Category: Bruce’s Newsletter Articles

Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.” But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.” (1 Peter 3:13-17, NIV)

Oh, how times have changed. Who would have thought that a woman would be jailed for professing her Christian faith in this country? While there are many opinions floating around about Kim Davis’s refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples as the county clerk of Rowan County, KY, you can’t dismiss the fact that Davis’s Christian faith is at the center of her refusal and, therefore, her imprisonment, as temporary as it may have been. Many Christians are surprised, confused, and even fearful because of Davis’s imprisonment, and many wonder whether this is an example of things to come.

While I am not prone to fear, uncertainty, or dread when it comes to such “signs of the times,” this situation ought to lead us to consider Peter’s words from 1 Peter 3:13-17. The fact of the matter is that the church has faced such difficulties, if not outright persecution, from the very beginning, and the answer to the problem has always been the same: trust God; be faithful.

Peter’s advice is to “be prepared.” Many people know that “Be Prepared” is the motto of the Boy Scouts. As an Eagle Scout, I remember how we spent our scout meetings and outings practicing all the different skills Boy Scouts are known for – tying knots, building fires, navigating with a map and compass, cooking, etc. – all for the sake of being prepared for future emergencies or other everyday situations. Those who have served in the military probably remember some variation of the phrase, “Prior preparation prevents poor performance.” What Peter, the Boy Scouts, and the military all know is that situations will arise that will require us to be prepared ahead of time for appropriate words or actions.

Peter directs Christians to be prepared to answer questions about our faith, to be ready to tell people why we trust Jesus and why we hope for eternal life in heaven, and he seems to be warning us that the questions will come when we experience persecution because of our faith. If the headlines are any indication, perhaps we ought to have a greater sense of urgency to prepare ourselves to answer the questions when they come.

Peter starts with “set apart Christ as Lord,” which should lead us to focus first on our own faith; we need to make sure that we know Jesus as Lord. It’s not enough to wear the name “Christian” these days, because people are redefining what it means to be a Christian; we must, as Paul writes in Romans 10:9, confess openly that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead. Otherwise, our faith is foolish; why should we suffer for something we do not believe?

Peter also qualifies our answers, that they ought to be made with “gentleness and respect,” which ought to give us an additional sense of urgency for being prepared. Have you ever had to give an answer or make a decision under pressure, without any time to prepare or consider your options? Most often we respond quickly and without a lot of thought, and sometimes without the most tact or consideration for others. In Philippians 4:5, Paul writes, “Let your gentleness be evident to all”; the English Standard version translates this as, “Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.” Gentleness and being reasonable go together. As we share our answers, they should be tempered with gentleness, but we should also be reasonable.

Peter gives another reason for being prepared and gentle, to have a clear conscience. It’s no secret that the world might persecute us for our faith – and probably will – but we should be prepared to give reasons for our hope in such a way that we would have no guilt about the way we present ourselves, whether in our words or by our actions. Our goal shouldn’t be to embarrass those who slander us or Christ, but if we are prepared to give the reasons for our hope in a gentle and reasonable way, they will have no basis for their attacks.

I’m certainly not hoping for more persecution of Christians, but I do hope that we prepare ourselves so that we will be gentle and reasonable ambassadors of Jesus Christ. As we wait, let us prepare ourselves. Make sure that you are spending time reading and studying God’s Word, whether on your own or in smaller group studies, such as our Sunday school or Sunday and Wednesday evening studies. Make sure that you are attending and participating in our weekly worship services, not only praising God and getting to know him better but getting to know your brothers and sisters in Christ better. Let us prepare ourselves, following the examples found in Hebrews 10:23-25:

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

The times are changing; let’s be prepared.

I know that it’s obvious how I spend some of my time. I preach every week and teach several lessons throughout the week. However, a lot of what I do is behind the scenes and involves a lot of study and thought. However, nothing that I do should be hidden, nor should it be done in isolation. So I thought I’d do some thinking “out loud.”

One of the issues for this body of believers is one that faces every church, all the time: how do we grow? Before we start noodling the answer together, let’s put a few things in order. First, spiritual health is more important than numeric growth (Matthew 7:13-23); however, spiritual health can be measured, to a degree, by the number of people attending and serving. Second, our primary focus for adding people to our body must be through making disciples from among non-Christian people, not recruiting people from other churches. Third, making disciples is every Christian’s job, not just the preacher’s (Matthew 28:18-20). Last, the most effective efforts to make disciples happen outside of the church building and not during church services or programs (Acts 4:31-33; 5:12-14, 42).

With these boundaries in mind, I want to head in the following directions. First, I will continue to preach sermons that will always include at least a summary explanation of the Gospel message – that Jesus died to forgive our sins and rose to give us eternal life – and a call to become a Christian – by believing that Jesus is the Son of God, repenting of sin, confessing Jesus as Lord, and being baptized by immersion for the forgiveness of sins. Second, I will direct my sermons and lessons toward what it means to be a Christian outside the four walls of the church, to make sure that not only is theology the foundation of our faith but that it is practical theology that “works” in everyday life. Third, I will focus more of my time and effort on getting to know people in our community so that I will be more active in sharing the Gospel to non-Christians; I must confess that I have focused too little time on this, and I want to lead by example. Last, I will work with our elders, deacons, and volunteer leaders in other areas to make sure that everything we say and do in our worship services and programs is focused on bringing God glory and bringing non-Christians to Christ.

I share these thoughts with you, first of all, to let you know that I am thinking, in general, but also specifically about where we are and where we are headed. Second, I want to remind those who have been within the church for a while – and not just this church – that things change. The world changes. People change. However, God doesn’t change, neither does his Word change nor his Commission for the church. Third, I want to be open about the fact that, because things change around us, we will have to change what we do or how we do it. Rest assured that I don’t believe the church should change because change is trendy. However, I do think we need to change. Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:15, 16, “Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” Opportunities surround us, and we are going to have to change to make the most of those opportunities.

Last, I share my thoughts because we have to be realistic about change. Not only has the world changed around us, but this church body has changed – not just in the last year and half or over the past 3, 5, 10, or even 20 or more years but throughout its life. That’s the nature of a body; it changes as it lives and grows. However, as we live, grow, and change, it’s tempting for us to be nostalgic and long for “the old days.” Unfortunately, the past will always remain the past, and it will never be captured or reproduced, no matter how hard we might want it or how hard we might try. Change happens in the here and now with a hope for a different future while building on and growing out of the past.

So with these thoughts, I tip my hand to reveal what I plan to do in the weeks and months to come, and I hope that you will continue to support me and work with me. It’s my prayer that all of these efforts will help us become healthier as a body. Healthy bodies grow. Of course, we can’t force growth. Paul explains God’s plan for healthy church growth in 1 Corinthians 3:6, 7, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” While I haven’t given out a lot of details (they’re still percolating in my mind), I pledge to plant the seeds of the Gospel, and with the help of our elders, deacons, teachers, and everybody, we will tend what God causes to grow together.

At the end of June, I attended the North American Christian Convention in Cincinnati with my family. The theme for the week was “We Speak,” and many of the speakers focused on or began at Acts 4:19, 20 where Peter and John replied to the Jewish religious leaders who threatened them to keep them from preaching about Jesus, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Ultimately, Peter and John – and I would imagine the rest of the apostles – spoke about Jesus because they just couldn’t help it. They lived with Jesus; they heard Jesus speak; they saw Jesus perform miracles. They saw Jesus raised from the dead. They spoke because they knew the truth; they witnessed the truth.

But what are we supposed to do? We have not witnessed Jesus face to face. We have not lived with him; we have not heard him teach. We call ourselves Christians because we want to be Christlike in our words and actions, but we have not seen nor heard Jesus. All we have to go by is the Bible.

For those of us who grew up in the church learning “The BIBLE – Yes, that’s the Book for me! I stand alone on the Word of God, the BIBLE,” it seems wrong to think that the Bible is “all” we have to go by, as if there ought to be more to it than that. And the world seems to be expecting more from us.

As the world becomes bolder in opposing and defying not just the idea of God’s existence but also any religion, worldview, or lifestyle that would suggest any kind of recognition, allegiance, or service to God, the world also opposes the Bible. The world points to alleged contradictions throughout the Bible’s text. It questions the reliability of the documents and their transmission throughout history. It openly mocks and derides not only the commandments of God but the historical narratives in which God speaks to people and acts among them. In its attempts to undermine theism in general and Christianity in particular, the world has amassed weapons from history, literature, science, and other academic disciplines and social arenas. Their assault seems overwhelming; so much so that even we start to wonder, “Why trust the Bible?”

First of all, we must grasp the reality that this is a matter of faith, that trusting the Bible is founded upon our trust in God, which is a common point between the apostles and ourselves. This is why Peter wrote in 2 Peter 1:18-21, “We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Even though the apostles were blessed to see Jesus face to face, they trusted the Scriptures and encouraged believers to trust them also. And so our faith in God and trust in the Bible leads us to believe what Paul wrote in in 2 Timothy 3:16, 17, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Second, we must become confident that our trust in the Bible is founded upon truth and not fantasy, just as 2 Peter 1:16 says: “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” We must become confident that the Bible is a reliable transmission through history of eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry. The world is quick to dismiss the Bible because of its amazing stories – not to mention its expectations for life change among those who will trust it – and in order to do that, many people will attempt to undermine the many thousands of documents and other pieces of evidence of the Bible’s historical foundations and value. Unfortunately, many of us don’t have that kind of confidence; so we need to develop it by reading and studying not only the Bible but also the historical evidence. We need to become better trained in apologetics – you’re going to hear that more and more frequently – which is an area of study to help us defend our faith.

Last, we need to trust the Bible because, as Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:15 that the Scriptures “are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” Our faith in the Bible is not just a matter of choosing a worldview, a checklist by which we can evaluate our words, actions, and politics; it is a matter of salvation, of eternal life. For this reason, it’s not enough for us to say, “The Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it.” It’s not enough because the world doesn’t believe it, and if they don’t believe what the Bible says, they will not be saved. It’s not enough, if we believe the Bible, because the Bible tells us to make disciples and to teach the world everything Jesus taught until he returns (Matthew 28:18-20).

Why trust the Bible? We can’t help it. It’s our job. It’s the truth. It’s a matter of salvation.

Names are difficult these days. In the not so distant past, it was fairly easy to learn the name of a person, place, or thing, and then immediately know something about that person, place, or thing just because of the name. That’s not necessarily the case anymore.

Unfortunately, this also seems to be the case in the church. As I mentioned in a sermon several weeks ago, the results of a recent study by the Pew Research Center indicate that the number of people who call themselves “Christian” has dropped by about 8 percent and that the number of people who consider themselves unaffiliated with any religion – the “nones” – has grown by nearly the same amount. Essentially, most of those people who no longer consider themselves to be Christian now consider themselves to be nothing, religiously speaking. Across the religious landscape, they have no name. However, with more investigation, it seems that for many of those who no longer wear the name “Christian,” the name had meant little or nothing for quite some time.

Historically speaking, the fact that we call ourselves Christian at all is puzzling. Acts 11:26 says, “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.” Other historical documents from the era of the early church use the name Christian, but it seems pretty consistent that the use of the word was intended to be a negative; perhaps polite people might have been shocked to hear someone called the C-word.

At that time, taking on the name of Christ had significant implications. It meant confessing that you believed the claims of Jesus and the claims about Jesus: that Jesus was the Son of God; that Jesus died on a cross and rose again; that forgiveness of sins and salvation came through faith in Jesus; and so on, each claim offensive to the Jews and ridiculous to the Gentiles (1 Corinthians 1:23). To be honest, that seems to be the consensus in the world today.

Even though there are more people abandoning the name “Christian,” it seems that the result is actually a strengthening of the church. As more so-called nominal Christians declare themselves to be unaffiliated, the more clear the meaning of the name becomes, the more clear the expectations become.

Consider the other names the church used to describe itself in the New Testament. Initially, the early church called themselves “believers,” people who heard the claims about Jesus and his teachings and they believed them; it’s a name that points to the factual reality of who Jesus is and what Jesus did. The most common name was “disciples,” which refers to the fact that not only were they were learners, but they were people who heard the teachings of Jesus and committed themselves to living by those teachings. It also follows the Great Commission of Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20; not only are we to be learners but teachers also. Throughout the New Testament, the early Christians referred to each others as “brothers,” pointing to the familial nature of our relationship to each other through Jesus the Son to God the Father. The New Testament writers also referred to the church as “saints,” which should help us understand that we have been made holy through the blood of Jesus.

So, what do you call it? What does it mean to you to be a Christian? Each of these names has deep meaning and significance. They describe who we are and who we are called to be through Jesus. As we continue to strive to be Christians, literally “little Christs” or “Christ-like,” let’s hold on to the meaning and the names but in such a way that the world knows what it means to be a Christian.

“We are transformed by the renewing of our minds, not by trying really hard to be good.” Josh Hunt nails the struggle of Christian discipleship for many people. Essentially he restates what Paul wrote in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” For many people, the struggle of becoming and then living as a Christian is the shift from thinking, speaking, and behaving according to the patterns, expectations, and lifestyles of the world to thinking, speaking, and behaving as someone directed by God’s will. While it’s easy to see the difference between the two, making the shift is often difficult, and many find themselves making the shift over and over again.

Changing your mind from the world’s patterns to God’s is life changing, but it doesn’t happen just by changing the things you do. John Piper once said, “Transformation is not switching from the to-do list of the flesh to the to-do list of the law.”¹ It’s not a matter of going to church every Sunday, going to Bible study on Wednesday, or giving your money, time, or effort to the church. It’s not about cursing or drinking less – although there is often a resulting change in lifestyle. Paul says transformation comes from renewing our minds.

But how do we change our minds? Ultimately, it’s a matter of letting God change them for us. Paul also wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:16-18, “Whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” Verse 18 tells us that the transformation comes through the Holy Spirit; God actually does the transformation. However, verse 16 tells us that this applies only to those who turn to God.

In order to renew our minds, we have to turn to God, through Jesus, and let the Holy Spirit transform us. And how do we turn to God? Paul asks a similar question in Romans 10:14, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” We can only turn to God when we hear the Word of God, whether it’s through preaching or teaching or even reading it.

The renewal of our minds begins with the Word of God, and the transformation continues throughout our lives. It’s a process, as 2 Corinthians 3:18 says; we’re being “transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.” So even though we’re not necessarily transformed because we’ve read the Bible, we can pursue transformation through reading God’s Word. It’s not that we’ve spent the time reading the Scriptures; it’s that the pursuit of God’s will and the exposure to God’s Word, to the example of God’s people found there, and to the teachings of Jesus and the apostles begins to change the way we think and speak and act.

So, as we focus on God’s Word, God focuses on changing our minds. And then we find ourselves focusing on God’s will and, then, doing God’s will. That’s why we find ourselves reading the Bible more and going more often to Bible studies. That’s why we change our schedules from sleeping in on Sunday morning to going to Sunday school and the worship service. The more we pursue God, the more he changes us, and the more he changes us, the more we pursue him, the more we worship him, the more we serve him. Let God transform you; it’s a change you won’t mind.

1. John Piper, “The Renewed Mind and How to Have It.”

There are a lot of questions these days about how Christians ought to interact with the world, especially when the world has expectations of us that contradict what the Scriptures tell us to believe, say, and do. “How can we live ‘in’ the world without being ‘of’ the world?” “How do we love those who seem to hate us?” “How do we share the truth of the Scriptures in love?” “How can we live holy lives without withdrawing from the world completely?” “Is there a point where ‘common courtesy’ and ‘human decency’ go beyond the boundaries of Christian love and righteousness?” These are tough questions, and the answers aren’t easy, either.

To be honest, while the truth of Scripture will not change, the way we present it might change depending upon the situation and the individuals involved. Even though the way we share the truth of Scripture might change, the motivation should not change, and that motivation must be love. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:14-20:

Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. (15) And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (16) So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. (17) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (18) All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: (19) that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. (20) We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

We must be compelled by the love of God to share the truth of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection and the salvation that Jesus offers everybody through that truth. Our ministry is reconciliation, and that is because God loved us enough to send Jesus to die for our sins. God wants a relationship with everybody, and he has entrusted us, the church, to offer his plan of reconciliation to everybody.

Because each of us who has accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior has been reconciled to God, we, too, must offer the opportunity for reconciliation with God to all. And because that reconciliation was offered in love and secured with love, our ministry must be characterized by love.

That doesn’t mean that we have to hold back on the truth because it might offend some and hurt others. It is far more loving for us to share the truth of God’s love along with the truth of God’s righteousness and justice. Of course, that means that we must know the truth of God’s love and mercy and righteousness and justice; otherwise, we lose the message, and the world loses God.

Matthew 28 is the chapter that gives us the details of Jesus’ resurrection. It tells us about the women going to the tomb to finish the burial preparations for Jesus’ body but finding an empty tomb and an angel who said in Matthew 28:6, “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.”

Jesus is risen. That’s the core of our faith. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:14, “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” That’s a dramatic statement: if Jesus was not raised from the dead, Christianity is a false religion.

And so the easiest argument to support our claim that Jesus is risen is the empty tomb. “He is not here.” But let’s not confuse that with, “He’s gone!” Even though Jesus is risen from the dead, even though the tomb is empty, even though the disciples witnessed Jesus ascend into heaven (Acts 1), Jesus is not just “gone.”

And yet the church seems to think that we’ve been abandoned. We believe that Jesus is alive and that he will come back for us at the end, but we find ourselves acting as if we’re all alone in the world. As the church finds itself being persecuted openly more often in the world, it sometimes feels like God is terribly distant, and we huddle together hoping for Jesus’ return.

But Jesus is not “just” risen, and he is certainly not gone. At the end of the chapter, Jesus said in Matthew 28:20, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” This is a promise. Jesus told his disciples that he would die, that he would be raised from the dead, that he would return for them, and that he would be with them until the “end of the age.” We preach and teach these promises as truth, but still we struggle as if we’re alone.

We’re not alone. He is risen, and he is here! As we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, let us live with joy knowing that he is with us. “I serve a risen Savior. He’s in the world today…. You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart.”

Over the past few weeks, I’ve mentioned several times the second greatest commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” which comes from Leviticus 19:18 and which Jesus affirms in Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31, and Luke 10:27, 28. Jesus taught parables from this commandment and made other statements in regard to it throughout his ministry; it’s clear that Jesus wants us to love other people.

But what about the greatest commandment, “To love God”? Again, Jesus mentions this command in Matthew 22:37, 38, “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment,” and again in Mark 12:30. But other than these references, Jesus doesn’t go into a lot of detail about what it means to love God or how to love God. Or did he?

While Jesus didn’t go throughout his ministry telling people to go to synagogue, to offer sacrifices at the temple, to read or recite God’s Word, he did explain that loving God was a matter of obedience. “If you love me, you will obey what I command…. If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching” (John 14:15, 23). “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love” (John 15:10). Clearly loving God is a matter of obeying his commands. So if Jesus’ ministry and commands seem to focus on loving people, then our love for God ought to be a matter of serving God by loving other people.

When Jesus was tempted by Satan to focus on himself after fasting for 40 days, Jesus responded to Satan’s temptation by quoting Deuteronomy 6:13, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.” Jesus’ undivided love for God led him to worship and service, and our undivided love for God ought to lead us to the same. Certainly we must keep our eyes focused on God, but that ought to help us see how much God loves the people he created. If you’re wondering what it means to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, it means to worship God and serve him alone, and that ought to lead you toward loving and serving others.

In the first few sermons of the year, I tried to prepare us for the process of evaluating where we are, dreaming about where we want to go, and determining how we’re going to get there – in a word, change. I know that change can be irritating, if not outright frightening, but it’s a fact of life and growth that things will change.

In fact, that’s the whole point of the church. It is meant to change because we are meant to change. In 2 Corinthians 3:7-18, Paul wrote that when Moses received God’s Law on Mt. Sinai, his face radiated the glory of God, so much so that the people could not look at his face; he was changed by God’s presence and by his ministry of God’s covenant with his people. Paul also wrote that the new covenant through Jesus is “more glorious” than what Moses received and that it changes us: “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever- increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Because of our exposure to life in Jesus, we are changed to reflect God’s glory. Moses’ ministry was to share the Law, which brought death (v. 7), but our ministry brings righteousness (v. 9) and freedom (v. 17). Moses’ face was changed to reflect the glory of God’s righteous judgment, and the people couldn’t bear to see it. But Paul says that not only do we reflect God’s glory because of Jesus but we are being changed to be more like him, and we reflect that glory with “unveiled faces” (v. 18).

That change comes “whenever anyone turns to the Lord.” Ultimately, that’s our goal, to be transformed to be more and more like Jesus, with “ever-increasing glory.” The words “ever increasing” mean that we are not ever going to stop changing; we’re going to experience transformation by God throughout our lives. And that transformation is going to reflect God to all who see us.

So what kind of changes are we going to make? Ones that will reflect God more and more in whatever we say and do. We’re not interested in gimmicks to draw people into the building; we’re going to do whatever it takes to reflect God’s glory in our community and draw people to him. Be ready to change because God’s ready to take away the veil.

“’Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord….’ ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.'” (Luke 2:10, 11, 14, NIV)

These words from the angels to the shepherds fascinate me. Of all the classes I’ve taken, of all the books I’ve read, of all the speakers of I’ve heard, this is probably the simplest expression of God’s message to all people. In Jesus’ birth announcement, God reveals his plan, its recipients, its benefits, and its purpose.

God’s plan is to save people. The people of Jesus’ day knew that they needed a savior, even though they thought it should be someone who would save them from the Romans. But God’s plan to save people is more than a rebellion against a powerful, earthly empire. God’s plan is to destroy a rebellion – which is the first prophecy of Jesus in Genesis 3:15 – and to rescue those who were caught behind enemy lines.

God’s plan is to save all who are faithful. The angels said that their news was for “all the people” and “to men on whom his favor rests.” Even though the announcement didn’t go into the details that we can find throughout the rest of Jesus’ teachings in the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament, it certainly makes an offer to all people but to all who submit to the lordship of the one whose birth is announced.

God’s plan has great benefits to those who accept it. God’s plan dispels fear. This good news brings joy. It brings salvation. It brings peace. It brings God’s favor.

Most importantly, God’s plan has a purpose, to bring God glory. Even though God’s plan focuses on the salvation of people, giving them joy and peace and favor with God, it all points back toward God. While we celebrate God’s gift to us, let us respond with joy in our praise and worship of God who made the plan and provided salvation through Jesus, to his glory!