1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:17,360 Welcome to ECB's Weekly Sermon Podcast. ECB is an international church in Bangkok, Thailand, 2 00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:23,260 with dozens of nationalities worshipping together. We invite you to connect with us from wherever 3 00:00:23,260 --> 00:00:31,120 you are through our website, ecb.asia, or our mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed 4 00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:39,440 by this week's sermon. Good morning. It is an intense season, right? We know this. There's a 5 00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:44,720 lot going on. Companies are working with their budgets. There's a lot of events, parties. We 6 00:00:44,720 --> 00:00:51,640 have things going on here at ECB as well. And I am reminded with an extra level because I have a 7 00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:56,360 daughter who has a birthday right after Christmas. And so she lets me know every single day, 8 00:00:56,360 --> 00:01:03,400 okay, we're going to get Jesus's birthday out of the way. And then it's me. But the reality is that 9 00:01:03,400 --> 00:01:12,480 we have wanted to invite you into this season of thinking deeply and profoundly of pondering what 10 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:20,600 the wonder of Jesus coming actually means. It's not just an idea. It's actually a reality that has 11 00:01:20,600 --> 00:01:27,160 come to impact us. And so we have focused our sermon series on unwrapping Christmas, on looking 12 00:01:27,160 --> 00:01:33,680 what it means that Jesus came. And we've looked at hope, this certainty based on what God has said 13 00:01:33,680 --> 00:01:40,080 and promises to do. We have looked at peace, the way he brings shalom and a wholeness to who we are. 14 00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:46,220 We've looked at joy, joy that is not just a momentary happiness like a balloon that you can 15 00:01:46,220 --> 00:01:52,960 pop, but instead it's something that lasts with us deeply there. And all three of these come and 16 00:01:52,960 --> 00:02:00,920 flow out of love, which is where we're turning this morning. God's deep and profound love for you and 17 00:02:00,920 --> 00:02:07,280 his deep and profound love for me. So I want to do something. I want you to, I know you've greeted 18 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:13,320 one another, but I want you to actually bless one another by saying, God loves you. So turn to the 19 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:30,040 person next to you and let them know that God loves you. You join me in prayer. Good Father, 20 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:37,600 I thank you that although in the beginning you were the word and the word was with God and the 21 00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:44,240 word was God, and that all things were created through you, that you made a way to step into our 22 00:02:44,240 --> 00:02:51,280 very existence, to bring your light, your light that is the life of the world. Thank you for this. 23 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:58,400 Thank you for bringing heaven back down to us. Your kingdom here on earth made known in and through 24 00:02:58,400 --> 00:03:06,040 you, Jesus. This is a beautiful love. And so we welcome this. We anticipate your second coming 25 00:03:06,040 --> 00:03:12,840 with great gladness. And we ask that you Holy Spirit would encounter us right now, that our 26 00:03:12,840 --> 00:03:20,280 hearts would be open to what you desire to do within us as we unwrap and consider the beauty of 27 00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:28,680 Jesus coming to show us what true love is. So have your way. May we willingly surrender in Jesus' 28 00:03:28,680 --> 00:03:37,640 name. Amen. Speaking of love and Christmas, a number of weeks ago when we had our International 29 00:03:37,640 --> 00:03:43,320 Food Festival, I heard this word love quite a bit during that time. So for those of you who are just 30 00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:48,080 joining us, International Food Festival is a time where we represent all the different nationalities 31 00:03:48,080 --> 00:03:54,000 with food. We come together and we have a wonderful party to launch off the Christmas season. What 32 00:03:54,000 --> 00:04:00,360 context did I hear this word love in? It was this one. A number of you came to me and you said, 33 00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:11,240 have you tried the chocolate cake? It's so good. Now, then you followed it up with I love it. And 34 00:04:11,240 --> 00:04:20,680 then you said you should try it. My question for you is that love? So here's my invitation to you 35 00:04:20,680 --> 00:04:28,960 this morning. I want you to pull out your most deeper inner empathy and take on the role of the 36 00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:34,880 piece of cake in this situation. Is this a relationship that is one defined of love? So 37 00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:42,720 think about you being that piece of cake. Do you feel loved by the ECB-er during IFF as you are 38 00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:50,000 taken against your will, you are consumed, chewed up, expended? No, absolutely that's not love. I 39 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:57,800 love the differences between the two services. We had about 15 teenagers here at the front. Is 40 00:04:57,800 --> 00:05:06,600 that love? Yes, they said. But here's what this represents. This represents the reality that love 41 00:05:06,600 --> 00:05:14,000 is something that is, we're confused about. We may or may not know what love actually is. It's a very 42 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:21,800 confusing idea and everyone is declaring that they know what love is. So I want to provide a 43 00:05:21,800 --> 00:05:27,240 helpful definition and then we're going to go to the person of Jesus Christ eventually who will come 44 00:05:27,240 --> 00:05:32,400 and show what this love is. So a philosopher by the name of Dallas Willard says the following. He 45 00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:40,280 says love is will to good or willing the benefit of what or who is loved. Now leave it to a 46 00:05:40,280 --> 00:05:46,720 philosopher to make a sentence as clunky as possible, but there's some real beauty in this 47 00:05:46,720 --> 00:05:55,840 sentence here. And what is it? It's finding another, desiring and acting upon their good. Not like you 48 00:05:55,840 --> 00:06:02,560 did to the chocolate cake. That was desire for your own benefit. This is one that is a good for 49 00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:10,040 another that brings up and benefits the other. So my question for you this morning is how do you 50 00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:18,200 relate to others? But maybe it's better to start with this. Do you feel loved by others around you? 51 00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:24,440 Well pick on an easy one. What about your boss? Do you feel loved by your boss or do you feel used? 52 00:06:24,440 --> 00:06:32,960 What about your friends at school? What if you're having a down day? Do you feel loved by them? What 53 00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:39,920 about your family? Now we're getting a little more close, right? What is the relationships like within 54 00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:46,520 your family? Now if you visit me within my home, you are sure to hear this phrase floating around 55 00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:54,880 the house and it would go something like this. I'm sorry that I did not love you well. And then it's 56 00:06:54,880 --> 00:07:02,240 going to be followed up with something specific. Something like I prioritize myself over you or I 57 00:07:02,240 --> 00:07:14,000 didn't listen well or I was impatient with you. But this isn't just simply expressing regret. This 58 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:21,200 is a confession. And what a confession is, is a confession says there is a standard of what is good, 59 00:07:21,200 --> 00:07:29,080 right, true, and beautiful. There is something that we can know and I have not acted upon that. 60 00:07:29,080 --> 00:07:34,760 There's a gap between these two. And so I'm confessing that I have acted in a way that doesn't 61 00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:44,840 represent this up here. And this is going to be explained and expanded in Matthew's gospel. As he 62 00:07:44,840 --> 00:07:50,500 recounts the coming of Jesus, he brilliantly tells the story by introducing three names for Jesus 63 00:07:50,500 --> 00:07:56,480 that we're going to cover. And these three names are going to reveal the essence of what love actually 64 00:07:56,480 --> 00:08:05,600 is. But to make this even more impactful, he knows that you and I fail in loving one another. And so 65 00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:13,400 he's going to put at the backdrop of this whole story King Herod. And King Herod is one bad dude. 66 00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:20,600 He is a guy who does not love well. And I presume that what Matthew is doing is he's putting these 67 00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:26,920 two together not only to help us to see the beauty of who Jesus truly is, but also to help you 68 00:08:26,920 --> 00:08:33,440 recognize the self-absorbed ways that we end up treating one another. The desire like the chocolate 69 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:39,400 cake where we end up consuming it within relationships rather than a genuine benefit of the other. So 70 00:08:39,400 --> 00:08:46,640 let's take a quick look at Herod and the way that he has displayed distorted love. Now I'm just going 71 00:08:46,640 --> 00:08:52,240 to recount these before we get to Jesus and we're going to get into God's Word there. But I'm going 72 00:08:52,240 --> 00:08:58,480 to recount the story of Herod and some of the details about him. Who was Herod? Herod was a 73 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:07,480 king over Judea, over Israel and Judah. And he was known as Herod the Great. We'll get to the reason 74 00:09:07,480 --> 00:09:15,480 why in just a moment. He ruled from 37 BC until 4 BC. So Pastor Rene ruined our Christmas last week 75 00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:20,360 by telling us that there may or may not have been three Magi. I'm going to ruin your Christmas this 76 00:09:20,360 --> 00:09:26,080 week by letting you know that our calendar in the West is off. Jesus was not born on zero. He was 77 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:32,200 born in the time of Herod which would have been before zero. So now we've got to go fix your 78 00:09:32,200 --> 00:09:39,680 calendars at home. Herod is known as Herod the Great. His name Herod literally means hero, 79 00:09:39,680 --> 00:09:46,160 hero song of the hero. Now why is he called this? Well his parents named him that. But it also 80 00:09:46,160 --> 00:09:53,040 identifies that he thought he was the hero of his own story and that he got to make all the decisions 81 00:09:53,040 --> 00:09:59,840 of what is good, right, true and beautiful. He was known as the Great because he had great impact in 82 00:09:59,840 --> 00:10:06,280 the world around him. He rebuilt the temple. He had all these building projects that were on display 83 00:10:06,280 --> 00:10:11,720 and were evident for people to see. So you might look at him and you say wow that's a good leader. 84 00:10:11,720 --> 00:10:19,760 Look at the impact that he's making in the world around him. But how did this impact happen? This 85 00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:28,880 impact happened at the expense, at the cost of others. He had slave labor to do his work and not 86 00:10:28,880 --> 00:10:35,920 only that he was charging heavy amounts of taxes to crush the people in order to do this. To make 87 00:10:35,920 --> 00:10:42,600 things worse he killed his own wife and then he killed a couple of his kids for fear that they 88 00:10:42,600 --> 00:10:47,760 would take his throne. And he didn't stop there but he also killed some of his other family members. 89 00:10:47,760 --> 00:10:54,760 And then he tried to kill God himself when Jesus came which we'll get to in a little more detail 90 00:10:54,760 --> 00:11:01,720 there. Is this distorted love? Absolutely. This is a distorted version of the way that we might relate 91 00:11:01,720 --> 00:11:09,080 to one another. Again he was treating others like Easy Beers were treating chocolate cake. But 92 00:11:09,080 --> 00:11:15,460 Matthew doesn't just bring Herod into the story to say that's him, this is Jesus. He's also inviting 93 00:11:15,460 --> 00:11:23,200 you to recognize how you are also found in Herod, how I am also found in Herod. So what was motivating 94 00:11:23,200 --> 00:11:31,120 Herod? Herod was actually an Edomite. An Edomite was somebody from a different nation. He had come 95 00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:38,360 in and this were between Israel and Edom they had this long-standing opposition to one another. So 96 00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:45,420 he's a foreign ruler with the Roman rule and authority over him using him as a puppet king. 97 00:11:45,420 --> 00:11:52,280 He doesn't care about those who he's serving. He's self-absorbed, self-protecting and self-promoting. 98 00:11:52,280 --> 00:11:57,880 Now you may not have killed your spouse or your children, I hope not, otherwise we need to have a 99 00:11:57,880 --> 00:12:05,480 serious conversation. But yet we do act in ways with one another where you recognize that something 100 00:12:05,480 --> 00:12:12,560 within us naturally chooses our own self. My youngest four-year-old who is waiting for Jesus's 101 00:12:12,560 --> 00:12:18,320 birthday to move out of the way so her birthday can come is a narcissistic way that's appropriate 102 00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:25,200 for a four-year-old. Yet it continues on with some of us, right? And we live and act in this way. So 103 00:12:25,200 --> 00:12:31,280 Matthew presents an extreme example to invite you to let your guard down so that then we can come and 104 00:12:31,280 --> 00:12:38,720 see the beauty of who Jesus is. But we also want to ask why is that within us? Why is there this 105 00:12:38,720 --> 00:12:44,560 me first mentality of interacting with the world? Well to do that we're gonna go back to the beginning, 106 00:12:44,560 --> 00:12:52,840 actually back to before the beginning, when things broke apart. So before the beginning, God the 107 00:12:52,840 --> 00:13:00,040 Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, three in one, were forever, for eternity, passed in a perfect 108 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:08,280 loving relationship in that unit, that triune God. I can't quite understand it, but we do know that 109 00:13:08,280 --> 00:13:14,280 this is who God is. And it's out of this perfect love that he brought humans into the world. It 110 00:13:14,280 --> 00:13:20,600 compelled him to create us. He wanted to share that love with you and with me. So he creates 111 00:13:20,600 --> 00:13:26,640 Adam and Eve, he brings them into the garden, and we know the story, right? God's enemy sneaks in 112 00:13:26,640 --> 00:13:33,680 and whispers, does God really love you Eve? Maybe he's keeping what is good, right, and true, and 113 00:13:33,680 --> 00:13:43,560 beautiful from you. And so we read of the following words in Genesis 3, 6. When the woman saw that the 114 00:13:43,560 --> 00:13:48,560 fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye. We could replace that. When the easy 115 00:13:48,560 --> 00:13:54,640 beer saw that the chocolate cake was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and then goes on, and 116 00:13:54,640 --> 00:14:03,080 also desirable for gaining wisdom. She took some and ate it. Seems innocent enough, right? But this 117 00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:11,280 is an act of rejecting God's perfect love and exchanging it for the love of another. Now, what's 118 00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:17,840 the impact of that? Well, God shows them through exile of the garden that this relationship is 119 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:24,640 broken. But immediately he promises that he's going to bring a rescuer. So that promise is there, 120 00:14:24,640 --> 00:14:31,200 while at the same time Adam and Eve have two kids, Cain and Abel. What happened with Cain and Abel? 121 00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:39,720 Cain murders Abel. You siblings know this well, right? The tension, the rivalry that happens 122 00:14:39,720 --> 00:14:45,920 between you. And from there we've had little Herod's, King Herod's, continuing to mark our 123 00:14:45,920 --> 00:14:50,760 history from then on out. Another one of my daughters is going through a history class right 124 00:14:50,760 --> 00:15:00,320 now and she comes home just undone by the accounts of history, of the ways that people have broken 125 00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:09,320 and treated one another in failed or distorted ways of loving them. But God, God in his goodness, 126 00:15:09,320 --> 00:15:15,120 God doesn't leave things there. He knows that there is something that we desperately need, 127 00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:22,880 and so he acts on our behalf. And he doesn't just do this by proclaiming something, he actually 128 00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:29,600 steps into our world, into the material world and physically shows us what true love or what perfect 129 00:15:29,600 --> 00:15:35,640 love is. There's another author, Kirk Thompson, in the Soul of Shame, and he uses this quote here 130 00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:43,160 that my wife recently passed along to me. We talk about love as this abstract thing, but for humans 131 00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:49,880 it's not abstract. It's part of the material world. There's all kinds of videos that you can watch 132 00:15:49,880 --> 00:15:55,480 online of kids being asked what is love, and this begins to show the distorted ways. And there's 133 00:15:55,480 --> 00:16:02,920 this one teenager where she goes, it's this feeling, and it's right here, just on the left side. Now, 134 00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:09,240 what does she mean by that is the abstractness of what we generally consider love to be. But this 135 00:16:09,240 --> 00:16:15,240 quote here says that love is something you can know, the essence of it. And so Matthew is going 136 00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:22,440 to introduce us to Jesus and give us three names within just a few verses, chapter and a half, 137 00:16:22,440 --> 00:16:29,560 three different names. And these three different names, Jesus, Emmanuel, and Nazarene, all three of 138 00:16:29,560 --> 00:16:35,160 those names are going to get at the essence of what love truly is. So there's hope, because we 139 00:16:35,160 --> 00:16:41,080 can know what love is. So Matthew begins with the following. He says, now the birth of Jesus Christ 140 00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:46,200 took place in this way. So we're unwrapping Christmas, the arrival of Jesus comes, and we've 141 00:16:46,200 --> 00:16:51,720 taken back the peeling, and we're looking inside, and we see what is going to happen with Jesus 142 00:16:51,720 --> 00:16:58,280 coming. Now, the backstory to this is you've got Joseph promised to be married to Mary, 143 00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:04,360 but then he finds out that Mary is pregnant, and he knows this was not his doing. So now he's 144 00:17:04,360 --> 00:17:12,200 disoriented and he doesn't know what he's supposed to do. And God visits him, encounters him through 145 00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:18,840 the presence of an angel who says the following words, Joseph, son of David, to not be afraid to 146 00:17:18,840 --> 00:17:26,760 take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from who? The Holy Spirit. 147 00:17:26,760 --> 00:17:32,440 She will give birth to a son. So God promised right back with Adam and Eve, hey, I'm going to 148 00:17:32,440 --> 00:17:37,640 send this son, he's going to fix things. Here it is right here. She'll give birth to a son, 149 00:17:37,640 --> 00:17:43,000 and you will give him the name. And all the Crosstown kids said, Jesus, right? This is the 150 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:49,880 answer for every Crosstown question, Jesus. Because he will do what? Save his people from their sins. 151 00:17:49,880 --> 00:17:58,360 So here we have the name given, Jesus. Now what Jesus means is Yeshua, or Jehovah saves, God saves. 152 00:17:58,360 --> 00:18:04,840 It literally declares what God is doing when he's showing up. God is the one who is going to be 153 00:18:04,840 --> 00:18:13,720 the one to take on the cost of your benefit, of my benefit. That cost is not going to go to you, 154 00:18:13,720 --> 00:18:19,640 that's going to be on his shoulders. And this first name declares that emphatically that God 155 00:18:19,640 --> 00:18:25,480 is the one who is going to do this work. He promised it from the beginning, 300, over 300 156 00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:34,200 prophecies all come true in Jesus. And he acts this out in a beautiful way. So God is the one who 157 00:18:34,200 --> 00:18:40,600 initiates willingly sacrifices for the good of others. And what we have is in the Bible, 158 00:18:40,600 --> 00:18:48,920 the first John here in the letter. John, by the way, is the disciple that was most closely related 159 00:18:48,920 --> 00:18:55,000 to Jesus. He spent the most time with him, an intimate relationship. And he says this about 160 00:18:55,000 --> 00:19:02,360 Jesus. He says this is love. Not that we loved God, but that he, this is that sacrifice, 161 00:19:02,360 --> 00:19:10,680 that initiation on God's part, sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Jesus himself 162 00:19:10,680 --> 00:19:15,720 describes love in the following way in the Gospel of John. He says, greater love has no one than this, 163 00:19:16,440 --> 00:19:23,400 than to lay down one's life for his friends. Very different than the love that we generally 164 00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:31,480 will speak about, or again, that chocolate cake that we saw. And then in an act of love to you 165 00:19:31,480 --> 00:19:40,120 and to me, demonstrated to his disciples, the God of the world, the God of the world, 166 00:19:40,840 --> 00:19:47,480 he bends down on his knee just before he's about to be betrayed and crucified, betrayed by his 167 00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:56,680 own followers. And he bends down on his knee and he washes their feet. This is the way that God loves. 168 00:19:56,680 --> 00:20:05,640 It is for your benefit. And he does so willingly. In the Gospel of Mark 10, 45, it says, Jesus did 169 00:20:05,640 --> 00:20:12,840 not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for you and for me, for many. 170 00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:21,800 This love is quite different than Herod's, isn't it? And this love is freely extended to you. So 171 00:20:21,800 --> 00:20:27,800 when you recognize, I didn't really love well, you turn and you receive his embrace even in that 172 00:20:27,800 --> 00:20:33,480 moment. But this is only one aspect of love. Jesus is going to introduce, or Matthew is going to 173 00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:39,800 introduce another dimension through another name. And this other name is Emmanuel, which literally 174 00:20:39,800 --> 00:20:47,720 means God is with us or God with us. Now here's where this comes. Joseph, after being met by the 175 00:20:47,720 --> 00:20:54,120 messenger, Matthew continues by identifying Jesus and saying this. He says, all this took place 176 00:20:54,120 --> 00:21:01,720 to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, 177 00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:08,920 and they shall call his name what? Emmanuel. And then Matthew puts in here, or the translators do, 178 00:21:08,920 --> 00:21:18,440 which means God is with us, God with us. I remember when my wife was first pregnant with our first 179 00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:24,200 daughter. I remember as she grew inside of her, my wife would just kind of put her hands on her 180 00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:34,760 belly, and she would proclaim and wonder, there's someone living inside of me. Now, us guys, and 181 00:21:34,760 --> 00:21:39,800 for whatever reason, God chooses some to and some not to, but us guys will never experience this, 182 00:21:39,800 --> 00:21:46,200 right? So we'll never know what it is like to have someone living inside of us. But Mary not only had 183 00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:54,440 someone living inside of her, but had the God of the universe dwelling within her. You can't get 184 00:21:54,440 --> 00:22:01,240 closer than that. That is the most intimate form of love that God has shown, and he has willingly 185 00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:07,240 done this by stepping into the world to do that. In Philippians 2, we read the following. We read 186 00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:14,120 that Jesus, who being in the very nature of God, so that's his divine nature, did not consider equality 187 00:22:14,120 --> 00:22:19,160 with God as something to hold onto, something to grasp, something to be used for his own advantage. 188 00:22:19,160 --> 00:22:26,360 Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 189 00:22:26,360 --> 00:22:31,560 Here's what I'd like you to do. I'd like you to take your two hands and hold them out in front of you. 190 00:22:31,560 --> 00:22:41,960 And your one hand is going to represent 100% divine nature of God. The other hand is going to represent 191 00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:51,240 100% human nature. When we look at Jesus, when he comes as a baby, he comes as this. Put your hands 192 00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:57,160 together, link them. Now, this is a broken illustration because I can see where one ends and one begins and 193 00:22:57,160 --> 00:23:02,920 all of that, and I can take it apart. But the fact of Jesus, when Mary is holding little baby Jesus, 194 00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:12,600 she's looking at God's intimate promise that he will be with you forever. He will never leave you. 195 00:23:12,600 --> 00:23:19,720 He will never forsake you. And for those who have God, who can be against them? Now, some of you are 196 00:23:19,720 --> 00:23:25,080 still holding your hands. You can release them or keep holding them and remember as we continue 197 00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:32,200 forward in this. But that is union. But I want you to remember our friend Herod, our friend Herod who 198 00:23:33,320 --> 00:23:40,120 sends people to try to kill Jesus in a way to promote and protect himself. He tries to end 199 00:23:40,120 --> 00:23:47,800 Jesus's life. But last week, Pastor Rene introduced us to the Magi, the wise men that had come and they 200 00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:52,920 come to worship Jesus. And then we have this passage in Matthew 2, where it says, when they, 201 00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:58,360 meaning the Magi, had left, an angel, there's a lot of angels in these stories, of the Lord appeared 202 00:23:58,360 --> 00:24:04,760 to Joseph in a dream. Get up, he said. Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay 203 00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:11,320 there until I tell you. For Herod is going to search for the child to kill him. So not only does 204 00:24:11,320 --> 00:24:18,120 Herod try to kill or does kill his wife and some of his kids, but he tries to kill God here as well. 205 00:24:20,040 --> 00:24:25,320 Mary and Joseph, they make a journey in the middle of the night, leaving in the middle of the night 206 00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:32,920 for several hundred kilometers through a wilderness with a powerful king that is trying to destroy them, 207 00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:43,800 trying to kill their baby. What do they have for this journey? This. At this moment, Jesus, 208 00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:50,360 in his helplessness, doesn't look like he's going to accomplish much. But it's a promise that God is 209 00:24:50,360 --> 00:24:56,920 with us, that God has bound himself forever with us. And our lives will have times of feeling like 210 00:24:56,920 --> 00:25:01,000 they are in the wilderness, feeling like we are running for our own lives. King Herod is going to 211 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:07,800 look far more powerful. And the invitation is for us to look down and hold on to the God with us 212 00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:16,280 promise, Emmanuel, that baby Jesus is actually with us. See, true love is not only sacrificing 213 00:25:16,280 --> 00:25:23,560 for another, it is also intimately stepping into your world to understand and walk and journey along 214 00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:30,520 with you. And God does that willingly because he loves you. It's two names, right? We've got a 215 00:25:30,520 --> 00:25:38,840 third name and this one is a little less known. Nazarene, God for nothing. What is his name, 216 00:25:38,840 --> 00:25:45,560 Nazarene? And why does the author, why does Matthew bring this up? Well, Matthew is going 217 00:25:45,560 --> 00:25:50,760 to conclude the account and he's going to mention the following. He's going to say, and he, meaning 218 00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:59,160 Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus, they leave Egypt and they come up to Jerusalem. And then they hear, 219 00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:03,880 because they heard that King Herod is dead, but they hear that his son has now taken the throne. 220 00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:11,080 Again, now we're in trouble again. So they flee to Nazareth where they were, was actually their home, 221 00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:19,000 which is way up north in Israel. But what does Matthew say here? So was fulfilled what was said 222 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:23,800 through the prophets that he would be called a Nazarene. Now, most of you may not actually 223 00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:29,880 dig into this to know well enough, but there is no prophetic mention of Nazarene, of Nazareth, 224 00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:36,600 that God will be called the Nazarene. So has Matthew made a mistake here? No, he's actually 225 00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:43,240 doing something profound. And here's what it is. We need to understand that Nazareth was a town that 226 00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:50,120 nobody wanted to be from. Nazareth, we say this in English, it's the sticks or the podunk area. 227 00:26:50,120 --> 00:26:54,360 Nobody wants to be associated. I should have gotten an amen from the Texas Life Group over 228 00:26:54,360 --> 00:27:01,000 there for using that phrase, by the way. There we go. This is an area that you would not want to 229 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:06,840 be associated with. How do we know this? Well, history will tell that, but we also have an account 230 00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:13,080 here where Philip, the disciple, comes to Nathaniel and he's calling him to come and follow Jesus. 231 00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:21,800 And he says the following, he says, we have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, about whom 232 00:27:21,800 --> 00:27:28,120 the prophets also wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And this is where we get it. 233 00:27:28,120 --> 00:27:35,960 Nathaniel responds, Nazareth? Are you kidding me? Nothing good is going to come out of Nazareth. 234 00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:42,120 That's how Nathaniel responds. And it tells us how the culture viewed Nazareth. Now, what is 235 00:27:42,120 --> 00:27:46,680 this getting at? Well, let's look at one of the prophetic connections that draws our attention to 236 00:27:46,680 --> 00:27:52,680 this. And we see this in Isaiah 53, very well-known Christmas passage here. He, meaning Jesus, was 237 00:27:52,680 --> 00:28:00,600 despised and rejected by mankind. He was not welcomed well. He's a man of suffering and 238 00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:07,240 familiar with pain, like one from whom people hide their faces. He was despised and we held him 239 00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:15,560 in low esteem. Now, if somebody comes to visit my home, if I keep them outside the door and talk 240 00:28:15,560 --> 00:28:23,400 with them, that's kind, but that's not deeply impactful on my end. It's not a gift to them. 241 00:28:24,120 --> 00:28:29,160 If I invite them inside and have them come and have a conversation, maybe a little bit of a 242 00:28:29,160 --> 00:28:34,440 meal, and have a conversation, maybe some snacks, that's a little bit more. If I have a meal with 243 00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:39,800 them, a little bit more. What if I and my wife move out of the master bedroom? We prepare it for 244 00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:44,760 them and we give them this. We give them the royal welcome and we let them stay as long as they want. 245 00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:52,760 They owe us now, don't they? We have blessed them richly and now they owe us. By Jesus being called 246 00:28:52,760 --> 00:29:00,040 Nazarene, by Jesus coming and living in Nazareth, a place that nobody would consider him as somebody 247 00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:05,800 to listen to because he's from there, he does something important. He does something by showing 248 00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:13,960 that his love is unconditional. His love is unconditional. See, if I had welcomed you into 249 00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:19,560 the home that way, our relationship now is constantly muddied in a certain sense by the 250 00:29:19,560 --> 00:29:26,040 hospitality that I showed you. Large corporations, companies such as Nike, will ask their employees 251 00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:32,280 to not accept gifts over a certain amount of money. Why do they do this? Because if I accept 252 00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:38,040 a gift over a certain amount of money, my interaction with my clients is now muddied by that 253 00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:43,960 gift. And by Jesus coming in Nazareth, where nobody could care less if he was there, 254 00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:50,760 born to this little poor family, living in fear of being killed by the king, what he does is he's 255 00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:57,720 coming and he's saying, you get me for nothing. And why is that so valuable? That's so valuable 256 00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:03,800 because what we see here in Romans five that Paul says, you see, at just the right time when we were 257 00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:11,800 still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, 258 00:30:11,800 --> 00:30:16,600 though maybe for a good person, someone might possibly dare to die. Here we get a human 259 00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:20,920 transactional way of doing. If you're a pretty good person and you're of value to me, maybe I'll 260 00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:28,120 sacrifice for you. But here's what Jesus did. But God demonstrated his own love for us in this. 261 00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:34,520 While we were still sinners, Christ did what? He died for us. He takes it up a notch in the way 262 00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:40,920 that he loves us. You get God for nothing. The arrival of Jesus as the Nazarene, the 263 00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:48,520 Jesus as the Nazarene reveals that what unconditional love looks like. True love has no strings 264 00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:56,040 attached. And this is valuable because it removes the constant fear that is between us and others 265 00:30:56,040 --> 00:31:02,280 in relationship. What are we talking about there? Well, John says the following. He says, there is 266 00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:10,200 no fear in love, but perfect love does what? Drives out fear. What is he meaning? If my 267 00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:16,280 relationship with God has nothing to do with what I have blessed him with, then I can rest 268 00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:23,160 completely insured no matter what he sees in me. He has received me. He has welcomed me. 269 00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:30,200 And that's a confident love that we can hold on to. It's great news. Absolutely beautiful, 270 00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:37,880 wonderful news. Perfect love is not an abstract idea. It doesn't just lead to a thousand different 271 00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:45,720 definitions of this. Perfect love is willing the good or the benefit of the other. And Jesus has 272 00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:51,400 come knowing that you and I, we do, we fail to love well. But he doesn't want you to hide in that. 273 00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:56,200 He wants you to come forward to him and make that confession to him and one another in it. 274 00:31:57,320 --> 00:32:03,880 And he came inviting you to taste and see that his love, his perfect love, is really good. And 275 00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:10,440 it's about your benefit. The arrival of Jesus is the arrival of an unexplainable and rather crazy 276 00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:18,200 love. Let me introduce you to some of our friends. These are some of my friends from Ecuador, where 277 00:32:18,200 --> 00:32:26,520 we used to live a number of years ago. Juan Manuel and Shauna. Juan Manuel is Ecuadorian, 278 00:32:26,520 --> 00:32:34,840 but he works for a multinational oil company and he was doing quite well. Shauna, on the other hand, 279 00:32:34,840 --> 00:32:40,360 had two master's degrees and was a marriage and family therapist, was also doing quite well. 280 00:32:41,240 --> 00:32:48,040 They had what seemed to be life in the palm of their hands, kind of like Herod's palace there. 281 00:32:48,040 --> 00:32:52,920 They could make decisions and move things and cause that to happen. But something happened with 282 00:32:52,920 --> 00:33:00,120 them that messed their life up in a really wonderful way. And that was that they encountered the 283 00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:05,800 incredible love of Jesus that we just talked about. A love that is sacrificial, a love that is 284 00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:13,000 unconditional, and a love that is deeply intimate with who they were. That love captured their hearts 285 00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:18,760 and their story is told on their shirts there. We read out what is on their shirts. What does it say? 286 00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:30,200 Chosen, loved, accepted, adopted, forever. Those words capture what it is that God had done for them. 287 00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:35,000 Now why do they have these words on their shirt? I didn't tell you about one other person in this 288 00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:43,640 story. That's Baby Janelli. Baby Janelli was, before she was born, the doctors knew that she had 289 00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:51,160 a condition where she would never be able to do the things that most of us, that you and I can do. 290 00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:57,160 She would never be able to speak. She would never walk. She would never be able to eat on her own. 291 00:33:57,640 --> 00:34:04,280 She would never enjoy a relationship with another like a friendship. She would never go to school. 292 00:34:04,280 --> 00:34:11,560 And actually she would live a very short life. She was unwanted. She had nothing to offer. 293 00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:16,360 But that's if we're thinking in Herod's way of thinking about life, not in the way of Jesus. 294 00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:23,400 The way of Jesus is one that transforms how we think. So Jesus loved Juan Manuel and Shauna 295 00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:31,080 into a deep love that they gave towards little Janelli, knowing exactly what they were getting into. 296 00:34:31,080 --> 00:34:40,600 They chose Janelli. They loved Janelli. They invited her into their home and at great cost to them, 297 00:34:40,600 --> 00:34:49,000 gave her a benefit that she could never repay. That is what God has done for you. 298 00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:56,680 That is what God has done for me. And so no matter what Satan tries to whisper within our own hearts, 299 00:34:56,680 --> 00:35:02,840 God really loves you. Maybe he doesn't actually care for you. Maybe Herod is much stronger. 300 00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:08,040 For those of you who have received the greatest gift, which is Jesus, 301 00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:15,320 God is with you and you can hold on to that. And through the Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit 302 00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:21,480 that actually brought that life into Mary's womb, that same Holy Spirit dwells within you as a 303 00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:28,280 follower of Jesus and shapes within you a love that does something like we see in this story here. 304 00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:36,680 It's a radical and crazy love, a love that is unexplainable. So as Jesus, meaning God saves, 305 00:35:37,080 --> 00:35:42,120 God has come to you offering you a love where he willingly and sacrificially does 306 00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:48,920 what is needed for your benefit. He initiates that. Rest in it. He initiates that. 307 00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:56,120 He initiates that. Rest in it. As Emmanuel, Jesus is so committed to life with you that he has come 308 00:35:56,120 --> 00:36:02,600 to join you on whatever journey you may be in and he's bound himself to you forever. And you are 309 00:36:02,600 --> 00:36:09,160 invited to live in that life with great joy. And as the Nazarene, Jesus offers you a love like no 310 00:36:09,160 --> 00:36:15,000 other, no strings attached. God for nothing, an unconditional love that you can receive. 311 00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:19,080 So I recognize that there's different groups of people here this morning. For some of you, 312 00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:23,400 you may be visiting or you may not know Jesus, you're curious about him. And hey, I want to 313 00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:29,640 invite you to just wonder at him. And if the Holy Spirit is nudging you, if you're drawn towards 314 00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:34,520 this love of Jesus, please don't pass it by. Come up after the service and come and talk to either 315 00:36:34,520 --> 00:36:40,120 myself or one of the prayer team. For the rest of you, no matter where you find yourself at this 316 00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:47,320 point in your life, continue to meditate on, receive that love that he has given you. 317 00:36:47,320 --> 00:36:52,840 Take this time of Christmas that we're going to continue to celebrate and recognize with wonder 318 00:36:52,840 --> 00:36:58,520 what God has done. Good Father, I thank you for the gift of who you are. I thank you for the way 319 00:36:58,520 --> 00:37:08,200 that you have encountered us in a profound, unexplainable, radical, faithful, generous, 320 00:37:08,200 --> 00:37:15,560 and somewhat crazy love. We desire that that would flow increasingly within our own lives, 321 00:37:15,560 --> 00:37:21,320 that we would be people who are loved into loving others well. Thank you for sending Jesus. Thank 322 00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:29,560 you for the example, but also for the gift of his love. We honor you. We worship you for that. 323 00:37:31,080 --> 00:37:35,400 We ask that in these next few days as we take time to recognize 324 00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:41,240 the coming of Jesus and remember that, that we would give him the honor that he is due, 325 00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:47,320 that we would worship him with all of who we are. We declare that you are worthy of this and we pray 326 00:37:47,320 --> 00:38:04,440 this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for tuning into the ECB Sermon Podcast. Whether near or far, 327 00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:11,080 if you are looking for community or are in need of prayer, we welcome you to engage by sending us 328 00:38:11,080 --> 00:38:19,720 an email to office at ECB.asia. If God is calling you to support our ministries, you will find giving 329 00:38:19,720 --> 00:38:41,720 options on our website. And remember to join us next week. God bless you.