Cambria Pulpit

What is Christmas all about? This is an important question for us to contemplate every 25th of December. This week I came across an article about Christmas written in 2015 by a man named Murray Bass. The title was, “What is Christmas About?” Here is a paragraph from that article:

Then, there is the traditional Christmas: The holiday. It’s the celebration of love demonstrated by selfless giving, the celebration of goodness, of right over wrong, of giving our hearts to others who need our love. There are memories of Christmas past. From childhood, my mother’s long cotton stockings hanging from the mantle for the four Bass children; and Christmas morning when the stockings held a big apple or orange, a few pieces of hard candy and maybe a Big Little book. And the traditional feast to warm the bodies and hearts of the fortunate and unfortunate alike. 

To his credit, the author does go on to demonstrate how these find their place in the actions of Christ. But as I read the article, I could not help but be reminded that this is that the world thinks of Christmas. The movies, the songs, the traditions, all loudly proclaim that Christmas is all about warm fuzzy feelings towards one another. It is all about self-sacrifice. It is all about finding love and joy. Certainly, these are all redeemable things. But is this what Christmas is about? As Christians, we ought to take the opportunity Christmas provides to share the glorious message of Christmas. Not warm fuzzy feelings towards one another, Not self-sacrifice, not finding joy and love. Rather the sacrifice of Christ, the way to joy and love through his redemption. In order to understand this, we must look at the very first Christmas. 

We often think of Mary, Jesus, the Shepherds, and the Wise Men when we think of the Christmas story. But there is so much we can learn from  Joseph, the forgotten character. 

Earlier this week, a news article came across my news feed that an actress named Ellen Page had decided that she was no longer a woman and is not identifying as a man named Elliott page. The article suggested that we were not only to honor this, we are to celebrate this. Our culture continually seeks to make gender a choice and believe that there are no repercussions of this. How did we get here?

The foundation of gender fluidity is Feminism and Egalitarianism. As with every battle, there are some concessions that are important to make in order to understand the heart of the issue. It is not ok for men to subjugate women and treat them as lesser beings. The battle to allow women to vote was right. It is not ok to act as though woman have lesser values or lesser intelligence. However, to state that those who hold strongly to gender roles believe that it is ok to do these things is incorrect and muddies the issue. At its core, feminism and Egalitarianism is calling for genders to be equal and same. While the Bible teaches equal but different. For when genders are equal and same, there is not need for gender. And now our culture, having bought into the lie of equal and same, has moved passed gender and it is now obsolete. Thus we have the chaos of today. 

I bring this up, because the foundation of the gender confusion, feminism and egalitarianism, has taken root in the church. There is a battle for genders to be equal and the same in the church. 

As I mentioned last week, this is a battle for Biblical womanhood. It is an unpopular battle. We will win no points in the culture for this battle. We will probably not even win points in the Christian realm for this battle. But it is a vital battle for us to wage if we are to be faithful to our God and His Word.  

We speak often of the battles waging in culture today against Scriptural truths. But one battle we have not discussed much is the battle against biblical womanhood. This battle has been ongoing since the Fall in Genesis 3. Through each successive age and generation, this battle has morphed and changed. In America, this battle has taken on two distinct fronts which seem opposed to one another, but are allies in seeking to destroy the biblical view of womanhood. 

One front seeks to define women through their beauty and appearance. The other seeks to redefine women’s roles under the guise of liberation. And these fronts have unwittingly infiltrated the church. They have created conflict and frustration. But this is not new. Timothy faced this same battle in the first century church in Ephesus. In our text today, Paul addressed these two fronts and presents for us God’s expectations for women in the church. 

Now this text today is the most discussed passage in the pastoral epistles today. As you read books and commentaries on this text you will discover that interpretations range from seeing Paul as a liberator and champion of women’s rights to dismissing Paul as wrong and irrelevant in today’s culture. George Bernard Shaw, the author and political activist of the early 1900s, called Paul the eternal enemy of women.

Admittedly, this text is going to take us two weeks to work through. It is one of the most challenging texts (possibly in all of Scripture) to interpret and apply. However, as we work through it, I believe that the point Paul is seeking to make will be very evident and that when we are done you will have a firm grasp on God’s desire for Christian women. 

In this thanksgiving service, we looked at the challenge from Psalm 100 to give thanks to the Lord because He is God and He is good.  In the midst of an unusual year, we need the reminder that God is in control and that He is good always. 

This sermon continues last week message looking at the purpose for prayer and the posture in prayer. 

It has been quite a week. This election week fits well with this year. Confusing, frustrating, fascinating, scary, worrisome, irritating might all be descriptors of this week. Maybe those who are old enough to remember the election of 1960 between JFK and Nixon thought that would be the most frustrating election of their lives. Maybe those of us who remember the hanging chads of the 2000 election thought that was going to the be most frustrating election of our lives. And then comes 2020. I will be honest, I have no idea what the news outlets are saying regarding this election, because I have intentionally turned them off for months now. But I can imagine that it is not leading to peace and serenity of life. I have done my best to limit my time on social media because it has definitely not led to godly attitudes. In the middle of this mess, we must ask, how should we respond as Christians? In God’s providence, we are coming to a text this morning in 1 Timothy which gives us some instruction on our response. The reason that we feel all that we have felt over the last week is the desire to see real, true, lasting change in our country towards morality and stability. We want to live lives of peace. In our text this morning, Paul presents for us the secret to living peaceful and quiet lives in the middle of a political tsunami.  ...

Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf served as the foreign minister of Iraq under Saddam Hussein. You probably know him as Bagdad Bob. During the second gulf war, he appeared on television regularly, proclaiming that the forces of Saddam Hussein were in fact winning the war. At one point he claimed that the American troops were committing suicide by the hundreds, and denied that any US tanks were in Bagdad when in fact the battle was only yards away from where he was speaking and the sounds of tank fire could be heard in the background. 

His rabid denial of the truths about the war became fodder for comics and satire. He became the poster child for denying the obvious. He denied the war, and then he lost the war. 

Sadly, too many of us are Bagdad Bob. We fail to recognize that we are embroiled in a cosmic war. We are in a battle for our souls and the souls of those around us. Too concerned about our own comfort, and too ignorant of the truth of Scripture, we deny reality. And because we deny the war, we lose the war. 

In our text this morning, Paul reminds us that we are at war. This war is far more important than any struggle between nation. This is a war which has been raging since the fall of Satan. And Paul reminds us that we have an obligation to fight for the truth against all who would oppose it.

A man named Daniel Whittle captured the mystery and marvelous nature of salvation with a poem which has been put to music and has become a great hymn of the faith. He said this …

I know not why Gods wonderous grace to me he hath made known, Nor why, unworthy, Christ and love, redeemed me for his own. But I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto Him against that day.

The wonder of salvation is that God would redeem unworthy depraved people to adopt them as his own children. As great as our sin and failure is, God’s mercy is more. As great as our struggle and frustration is, God’s mercy is more. Nothing can overwhelm it; nothing can remove it; nothing can change it. God’s mercy stands forever. 

As Paul addressed the false teaching in Ephesus, we saw last week that he took exception to the false teacher’s use of the law. Apparently, these teacher where taking the law and using it as a billy club against the believer. They emphasized God’s wrath and they missed God’s mercy. So, Paul addressed the proper use of the law. It is to convict us of sin and drive us to Christ. An in Christ, we find mercy. In our text today, Paul uses his personal testimony to demonstrate the amazing mercy of God. 

The greatest danger to the church does not exist outside the church, but rather inside the church. There is nothing outside the church that can destroy the church. Persecution from the world will never destroy the church. In fact, history has demonstrated the opposite. There is, however, something far more deadly and destructive that can destroy the church. Like a cancer than springs up inside the body, this springs up inside the church and renders it ineffective and ultimately dead. False teaching will destroy any church that allows it to continue. This is why Christ warned us, 

Matthew 7:15 – “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

2 Peter 2:1 – But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

From the very founding of the church, Satan has sought to destroy the church through all manner of false teaching. The danger in this teaching lies in its attractive subtlety. This teaching never presents itself as false. Rather it always presents itself as helpful, important, novel, and exciting. So as Paul instructs Timothy about helping the church in Ephesus regain its health. He beings with a discussion regarding the danger of false teaching.  In fact, Paul’s preoccupation in this first chapter is with the importance of maintaining true or sound doctrine and refuting false doctrine. Because no church can survive which tolerates false teaching. ...