What you say is secondary to being present. But new community people take conversations seriously, because conversations are culture-making devices. Who you let in, who you exclude – says a lot about who you are and what you believe. Our conversations should build up, be filled with grace. What do I say to someone who is hurting?

“All things new” begins with us. The church is God’s new community in the world. God’s renewing power needs to be demonstrated through us. Note the distinctions between Jewish and Gentile believers, yet the two form “one new humanity” in Christ (Eph. 2:15). See also the original disciples. Implications: we are a community marked by love -- “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

The final message in this series is a celebration of the birth of Jesus: our Savior / Deliverer, God’s Anointed Messiah, and the Lord over all creation. His arrival is joyous Good News for the whole world, far as the curse is found. In Jesus, God’s peace (shalom) is available to all people – which is cause for great joy!

The term “lord” signifies one in a position of authority. Again, at the time of Jesus’ birth, the empire universally declared, “Caesar is Lord.” But in the birth of this child, an eternal truth is revealed: “Jesus is Lord.” In Phil. 2:5-11, we find three affirmations: Jesus is fully God; Jesus is fully man; and Jesus is fully Lord. It is a proclamation of Good News that Jesus is indeed Lord!

The word “Christ” is Greek for the Hebrew “Messiah”, which means “anointed.” Jesus fulfills God’s promise to raise up His anointed king to reign over Israel. But Jesus confounds this expectation by also fulfilling the role of suffering servant prophesied at Isaiah 53. Jesus appears as a “lowly” king, the suffering servant anointed by God to bring about deliverance. It is a proclamation of Good News that Jesus is indeed the Christ!

The work of Jesus was to deliver salvation. The Hebrew form of Jesus (Yeshua) means, “Yahweh is salvation” or “Yahweh rescues.” This is why Joseph is commanded to name him “Jesus” (Matt. 1:21). When Jesus was born, Augustus Caesar was hailed as the “savior” of the world. Luke mentions Caesar at Luke 2:1 and he lingers in the background of the birth narrative. But God is at work to dethrone this false “savior” by sending the true Savior into the world. It is a proclamation of Good News that Jesus is indeed our Savior!

Jacob’s life was a constant struggle for blessing. His father favored Esau and Jacob acted deceptively in order to gain Isaac’s blessing. Jacob wrestles with his father-in-law Laban for years, first for Rachel’s hand and then for the majority share of their herds. But at each turn, Jacob fails to act heroically. He is driven to seek blessing at any cost.

Along the banks of the Jabbok River, in the middle of the night, Jacob wrestles with God. The struggle concludes with Jacob receiving the blessing he has always desired – the blessing of the Lord. Jacob’s life illustrates the worthlessness of all “counterfeit gods.”

Some potential idols are obvious, while others are more difficult to identify. In the OT prophet Jonah, we find an example of a more subtle form of idolatry. In his zeal for Israel, Jonah called King Jeroboam to pursue an expansionist policy to extend the nation’s boundaries (2 Kings 14:25). But when God sends this deeply patriotic Jewish prophet to preach against Nineveh, the Assyrian capitol, Jonah refuses. His love for Israel – and his subsequent disdain for other nations – trumps his obedience to God. Paul confronts the same racial prejudice when he observes Simon Peter’s mistreatment of the Gentiles in Gal. 2. God’s Word continues to uncover even the hidden idols in our lives.

n the 19th century, Friedrich Neitzsche wrote that as Western culture continued to reject the traditional concept of God, we would replace God with money. The story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10 illustrates the seductive power of money as a “counterfeit god.”

In Luke 16:13-15, Jesus uses all the basic biblical metaphors for idolatry and applies them to greed and money. According to the Bible, idolaters love their idols, trust their idols, and obey their idols. Greed is one of our “deep idols” that can infect our heart profoundly.