God's Committed to Bodies

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0:00 How can we make a god yes to bodies? That god redeems you, body with an soul. That what happens to the body matters, that what we do is your body matters, that god is flesh and it's in a person because bodies matter and that in the end, your body will be redeemed as well. We talked about, as we talked about, that Christmas reveals to us how committed God is to holiness,

0:37 how like complete the solution of Christmas is for the ideological problem of our separation from God. And I hadn't really thought about that way that fully until last week. This is what I want to think about how Christmas shows as how committed God is to the people,

1:08 to the nation of Israel, that can begin with people of cancer. And to get to that, I want to look at Matthew chapter 2 a little bit. If you want to look there with me, Matthew chapter 2. Matthew, if you're thinking about the Christmas story, Matthew is usually where we look to get to the story of the magi. It's always a little tricky going through the Christmas story because you know, you want to, in the Christmas story,

1:40 you want to capture the shepherds and the magi. Like you want them all because they're in the little activity scene, you know, and you want to get the activity scene, you want to get all the players there. You want them to shoot and the cat and the donkey. You want the manger there, you want the shepherds and also you want the magi. Because then you've got the full thing, right? And you can put it in your courtyard. Of course, the challenge is when you read this story,

2:10 it doesn't really seem like the shepherds in the magi line up at the same time. It looks like that Jesus is back in the house. He may be even not. And that's what it's hard to say exactly. But it's definitely not the same like the night, right? It's probably, it could be up to years after. Remember, after the magi and we, and don't tell Harry what's up, Harry Phillips all boys in the two years

2:40 in the age of younger. Because if you get the man out of place, and the star up here, the baby might be after two years old. So there's like this old window of time, right? So that's like, that's usually the common story of Matthew. You want to get some traditional story. Crystal's huge, and you just go with Luke. Because Luke gets most of this information from Mary so this guy's really nice, pretty play-by-play about the work of Jesus. It's kind of like when you go look at the Christmas story,

3:10 it's kind of, this part of it is small. There's not a lot of content. It happens very quickly. Like, I could tell the birth story of our three children more quickly, I mean, in a more full fashion than the birth of the Savior for work, right? I can spread out on birth stories. They don't do that for Jesus. I don't know why. But there is this wonderful section that tells me that reveals something about God's commitments

3:41 in Matthew's account of the birth of Jesus in Matthew chapter 2. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the King, people, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying where is Hebrew and has been born? King of the Jews, for we saw this star runneth rose and have come to worship him. The first thing to know is that here in my text it translates it as wise men from the east,

4:17 the Greek word that Matthew uses is that word match-eye, sometimes it's not translated, because it doesn't translate really cleanly. A lot of studies suggest that that word, that idea of a match-eye comes east for Israelite readers, match-eye would kind of like superstitious, kind of like what a fortune-teller is culturally today, that we can see a spoon of a fortune-teller with a crystal ball.

4:48 This might be kind of how they thought of match-eye from the east. People who had been trained in Hebrew school and they didn't think that they were wise, or the men, because they didn't know anything usually about the east's scriptures. They didn't map and stuff, but culturally, these were like backwards guys from the east. We didn't know anything about the knowledge that mattered, the knowledge of Hebrew scriptures. And what's so interesting, when Matthew tells the story,

5:20 we are pretty confident that Matthew works for predominantly Israelite audience, that he comes in and the magic of the east has seen the star, and learned from the scriptures' experiments that the star will protect the birth of the king, of this group of people, the Jews, they like rich people' kings, especially a king that works a separate star of theory just for his arrival. They will travel even if it takes them two years.

5:51 And then, so they say, hey, we've studied your scriptures, and this would be a type of slap in the face to visualize the audience that the magic of the east figured out the relevance of the star by setting a Hebrew scripture, and it missed the king of the Jews there. He didn't even know this happened, up to two years of class, right? And the star is still out there, and he goes back to his scholars and says, hey, what are they talking about?

6:22 Right? When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jews and assembled all the chief priests and the stripes, he required to wear the Christ's name. He assembled all the chief priests and the stars. Hey, fellas, the guys with the candles and the snow and herbs, came over and said that our scriptures were being fulfilled currently in our midst.

6:52 Let's put the heads together and figure out what they're talking about. Herod is known for the not being and trying to do. He's about to genocide all his fools. Right? He's about to kill all the young people. I can imagine the need for the sepals, all the chief priests and the stripes, and where the magic of this opened something, and we see talk of them, told them, was not a great meaning. Right? The peace is not from the !

7:22 It's not from G.O. or like encouraging. It's like, hey, guys, figure out what's going on. They said that even the Jews were born. I thought I was a single Jew. Right? Um... What a terrible reaction. Look, I know that's how the story goes, so we're not surprised that Herod was like threatened.

7:56 But come on! What a terrible reaction. Look, the silly magic of the east, kings in their own right, wise men in their own right, recognizes star, traveled for maybe a year, a year, to find him and give kingly gifts, and his own people start immediately when they form,

8:28 figuring out how to kill him. And this is what's interesting to me. Um, the magic figure is out because God did it just like he said. God did it just like he said. When Herod pulls him all together and says, they find it right away. Maybe not right away, but they find it.

8:58 And they quote this passage that's in Micah, a little bit of a scooter. That's why I wrote the first little section right before us, where I call the worship. If you want to go to the system, mind of prophets, which is the small ones, that happen really fast in between, like, Ezekiel and New Testament. And Micah probably brought the site about the same time as Isaiah, so like right before, it's a fantasy, you know, Adam would talk about king A as,

9:28 who would have been during that time, probably. He started on the site as the two kingdoms of Israel existed and then continued after the north was conquered. And he could sort of call it to the east between judgment and the boat. And chapter 4, as we heard in our call to worship, is this like very vocal thing that God says, hey, there's coming a time when all the nations of the world will recognize the authority of our God,

9:58 through the ones sitting on our throne. They'll all judge between men and men, and they'll have authority over all the nations of the country. There's coming a time when they'll read their swords and the pauches, because they don't read their swords and they'll sort for family error. He passed it down one minute to the next, because they're sensitive and you need that something to defend yourself and get guilty to the king who protects whoever was up. There's coming a time when they're so confident that it will not have been done forever,

10:29 that they'll beat the standard error into a bottle, because they're never going to need it again. They're so... Michael says, there's something that I know we are conquered and being conquered. We are afraid that there's violence all around us. We're confused by this in charge. We don't know why the power is being used the way that it is, but Michael says it's coming today, where the right one will sit on the throne, and he'll set all the things to right. And all powers and authority will recognize they fall under them,

11:02 and they'll go to this king for decisions, for wisdom and judgment, who will go according to his rule, and under his rule will beat our swords and the pauches, because we're never fighting them. Everything will go the way it's supposed to be. This is what Michael says to our people thousands of years ago. And when the magi come and say, it was a long time ago, he was staying in the Jews. And he can hear it with intimidation and fear,

11:33 pull together all the cheap pieces of crime. He's figuring out what they're talking about. They come to the section right after that crime, and it's a vote in Michael Chuckle Five. Michael Chuck Four gives a speak from his vote, like a Chuckle Five. Now he says, Michael, God sets through myself. Now, must be a truce, or dollar truce, seems to slay the excess. With the wrong, it's like a judge who gives you your own cheap.

12:06 Get ready because the attack is in you, and then bridge to you. But you, O'Kafalen, have crossed that. Who are little, two little to be among the fans of Judah. From you, She'll come for Mormon. One rule is to be Ruhr, and into that. Who's origin is from a bowl, or ancient days. And therefore, we shall give them up until the time

12:36 she is who is in labor and has given birth. And the rest of this brother shall return to people with whom he shall stand. Shepherds' flock of strength and glory in the Mount Heenah of the name of the Lord of God. And they shall grow secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth, and then shall be of peace. Michael sees, by the very cigar, a future, where out of that woman comes and came and gets been waiting for. The one who is their peace,

13:08 who defends them all in the end. And so when Herod gets to be put together, to take the guys to the back of the beast, said there's something up, King of Jesus, but I was to the beast, find out what the time I'm not going to say, oh look, God told us there'd be one to death on that. And how does Herod raise the name? To try to play the game. This is what I ask to think about. When was the time you went to work for a long time?

13:47 Amazing to me, that they got a correlation and life. Continging the peace of honor and commitment. The people of this day. Amazing to me. It seems, I mean, I just wrote down, and I'm like, why bother? Like, he's coming to save the world.

14:19 Why bother doing it this way? Why bother honoring his commitment? Like, it reminds me, they're so clueless, it reminds me when he comes to save them from Egypt. And they're like, Moses comes and says, I've come to rescue you, and they say, uh-uh, what? What? Who's rescuing us? That's okay, man. Check it.

14:49 That's okay. And then when he does rescue him, delivers a miraculousy, red sea, comfort arms, like, just like the renown of the world. These slaves defeat the greatest military power of the day, and they walk up to the mountain, and it takes a few days longer, so they make their own God with an air. Like, they are days removed from the red sea, and they're sure they go a better way of worship now,

15:19 than if he has laid out for them. And then, I mean, they go in the period of the judges, where he keeps living them, and then within one generation, they're sure they know better where they live. And then the period of the king, where we got more bad things, like, over and over and over again, the reason they're called the Jews is because they find that one little remnant of Judah come back from exile. So all that is left is the 12 tribes of Israel,

15:49 the Swambo remnant of Judah, so they call them Jews. And by the time they come back, like, Jesus, God, salvation of the world, in the person's question, just as He said, and they find out, and so now they will kill them. Lost cause. That's why I said, you can remember it to me,

16:19 when you went to fight for a lost cause, because I couldn't imagine that I had a song, I had a boss of a boss. Every once in a while, the dialogue in my head goes like this. And why am I in this space? And the answer? Because they're a big old senator.

16:49 There. I mean, for some reason, I'm sure I have better answers than God who pursued and who saved. I know what it feels like to feel like a lost cause. In my moments of sincere clarity, I recognize the ways I can in lost cause.

17:23 There is this foundational story for people that's not as well known as a lost cause. The reason is to come to me, such I have this professor in the seminary I talked about before. I have two. I have a couple of professors that I like several that I got that I didn't have to. Maybe that's not a surprise. One that I like is this guy, the old professor and I have a read lesson I've talked about in the before, but he's really smart and read all the scriptures

17:54 and the original language and the morning, the spiritual motion and then go run five miles and work on the commentary. He was writing his read, what does it mean to come and teach his teacher? It was phenomenal. He came in with all this energy always. And he had like, he would speak instead of his head because he would read every three hours every morning. And he'd do this like, this vocabular, this is my favorite part of the class because he would teach us all this stuff and then end it over to vocabular

18:27 and he'd do always like, because he was reading all those original languages and then he looked at it up in the left side so he knew like how many times they appeared just to keep the word with a pair of scriptures because he tells him left side of the key. He just knew it because he looked it up for many times. And then because he had memorized all his verses and he could call to mind all the places that the word earth appeared in this word scripture and what it meant, right? And so he would go off and there's one where he had this word sleep

18:57 that we were writing. And he went up on this, he called it the pyrgene of the cycle. Pyrgene of the cycle. Pyrgene of the history of our people were these two words that put together the earthenate and duke sleep. In Genesis, the eye comes down and talks to Abraham. This is Abraham, I am born to make you into a great nation. I'll give you a whole man. I'll give you more to say this and to stand on the sea

19:30 and the stars in the sky and all the world will be blessed through you. Let's make a covenant today, Abraham, that this will be the relationship you have. Without you, you're glad I can do these things. Land offering blessing to the whole nation and you will receive it. Let's make that covenant today. Get the animals. They have a spiritual way they did the covenant, right when they have a bowl, a ghost and a dove. They split the animals down the middle and then the two parties walk between

20:00 the two animals, split down a little, say, if I break my side and come in, I'm going to do the lead with the jiu-jitsu animals. And then right after they kept the animals, blessing them like you still see him because he was a little bit smaller than you can believe. And he could just get up like really tall because he was a big constant and he would yell about it, far down, because at that point, right after they split the animals, God puts Abraham in a target and then he sleeps.

20:30 And it said that a lit lamp representing the presence of God moves to the animals of the body itself. To say that this promise to bless the world through Abraham is unequivocal and all of God. God makes him full and unequivocal promise. He will be pregnant through this thing.

21:04 So it doesn't matter. The judges don't matter. The kings, A-H, don't matter. The Pharisees turn the political law of God, the position of servant to the world, to what exclusivity and power are all going. Don't matter, King Herod. Don't matter. God made promise and God keeps Christ promises.

21:38 And so, justice is said, we come on this. Let us pass and hold. Oh. You may be a lost cause. You found the right answer for a lost cause.

22:11 I am equidical. Redemption. Demonstrate in the same combination together. In the baby community, I am equidical. Redemption. Worship through your lost cause. To arrest someone that was dead.

22:41 Paul says it in his letter to the church in Rome. He checked the fire. He says, the holiday for death and in our sins. And in our God, the Lord. We would celebrate in his redemption. God bless me. Wrap up this season of Christmas.

23:11 It would be his life. He should find a marker, a little deer, that says, what other happens? Whoever I become. Whatever I've done or really, the God of Christmas is unequally committed to me. To my Your death.

23:41 All sides of the line. And the prayer. Hey, Lord. Let's go with thank you. For your persistence, generosity, and relentless salvation. Come and save us today.

24:12 For the sake of your son, and the sacrifice that we realize in our life. We would experience the benefits of the cross, its birth, life, death, and resurrection. And we might want to know why it's alive. Jesus is an impact.