Notes for December 3
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: MyWords::RE::God'sWords
BUILD YOUR OWN JESUS!—Part 1
MOTIF > The problem with Jesus is that he seems so distant.
> Everybody got your Lego® building block? Build your own Jesus! …
> Pathetic mess … What can we build that compares to God—more vast than universe—wrapping himself in a tiny embryo that blossoms beneath the heart of a peasant girl? Who grows … dies … rises?
> Yet we try to build our own Jesus all the time: (1) Misguided prophet? (2) Jesus Seminar, a brilliant teacher? (3) Jesus patron of whatever political side we prefer? Jesus lived in a world in which, if this had been God’s plan, he should have been. What many Jewish persons wanted was precisely a political-military Messiah—and Jesus refused: “Give your taxes to Caesar, give to God what is God’s.” (4) Cuddly Jesus who never quite makes it out of the manger? (5) So benevolent that my sin is okay?
> In every case … building Jesus we can get hold of, serve our needs … goes back to golden calf.
> We end up with pathetic mix, nothing worthy of worship.
> Next couple of months … Jesus for who he really was and is … shatter our expectations.
DILEMMA > Most times, we build own Jesus because we can’t see how or where God is working.
 … can’t see how God is alive, … Jesus is still in the grave.
 … can’t see how God is working in nation, … his purpose to making country what we think it ought to be.
 … can’t see how God is working against sin, … assume he’s okay with sin.
> How can I know what on earth God is doing, here and now? You can’t—at least how can I know he’s doing something?
> Go back before Jesus was born, when people were waiting/wondering, “What is God doing? Anything?”
TEXT
> Luke 1:1-25 > 1:1: “Taken in hand”: Several Gospels … Mark/two versions of Matthew/perhaps two or three others that report different incidents from Jesus’ life.
 How many of these end up in New Testament? Why these four? [Connected to eyewitnesses]
 1:2: “eyewitnesses [autoptai: “saw-it-myself”] … servants of the Word”: they were not masters of the Word.
> 1:3-5: Luke: Physician, traveled with Paul: “investigated”: Now … reporting to “Theophilus”: A type of person, “God’s friend.”: Gentile [TWO TYPES OF PEOPLE] who worshiped Israel’s God: “What does all this mean for me?”
 Locates it in the context of history … not “once upon a time,” but “in Herod’s days.”
ZECHARIAH’S done all he should—it seems God has forgotten, he’s weak, broken-down, seems abandoned: GOD ALWAYS APPEARS FIRST TO THE BROKEN: Get idea that those to whom God reveals himself … mighty, powerful: BROKEN [Who in your world is broken?]
> 1:5-10: “Zakhar-Yah”: “Yahweh never forgets.” He is about to find truth of his own name.
> Text parallels God’s call of Abraham and Sarah [righteous, no children]—God appeared and established a covenant, create people to glorify himself. This parallel: GOD IS ABOUT TO ESTABLISH COVENANT AGAIN, RECREATE PEOPLE FOR HIS GLORY.
 He’s priest: Abijah, eighth of 24 groups … all served during three great festivals … two weeks each year … probably Shavuot, “feast of tabernacles,” rejoicing because God has brought a great harvest.
 1:8-10: “Lot”: 18,000 priests, … offer incense once in lifetime … in, incense on altar, bow, pray—“May the merciful God enter this Holy Place and receive with pleasure his people’s offerings"— come back. [IMPORTANT! Video]
 Incense symbolized prayers of Israel going up, smoky-sweet scent ascending to heavens.
 Holy event … bells on hem [Ex28.33] … on Yom Kippur, rope … “heard priest tinkling, everything okay.”
> 1:11-17: Angel! Suddenly, tinkling a lot more. “Fear not” = “Stop tinkling.” Angels always say! Why? … Not Tinkerbell, fearsome … angelic beings: Six wings/ man, lion, ox, eagle/flaming swords … you’d tinkle too!
 “Prayer”: Not for child … seems to have given up … for Israel’s redeemer.
 Life is to be God-focused life, “wine or strong drink”: Times of joy with others … to be drunk on Spirit. “Filled with Spirit”: Empowered for a specific task.
 “Elijah”: Prophet! For decades … Israel has been “non-prophet” (2Ba85:1-3; 1Mac4:46; 9:27; 14:41)
 Where God is acting, homes are healed.
1:18-23: CRUCIAL QUESTION: “HOW SHALL I KNOW THIS?” GOD, YOU CAN’T DO IT THIS WAY! HE HAD CREATED HIS OWN IMAGE OF GOD! “How can I know God is acting here and now? I want a sign.”
> How many times do you and I say this, “How shall I know?”: Give God advice! God calls you to do something … “How shall I know! How can you pull this off, God?”  “God, you’ve forgotten me … how …?”: Forgets truth of own name, Zakhar-Yah.
> “I AM GABRIEL!” [GANDALF]: “Give you a sign”: … utterly silent as you wait for God to act. BE SILENT AND WATCH GOD WORK.
 Only supposed to take a minute … evening sacrifice … supposed to speak blessing: “May the Lord bless you ….”: CHARADES: “Five letters? You feel sick? Lips?”
> Returns home … waits in silence—with joy, gladness, pleasure … John is not virgin-born … as much as it may be traumatic to think of two 80-year-olds being intimate.
> Elisabeth: Hides five months, until no one can deny she’s having a baby … maybe Elisabeth doesn’t quite believe it. So waits in silence—Zechariah still cannot speak, yet this too is God’s grace, to cause him to consider—yet in joy: “The LORD has taken away that for which others ridiculed.”
RESOLUTION > How can I know? “God, I can’t see! I don’t know what you’re doing!” Be silent, wait with joy to see what God is already doing. Already, God was working in lives not only of Zechariah and Elisabeth, but a relative of Elisabeth’s named Mary, her fiancée Joseph.
> In what areas of your life:“God, how shall I know this?” (1) Keep worshiping … (2) silently watch … (3) with pleasure … within God’s standards for life, God wants you to rejoice. WAIT IN SILENCE, IN JOY, TOGETHER. CENTRAL PROBLEM: More concerned with WHAT GOD IS DOING than with WHO GOD IS: “God, I want to know you.”
> Why? Z’khar-Yah: “God has forgotten—so I’ll make my own Jesus”::So many idols, expectations for what we think God should do and be. What God did with golden calf? SMASH JESUS
[ CANDLE OF HOPE: Z’KHAR-YAH]
APPLICATION > Something you’ve prayed for … don’t feel God’s presence … this week, … times when you don’t see God working … worship/watch in silence/find joy … Z’khar-Yah!