Saved in Order to Save

Introdcution

One of our Christmas family traditions...is to travel and visit Laura’s extended family in Tennessee. Each year we make the 5 hour trip and this year was no different. Yesterday i was talking with “Pa” (Laura’s grand father)...and we talked about how he used to hunt and eat deer. But later in life, he had a complete reversal...now instead of hunting...Pa...feeds the deer at the edge of the woods near his house.

Whenever I see someone who feeds wild animals...wheather birds...or deer...I think of Jesus’ words Matthew 6:26

Matthew 6:26 ESV

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them...

Pa feeds the deer because they used to feed him.

Christmas

Today marks the first Sunday of the Christmas season in the Church year...keeping time with God...and it is a time and season where we ponder the mystery of the grace of God...made flesh. John’s gospel… “in the beginning...the word was… (and the word became flesh and lived among us).

We focus in this season on the incarnation or enfleshment of God.

John 1:14 ESV

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Galatians 4:4–5 ESV

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

...this indicates that those under the law of Moses...the Torah... required redemption. This redemption is theirs through Jesus’ faithfulness to the law and allows our adoption as sons and daughters...of God.

1 Timothy 1:15 MSG

Here’s a word you can take to heart and depend on: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. I’m proof—Public Sinner Number One—

Paul is declaring the main reason for God coming in the flesh...Jesus came to save sinners! And Paul freely admit...as we do every week in our corporate worship with our prayer of confession...that he (like we) are sinners...in need of saving.

God...full of grace and truth...came in the flesh in Jesus...to redeem those under the law...to make divine adoption possible...ultimately to save sinners...like you and me.

This is the marvelous, mysterious, magnificent truth about Christmas...and what we focus on during this time of the church year.

Matthew Today’s Reading

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My conversation with Pa...reminded me of our reading this morning from the gospel of Matthew. Pa...now feeds the very animal he used to hunt and eat for his own survival.

I’ve titled today’s message… “Saved in Order to Save” . The proper response to being saved is gratitude and and desire to give back.

Radio Host Paul Harvey...once recounted the story of the man and the gulls. It’s a story of Captain Eddie Rickenbacker...who’s B-17 ditched in the ocean when it became lost during a mission. The crew were in life boats...and by the 8th day all their rations were gone or destroyed. On that 8th day...after a brief worship service asking for God’s help and salvation...Eddie drifted off to sleep...only to open his eyes and see his buddies staring in unbelief at the seagull that landed on Eddie’s head.

Long story short...Eddie caught the bird...they ate it, used it’s guts to fish...and were able to survive to tell the tale. Rickenbacker died in the 1973 but late in life...he used to take a bucket of shrimp to a peir in florida and feed the seagulls...like Pa feeding the deer...because they once sustained him...he now feeds them.

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Our scripture reading this morning is the story of Jesus and his family’s journey from Bethlehem to Egypt...because Herod...who had been informed by the wise men that a new king had been born...sought to kill the child.

Joseph...like we discussed last Sunday...was attentive to God speaking to him in a dream and telling him to flea to Egypt. Jesus was a refugee...a part of an immigrant family seeking asylumn in a foreign land. And he found it.

Matthew’s main audience for his gospel are Jewish Christians...so he often quotes the OT (look at slide together)

Matthew explains Jesus going to Egypt and then ending in Nazarath after Herod died...as fulfillment of OT/Hebrew Bible prophesey. Nothing happened by hapinstance or accident in Jesus’ life. He was the walking...emobidied...God incarnate...realization of the prophetic word of God.

Saved in Order to Save

This story from Matthew is one of the saddest stories in scripture. Like when Moses was born and Pharaoh ordered all male babies to be killed in order to weaken the slaves of Egypt...Jesus faced the same awful massacre of children during his childhood.

It is terrible but true thing...the evil lenths humanity will go to hold on to power...or to snatch power away from another. In reality, humanity is chasing its own tail...because it can never grasp what it most desperately wants... a godlike status. Remember Psalm 37:13

Psalm 37:11–15 NLT

The lowly will possess the land and will live in peace and prosperity. The wicked plot against the godly; they snarl at them in defiance. But the Lord just laughs, for he sees their day of judgment coming. The wicked draw their swords and string their bows to kill the poor and the oppressed, to slaughter those who do right. But their swords will stab their own hearts, and their bows will be broken.”

Pharaohs and kings will try to kill those they see as a threat...but God...God’s plan will never fail. God always wins! You and I can take heart in that...we can also learn a lesson...that our plans...if not aligned with God’s plan for our lives and the world...are pretty much useless.

If good and plenty come....great! Use it to serve God’s purposes. If power comes...great! Weild it wisely and let God be your guide.

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Closing

God sent a message to Joseph through a dream... apparently that was God’s best way of communicating with him...to take the family to Egypt...then to Nazareth. Like before when Joseph chose to stay with Mary after a dream...Joseph here...obediently obeys God’s leading...and Jesus’ life was saved.

Jesus was saved...in order to save.

The salvation Jesus received by the faithful obedience of his parents...was the salvation he would later bring to the entire world...for those who believe in him...that includes you and me.

As Christians, we understand what we’ve been saved from (sin and death)...but how often do we ask what we have been saved for?

The Bible makes clear...that you and I are saved for good works...to be witnesses to Jesus and God’s plan of salvation. Jesus was saved in order to save. You and I are saved in order to point others to salvation.

Don’t let your salvation and redemption in Jesus be something you hold on to for dear life...like Goleom and the ring of power from the Lord of the Rings.

No...we are called to be like Jesus...our salvation is ours to share with others what God has done for us...and what God has done for them...through their faith in Jesus. Our salvation is the foundation of our godly living.

Jesus was saved in order to save. May we recieve it (in him) and share it with the world!

Thanks be to God...AMEN