Good Friday morning to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
PROOF! Are you someone who needs proof… profound, convincing evidence that something hard to believe is true? Our world is filled with outrageous claims made by a wide variety of people: magicians using sleight of hand; politicians claiming achievements that the people doubt; activists making outlandish predictions; sometimes even scientists, medical experts or economists all claiming things that are hard to believe.
Did you know God has been dealing with a skeptical human race from the beginning? Are you a spiritual skep, my friend? Have you ever asked God to prove Himself to you? These days I’m leading you on a 30-day journey toward Christmas and we’re looking at events or statements recorded for us in the Old Testament which point forward to Jesus and what Christmas is all about.
Yesterday we looked at Moses and his encounter with God at the burning bush on Mount Horeb. Today, let’s go forward a few weeks to the period of time when God was pouring out the plagues on Egypt as proof of His supreme power. Moses faced a big problem when he left that burning bush and returned to Egypt to tell both Israelites and Egyptians that he had met with God and that God had given him a very specific message regarding God’s deliverance plan for the Hebrew slaves. Do you know what the problem was? DISBELIEF! Today let’s consider what God did to prove Himself to be the Supreme God to the Pharaoh, the Egyptians, the Israelites and others. Also, do you know people doubted almost everything about that first Christmas? And guess what… as time has passed that skepticism about the claims of Christmas has only increased, hasn’t it?
Exodus 6:6-8 is a very clear, detailed, outrageously exciting message filled with God promises, which Moses delivered to the Hebrew slaves regarding God’s plan to rescue them out of their slavery and bring them into His land. But look at the response of these weary, discouraged slaves in Exodus 6:9: “Moses reported all this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to Moses because of their discouragement and harsh labor.” It had been even worse when Moses went to Pharaoh with the news that God wanted His people released, for Pharaoh had angrily said: “Who is the LORD that I should obey Him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go!” (Ex. 5:2) But God was not deterred, and He said to Moses: “I am the LORD. Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt everything I tell you.” (Ex. 6:28) That simple statement has been God’s command to every prophet since the beginning of time. And then God promised this: “…I will lay My hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out My people the Israelites. And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out My hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out.” (Ex. 7:4,5) Please notice something very important here: Do you see that while God had a very specific, miraculous plan to free the Hebrew slaves, God’s even bigger strategic plan was that all the people of the most powerful nation on earth… Egypt, would know that the God who delivered the Hebrew slaves IS the one, true, living, all powerful God! And would you agree that this is the great, overarching message of Christmas? That the God who sent Jesus to Bethlehem is the one, true, living, Almighty God who wants all people of every nation in the world to know HIM? That’s why the angels announcing Jesus’ birth said, “Glory to God in the highest”, and that’s why the angel explained to both Mary and Joseph that this miracle child was to be named Jesus because He would be the God sent Savior of the world!
I’m sure you would agree one of the great traditions of Christmas is generational stories. Grandparents telling their grandchildren great Christmas stories of decades past. Was that your experience as a child, my friend? That’s the powerful truth of Psalm 78:1-7, isn’t it? Did you know that was one of God’s objectives with Moses and the deliverance of the Hebrew slaves also? Exodus 10:2 tells us God said “…I will perform these powerful signs of Mine so that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them that you may know that I am the LORD.” Do you see it was God’s objective that these miracle plagues would be PROOF for His skeptical people the Hebrews, that the LORD is the only true, Almighty God?
Finally, do you remember there was one other specific group of skeptics whom God wanted to convince when He sent Moses to confront Pharaoh and his court and tell them that the God of the Hebrews was going to deliver His people from Egyptian bondage? It was Pharaoh’s sorcerers. In every generation, in every part of the world, there are those who would prefer turning to the attractive powers of the dark kingdom rather than turning to God. It may be known as the occult, or voodoo, or witchcraft, or demonism, or sorcery, or black magic, or New Age or many other names, but it’s all the same thing. Skeptical people reject Holy, Almighty God and turn instead to the dark kingdom. It was true in Egypt with the Pharaoh. He had sorcerers, remember?
Amazingly those sorcerers, using the power of the dark kingdom, were able to duplicate the first sign Moses and Aaron gave Pharaoh that they had been sent by God. Staff’s turning into snakes! But Aaron’s staff/snake attacked and ate the staff/snakes of the sorcerers. The sorcerers also duplicated the first two plagues God sent through Moses… turning the water of the Nile to blood, and the invasion of frogs, but while they magically duplicated both plagues, they could not reverse either plague nor prevent the terrible damage of the plagues. And then with the third plague and their inability to duplicate the gnats, the sorcerers made a bold proclamation to Pharaoh: This is the finger of God.” (Ex. 8:19) God had defeated the evil powers of Pharaoh’s sorcerers.
Do you remember how often Jesus was confronted by demonic forces or even Satan himself? Do you also remember in every one of those confrontations Jesus proved His supreme authority and power over the evil kingdom forces and each time the people who saw it or heard of it were amazed at the power of God. (Mark 1:23; 5:1-20)
So, my friends, I invite you to look around your part of the world as Christmas 2022 is now 23 days away.
Who are the major skeptics in your generation in your country?
Who doubts the truth of Mary’s miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit?
Who doubts God has the ability to give the priest Zechariah and Elizabeth a son in their very old age and call him John?
Who doubts God can use a bright star to guide wise scholars from a far eastern country all the way to Jerusalem and then Bethlehem and help them find a young Jesus and His mother Mary?
Who doubts angels announced to shepherds that a Savior had been born in Bethlehem and urged them to come quickly to find him still wrapped in cloths and lying in a stable manger?
Who doubts an angel warned Joseph to rouse his sleeping wife and child and lead them quickly out of Bethlehem, fleeing from Herod’s plan to kill the child and all young boys in Bethlehem?
Who doubts that child Jesus is no ordinary person, but is God in the flesh?
And what is God’s response to you and me and all of our generation who doubt the Christmas story?
If you notice, they probably also doubt the story of Moses and God’s deliverance of the Hebrew slaves through God’s power unleashed through the plagues!
Today, God invites you and me to answer one simple question: What will it take for you to trust God and HIS story of Christmas? Which of all the many miracles of the Christmas story do you need God’s help in believing? Is it easier for you to tell your grandchildren about Santa than about God’s Christmas story? Have you ever noticed the name Satan and the word Santa have exactly the same letters? Does that remind us that one of Satan’s most powerful tactics is leading us to replace God’s truthful miraculous events with fictitious stories that are sometimes fascinating, sometimes cute myths, but always lead us away from God’s truth. Is it possible Santa leads us, especially children, away from God’s real story of Christmas? Let’s ponder these powerful truths today with this song my friends:
Today’s Scripture is Luke 2:1-20.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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