The Hope of Christmas - Mighty God, Part 2

With everything that has happened this year, it's easy to lose perspective and look inward, focusing only on the here and the now. I'd like to suggest that we take the opportunity of this Christmas season to pause, to look up, to be reminded of the amazing hope for us right now and the amazing future God has promised ahead of us.

Don't go away. Thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge features the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram on this daily discipleship program. I'm Dave Druey, and we're in the middle of a series called The Hope of Christmas. In this program, Chip's picking it up where he left off, working his way through a series of impossible situations Jesus presented to his disciples and to you and me too, by the way, as we look for hope in our broken, hurting world. Now, if you missed part one of this message, maybe catch it later on the Chip Ingram app or online anytime at livingontheedge.org. Chip's in Mark chapter four. If you have a Bible, turn there now, and let's join him for part two of his message, Mighty God.

Scene number three. First, he's the Lord of the natural world. Second, he's the Lord of the spiritual world. Now, as you follow the text, he goes back over the Sea of Galilee to the other side, and when he gets there, there's a Jewish ruler named Jairus, and Jairus is desperate. At this time, Jesus' popularity has grown significantly. So if you were to say, as a Jew, I believe Jesus is the Messiah or I follow him, the religious leaders are going to kick you out of the synagogue because they're threatening the stability. But here's a ruler of a synagogue whose little girl is dying, and when he gets out of the boat, he comes, and literally it says he falls before him.

It's interesting. When Jesus speaks, the waves and the wind fall before him. The demon falls before him, and now the leader of the synagogue comes before him and says, my little girl's dying.

Will you please come help? And Jesus says yes, and so he's walking, but as he's walking toward the home where the little girl is dying, he's swarmed, and he stops. He goes, who touched me? And you know, Peter and James decided, what do you mean who touched me?

Man, there are hundreds of people around here. He said, no, no, I felt power or virtue go out of me. And then you can see a little clearing. Some people step back, and here this woman comes, and she's trembling, and she's at his feet, and she confesses it was me. And we learn she had an issue of blood, and for many, many years, the text will tell you exactly how many years. I mean, over a decade, she'd spent all her money trying to be cured, and now she's broke. She has no hope, but she'd heard about Jesus, and she'd heard him teach, and she thought, if I could just come and touch the edge of his robe, then I would be healed, and she does, and she is healed. And remember what he says to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. To the disciples, you still have no faith.

And so, as he was ready to go, some runners come from the house. Hey, it's too late. Little girl's dead.

And by the way, you know, it's not like on cell phones and stuff, so proximity is not very close. There's a good bit of time. She's dead. There's no use.

Don't bother the teacher. Can you imagine the look on that dad's face? I mean, his last hope was Jesus, and now she's gone. And Jesus turns to him and says, don't be afraid. Only believe.

There must be something to faith in believing and trusting that Jesus has power over nature, that he has power over the spiritual world, that he has power over the physical world in this bleeding woman. And so he goes, and by the time he gets there, I know it's a bit of time, because mourners have already showed up. And in the culture, they would come and sit on both sides, and they would wail when we mourn. This isn't like people going, oh, I'm so sorry, I'm so sad.

They even actually had professional mourners, and it was a sign of really concern for a family, and they would wail and mourn, and oh. And so Jesus comes, he goes, stop. And everyone's silent. The girl's not dead. She's just asleep. And they start laughing.

What? No, we've all seen she's dead. Mom, dad, Peter, John, James, you, all five, come with me. Everybody else, stay out here. He goes in there.

Little 12-year-old girl's laying there, dead. Little girl, I say to you, arise. He has authority over life and death. He's the almighty God. He has authority over eternity, over nature, over demons, over the physical life and health of people.

He's all powerful. Those disciples were experiencing the child that was born, but the son given by God has grown up, and he is a wonderful counselor in his teaching, and now he has verified he is the Lord and the all-powerful one over all aspects of life so they can trust him. And he takes those three leaders, and they get this experience and the Mount of Transfiguration, and those are the three he takes when he prays, because those three will lead the church for the movement that you're involved in that is spreading across the world like no other movement ever. And they will have to believe that he is all-powerful and all-wise to the point of giving their life, and all three of those do, except John, who gets exiled.

And that's the hope of Christmas. God doesn't want to just give you wisdom for your decisions. He doesn't want to just help you work through relationships and follow him. He doesn't want to just, you know, help you understand what to do with your finances or how to deal with a difficult employee or a boss or whether you should put your kids in this school or that school or what's your purpose for your life. He wants to be a wonderful counselor, but he says, look, I'm an almighty God. I want to powerfully, supernaturally intervene in your life.

I'm for you, and I love you. Your body language at this point says, I'd love to believe that, but that sounds like it's, you know, that was then. Can I tell you that same God is available and all-powerful today? I put a little summary for you, and the summary here is what God has done. Jesus is the mighty God, the Lord over the natural realm. He's the Lord over the spiritual realm. He's the Lord over the physical realm, the woman with the issue of blood, and he's the Lord over the eternal realm.

Now, here's what I want to do. That was then, right? I want to take just a moment and walk through in today each one of those. I could give you many illustrations on this, but the most dramatic one that I remember, it was shortly after, remember the tsunami that occurred in Asia, early 2000s? And at the time, I had the privilege of leading walk through the Bible, and I arrived in India six days after the tsunami.

It was chaos everywhere. We did ministry in Indonesia and India, and I still remember getting in the cab, and the guy with the big turban, and you know, he happened to be a Muslim, and he just asked me, who is your God? And I said, why? Because ours aren't working right now.

If you've got a good God that has more power, ours aren't working. And then we did a bunch of training, and then we had about 200 of our leaders from all over India and parts of Indonesia, and they came together for training, and we did some sharing time and some testimonies, and this isn't hearsay. This isn't what I heard from someone who said to someone who heard about something, something, like some crazy story. These are our guys. These are vetted.

These are our employees. These are people that would take our teaching all around the world, and we'd teach it multiple times, and then we... And so in testimony time, a guy from the bottom part near Sri Lanka said, we experience God's hand like I've never seen it. And they said, well, what happened? He said, well, I was at a village, and the church is near the village here, and we saw this huge wave in the distance, and we got in front of the village, and there was no hope.

We just prayed, and we asked God to spare us, and we watched a wall of water come and go around our village. It was just, he said, I was just... Now, that's one of those who are like, you know, your body language, doubting Thomas, right? If I've seen that, I believe it, right?

So the God that created the world could never violate what we would call the laws of physics for his glory and his purposes. Is that what you're saying? Of course he can. Does he do it very often? No, it wouldn't be miraculous if he did. And then if you're going to ask me, well, why didn't he do that for other villages?

I don't know. When you get your universe, you get to make the rules, but this is his. And he has purposes, and he has knowledge. And I don't understand, but I will tell you this, is that God on occasion will supernaturally... He can change weather. He can change anything.

He's God. The second is spiritually. The world is up for grabs. And evil and good are fighting one another like never before in dramatic ways, correct? For some of us, if you live in the American cocoon, you think, wow, Christianity is dying in America. We've got these radical people blowing up things. All the world is turning to Islam. That's sort of the American perspective.

Let me read an article, I mean, not the whole article, obviously, but let me read a portion of a Washington Post interesting piece. It says, think Christianity is dying? No, Christianity is shifting dramatically. While Christianity may be on the decline in the United States, the world is becoming more religious, not less.

While rising numbers of nuns, those who claim no religious affiliation, claim the attention of today's pundits, the world tells a different story. Religious convictions are growing and shifting geographically in several dramatic ways. Today, the Christian community in Latin America and Africa alone account for one billion people. Asia is very similar. Asia has double the growth of Christians to the population base. There's an explosion, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. You have a picture here of God working in explosive ways all around.

Has this changed? America and Europe have nearly dropped out in terms of Christian growth. You are a part of the very tiny, small, negative growth in a movement that started by the almighty God that is going around the world like never before.

And using technology like never before. And getting it in language and tribes and tongues every year that people have never heard about Jesus like never before. He is the Lord of the spiritual world. He's the Lord of the physical world. You know, God will choose at times to supernaturally intervene in people's life and heal them physically.

Now, by and large, He uses doctors, He uses counselors, He uses medicine. But what's happened is over time, we get a little box and we think, oh, God can do these things, but unconsciously, you and I think, well, cause and effect, and I do this and this happens. And I would just ask you, do you believe that the God who is all powerful wants to and can intervene?

Here's what I want to ask you. Do you have a supernatural world view? I'm not saying God heals everyone. In fact, there's lots of bad teaching in the prosperity movement or if you just believe something hard enough that's all based on your faith. I can open the Bible and show you people that were healed that didn't have any faith and other people it's because of their faith. God doesn't heal everyone all the time. But I think in more conservative Bible-oriented churches like ours, what happens is we get a closed system as Francis Schaeffer would say.

And you just, you think it's cause and effect and, you know, every problem is a doctor can do this or a medicine can do this. And you don't really believe that God wants to or would intervene in supernatural ways. As one guy said, when God shows up, he shows off. He wants to get glory. He wants to make his name great.

And that's behind why he does certain things at different times. But for some, we never ask, nor do we expect. A lady in the last service came up and she had cancer, breast cancer 14 years ago and they just found out three months ago that she has it again. And they gave her treatment options and she goes, well, just let me pray. And she said, I felt like God was telling me in this case, pray and ask me before you go through. And she was in her probably mid to late 70s. I think she felt like the really very difficult treatment. And she just said, I came up to tell you, I just had my mammogram.

There's no cancer anywhere. So, God answers. But, you know, there's something very interesting about each of these stories. Those fishermen were desperate, but they knew it. That father was desperate and he knew it. That woman was desperate. You know when you pray for supernatural intervention?

If you're a parent, when one of your kids is in ICU and the doctors say what? We don't give you any hope. Or a friend.

Daniel sent me an email December 1st. It says, prayer changes things. When Lisa and I served overseas, our colleague Maria partnered in Kazakhstan with a new believer named Aida. When Aida's brother died unexpectedly, she implored the family not to bury him immediately per Islamic tradition. She prayed and fasted for three days.

And on the third day, her brother sat up in the hospital morgue and asked for a glass of juice. That's the power of prayer. It changes things. He gives another example and then there's two pictures of the people.

I love his last line. These aren't urban legends culled from the internet. Here's a picture of Aida and Maria and John in the lower hand corner. See, God wants to intervene and the hope that you have for every area of your life is there is wisdom available. But there's power available. And I would challenge you on this day to not unconsciously think, you do this, then God will do that, and you need to do A, B, C, C. We're not saying at all that you shouldn't use all the wisdom, doctors, and all those things. But if you ask God to, I mean, I believe in counseling, I've been it, but if you ask God to intervene supernaturally in your marriage, have you asked God to intervene in a wayward child? Have you asked God to intervene in a health issue? Have you asked God to intervene and do something dramatic in your boss's heart? Have you asked God to, you know, the God who created all this, you know, these people that you care about that they always say no, they never want to come to Christmas this or Christmas that. Have you asked God, I want to touch the hem of your garment.

I believe I'm stepping out. I'm not telling you that God is going to do something supernatural in ways beyond what you've never seen for everyone. But I am telling you that if you don't ask and believe in that way, He never will. And I want you to lean back because what we've said is that in the days of Christ on the earth, He was the Lord over what?

Nature, the spiritual world, the physical world, and the eternal world. I've given you examples of how He is that today. And I want you to lean back because I want to close our time with a reminder that that was the past, this is today, but there is another day coming where God and the person of the Lord Jesus will demonstrate that He is almighty. Revelation chapter 19 gives us the close of human history. I'd like you to lean back.

This is not a note taking time. I want you to try and picture in your mind as I read. This is the God who came to earth, who is the child who grew up to be fully God and fully man, and who is the wonderful counselor, and who is almighty, who was almighty and will be. And if you're a follower of Jesus, His spirit dwells inside of you.

Lean back as I read. Then I heard and then saw heaven open, and behold, there was a white horse. The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. He's clothed in robe that is dipped in blood, and the name that he is called by is the Word of God.

And on his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it, and from his presence the earth and the sky fled away, and there was no place found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened. And then another book was opened, which is the Book of Life, and the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. And then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name is not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. And then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw a holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be their God. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more.

Neither shall there be any mourning or crying or pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. And then he said to me, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.

And he said to me, It is done. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. And Jesus is introduced in the very first chapter as the alpha and the omega. The spirit of the living God who is the creator that has all power.

Past, present, and future dwells in you and wants to help you. You've been listening to Chip's message, Mighty God, from one of his newest 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, we've been talking a lot about our year-end match. You know, we've shared some great testimonies, and that's been a lot of fun, but let me just ask you straight up, because people want to know, what are you going to use this December match money for? I mean, we say it's a huge part of the ministry's income for the year.

What does it actually go for? Dave, I think that's a great question. Number one, what you're listening to right now is either a podcast, an app, or a radio broadcast, and that's going to go out to well over a million people this week. What you may not know is that I do a monthly broadcast currently for pastors all over the globe, and we're helping train pastors in America, that we have a focus to reach the next generation and that we're creating resources for some of those very difficult issues with gender, sexuality, identity issues. We create small groups to get people in groups, whether it's a family or two or three men or three or four women or whole Sunday school classes. We are teaching the multitudes. We are equipping small groups, and then we have very specialized ministries where we're helping business leaders and key leaders disciple and make an impact in their sphere of influence. And so Living on Edge is a media and discipleship ministry that is committed to helping Christians live like Christians. In fact, we're training people to transform their world, not the world, their world. And so that's what we're spending the money on, to create those resources, to do the training, to put it on satellites, to put it on video, to put it on podcasts, to write books, to do whatever we need to do to get God's Word in the hands and then into the hearts of God's people who in turn will live out their faith at home, at church, their neighborhood, and their community so that people love God with all their heart and take the Word of God to all the world. If that excites you, then this is the time to give to Living on the Edge.

Great answer. That really covers the scope of everything Living on the Edge does year after year. We just keep building on the previous year's progress So first I want to say thanks to our ministry partners who've helped us get where we are today. We couldn't do what we do without the prayers and financial commitments of listeners like you. And if you'd like to join the team and get in on what's happening, just go to livingontheedge.org, tap donate on the app, or give us a call at 888-333-6003.

That's 888-333-6003. And thanks in advance for your generosity. Well, Chip, in your message today, you talked about four specific realms that Jesus has command over.

Would you do a quick review of those for us? Absolutely, Dave. This is what I want people to get, the natural realm. He speaks to the wind, to the waters, and they obey Him. The spiritual realm, demonic forces, demons, principalities, powers, they are all under His command. The physical realm, we see that He speaks or touches a little girl or raises someone from the dead.

And finally, the eternal realm. He is the sovereign God over all things. Now, the Scripture is very, very clear and the eyewitnesses are overwhelming that this is the Jesus that came who grew up in Nazareth, who had normal parents, who started a movement with a small little group of people, who made outrageous claims about Himself, who fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies, who was crucified under Roman law, rose from the dead, and for 40 days walked upon the earth in a resurrected body with over 500 eyewitnesses. We now live in a day 2,000 plus years later where the prophecies, the words, the mission of Jesus are literally rolling through history to its final destination, which you heard me read in the book of Revelation. You can either look at circumstances, you can look at what other people were saying, or you can push all the way to the end and realize Jesus Christ is the mighty God, the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, and there is an end to His story. We call it history, but it's His story, and He will make all things right, and He is coming again. My question is, are you ready? And He is coming again to make what has been wrong right.

He will bring justice for everyone. He's going to establish a new heaven and a new earth, and what He wants you to know is He doesn't want you to miss it, and He doesn't want you to miss your role in it. As you think about hope, as you think about what really matters, can I ask you to lift your eyes and your heart beyond your circumstances or a relationship or economics or political issues or world situations and realize you have a hope that can't change if you are connected to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, if you're His son or His daughter. Could I encourage you, application, to open your Bible, I mean today, and if you have any means at all to do it in the next 10 minutes and read Revelation chapter 22, I want you to let it sink in the reality and the hope that you have, and then let's you and me live out of that hope and love people, the ones that are easy to love and the ones that are hard to love and be like Jesus in our world. Go for it. And let me thank you in advance for your support. Well, that wraps us up for this program. For Chip and everyone here, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.