The Hope of Christmas - Mighty God, Part 1

Let's just say it. Christmas is going to be different this year. We're almost 12 months into a global pandemic. We have issues and situations in the economy, in our country, in political parties, and in families like never before.

I don't know what you were expecting Christmas to be like, but it might be different. How do you handle that? Stay with me. We'll learn today on Living on the Edge.

Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip's our Bible teacher on this international discipleship program, and I'm Dave Drewy. We're in a series called The Hope of Christmas, celebrating the birth of Jesus and the amazing historical event that it was. The angels certainly did, remember? Thousands and thousands of it, declaring hope for all of us. But you know, what heaven knew and what people were expecting of their Messiah were worlds apart. And expectations that aren't met cause all kinds of problems, don't they? Well, in this program, Chip helps us shift our perspective from the baby in the manger to the mighty God Jesus proved himself to be, because we all need hope. And right about now, some of us need it more than ever.

Open your Bible, if you will, to Mark chapter four, and let's join Chip now for part one of his message, Mighty God. What do you expect this Christmas? I mean, good or bad, kind of consciously or unconsciously, as your mind travels through, okay, I get shopping done, do this, Christmas Eve, Christmas day, a day or two before, a day or two after. Just what do you expect it's going to be like? And for some, it might be, oh man, I expect it to be great, it's going to be warm, and you're going to get family coming in, or whole family's going to be together, or you know, some of the kids are coming back from school, or you know, all of our families are different parts of the country, my three roommates, we're going to go do this, it's going to be great. And for others, you're going to go travel somewhere, and be reconnected, and your expectations are like, Christmas is going to be wonderful, and warm, and rich, and deep, and for others, your expectations are a little different.

You basically, it's not that you're being negative, you're just realistic. You're thinking, this is not going to be good. This is the first Christmas that I've been single since the divorce. This is the first Christmas since maybe one of my parents, or my brother, one of my kids died.

This, for many, is a Christmas like, it's just chaos. You're going to have to go to your in-laws, and you know, the one guy who always wants to talk politics, or religion, and you've got a brother-in-law who's a jerk, and you're just praying, here's my expectation, God, give me enough grace just to be nice for two and a half days. And for others, it's just a really depressing time, you're thinking, I don't know what I'm going to do.

Now, I want you to get thinking about what your expectations are, because here's the principle, you might even write it on the notes I put there. What you consciously or unconsciously expect to happen, even how you think God will work or might work, can blind you to God actually working in a way that's different than you expect. See, if you have this expectation like, oh, it's going to be great, it's going to be this, it's going to be that, and there's some struggles or difficulties or pain, God, where are you? Or the flip side, you know, I just want to endure, he always has a bad attitude, God couldn't be at work, what if, if your antenna was up, this is a breakthrough Christmas, what if God's going to intervene in some ways and use you?

See, what you expect consciously or unconsciously can blind you to the very thing God might want to do, and you know what, you'll miss it. I learned this the very hard way my very first Christmas with Theresa. We had just gotten married, got married in the middle of December, went on our honeymoon, it was cut short because of a family emergency, so we went back to see her dad's brother who's in critical condition. And then we had our little Christmas, and we didn't have any premarital counseling, and my expectations of marriage were somewhere between unrealistic and lunaticic. And you know, because of our various backgrounds, we had decided, you know, we're going to be sexually pure, we're going to do this God's way, and I had this formula that if you did it God's way, it's going to be awesome, and she was the sweetest, nicest, most wonderful person, I was head over heels, and so it's Christmas, this is going to be also awesome. And I'm not even going to tell you what the issue was, but the day after Christmas, we had our first argument, we didn't have any arguments dating, we didn't know what we were doing. And I remember having feelings inside of me toward this beautiful, sweet, lovely woman that I didn't think I could ever have, like she is so ticking me off, and then she actually said a couple things that I never dreamed would come out of that sweet, wonderful mouth to make me feel like this. And I remember walking out the door and getting in my car and driving around for about an hour thinking, have I missed it, is this the wrong person, you know? And instead God was doing a breakthrough, and he wanted to crush some of those unrealistic, crazy expectations and started us on a journey of you need to learn to communicate, you both have a lot of baggage, you'll need to resolve some anger, you know, you just have to, and I would have completely missed if my little hallmark Christmas wouldn't have got interrupted by God.

You say, well what's this got to do with the hope of Christmas? At the time that Jesus was born, I want to give you a background of Judaism. If you are a Jew living in the Roman Empire, you are deeply oppressed. It's very, economically it's over the top. One of the Herod's that was put in place over the Judean area wanted to make a lot of points with Rome, so he had all these building programs he was doing and naming them after Caesar, so the taxes are off the chart. You're living under oppression.

The political situation is dismal. The religious leaders are carnal. So you've got economic pressure, a Roman soldier at any time could tell you, here, pick up my bag, go for me.

The tax collectors were Jews that weren't faithful, and they would double charge you. I mean, life was difficult and painful, and there was like this big thumb of Roman oppression, and what you were praying was, God deliver us. And unlike us, when we see the little Christmas card, right, it's blue, dark blue, and has sort of the sparkly little things, and it's a picture of a manger, and you can see Joseph and Mary, and there's a little sheep and everything. And then underneath, in beautiful handwriting, it says, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will rest on his shoulders and his name will be called. Wonderful counselor, mighty God, eternal Father, the Prince of Peace. See, unlike us, when they knew 700 years earlier when Isaiah said that, their hope was God was going to send a wonderful counselor and a mighty God. That word mighty God is used in Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse 17, for Yahweh, for God. They were expecting the Messiah to come, who would be a mighty God. Do you know what the word mighty God means in Hebrew?

Deliverer, rescuer, irresistible champion, the all powerful one, the warrior who goes and defeats the enemies for you. So if you're a Jew growing up in Jesus' day, and you're waiting for the Messiah, you're expecting like someone pretty close to like Superman with a cape, cleaning things up, putting Rome down, and then what's the rest of that say? And he will rule on the throne of David. And so you've got this picture, the Messiah's going to come, and he's going to take down our enemies.

We're oppressed, it's unfair. And not only that, he's going to set it up like David's kingdom. Remember when David was in charge and we were the world power, then Solomon, and people came from the ends of the earth? Their picture is this mighty God is going to take care of all of our problems. Now so Jesus shows up, and now is he a wonderful counselor?

Even the religious leaders said they were astonished with authority. But they're waiting for a mighty God and he doesn't fit the bill. Because see what they wanted was a political and physical deliverance.

Make my life work today. Jesus came to bring a spiritual and eternal deliverance. He wanted to make everybody's life work forever. I want you to open your Bibles to Mark chapter 4 because one of the biggest challenges I believe in Jesus' ministry, especially for the disciples.

I want you to think about you are one of the 12. You're following him around, you're learning, but you're a good Jewish boy or girl and your picture and your expectations of the Messiah are what everyone else's are. It's what you've heard since you've been a little child. And now you're following this itinerant preacher and he's amazing and he does amazing things and they're miracles that are undeniable, but could he in fact be the Messiah? Is he the mighty God? As you open to Mark chapter 4, I'd ask you to look at where it opens up and it says again he began to teach by the sea. And this is the most pivotal parable of all Jesus' teaching. He does lots of teaching, but when he gets done with this parable, he says something unique. He says if you can't understand this parable, if you don't, you can't understand any of the others. He says his mother and his brothers, his ministry has come and his mothers and brothers had just come and they're standing outside and they want to see him.

And he uses this as a moment to educate people about his purpose. He says who are my mother and my brothers? And then he looks down at a group of disciples and he says whoever does the will of God, these are my mother and my brothers.

So Jesus was saying more than fleshly relationship, people's response to him and they who do the will of God that raised the question, so how would you know the will of God? And so as you look at chapter 4 and it opens up, this parable is one where he calls himself the son of man, it's a messianic title. And it says the son of man comes and he gives this parable of the seed falling on four different types of soils.

Hard soil, shallow soil, thorny soil and good soil. And then privately he says to the disciples, say what's that mean? Because he says to them, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. He says to the disciples, don't you understand?

If you don't understand this one, you won't understand anything. The seed is the word of God. The sower is the son of man, the messiah. When the seed of the truth of God's word goes to a human heart that is hard, the enemy takes it away. Sometimes it's sown in a human heart the word of God and they sprout up and they respond to God initially but when there's persecution or the cost goes up, they fade away. Other people respond deeply to God and they begin to grow and they begin to flourish and then the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and just the cares of other things, it begins to choke out the truth of God's word. But he says there are those, and he's speaking to them, who have a good and honest heart and they receive God's word, me as the messiah as he connects himself with the Torah and the word of God.

And he says their life will multiply 30, 60, 100 fold. And he says this is what the kingdom of God is like. And then as you look and notice he gets three quick parables where what he's doing is he's describing the kingdom of God that he's ushering in and he connects himself with the Torah and Moses.

John would even say in the beginning was the word and the word was God and the word was with God and he speaks and Jesus is the word. And so now he says to them, the kingdom of God, notice the first one, it's like lighting a lamp in a room, you don't put a basket over it. But the kingdom of God, God's word comes into the world to illuminate, make things clear. Its purpose is to be shared.

And what does light do? It reveals darkness and it reveals truth. In this parable it says the kingdom of God is not something that's just immediate, he says it's like a mysterious seed. The seed's planted then the stalk comes up and then the leaves and then the fruit. And he says and it grows in and of it by itself. And no one understands exactly how spiritual growth occurs. But the power of God's word in a human heart brings transformation over time. And then the third little parable he says now the last one is like a mustard seed which is the smallest seed. And he says the kingdom of God grows and it starts very small, people respond to the truth, then they respond to the truth.

And then it has exponential growth where over time it creates impact that is just super structured where that little seed becomes a tree and provides shelter for others. So they've got now, okay man your teaching is awesome. I believe you're the wisdom of God, I believe you are now connecting yourself with the Torah, the Logos, the word of God, all that Moses said. Here's the question, can you trust him? Is this really the Messiah? So what I want to do is I want to take you on a little journey. I want you to keep your Bibles open because I'm going to walk through the story. But what he's going to do, he has been in the lecture hall. Now he's going to take them on a field trip and he's going to take them into four specific impossible situations.

They're very specific and they're not hard and they're not difficult, they're impossible. And what he's going to demonstrate is the almighty power of God that he has over every situation. And notice the author wants to be very clear that this connects to what he's just taught. So notice if you will, verse 33, with many such parables he spoke to them.

He didn't speak to them without a parable but privately to his own disciples he explained everything. Look at the next line, on that day when evening had come he said to them, let's go over to the other side. And leaving the crowd they took with them the boat just as he was and other boats were with them. And a great wind arose and the waves were breaking onto the boat so that the boat was already filling.

But he was in the stern asleep on a cushion. And they woke him and said to him, teacher do you not care that we're perishing? And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace be still. Instantly the wind ceased, there was calm from this roaring ocean to glass. And then he said to them, why are you afraid?

Have you still no faith? And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, who then is this? Even the wind obey him. Now they're professional fishermen, they've been in lots of storms, they know what to do in a storm.

This is the kind that they realize we're done, it's impossible, don't you care. And what's he do? He has power over the natural realm. And how does he express his power? He speaks.

What's he been teaching about for the last whole chapter and before? My word, my word, my word, my word, my word. When the Old Testament talks about how did God create the world? In the beginning, God said, let there be light. He spoke the world into existence. Jesus is connecting himself and now he speaks, waves and wind and nature obey him because he has authority over them because he created them.

He's God. Scene number one is a drowning fisherman who on behalf of other fishermen in desperation cry out. And notice what happens.

Aha, who is this? And they're afraid, in reverential fear they ought to be. Can you imagine being in that boat? Scene number two, the boat lands. Chapter five opens up. It's a very rocky area. The history behind it is there's actually a demonized maniac.

This person, you can glance and read it very quickly if you want to. Jesus comes there and this man is naked and runs around naked and he has supernatural strength. As you read very carefully, it'll say no one or nothing could bind him. They would put chains on him and he would break him. They tried to stop him.

No one could break him. This was a wild-eyed, demon-possessed man who had a legion of demons in him. Apparently as you read the story that Jesus had spoken to him and he comes out and he says, do not torment me, son of the most high God. Interestingly, the only person in all four of the impossible situations who know who he is for sure are the demons.

And then the man comes. The demons plead. Don't send us to the abyss, the place of nothingness. They beg, send us into that herd of pigs.

There's 2,000 pigs. And I think he gives them permission because he wants the disciples to see verifiable proof. It's something to say demons go away and you go, well, did that really happen or not?

So he says, yes, I give you permission. The demons go into these 2,000 pigs and they run off a cliff smashing into the ocean. There's a little Greek play on words.

The word there for the bottom of the ocean is like the abyss. And so Jesus demonstrates he has power over the spiritual world. You are living in a world, I'm living in a world where there's good and there's evil.

You get that today like never before. The author of evil is Satan himself. A third of the angels in a coup were taken and there's this powerful angelic being seeking to destroy mankind. And Jesus says, I have power over them. When the people came from the town, they were so terrified by what they heard and saw, they asked him to leave. And as he was getting ready to get in the boat, the person who was cured, he was clothed, sitting in his right mind, completely transformed.

He said, I want to go with you. Jesus said, no, go tell, he's a Gentile, go tell your family what God has done for you. And he goes to these 10 cities and he begins to tell them, I met a man who spoke and the demons came out of me. The Messiah has come. Chip will be back with his application, but just a quick reminder, you're listening to part one of his message, Mighty God, from his series, The Hope of Christmas. 700 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah wrote to God's people to give him hope. Chip used a little bit of that text for this series because the hope Isaiah wrote about is for us too.

Here's what he said, for those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine, and they will rejoice, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, the government will be upon his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Now that's hope that'll keep you going. This Christmas season, God wants you to know he has a plan, and it's a good one. You know, this would be a great series to listen to every now and then. With the Chip Ingram app, it's always handy. If you like CDs, take advantage of the current discounts online at livingontheedge.org.

And remember, the MP3s are always free. Well, Chip, before you come back with some final thoughts, you know we're living in a day where evil's being called good and good's being called evil. What are we at Living on the Edge doing to battle the radical shift values in America and around the world? Well, Dave, we are living in a day where things that we would all call evil are being called good.

The values in America have been flipped upside down. And whether that's in sexual morality, whether that's in the life of an unborn child, or whether that's in things like, what's it mean to be married? We at Living on the Edge take a strong stand to teach what the Bible says, not in a harsh way, not in a way that puts people down, but in a way that gives life.

You see, God designed life to work in a certain way. He has a design for marriage, for sexuality, for family. And what we've done in the last year is create very specific courses and teachings that help God's people first practice that and then communicate that in a winsome way to a world that is very, very confused. The world is not the enemy. Jesus didn't come to condemn the world.

He came to save the world. But we, as God's children, have to model what that looks like. And we at Living on the Edge are creating resources in this coming year that's going to address the most controversial and difficult issues of our day. When you give to Living on the Edge, you're taking a stand for biblical morality, for marriage, and helping our young people understand what biblical sexuality is all about. We long to help God's people grow and then, in a winsome and loving way, share that love with the people around them. Will you please help us? Dave, why don't you tell them what their gift will mean this month?

Well, it'd be huge, because when you give to Living on the Edge, you become part of an amazing team of believers who are committed to sharing the truth of God's Word. And we're going to keep doing that as long as we're able. If you'd like to help us do that, December is the perfect time, because every gift we receive will be doubled dollar for dollar. To send a donation, just go to livingontheedge.org, tap donate on the app, or give us a call at 888-333-6003.

That's 888-333-6003. Your generosity is much appreciated. As we wrap up today's message, I can't help but imagine that some of you are thinking, Hey, Chip, it's Christmas, man.

Could you lighten up just a little bit? I mean, stories about demonic influence and Jesus casting out demons. Well, let me remind you that Jesus came for a reason. He came as a little baby to demonstrate dependence, to relate to every single person in our time of need. But he also came to defeat those demons. He came to free his people from darkness and oppression. A baby foretells hope, but a mighty God demonstrates hope. Here's your hope right now. I want you to get the little baby out of the major and understand not only did he grow up, not only was he fully man, but fully God, but he died, he defeated sin, he defeated death, he defeated Satan.

And here's the issue. He's your hope in your time of need. Do you believe he has that power? Do you believe he came to rescue you? Do you believe he's good? Do you believe he has a plan for your life that's better than any plan that you could have for yourself? It's been a difficult year, right?

I mean, for all of us in many, many different ways. He is a mighty God. Believe his promises.

Lean in. Let him rescue you. In fact, if you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you learned today that he has the power over the spiritual world, the physical world, the demonic world, and life and death itself. Could I encourage you at this moment, pause, ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins, ask him to come into your life and be your Savior. He is a mighty God who will give you all you need to face everything you're going through. Just right now in your own words, Lord Jesus, come into my life.

Forgive me. I believe you died for my sins and rose from the grave. Right now I ask you, be my Lord and be my Savior.

And if you did that right now, go online. We have some resources to help you on your journey and experience the mighty power of God that will help you face whatever you go through beginning today. If you prayed with Chip, I hope you'll take a minute and call us at 888-333-6003.

We'd love to talk with you and get a free resource into your hands that will help you understand what you just did and where to go from here. If you'd rather, go to the New Believers tab on our website, livingontheedge.org, or tap Special Offers on the app where you'll find that same resource. We just want to help you get started on your new journey of faith. Well, next time Chip continues his series, The Hope of Christmas. So I hope you'll join us. Until then, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.