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Teaching podcast from the Eagle Community Church of Christ in Mont Belvieu, TX.
Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Eagle Community Church of Christ podcast. My name is John Gunter. This week we're talking about the story chapter 22. We'd love it if you would read along with us.
John Gunter:Each week we go through the story, both in our classes, in our sermon, and in our small groups. And so it allows us to kind of deep dive into the subject. This week we talk about the birth of Jesus. We talk about really God coming to earth and what that means for the story and the idea of upper story and lower story, what that means for us, in our daily lives. So thanks again for listening.
John Gunter:We'd love to see you in person. Come see us anytime. Have a great week. Time together. Always a little bit nervous, but it's like as soon as I get up here and see all of your faces, I'm calm again.
John Gunter:You would think that'd be the opposite. Like, a lot of most people, public speaking is their fear, and like I said, I I am anxious. I'm anxious to give the word. I'm anxious to talk about what I've studied this week and what we've all studied this week. But when I get up here and I see your faces, I'm at ease.
John Gunter:I love that. Thank you for being here and being the, the kind of church that you are. I appreciate, Robert's prayer. I I I believe that too. I have experienced just a, a wonderful time here with a bunch of loving people.
John Gunter:And for that, we thank you. We're gonna begin with our, with one of our scripture readings this morning from John 1 verses 1 through 14. We'll be reading this in Greek. I'm just kidding. We're not doing that.
John Gunter:In the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god. He was with god in the beginning. Through him, all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. In him was life and that life was the light of all mankind.
John Gunter:The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from god whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light. He came only as a witness to the light.
John Gunter:The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of god. Children born not of natural descent nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of god.
John Gunter:The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only son who came from the father, full of grace and truth. It's an interesting place. In in class, he'd said the same thing. It's, interesting time to be talking about Jesus' birth here in September especially during this heat in September.
John Gunter:We also talk about Jesus' birth I think in July and so by the time we talk about it in July, September, and December, I think we'll all be experts on the birth of Jesus. But as we talk about the the birth of Jesus, with the idea of the story, the upper story, and what god is doing up there and the lower story kind of what we see play out in our lives and what's happening. Now, often the 2 don't don't mix. We we wish we knew how god was doing everything. Do you?
John Gunter:Like, you've got that thing in your life that you want to accomplish or you want to have different or you want to change, and I'd really like to ask god, hey, what's the plan on that? What's the ETA? And you hope that god is not like me. I'm a I'm a I don't know, a thinker. I've gotta think on it.
John Gunter:And I've told you guys before that drives Katie absolutely nuts. She'll ask me, hey. Do you wanna do something? And I'll say, I don't know. And she stands there looking at me like something else is gonna happen.
John Gunter:I said, I'll get back to you on it. I've gotta process it. I gotta think about it. We hope god's not like that but often when when we pray, we think about how is god working this out, we don't have all the answer. But we know because we know our Bible and we know the stories that right now, at this point in scripture, when you get to Matthew 1, Luke 1, into John 1, that something big has happened.
John Gunter:That the upper story and the lower story collide because now, god is on earth. This point in history follows about 400 years where, some people keep some books in there. I think I've talked about the NRSV. I think if you have a copy of that, we'll have, like, Maccabees and things like that in that 400 years, but we don't. And so for them, when they're living through this time, remember, they're experiencing they're back home.
John Gunter:They've come back home from exile, but now they live in a home that is ruled by another country. Another nation tells them what to do, what they can and can't do, and guess what? Surprise, surprise, they're not happy with that. Right? And they want god to show up in a big way.
John Gunter:They believe god's gonna need to show up and do something drastic to get them out of the situation they're in. Now, god how many of you have lived long enough to know that god doesn't always work in the way we think he does or the way he we think he should. And so the big movement here in the upper story and lower story is that God doesn't come down and strike down all the Romans. God sends a baby to a very wealthy family living in a castle, right? To an ordinary family, to a young mother, young father, who can't even get a room at the inn.
John Gunter:That's how god starts to change things. Now I don't know how you approach your prayers or things like that, but I I don't want the slow story. I don't want the 32, 33 years, god, to start making that right. When I pray, I don't pray for patience. Right?
John Gunter:I want it to happen right now. But god sets all of this up in this baby, Jesus. And what John says here and, what I encourage you to do every time you, start studying this this, you know, the birth of Jesus, Go read the account in Luke. Go read the account in Matthew and then come read John, and John's like speaking another language to us. In the beginning was the word and word was with god and the word was god.
John Gunter:He was in the beginning with god. Jesus comes to Earth as both man and god. Can you wrap your mind around that? But there's way that god interacts with us and and what we what we mentioned earlier was that everything is relatable. God didn't show up in in in Jesus, and he's over everyone, telling everyone what to do, and everyone's following falling in line.
John Gunter:Jesus said, I came not to be served, but to what? To serve. To live a kind of life as an example. And so, god as Jesus lives on Earth as this person that we should be able to relate to. And as we talked about in the Holy Spirit series that he lived a kind of life that even, in his example, showed us that we can live the way he lived if we rely on god.
John Gunter:And so when we come to the word became flesh, we come to this intersection in upper story and lower story. And again, because of what we know, I think the gravity of the situation doesn't hit us. You think about Simeon when Jesus comes to the temple. And and Simeon has been waiting a long time. Again, the example of the Jewish people wanted god to do something.
John Gunter:I know he's gonna do something. God has told him, you're not gonna die until you see the lord's messiah. But day in and day out, like, we got the quick version. We got the microwave version. Oh, I didn't realize Simeon was waiting, but now he's found Jesus.
John Gunter:Right? But think about the life that Simeon lives day in, day out, just trying to be faithful. Trying to believe in what God has told him. I believe god that you're sending your messiah for us. That I will be faithful.
John Gunter:I will be here. I will serve you day in and day out. How many days do you think passed when Simeon looked around and said, well, I still haven't seen the Lord's Messiah. And so when we think about things like that, we think about our reaction. Do we continue to be faithful?
John Gunter:Do we question God and say, God, I think you told me this, but I haven't seen it? The same with the prophetess Anna. It says she lived with her husband for only 7 years, Short marriage and then he passed. And now she is 84 years old. I don't know what age they were when they got married, but I'm sure it was young.
John Gunter:She is now 84 years old waiting, being faithful, waiting, being faithful. You ever feel like this? Waiting. Waiting. God, when is something going to happen?
John Gunter:You ever been there in your life? Me all the time. Different parts of my life and, you know, you just wish, oh, I can't wait until I get past this point. I can't wait until we get through this part. And raising 2 kids, that's all they think about.
John Gunter:How many of you are raising kids? They just want the next thing. We just want the next thing. That's where they get it, I think. We just want it.
John Gunter:When most of life is not all the action and all the god shows up to send me in and god shows up to, to Anna, that all of a sudden Jesus is in front of us, but a lot of life is the waiting and the faithfulness. Choosing day in and day out what I am going to live the way I'm going to live. Am I going to wake up in the morning and choose to follow him, or am I going to go a different way? Does the waiting dissuade me? Does the waiting turn me away from following Jesus?
John Gunter:Do I take the waiting as god's not showing up today? And so this is how I think we can come to scripture with all of our knowledge and think, man, they there's so many awesome things happened then because we don't get the day in and day out. You ever watched a movie or watched a long series, and then you thought, you know, I don't think I've seen them do, like, normal things that people do, like every day, like, when do they wash their clothes? None of them have taken a bath this whole series. Like, we just get the highlights, you see?
John Gunter:And so that's what scripture a lot of times we get the highlights and we think, man, what an awesome time to live, except for that whole killing babies thing. Right? Except for that whole I've gotta go to another country because the king wants to kill babies. Right? But god shows up here, and it says they didn't even know it.
John Gunter:They didn't even accept him. The people who were his own didn't even accept who he was. Let's talk about his parents for just a second. In Luke 2 verses 41 through 51, every year, Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. When he was 12 years old, they went up to the festival according to the custom.
John Gunter:After the festival is over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. A great day for a parish. Right? You ever done that in Walmart? Much less on a journey to another place?
John Gunter:Yeah. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. You can feel better about your parenting. Okay? It's okay.
John Gunter:They traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After 3 days, they found him in the temple court sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.
John Gunter:When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, Jesus. No. I don't have a son. I would have said it that way.
John Gunter:I'm just so I'm sorry. I haven't said that. What are you doing? Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.
John Gunter:Now that's a pretty bland statement. What did she feel like, ladies? What did she feel like at this moment? You can feel it, can't you? It it it is not, your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.
John Gunter:There's a lot of yeah. Miss Merle back there is a spanking her hand. I'm gonna wring his neck. I'm gonna hug him, but I'm gonna wring his neck. Right?
John Gunter:Yeah. We need to we need to inject real life into this because that's what they experience. We have been anxiously searching for you. Why were you searching for me? He asked.
John Gunter:Didn't you know I had to be, in my father's house, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them, but his mother treasured all these things in her heart. Do you see the disconnect there? That Jesus is this intersection of upper story and lower story, and he looks at his parents and says, didn't you know that I had to be in my father's house? And I'm sure, Mary and Joseph had the same look of confusion that we would have had our kids said something like that.
John Gunter:What are you talking about? Because Jesus is starting to get he he's starting to to kind of move towards that. It's really all we get of his childhood And here he is and he's growing and he's learning and he's kind of amazing them with his his questions and his answers, but he's he's got this desire to to know and and to grow in that and to, you know, start this process. And it's almost like Mary and Joseph were just along for the ride going, what? And you could imagine with what happens with Mary and Joseph both visited by angels earlier before Jesus comes along, you can imagine the the feelings of what?
John Gunter:You I'm gonna be the parents of of God? Of this miraculous baby? Maybe you feel like your baby is a miracle, But how would you feel if you knew you had to protect Jesus, the lord messiah? And, oh, by the way, you travel for a day without him. What do you think those prayers were like on the way home?
John Gunter:Sorry about that. But think about the the way that they had to live. Mary and Joseph. Again, I I can only imagine thinking back to the, the the what the angel said. Like, who Jesus is gonna be and and and what he's gonna be and and day in and day out, you're you're just seeing a child grow.
John Gunter:We don't have these accounts of of Jesus growing up. All of a sudden, he's got, you know, miraculous powers where he's making things fly around the room. He's still in your billfold when he sits behind you, you know, some kind of magic trick. What we get is is is this. Is that after this, Jesus was obedient to his parents and he started learning and growing.
John Gunter:Learning and growing. As much as we as we get older, we tell our our our kids, the younger people, the older you get, the faster time goes. Yeah. Amen? And you're not gonna know that.
John Gunter:I can't tell you that enough until you experience it. Right? But the day to day, those days can be long. Years are short. Days are long.
John Gunter:And that's what we experience right here is that each and every day, Mary and Joseph got up and they had a decision to make just like you. Am I going to be faithful to god? That simple question that has so so much of a profound, meaningful it means all of these things if I say yes. And it means all these other things if I say no. And that's our day to day.
John Gunter:Day in, day out, am I going to be faithful? And there are things out in the world, I don't know if you know this, but there are things out in the world that try to take you away from that. You ever experienced that? Come on. Yes.
John Gunter:Some of your older ones, the the younger ones need to hear you say this. Okay? Do you know that there are things out in the world that try to take you away from following Jesus? Yes. And we're not gonna run you out of here for that.
John Gunter:You understand? Because the picture of the story, of all the story that we have read so far into chapter 22 is every time god draws close and it looks like everything is going well, everything is getting better, the people, them, us, move away. We do something. We let something get in our way. And then it's up to both god and us to try and restore that relationship.
John Gunter:God has done everything he can to put us in a position to say yes. And then a lot of mornings we wake up and maybe not even intentionally, we say no. God, I haven't seen you lately. God, I haven't felt you lately. The day in, the day out, the waiting, trying to remember, that's not enough.
John Gunter:God wants you to show up. But we know the rest of the story, don't we? At least I hope we do. But if all we do is remember the rest of the story and that's an intellectual accomplishment that we know the story, we're not going to internalize it. We're not going to take it to heart.
John Gunter:We're not going to let it affect our day to day because we know that Jesus came to die for us, to make it so that all of our sins, all of those things we have done, all of those things we have allowed to take us from the path, Jesus sacrifice took care of it all. Amen? All of it. Not that thing right now that you're thinking of. I don't know about that.
John Gunter:It took care of that too. Will you be faithful to the one who did it for you? That's our question. So I pray as a as a church family that we are faithful, that we strive to have that relationship with God, that the day to day that the the day to day when the spectacular doesn't happen, that we don't sit back and say, man, God, you just didn't show up today. That we see all the ways that god blesses us.
John Gunter:We see all the ways that god has led us to this point in life, that he has brought us to this point. He's surrounded us by people who can encourage us. We just need to say yes. So we say yes this morning. If you have any needs, we'd love to pray with you.
John Gunter:We'd love to baptize you into his name this morning, watch you begin and walk with him. We've got plenty of swimming pools available for that. But if you have any need, you can come because we're standing there.