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After the Angels Sang

Wisdom for the Heart / Dr. Stephen Davey
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December 26, 2024 12:00 am

After the Angels Sang

Wisdom for the Heart / Dr. Stephen Davey

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December 26, 2024 12:00 am

What happened to Joseph, Mary, and Jesus after that night in the manger? How did their journey unfold after the shepherds left and the angels returned to heaven? Most Christmas stories end in Bethlehem, but today, Stephen Davey explores what came next. From Jesus' circumcision to His dedication at the Temple, Stephen reveals the remarkable moments of faith and obedience that defined Jesus' earliest days. You’ll discover how, even as a baby, Jesus was fully identified with the people of Israel, marking the beginning of His fulfillment of the Law and God's promises to Abraham.

Stephen also sheds light on the often-overlooked sacrifices made by Mary and Joseph. Despite scandal, rumors, and economic hardship, they chose obedience to God's commands at every turn. Their journey included paying the redemption tax at the Temple—a powerful irony given that the baby they presented was Himself the Redeemer of the world. This episode will open your eyes to the deeper, richer aspects of Jesus' story, reminding you that His mission started long before His ministry years. Join us to hear the inspiring faith of His earthly parents and how Jesus' earliest days set the tone for the greatest story ever told.

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Every sacrifice, every activity, every instrument there in the temple, all of it, you go beyond that veil that separated everyone from the holy of holies. And in there, the mercy seat upon which the blood of that innocent animal would be sprinkled, all of that Jesus pictures. It prophesies of him. It points to him. It looks for him. It longs for him. And guess what?

Here he is. What happened after the shepherds left that first Christmas night? After the angels sang their praises, what became of Mary, Joseph, and the newborn Jesus? For most, the story ends when the shepherds returned home.

But that's just the beginning. Today, Stephen takes you beyond the manger to see what Mary and Joseph did next. It's a story of courage, faith, and deep obedience. You'll hear about Jesus' circumcision, the dedication at the temple, and the poignant, yet overlooked portraits of identification and redemption. This message is called After the Angels Sang. If you were to ask the average person on the street today what happened to Mary and Joseph and the baby after the shepherds left and that manger scene in Bethlehem cleared out, most people I think would probably scratch their heads and say, you know, I don't know. I don't know what happened next. That's because the normal Christmas play ends somewhere around verse 20 of Luke chapter 2, which tells us that the shepherds left the stable praising God and glorifying him for all that they had seen and heard.

And right about there it ends. You throw in a few wise men, some camels if you can afford them, and that ends the Christmas program. Part of the challenge for us is the Bible really doesn't tell us a lot about his birth. In fact, it doesn't record much at all between his birth and his ministry, which begins some 30 years later. I think that's probably a good thing because we have a tendency as human beings to turn what we do know into mysticism and mythology and misunderstanding and misinterpretation. And then you throw in some relics and pilgrimages and we have trouble on our hands. Evidently, the Lord knows the human race pretty well. So for the most part, the record of Scripture is silent when it comes to these early years of Jesus.

Unfortunately, that didn't keep people from guessing. In fact, the church in the second, third, and fourth century wasn't all that helpful. You had these false gospels and apocryphal works created to sort of create this legendary Jesus which hurt him and his reputation really more than it helped him.

Spurious works with names like the Gospel of Judas, I don't know who would ever want to buy that one, but the Gospel of Judas and the Gospel of Thomas among others are very popular and you'll hear about them even today. I'll give you a couple of illustrations out of the Gospel of Thomas. One legend revolves around the time when Jesus was a little boy around four or five years of age and he's making little birds out of mud. The trouble is he's playing outside making that, working away at those little birds on the Sabbath day, which then was tantamount to violating the Sabbath. Some of the kids decided to go tell on him and when Joseph appeared, right before he appeared, Jesus breathed on those mud birds and they took life and flew away. That got Jesus out of a spanking and that was a good thing, I suppose. The only trouble is it makes him a deceiver, doesn't it?

Those writings don't add much to what we know of him. In fact, another from the Gospel of Thomas tells about how a little boy in the village threw a rock at Jesus when he was a little boy and he hit him on the shoulder and hurt him. And he turned around and said a few words to the little boy and the little boy fell down dead. The Gospel of Thomas also records an incident when Jesus, as a little boy, was making muddy water in these puddles, miraculously clean water to drink and he was kind of showing off to the neighborhood gang. And about that time a little boy shows up, the bully of the neighborhood, and stomps on his puddles, messes it all up, splatters Jesus and that disturbs the Lord.

And so he says a few words to that boy and that boy falls down dead as well. Now if I were Jesus, I think that would come in handy, frankly, when I was growing up. Everybody has a bully that you'd like to just sort of maybe say a word or two and they'd disappear, right? I can remember growing up as a kid, I was about 10 years old and can still remember being outside with a 10-year-old friend of mine and we had a bully in the neighborhood. You risked your life to drive by or ride your bicycle or walk by it, but he was out on the street and I thought this was too good of an opportunity to pass up. So I pedaled my bicycle as furiously as I could and as I rode by him I called that bully every name I could think of. This was before I was called into the ministry, in case you're wondering.

Well the problem is I took a sharp left turn only to realize I had turned into a cul-de-sac. I was not a bright sinner and he caught up with me and knocked him off my bike and I felt called to the ministry after that, by the way, and lived to tell the tale. I mean that kind of power would be something we'd make up, that would be kind of cool.

You could solve your problems and make bullies disappear with just the right words. Surely Jesus did that. Well what's interesting is that he never took advantage of his power all the way to the point when he is bullied and tortured and eventually hangs on a cross to die.

He never once used his power to make his life more comfortable and certainly we'd have no reason to believe he did it when he was a little boy. In fact what we do know of the record of scripture according to Hebrews 9.14 is that he never sinned, never once, not even once. The writer of Hebrews writes that he was without blemish, he was without stain. Though he had a human nature given to him by his mother, a divine nature given by the Spirit of God, he didn't have a fallen nature and that was critically important because Matthew 5 would tell us in verse 17 that he perfectly fulfilled every aspect of the law, never violated the law. We know that he will then qualify later as an older man as an unblemished, unstained, untainted lamb qualified to be sacrificed for the sins of all of us who are anything but unblemished and unstained. 1 John 2 and Hebrews 4.15.

So we need to make sure we stay with the scriptures when we try to figure out who Jesus was. What does the Bible say, does it say anything about anything happening after the manger scene nearly 2,000 years ago? Well the Bible isn't quite as silent as the average Christmas play might lead you to believe. It wasn't over after the shepherds left the manger scene and camels packed it all in.

Let me take you tonight very briefly with the time I've been allotted, let me take you to two scenes. And if you have an iPad or an iPod or whatever you use or maybe even a Bible, perish the thought of that. But if you've got a Bible, turn to Luke chapter 2 and I want to take you to verse 21. I want to take you to a scene in verse 21 and then in verse 22 that are often overlooked. Dr. Luke records this information, he tells us that when eight days were passed, that is eight days after the birth of Jesus, he was brought for his circumcision and before that or at that moment, you could understand it, his name was then called Jesus. The Jewish couple would wait until the circumcision of the infant on the eighth day and reveal his name.

His name was then called Jesus. I want to deal with this circumcision for a moment because it gives us a portrait of his identification with the nation. Eight days after his birth, every Jewish baby boy would be circumcised. That is, if the parents cared about the law of Moses and the Abrahamic Covenant. Circumcision brought the boy into the national life of the faithful Hebrew people. It identified him with the covenant promises that are going to involve everything from a future king to a future land to the broader aspects of it that we know will happen when Christ returns. If you go back to Genesis chapter 17, it was commanded there where God tells Abraham and let me just quote you what God says to him, this is my covenant which you shall keep between you and me and you and your descendants, this becomes the nation Israel, after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised, that's the sign of this covenant, and every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations. So the fact they come on the eighth day is that they care about every detail and nuance of that covenant. We're going to make sure our baby boy is included in the promises of God so every faithful Jewish family, and they're among them, would bring their baby boy on the eighth day for this ceremony.

A Jewish leader, could be a rabbi, or if they had money, it'd be a doctor, would perform a very simple surgery, of course, and this would be a simple yet very profound induction of that boy into his nation as a follower of the covenant promise, which is why Luke records that this took place. You have this solemn act of faith in the promises of God. You have none other than the Son of God then here piercing the air with his crying.

If you could enter that scene and see that, it would be significant to us because of all that we know. This marks the first moment of his suffering at the hands of humanity. These are his first tears shed as a result of human hands against him, as it were. His humiliation, his suffering begins early on. Frankly, for Mary and Joseph, this is not a pretty picture.

We put a little mascara on it, a little blush, and make it look pretty, but they're suffering too. They're dazed from the events of the last few months. They've been ostracized. They've no doubt come to the temple ceremony alone.

Two teenagers, maybe he's a little older, seems to be he is. They traveled to Bethlehem under a cloud of suspicion. She had become pregnant and is clearly so prior to their marriage. Life for them has become sort of this whirlwind. Everything's topsy-turvy. Their lives have been upended. This is going to be scandalous to their family.

This is going to be scandalous in the village. There will be no wedding ceremony. There will be no community celebration.

There's going to be no family festival where the village celebrated the chuppah that is the part of the Jewish union, where they celebrate the coming together of the bride and groom. Now this baby here has just sort of added an exclamation point to their guilt. They're never going to live it down.

The rumors are never going to go away. In fact, when Jesus Christ 30 years later makes the claim to be who he says he is and we know him to be, the Jewish leaders are going to dig up all the dirty little rumors that never went away, and they're going to say to Jesus the accusation, we, unlike you, were never born out of immorality. John chapter 8, verse 41. So you need to understand that following the will of God meant scandal and rumor and misunderstanding and loneliness and accusation and loss of friendship and reputation, and still here you have them eight days after showing up in the temple in complete, courageous obedience.

How about you? What does it take for you as a believer, if you know the Lord, to say, look, hey, if this is what the will of God means for my life, if it means suffering or loneliness or accusation or misunderstanding or being ostracized or accused, I'm not interested. If running the race of faith means this, then I'm going to sit this one out.

If doing the right thing causes me to be ostracized or accused or marginalized, if society doesn't embrace me because I obey God, well, I'm going to cut some corners, not Mary, not Joseph. So on the eighth day, not the seventh, not the ninth, here they show up and they bring forward their little baby boy, and when they do, I want you to understand this, they send a message. They send a message that no matter what happens to us, we are going to identify with the people of God and we are going to obey the word of God and we are going to follow the will of God. Powerful message.

Let me show you another portrait. Again, barely given any mention in the season and yet very significant in relation to the gospel. Verse 22 reads, it looks like they're all sandwiched together and it happens at the same time, and I'll show you how it doesn't happen just that way. But when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought them up to Jerusalem to present them to the Lord. Now if you go back and you read, and we won't today, but if you went back to Leviticus chapter 12, you would discover after the male child's circumcision, the mother was to wait 33 days. And after 33 days, bring them back, the husband would come along as well, and she would bring a lamb to atone for her uncleanness, having had the issue of blood that she experienced in childbirth. She would present the lamb to the priest in atonement, and then they would pay a redemption price. They were to present the child to the Lord, the first born male, for priestly service. If the child was a Levite, he would grow up then to turn around and serve as a priest. If he came from a different tribe, and Jesus did, he came from the tribe of Judah, that's not the priestly tribe, that's the royal tribe. The parents then would ceremonially redeem him from what we would think of as the draft, and they'd pay a price. They would redeem him from God, as it were, from temple service. Now in the last part of verse 22, Luke knows that a lot of people reading this aren't going to understand that part of the law, and so he sort of adds as a parenthesis, as it is written in the law of the Lord, every first born male that opens to the womb shall be called holy to the Lord.

Holy means separate. In other words, God has a special claim on the first born Jewish baby boy, he's holy, he's separated to priestly service unto God. If the child comes from the tribe of Levi, he'll go home, he'll grow up, he'll come back and serve in that theocracy or monarchy. The priest ran the government. They really were the senators, we would think of them that way, or the representatives. They were the leaders in the civil system, as much as Rome would allow them by the time of Jesus.

And so here's the draft, there are no exceptions, unless you were born from a different tribe. If you were, you paid this price to be redeemed back from priestly service. And we know from scripture, Numbers chapter 18, that payment was five shekels. Let me put it this way, that's about three days work. That's a lot of money.

Nearly a week's wage. Here they are then symbolically buying their son back from God. I can't help but think of course of the rich symbolism here, and I also believe that Mary and Joseph only understood a sliver of the irony of this ceremony of redemption. Here they are paying the redemption price to God for Jesus, when Jesus had come to pay the redemption price for his people. Joseph and Mary are redeeming the one from God, who has come to redeem a people for God. And don't miss the fact that Mary and Joseph are obeying the law, which only adds to their poverty, I mentioned nearly a week's wage.

How many of you have a week? Oh yeah, sure, we can hand that over. Five shekels came with some difficulty. They had already paid the census tax in Bethlehem. They had already paid for the journey there and back. Now they pay five shekels to redeem Jesus. The will of God was expensive. The will of God was tiring. The will of God was difficult. The will of God was uneasy. The will of God was lonely. The will of God cost them much. And again, how is it for you?

How's it going for you? Is the will of God costly? Is the will of God tiring?

Is the will of God lonely? You see, to them, cost was never the issue. Obedience was. In fact, if I could pull out of this text for a moment, what's easy to miss, Joseph and Mary, according to the law, were not required to come to Jerusalem. They could actually pay a local priest the five shekels and be done with it. But here, Luke tells us that they're traveling to Jerusalem. Verse 22, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. Again, we're not told exactly why they didn't pay the local priest, why they'd make it to Jerusalem.

It seems likely, even though we're not told, that they are redeeming him from priestly service, but they're still interested in making the most of this, not the least. They could have gone into hiding. Think of all that this meant to them. Think of the people that might have known about their story.

They're showing up. They're interested in making the most and presenting themselves to the Lord and beyond a few shepherds and some family members. No one else in that temple scene knew that Jesus was anything other than a baby boy. Baby boys and people are going to spot him and God's Spirit will anoint them with prophecy related to him.

But for the most part, they're going to slip in and slip out. But again, the irony here. Can you imagine Mary and Joseph are presenting God the Son to God the Father? They're presenting the Lord to the Lord. Back in the book of Leviticus, the law requires that when the mother brings the baby to the ceremony with her husband, she's to bring an unblemished lamb.

But if she doesn't have enough money for that and that would be another cost, they had another option and that would be two cheap birds, pigeons, or two turtle doves. Now Luke is the only Gospel writer to record this. I think it's fascinating because God used Dr. Luke, a medical doctor, he gives the most prenatal and the most postnatal information of all the Gospel writers. And he's the only one here in his Gospel account that mentions this when Mary arrives with Joseph to redeem the Lord. And he quotes from Leviticus, you'll notice there, but he skips the first part in Leviticus about the lamb and he only mentions the second part about the turtle doves and the pigeons. More than likely because that's what they brought. Their supplies are exhausted, their funds depleted, they have just enough for two cheap birds, just a few denarii, a few pennies.

But I couldn't help but think of the irony again of this precious portrait. Mary does not have money to buy a lamb to give this priest, but she is bringing the lamb of God. She couldn't afford to purchase an unblemished lamb to atone for her, but she has in her arms the unblemished lamb who will one day atone for her and all of us. I think of their faith as childlike and courageous. They have come to the temple to present their Savior to the sovereign. Lord, they come to dedicate God the Son to God the Father.

I find that fascinating. Imagine that they have brought in with them the Lord of the temple into the temple of the Lord. They're carrying the object of worship into the house of worship.

And all the hubbub that day in the temple, none of the priestly order knows it yet except one old priest, the father of John the baptizer. Every ritual, every sacrifice, every activity, every instrument there in the temple from the altar to the laver. You go inside the holy place to the showbread, the candlesticks, all of it. You go beyond that veil that separated everyone from the holy of holies.

And in there the mercy seat upon which the blood of that innocent animal would be sprinkled. All of that Jesus pictures. It prophesies of him. It points to him. It looks for him. It longs for him. And guess what? Here he is. God incarnate.

The son in the arms of a teenage virgin girl has just arrived. And all those hundreds of people milling around are just like all those hundreds of people that are milling around you in the mall and in the neighborhood have no idea unless we tell them. Prayers are being prayed and incense is being burned and sacrifices are being made here in this scene to God and the one who will one day at his command rip that veil in half.

Mankind no longer separated from the holiest of holy places, the presence of God cradled in their arms. Here he is. The one we're singing about. And I wonder, do you know him? Do you know him? Is he your redeemer and Lord? Is he more than a baby to you? For those of us who believe, he grew up. In fact, John on the island of Patmos as he writes the very last book in the Bible called the Book of Revelation has a vision and in his vision he sees God the son and the description is incredible with his gowns and his golden sash and his eyes of fire and his countenance like the sun and John is given the message that this is the one and I love the way it's said this is the one who loves us and has released us from our sin. Has he released you?

Have you asked him to? Can't think of a better season or a better moment in your life to make him your redeemer and savior. The journey of Jesus' early days was one of obedience, humility and sacrifice.

That was Stephen Davey and this is Wisdom for the Heart. Today's message is called After the Angels Sang. Do you want to start this next year by growing in your faith and your knowledge of God's Word? Do you want to strengthen your walk with God? Our monthly magazine Heart to Heart is designed to help you do just that. The magazine includes a daily devotional guide to keep you connected to God's Word. This is a resource that we send as a gift to all of our partners. We'd love to have you join our partnership family. In addition, we send three free issues to anyone who makes their first contact with our ministry. It's our way of thanking you for taking the time to introduce yourself. You'll find a sign-up link on the home page at wisdomonline.org. Once again, that's wisdomonline.org. Become a partner or sign up for your three free issues today. Then, join us back here next time. ...
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-12-26 00:07:52 / 2024-12-26 00:18:00 / 10

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