Christmas Epiphany - Audio
In part 2 of his Christmas series, Pastor Neil suggests that we spend time reflecting on Christmas as an epiphany - a momentous event: the coming of God's salvation and deliverance to all mankind; a reflection that he guarantees to be instructive and transformative to our souls.
- Duration
- 24m
- Broadcast on
- 18 Dec 2010
- Audio Format
- other
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Well, for those of you that missed last week, you missed an interesting title to a Christmas series, because the title of this year's Christmas series is another Ho-hum Christmas series. Yes, that's true. Another Ho-hum Christmas series, and you can tell those kids, those teenagers, they're not exactly very excited about Christmas. They seem a little bored, a little dull, like they've been in the routine of things. But I've chosen this title specifically for this little series of messages, because I know the tendency of so many of us around this time of year. We walk into church around Christmas, and we may tend to think, "Oh, well, it's Christmas." Well, now we can tune out a little bit. After all, we know the story very well, we've heard it many times before. But you see, complacency is not something our Lord ever wants us to have. He never wants us to have a complacent heart. In fact, God always asks us to be an expectant people, regardless of the time or season that we may be in. And so last week, we considered the story of Zacharias in the Gospel of Luke. Zacharias was the father of John the Baptist, who was the forerunner of Jesus Christ. And the Bible said that Zacharias was a man of God, and yet he became complacent. He got caught up in the spiritual and national drought that plagued Israel. And when God sent an angel, an angel, to tell Zacharias that he would be the father of John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah, Zacharias didn't believe it. A man of God, no less, but when push came to shove, he got complacent. And he waned in expectation because of the drought. And that was the title of last week's message is to be part one was to be expectant in drought. And today we come to part two in the final part of our small Christmas series here today. Part two, I've entitled it Christmas Epiphany, Christmas Epiphany. And you might be wondering, you know, I've heard that word, I think I know that word. What is an epiphany? It's a great question. I found a fantastic definition of epiphany online, and I wanted to show it to you, see if it makes sense to you. Epiphany, that moment you realize that your lunch, that's just kind of cruel, don't you think? I mean, how many of you have seen those posters before, right? Oh, I love those posters, right? Now, normally they're motivational, right, like, you know, accomplishment, achievement, success, leadership, and it gives a nice inspirational quote. Well, this, you've got to go on like, I think it's a website called despair.com. And it gives you kind of the demotivators, not the motivational posters, but the demotivational posters. I want to put that up on my wall. I mean, I really, it's just, it's right, you know? Epiphany, the moment you realize your lunch. No, that's not epiphany, I hope not. But what's interesting is that epiphany, I mean, the first definition, the first definition of epiphany might surprise you. If you say the word epiphany to a Roman Catholic or to an Anglican or in many Lutheran circles, what comes to mind is much different than what you and I might think of as epiphany. In fact, so well is, so well known is a, a high church or a Roman Catholic understanding of epiphany.
Transcription truncated.
In part 2 of his Christmas series, Pastor Neil suggests that we spend time reflecting on Christmas as an epiphany - a momentous event: the coming of God's salvation and deliverance to all mankind; a reflection that he guarantees to be instructive and transformative to our souls.