Series: Overflow
Message: Thank You
Preacher: Japhet De Oliveira
Reflection: Japhet De Oliveira
Live Wonder: Jessyka Dooley
Live Adventure: Jessyka Dooley
Live Purpose: Kyle Smith
Editor: Becky De Oliveira
Refresh: Begin with prayer. Ask for the Holy Spirit to open your heart to new understanding and for God’s character to be revealed.
Read: Hebrews 12:18-29 in the New Living Translation (NLT). Note 1–3 insights or questions.
Reflect: Yesterday, I shared that some people, when confronted with who God is, either choose to be atheists or agnostics. While an atheist believes that God does not exist, and the agnostic struggles to define God or say definitively whether He exists or not, both systems of belief are made in relation to God. This can create a level of hostility toward religion. After all, who wishes to be described by what they are not? A black person does not wish to be described as non-white. A white person does not wish to be described as non-black. Both would rather identify as black or white. Both would rather have a term that does not imply something about them is missing or is less than.
Tragically, there is a level of antagonism towards God for many people that has caused them to remove any association or links with God that might have existed in their lives. Do you remember when we started to move away from using “B.C.” to using “B.C.E.” to describe historical periods? When people stopped saying “Before Christ,” and moved to saying “Before Common Era?” It may sound like a minor change, but it was major enough to have most literature move that direction in a distinct rejection of having time marked by the incarnation, by the first Christmas celebration. A few years ago, Boris Johnson, one of Britain's most famous politicians, wrote a piece in the Daily Telegraph when the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) switched their use from B.C. to B.C.E.
You know what, I just don't think this is good enough. This decision by the BBC is not only puerile and absurd. It is also deeply anti-democratic, and I urge all those who are fed up with the advance of pointless political correctness to fight back. . . . There was Christ, and if the BBC doesn't want to date events from the birth of Christ then it should abandon the Western dating system. Perhaps it should use the Buddhist calendar, which says that it is the 2,555th year since the nirvana of Lord Buddha. Perhaps it should have a version of the old Roman calendar, and declare that this is the fourth year of the fourth consulship of Silvio Berlusconi. It could say that this year was 13,400,000 or whatever since the Big Bang, or maybe the BBC should switch to the Mayan calendar and announce that 2011 is the year 1 B.C.— before the catastrophe that is meant to engulf the planet.
But if the BBC is going to continue to put MMXI at the end of its programmes—as I think it does—then it should have the intellectual honesty to admit that this figure was not plucked from nowhere. We don't call it 2011 because it is 2011 years since the Chinese emperor Ai was succeeded by the Chinese emperor Ping (though it is); nor because it is 2011 years since Ovid wrote the Ars Amatoria. It is 2011 years since the (presumed) birth of Christ.
What is it about Jesus that many feel we cannot let time be marked in relation to His life?
Recalibrate: How do we bring Christ back into Christmas? What traditions have more significant roots in Jesus?
Respond: Pray for the joy of Christmas to be overflowing in your life.
Research: What are the five most important Christian traditions that you celebrate and where do they originate?
Remember: “Let us be grateful and worship God in a way that will please Him, with reverence and awe . . .” (Hebrews 12:28, GNB).
Japhet is senior pastor at Boulder Adventist Church in Boulder, Colorado, and is co-founder of the One project. Originally from southeast London, he served in the South England Conference for nine years—as a pastor and later as conference youth director—before moving to the United States in 2006. He and his wife Becky have two sons, one at university and one in high school.
Go out for a walk with your little one. Pick up a few rocks. Take one home to paint together. See if you can find any really big rocks or boulders. Squeeze them really hard. Aren’t these rocks strong? If you live in a place that has mountains, look at the mountains! If you live somewhere with no mountains, look some up on your computer to show your kiddo. Mountains are just really big rocks. Mountains are really strong, but even mountains can be shaken and pieces of rock can be broken off. Talk about how Jesus is stronger than any rock or mountain.
Hebrews reminds us that the love of Jesus is not like just any mountain; it is the strongest mountain ever. One that can never been shaken or destroyed! With the help of an adult, make a paper mache mountain. Try to make it as strong as you can! Remember that even the strongest mountain or rock is not as strong as Jesus and His love for us. Nothing can ever compare to the strength that is Jesus!
Yesterday we learned about Mount Sinai. Paul described Sinai with dark, moody words. Today we are introduced to another mountain, Zion! How does Paul describe Mount Zion in Verse 22? One of the words that struck me as I was looking at Paul’s description of Zion was “living.” Sinai was home to the law of the living God, yet Zion is home of the “living God.” What a relief to move from Sinai to Zion! The best news is that this move from Sinai to Zion isn’t just happening in this text; it has actually happened in real life. Jesus’s death on the cross in our place did away with the need for sacrifice and further proved that we are saved by grace through faith in Him. What this means is that the law is not what saves us, but it is a guide to developing faith and a relationship in Jesus. How has the death of Jesus moved you to worship Him through keeping His commandments?