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” 28 These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son9 of God.”
35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.10 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus11 was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). 42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter12).
43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you,13 you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
2:1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.14 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
12 After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers15 and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple,16 and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
3:1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus17 by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again18 he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.19 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You20 must be born again.’ 8 The wind21 blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you22 do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.23 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.24
16 “For God so loved the world,25 that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
22 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. 23 John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized 24 (for John had not yet been put in prison).
25 Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification. 26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” 27 John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ 29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”26
31 He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. 33 Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. 34 For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. 35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
4:1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.27
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.28 The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
43 After the two days he departed for Galilee. 44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) 45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast.
46 So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you29 see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51 As he was going down, his servants30 met him and told him that his son was recovering. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour31 the fever left him.” 53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.
5:1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic32 called Bethesda,33 which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.34 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews35 said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father36 does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. 31 If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. 33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. 34 Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. 35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. 36 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, 38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. 39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 41 I do not receive glory from people. 42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
[1] 1:4
[2] 1:11
[3] 1:11
[4] 1:14
[5] 1:16
[6] 1:18
[7] 1:18
[8] 1:23
[9] 1:34
[10] 1:39
[11] 1:40
[12] 1:42
[13] 1:51
[14] 2:6
[15] 2:12
[16] 2:20
[17] 3:2
[18] 3:3
[19] 3:6
[20] 3:7
[21] 3:8
[22] 3:11
[23] 3:13
[24] 3:15
[25] 3:16
[26] 3:30
[27] 4:6
[28] 4:14
[29] 4:48
[30] 4:51
[31] 4:52
[32] 5:2
[33] 5:2
[34] 5:3
[35] 5:10
[36] 5:19
(ESV)
9:1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.
8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”
18 The Jews1 did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” 22 (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus2 to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) 23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” 28 And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” 30 The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”3 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt;4 but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.
[1] 9:18
[2] 9:22
[3] 9:35
[4] 9:41
(ESV)
9 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
We're gonna be in Psalm 27 this morning. Psalm 27. Last week, through the story in Luke chapter 1 of Zechariah and Elizabeth, and through the story of Genesis 18, Abraham and Sarah, we considered the challenges that we find in waiting for God. Joel spoke of seasons of silent waiting, wondering if God would ever fulfill his promises. And we talked about how this season of Advent is also a time of waiting, longing, and hoping.
Jeffrey Heine:And I want us to continue to follow this thread and these themes of hoping and waiting in our time together in God's word today. And the first passage that we're gonna look at is Psalm 27. So if you have a Bible, you wanna make your way there, it's a Psalm of King David. And in this poem and prayer, he too picks up the themes of longing and waiting. And after we spend some time looking at Psalm 27, we're we're gonna trace this thread of longing and waiting all the way from the garden to the manger.
Jeffrey Heine:And we can do it. I've been assured that since there's not a sermon next week, that I get the time of 2 sermons. But for 1000 of years, Psalm 27 has been sung corporately. It's been prayed privately by the people of God as a way of asking the Lord to fortify our trust so that we can wait on him. And because of that, that kind of hope, the the hope that we need in waiting for God, we we can't just muster that up on our own.
Jeffrey Heine:It's not just out of our own strength. That that hope has to come to us from God, and this is a prayer asking for that strength. And so, let's look together at Psalm 27, a Psalm of David, and let us listen carefully, for this is the word of God. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?
Jeffrey Heine:The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When evil doers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Through the war arise around and against me, yet I will be confident.
Jeffrey Heine:One thing have I asked of the Lord, that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble. He will conceal me under the cover of his tent. He will lift me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy.
Jeffrey Heine:I will sing and make melody to the Lord. Oh, hear, oh Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me. You have said, seek my face. My heart says to you, your face, Lord, do I seek. Hide not your face from me.
Jeffrey Heine:Turn not your servant away in anger, oh you who have been my help. Cast me not off, forsake me not, oh God of my salvation. For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. Teach me your way, oh Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence.
Jeffrey Heine:I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord. Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord. This is the word of the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:Yes, sir. Let's pray. Oh, Lord, draw near to us by your word and your spirit, because the deepest longing of our hearts is found only in you. Whether we know it or not, or believe it or not today, Lord, you are the only satisfaction for our souls. So help us to believe.
Jeffrey Heine:Help us to hear you, to have ears that are open, eyes that are open to see and hear from you this morning, and give us hearts and minds to respond to you, all that we are for all that you are. We pray these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. If you had to guess which redeemer pastor has a tattoo that is a reference to the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. You might be surprised to learn that it is Joshhausen.
Jeffrey Heine:It is not Joshhausen. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a poet and a professor in the second half of the 1800. You're beginning to figure out who has it, aren't you? Longfellow, who's an author of, it's not white. Longfellow was the author of a a poem, a class that later became a classic Christmas carol.
Jeffrey Heine:I heard the bells on Christmas day. I highly recommend Johnny Cash's version of this song. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was one of the few American poets that actually was alive to see his success, but the life of Longfellow is actually quite tragic. He was married in 18/31 to a childhood friend. And after only 4 years of marriage, she died after a miscarriage.
Jeffrey Heine:Longfellow spent some years alone, but later remarried and had more children. And then in 18/61, his second wife died in a fire accident. And a short time after that tragedy, Henry's first child, Charles, left to fight in the civil war against his father's wishes and was severely wounded in battle. And it was at that time, during the civil war and during a time of turmoil within our country, it was at that time that on Christmas day, 18/63, But in his deep and overwhelming grief, that long fellow sat in his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and heard the nearby church bells begin to ring out. And as poets do, he began to write.
Jeffrey Heine:I heard the bells on Christmas day. They're old familiar carols play and wild and sweet. The words repeat, of peace on earth, goodwill to men. I can hear church bells from my home. I didn't know that was going to be a perk.
Jeffrey Heine:I feel like they should have, listed that in the first descriptions in the house listing. But every advent, the bells play Christmas songs, and it honestly pleases my heart to no end to hear them. Longfellow goes on, and in despair, I bowed my head. There's no peace on earth, I said. For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, goodwill to men.
Jeffrey Heine:Longfellow heard the bells from his home too, and those happy church bells of Christmas were ringing out on Christmas Day. And Longfellow sat alone in his grief, hanging his head in despair. Hate was mocking those happy bells. Evil was laughing at the hopeful song of peace on earth and goodwill. There's no peace on earth, Bonfellow said, at least not any peace that he could find.
Jeffrey Heine:All the decorations and the happy songs, they didn't match up with the sorrow that Longfellow knew in his life. Longfellow's poetry reminds me of King David's poetry and in particular Psalm 27, the struggle for peace in the midst of enemies and evil, the mocking laughs of pain and suffering as David longs for the peace and comfort of God's sanctuary. Do you ever find yourself in this strange disparity of how the world tells you how to expect things to be and how things actually are? Or what about the disparity between what the Bible says and what you see or experience or feel. The advent and Christmas seasons seem to, intensify this dissonance, that dissimilarity between what we expect and what we get.
Jeffrey Heine:Because if you pay attention long enough, you have to admit that there is a profoundly unresolved longing in the season of Christmas. Think about this. At Christmas, we literally make lists of our wishes, and we encourage children to do the same thing. And then, we start to expect that we are going to get what we have been wishing for. But what happens when we don't?
Jeffrey Heine:What happens when that present isn't under the tree? What happens when those old hometown friends don't invite you out or even call? What happens when that one family member doesn't show up to Christmas dinner or even call, or if they still haven't proposed yet. Hope I don't ruin anyone's Applebee's lunch with that one, but just saying. Tricky time.
Jeffrey Heine:Or when that one family member does show up to the dinner and brings an uninvited plus one, or the family conversation turns political, or someone gets sick, or someone who's been sick for a really long time, you can't help but think that this will probably be their last Christmas. And that thought keeps playing over and over every moment of that Christmas Eve. All the while, these wishes, these expectations keep ringing out like bells in our ears and the enemy of evil and darkness mocks us and all of your unmet expectations. They laugh at you and your songs of hope. That's what Longfellow's describing.
Jeffrey Heine:Often, it's the roaring bells of expectation that can instigate our despair. Yet other times, it's an overwhelming silence that can creep in, the silence of apathy. Because God knows that you've been disappointed so many times before that you no longer expect anything. We are left wondering, how could it possibly be that the darkness will not overcome the light this time? Because the darkness is just too great and the light is too faint.
Jeffrey Heine:As we considered last week, waiting is really hard. As Christians, we can and should acknowledge this, because we're not good at waiting. But we should not miss that there is also something surprisingly beautiful in waiting, and it's this. It's the anticipation that something truly wonderful is coming, Not just a gift from our wish list, not just an expectation of a perfect family Christmas. No.
Jeffrey Heine:It's it's a confident hope that the arrival of something truly and eternally magnificent will come at last, and that our ultimate waiting will one day end, and our ultimate longings will one day be fulfilled. It's the hope that brings beauty to our waiting. This holy waiting isn't just sitting around. It's not dull existence of merely biding our time. No waiting on God subsists on hopeful anticipation that something right now is being prepared and readied.
Jeffrey Heine:As Joel said last week, from our perspective, God seems to move quite slowly, but our God does not waste time. And moreover, don't we need him to be incredibly patient with us? I need God to be slow, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. I need God to be slow with me. And what each and every one of our souls is most longing for today, it's being prepared, whether we know it or not, or believe it or not.
Jeffrey Heine:And though God might seem silent today, he is on the move. David begins his poem by pointing out what he knows to be true. In verse 1, he says, the Lord, all caps, which means Yahweh. Yahweh is my light and my salvation. Yahweh is the stronghold of my life.
Jeffrey Heine:He says he knows these things to be certain and true. His hope is a certain hope. And even though war is rising against him, he will be confident because Yahweh is. God is his light and salvation. Then David petitions the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:He expresses what he needs to be able to wait on God. And he says he desires the presence of God. In fact, the way he says it is that he wants to live in the house of God every day of his life. Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever been in God's presence in in prayer or maybe in gathered worship, and you just wanna stay in that place and time forever?
Jeffrey Heine:David says, I want to hide in your presence, to live in your holy house, to gaze upon your beauty. Here this David is saying, I don't just want to be delivered from my enemies. I want to be hidden, covered, and lifted up into your holy presence forever. That is David's deepest longing. And I would venture to say that that is the ultimate longing of your heart too.
Jeffrey Heine:In verse 8, David declares, you have said, seek my face. And then my heart says back to you, God, your face, Lord, do I seek. And David goes on in his prayer to restate his hopeful confidence in the Lord. In verse 9, he says, hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger.
Jeffrey Heine:Oh, you who who have been my help, cast me not off. Forsake me not, oh God of my salvation. When David asks that the Lord would not hide his face from him, he's asking that God would not be far off, that he would not withhold his presence and let David fall to his enemies, because that's what happens. That's what happens when the Lord turns his face away. People fall and are given over to their enemies.
Jeffrey Heine:And again, David is longing for the presence of God and he is confident that the father will not turn his face away from him, that he won't have to cry out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The Hebrew poetry scholar, Robert Alter, calls David's next line, verse 10, quote, the most extreme declaration of trust in God in the whole bible, end quote. Alter calls it breathtaking. He says this. For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.
Jeffrey Heine:David is referencing the most unconditional and dependent relationship of human beings on earth, the relationship with parents. And David says that, even they have forsaken me, but my confidence is in my total dependence on the Lord, who will care for me and without question take me in. The Lord will be my father. The Lord will be my mother. The Lord will tend to me intimately, unconditionally.
Jeffrey Heine:David is saying, Lord, don't hide your face from me. Don't forsake me. Take me in. Care for me. Lead me so that I won't give up in waiting for you.
Jeffrey Heine:No matter how long it takes or how bad it gets, help me to trust in you. Because I believe that one day, one day the waiting will end and I will see your face. Then David closes his Psalm by speaking to his own heart, saying, wait for God. Take courage. Wait for God.
Jeffrey Heine:Psalm 27 reminds us that the Psalms teach us how to pray when we're waiting for God. Because as I've said, and it's good that we admit it, we are terrible at waiting. Because waiting, as the prophet Tom Petty said, is the hardest part. But you take it on faith and you take it to the heart. The waiting is the hardest part.
Jeffrey Heine:The whole of the Bible, and I'd say the whole of life really is about waiting for God. And if the prophet Petty is right, and he always is, that means that life is hard. You can write that down. It doesn't matter how much tensile we put on our days or sparkly lights or how loud the happy church bells are ringing. Life is hard and waiting on God is hard.
Jeffrey Heine:The reason waiting is the hardest part is because what we experience and see day in and day out makes it so hard to believe that what we are waiting for is actually going to come. It can seem like the hope that we claim is being mocked by the darkness all around us. And it can be hard to believe that there is still yet more to come, that the final curtain has not fallen, that another advent is on the way. There's a tradition in the history of the theater that when a night's performance is over, and the stage is cleared, and the audience and the actors go home, before the last stagehand turns off the lights, they place a lone light bulb on a stand in the middle of the stage. You see, it's because theaters are designed without any windows, So when the stage lights and house lights are turned off, there's nothing but darkness.
Jeffrey Heine:A stage is a dangerous place to be in the dark, especially when there's a 10 foot drop into an orchestra pit. So the tradition began long ago to place what became known as a ghost light in the middle of the stage after every performance. And the next person to enter the theater would have, at the very least, a faint, distant guiding light in an otherwise overwhelming darkness. The light offered direction through the darkness. And the light also offered hope, hope that although the stage was empty now, the production was not yet over.
Jeffrey Heine:There was still more to come. As Christians, we need ghost lights too, giving us guidance to help us through the darkness, to give us hope that there is more to come, to believe that what we are really waiting for, that someone is coming. You might be familiar with the phrase 400 years of silence. It's used mostly by protestants to talk about the time between the prophet Malachi, who was the last prophet, and whose book is the last book in the old testament, 400 years. And then the angelic pronouncement of Jesus' birth in the gospel of Matthew.
Jeffrey Heine:If you have a Bible with you, and you turn about 2 thirds of the way through, you'll find this this division between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Oftentimes, there's a blank page there. And I can remember as a kid finding that blank page between the testaments and wondering why it was there. And what's more, what happened during that blank page. The blank page represents 400 years of what a lot of people assume to be, since God was silent through the prophets, it must have been inactivity on God's part.
Jeffrey Heine:But if you were raised Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox, you you, would have had in your Bibles a few additional books after Malachi. And the reason that those writings exist is because while the people of God did not have additional prophets who were authoring inspired books during that 400 year span, God was still active in the silence. God was on the move, leading his people and preparing the way for the Messiah. And you might be surprised just how much there was to prepare. One thing the ancient people of Israel knew so well and that we would benefit from greatly is this, knowing this, if you desire to grow in your confidence and hope in God, then consider what God has done in the past.
Jeffrey Heine:At Christmas, we behold the coming of Jesus as the baby in the manger. And in that beholding, we grow in our confidence and hope that he is truly coming again. And when we behold the story of how God, the father, promised and prepared the way for Jesus to enter this creation as a baby, we grow in our confidence and hope that God, the father is right now preparing the way for Jesus to come again with the fullness of his kingdom. Since August on Sundays at Redeemer, we've been studying through the book of Genesis. So what have we learned so far?
Jeffrey Heine:Well, first, that God created everything from nothing. He creates humanity, male and female, to tend his creation. Man and woman disobey God. And in doing so, they bring about brokenness and curses into all creation. As a result, the man and the woman are banished, exiled from the garden of paradise.
Jeffrey Heine:They have sons. One murders the other. And in that, sin is shown as not only the choices that humans make, but also something inside of them passed down through every generation. And that is the cycle that we see repeated again and again. They distrust, they disobey, they destroy.
Jeffrey Heine:God calls another man and another woman out of nothing, Abraham and Sarah. He makes promises to them, promises that God will unfailingly keep, promises about land and a people, a people that would be his, a possession for him forever. But the people kept disobeying and distrusting God, falling into destruction, but God did not forsake them. Like the sin that was being passed down from 1 generation to the next, so were the promises of God. Abraham has Isaac and the promises continue.
Jeffrey Heine:Isaac has Jacob. The promises continue. Jacob has 12 sons and the promises continue. The descendants of those 12 sons end up in slavery, living not in the promised land, but in a foreign land. But the promises of God do not end.
Jeffrey Heine:God call calls out another man seemingly out of nothing to lead the people out of captivity. And after that Exodus, when the people of God finally enter into the promised land, all these descendants of Jacob's 12 sons are given a portion of the land. These 12 tribes are ruled by judges until they eventually, they beg God for a king to rule over them. So God makes a man named Saul king of the 12 tribes of Israel. Eventually, he was succeeded by another man called out of nothing.
Jeffrey Heine:His name was David. This man was given the same promises that began with David and more. The promises further, the throne of David would be an eternal throne. One day there would be a forever king to reign over the fullness of God's kingdom forever. David was followed by his son as king.
Jeffrey Heine:Then when he died, his son became king. But 10 of those tribes in the northern part of Israel rebelled against the king, The one who came in the line of David. They wanted an advisor to the previous king to become the new king. And so David's grandson runs and and goes south to 2 tribes that would receive him. So the 10 in the north, 2 in the south, the kingdom's divided.
Jeffrey Heine:There's now one king, not from the line of David, who's ruling over the 10 tribes in the north and in the south, 2 tribes, Judah and Benjamin. They have the true line of David as their king. This is known as the divided kingdom. It's a big moment in the life of Israel. Now Israel is called Israel, and then the other one is the smaller, 2 tribes.
Jeffrey Heine:They're called Judah, because that's helpful. It's not it's not that helpful. It's really confusing. It's kind of like there wasn't an editor for this bible. Why are there so many Josephs, so many Marys, Zechariahs?
Jeffrey Heine:It gets confusing after a while. There are 3 sets of people with the same name in the 12 disciples. If you can memorize those, you've got half of them figured out. The story continues. This little Southern Kingdom of Judah.
Jeffrey Heine:They're under constant threat. They're not that big in number, but it's the, the larger Northern Kingdom, the 10 tribes. They're the first ones to fall to a foreign army. They fall and are defeated by the Assyrians. They're exiled.
Jeffrey Heine:And then this little kingdom of Judah, they avoid being taken over by the Assyrians, but in time, they fall to the Babylonians and they are exiled. Jerusalem destroyed, the temple destroyed. Eventually, the Babylonian empire will fall to the Persian empire. And in that move, that means that these exiles from Judah get to return, and they start making their way back. They start building the temple back.
Jeffrey Heine:It takes 20 years. They come to restore this worship of Yahweh, to obey his commands. Then Alexander the Great takes over the known world and 2,000,000 square miles. And the Greek Empire now rules the day. During that time, God used prophets like Zechariah and Malachi to call the people of Judah back to faithful obedience.
Jeffrey Heine:But that old cycle continued of distrusting the Lord, disobeying his commands, and then destruction. That all continued during the Greek empire. And one one of the kings during that Greek empire, that that had the most bearing on the people of God there in Jerusalem, was Antiochus the 4th. He was a Greek king in about 175 BC. And by the time he was king, Jerusalem was nearing total corruption yet again.
Jeffrey Heine:Even the God ordained role of the high priest was now appointed through bribery. And the way they would make these bribes to the Greek officials was stealing from the temple itself. They would steal these offerings and then bribe their way into the role of the high priest. Not only that, when Antiochus the 4th heard that there were still some people in Jerusalem who were worshiping Yahweh, following his commands, he then, set an order that the temple would be stripped of all of its sacred items and that the holy temple of Yahweh would now have an altar to Zeus. And the unclean animals, pigs were brought into the holy of holies, the place of God's presence and sacrificed to a foreign god.
Jeffrey Heine:That's what was happening in Jerusalem. Are you still with me? Do you need me to tell you a Christmas story? I'll do my best. It was wintertime in Jerusalem.
Jeffrey Heine:The nights were the longest of the year and the pagan celebrations of solstice were nearing. I'm sure that there were terrible Hallmark solstice movies that were on marathons. In reality, the celebrations around the winter solstice were quite frightening and dangerous in the city of Jerusalem, Especially now that obedience to the law of God, any obedience to any of the laws of God, which is totally forbidden. In fact, if anyone was caught obeying god's law, observing the Sabbath, observing circumcision, or offering the daily sacrifices, any of it, the people would be executed. And they were.
Jeffrey Heine:Thousands and thousands of Jews were executed for obeying God's law. Men, women, children, infants. Some faithful Jews fled Jerusalem to live in the more rural areas away from the oppression of the Greeks. And one such family included an old priest named Matthias. He oversaw worship in the tabernacle outside of the city.
Jeffrey Heine:And on the pagan holiday of solstice, 25th of the Jewish month of Kislev, but on 25th in that winter of that year, an officer of, the Greek empire came and visited Matthias, wanting him to make sacrifices to Zeus. He demanded that these sacrifices be made. And the old man, Matthias, refused. He knew the brutality of the officers. He knew how they had crucified mothers of newborn sons who had been circumcised and the child with them.
Jeffrey Heine:He knew how they would slowly torture entire families who sought to obey the Lord. He knew all of that, but he would not defile the altar with sacrifices to a false god. He grew angry at these demands, and he struck and killed the officer. And he fled with his family into the hill country. They lived in the hills hiding from the officials and they sought to worship the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:This rebellion grew in number over time, as more and more Jews sought to restore Jerusalem to the worship of Yahweh. After Matthias died a few years later, his son, Judah, took over leading the families in rebellion against the Greeks. And so, King Antiochus ordered the city of Jerusalem to be burned to the ground and the temple of the Lord destroyed. Thousands died. The city was ravaged.
Jeffrey Heine:The rebellion in the hills took 4 years to gather strength in number, to advance in gaining ground in warfare. But eventually, once again, 4 years after the first incident, on the 25th of the month of Kislev, during the pagan pagan holiday of winter solstice, Judah Maccabee and his army took back the site of the temple. And in that most sacred holy part of the temple, the holy of holies, where the presence of the Lord would rest and meet with the priests, In that place, there was a lampstand that had been commanded by God to be lit 24 hours a day. We read the instructions about the lampstand in the book of Exodus chapter 27. It was large, 100 pound golden lamp.
Jeffrey Heine:There's a pillar in the middle and 3 branches coming out on the right side, 3 branches coming out on the left. The center was known as the servant lamp, It was used to light all the other lamps. The center light was the light by which all the others receive light. The lamp was to be filled with pure oil, and the priests in the line of Aaron were to tend it every morning and every night to ensure that it was always burning. The light was always on, even when no one was around.
Jeffrey Heine:The light had to shine in the darkness. Because though the holy of holies was silent and unoccupied by people, God was always at work. The Maccabees went on into the place where the Holy of Holies was and they they returned the golden lampstand, which is called the menorah. And due to the desecration of the temple, they could only find enough of the commanded pure oil to burn for one day. But in light of all the corruption and the wretched state that the temple had been in for so long, that one day of light would be the best that they could offer in restoring obedient worship to the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:To the shock and surprise of the Maccabees, as they were trying to produce more oil as fast as they could, that small amount of oil continued to burn for 8 nights. The light shining in the darkness, signifying the presence of God, that he was with his people, a faint trace of light in an otherwise overwhelming darkness. This rededication of the temple, or in Hebrew, Hanukkah, was a small step in returning to the Lord, their God. Over the next 46 years, the temple would be rebuilt once again. And they would return the city of Jerusalem to a place where the people of God would obediently worship and hear the scriptures read and taught, and they would learn to follow the law of the Lord and seek his face.
Jeffrey Heine:And it would be only a 150 years later that an 8, 8 day old little baby boy would be brought into that very temple and dedicated to the Lord. His parents would one day tell him the story of the Maccabees and how the temple in the city were regained. That same boy would one day find his way into the same temple, listening as a rabbi's taught from the scrolls of scripture. And later one day he too would be a rabbi reading in that temple, the scrolls of the prophets. He would go to the temple to celebrate the Hanukkah feast, to remember the work of God and restoring his people.
Jeffrey Heine:That same man would also one day cleanse that same temple from oppression and injustice, fulfilling the prophecy that his zeal over the house of his father would consume him. And that same man would walk into that same temple and receive the blind and give them sight, receive the lame and make them walk. That same man would draw the indignation of the religious leaders when he would one day say, destroy this temple and in 3 days I will raise it up. And those leaders, dumbfounded, would say, it's taken 46 years to rebuild this temple again. And you're saying that it could be torn down and raised up in 3 days, because that man was talking about himself.
Jeffrey Heine:All these things, each and every one of these things, none of them would have occurred if that temple, which for 100 and 100 of years had either been desolate rubble or in the hands of vile pagan worship. None of these things would have happened if the Lord had not been at work in the silence. The golden lamp stand, the one that signified the presence of God, that ghost light that pierced the otherwise great darkness offered a faint light of hope, that God was not finished. He was active. And even in the seeming silence, he had not cast off his people nor forsaken them.
Jeffrey Heine:He was not dead. He was not asleep. No, the Lord was their light and salvation. The people clung to the promises of God. And like David, they declared, though an army and camp against me, my heart shall not fear.
Jeffrey Heine:The war arise against me, yet I will be confident. Their confidence was not of their own strength. It was the presence of the lord. They trusted that God was near and that he was at work, that he was preparing the way for the Messiah to come. So there's your Christmas story.
Jeffrey Heine:It just happens to be the Hanukkah one too. In the first chapter of John's revelation, the beloved disciple describes when he was initially called into this vision of seeing the Lord. And he writes this in Revelation chapter 1. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, write what you see in a book and send it to the 7 churches. And then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me.
Jeffrey Heine:And on turning, I saw 7 golden lampstands, and in the middle, the lampstand like the son of man. He was clothed in a long robe with a gold sash around his chest. When John describes his vision of seeing Jesus, he says that he sees Jesus standing in the middle of 6 lamps, 3 to his right and 3 to his left. He sees Jesus as the servant lamp in the middle, the true light which gives light to everyone. And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus is what David was talking about. Jesus is our light and our salvation. God had prepared the way for Jesus to enter into the his own creation, to enter the world crowded with darkness. And Jesus stands as the light that will not be subdued or extinguished. It is the light of confident hope that there is still more to come.
Jeffrey Heine:God is not finished. He is, in fact, on the move. When Henry Wadsworth Longfellow heard the bells that Christmas morning, he hung his head in despair that the evil and hate in our world was mocking the wild and sweet song of hope. But the poem does not end in defeat and sorrow. Longfellow describes that as he hung his head in despair, he heard the bells begin to ring louder and deeper, saying, then peeled the bells more loud and still.
Jeffrey Heine:God is not dead, nor doth he sleep. The wrong shall fail. The right prevail with peace on earth, goodwill to men. That's what the bells were responding with to the mocking of evil, of brokenness, of darkness. The bells rang louder and deeper, still proclaiming that God is not dead.
Jeffrey Heine:He is not asleep. He has not done. He has not forsaken you. He will take you in. And this advent in your waiting on God, whatever that might look like in your life, The words that your heart needs to hear this morning, perhaps more than anything else, are the words that David spoke to his own heart at the close of his own poem.
Jeffrey Heine:Wait on God. Take courage. Wait on the lord. For the lord is not dead. He is not asleep.
Jeffrey Heine:The Lord God is on the move. Even in the darkness, even in the silence, even when the page looks blank, let your heart take courage and hopeful confidence. For you shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Because Christ, Christ your light, has come, and he is coming again. Let's pray.
Jeffrey Heine:Oh Lord, by your spirit, draw near to us. Speak tender comfort to our souls that we might trust you. Lord, I pray especially for those here this morning who who feel like that blank page or feel like that silence and that darkness? Do you bring your light and remind them that you are not finished, that your promises are still true, and you are still worthy of our belief and our trust, Though the enemy encamps around us, help our hearts not to fear. Though war rises against us, help us to be confident, not in our own strength, but in Christ, our ever present help in time of trouble.
Jeffrey Heine:We pray these things in his name. Amen.