Christmas: A Holy Contradiction

“'For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” 2Cor:8:9

St. Paul wrote to the Christians in the Greek city of Corinth, and to Christians throughout the ages, about the Holy contradiction that the Great God, the one who is Lord over all things, the one who St. Paul tells us “was rich” “became poor” all for our benefit and salvation.

This Holy contradiction was not done out of some judicial necessity but completely out of God’s divine love for us, that is, for all humanity if they will but freely receive it.

At that time the Emperor Augustus issued an Imperial proclamation regarding census and taxation requiring those who lived in Palestine would return to their ancestral homes to register and be counted for the tax census.

“In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.” Lk: 2:1-3

It is due to this Imperial proclamation that Joseph and Mary travel to their ancestral home the town of Bethlehem.

Into an Humble Estate

Our God has come to us in the humblest and lowliest of estates, in a stable, bedded in a manger which is the feeding trough of animals.

Our God has come to us this way showing us his identification with us all.

The Great God, the eternal Son of God the second person of the Holy Trinity stepped out of the glory of eternity and joined us here upon the Earth. Our Lord did this not out of necessity but rather out of love for each and all. 

This is a Holy Contradiction, the highest come low as the words to an ancient creedal hymn sung in the early Church declared. And these divine lyrics are introduced by the posture of mind which Jesus displayed in the incarnation and that we are to emulate that of putting others first which is what Jesus has done for each and all.

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” Philp: 2:5-8

Jesus descended into that place of humiliation in that stable in the city of Bethlehem. 

It is likely that the Holy family of Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem after dark making it difficult to secure a guest room. All that could be found for the one who is deserving of the royal of accommodations was a place in a stable along with the livestock, a place which would have stank of dung, straw and animals, yet it is in such a place that our Lord came forth into the world .

“So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.”Lk: 2:4-7

There were no royal swaddling clothes of silk or satin blankets to place him in, only old linen clothes to wrap about him which prefigured the burial shroud he would be wrapped in thirty three years from this moment.

The Glory Revealed

The Glory of the incarnation was announced to some of the who were the least esteemed in the society of that day. Shepherds who were in the country side tending their sheep. This announcement was made through the agency of an angelic messenger who proclaimed it as a message to dispel theirs’s and all humanities fears. 

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”(8-12)

This announcement was followed by the singing of the angelic host worshiping the great God

“Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”(13-14)

At the departure of the angels the shepherds seek out the Messiah which the angelic messages proclaimed to them finding him in Bethlehem with Joseph and Mary. Here in the stable some of the lowest of Earth meet the highest of Heaven. It is not great kings who have sought him out this Holy night so long ago but rather the outcast and the lowly who have received the divine announcement delivered through the angel who have come.

“When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”(15)

Having encountered their Messiah the shepherds are compelled to tell others about his coming. His coming which should have been announced by Royal heralds receives rather the lowly voice of the lowly shepherds.  

“So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” Lk: 2:16-19

The Holy Contradiction

Jesus, the one who came that night two thousand years ago, disrobed himself for a time of the glory of his divinity , yet still retaining that divinity to it's fullest extent, and took up the ragged mantle of our humanity, all for us that we might come to know our God and see his glory.

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.” John: 17:1b-6b

Jesus Exulted

Jesus the one who has come to us, none higher has come lower, even to the point of humiliating death only to be lifted high once again. Again the words of the ancient Church hymn speak of this very truth.

“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue  acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”.Philp:2:9-11

Our Lord Jesus condescended to our low estate all for us, not out of judicial necessity but only out of love, the rich became poor for us that we might share in his riches. St. Paul wrote of this very Holy contradiction.

“'For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” 2Cor:8:9

The one who held and possessed all riches and glorious power, the one who should have been received by the Royalty and the great of the Earth and who was worthy of the highest worship and adoration came in the lowliest and humblest of places on that Holy night long ago as we reckon time, all so that we might be made rich in him. This is the Holy Contradiction of Christmas.

Benediction: May we each and all ever bow our knees before that one who became poor so that we might become rich, today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.

 

Rev. Todd Crouch, Pastor 

Topinabee Community Church

Topinabee, Michigan 

If You Would Like to Know More About or to Support the Ministry of Topinabee Community Church You Can go to Our Web Site.

https://topinabeechurch.org/index.html

You Can Follow Topinabee Community Church on Face Book 

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                    "If It Is Not About Jesus, It Is Not About Anything"

 

The Season of Advent: The Hope of Jesus' Coming

 

“Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,

that the mountains would tremble before you!

As when fire sets twigs ablaze

and causes water to boil,” Isa:64:1-2a

During this time of year many Christians celebrate the season of Advent, which is observed over four Sundays and leads us to the Christmas-Nativity of Jesus. Advent is the beginning of many Churches liturgical year.

Advent means coming, and the first Sunday of Advent looks into the years to come to that moment when Jesus Christ will descend from the Heavens and be seen by all who dwell upon the Earth.

 The coming of Jesus Christ is a real hope for all peoples in all nations. Jesus’ Advent, that is his coming, gives humanity a hope that the human race will not go extinct and faded into the darkness of death and non-existence, but rather, has a future ordained by the great Creator God who brought all things into being, the very God who called forth Abram out of Ur and led Israel out of Egypt and has come to us in the person of his Holy Son Jesus Christ. It is this God, who assures his human children that there is a true hope of a future awaiting us.

 Hope

 The coming of Jesus gives hope to a world which has been wracked with strife and countless problems that it will one day know peace, true peace, even when this peace seems remote amidst the turmoil of the world. Be assured that there will come a day when the heavens will be rent at the sound of the heavenly trumpet which will sound and all eyes will see him.

 Christians have long watched for the fulfillment of this blessed hope of the coming of Jesus.

 “while we wait for the blessed hope--the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,” Tit:2:13

This time of the blessed hope of the coming of Jesus and the conditions which will be resident upon the Earth and lead up to Jesus’ glorious coming is spoken of in Apocalyptic imagery, which was  taught in the Rabbinical Schools of the day, in our Lord’s own Olivet Prophecy. Matt:24, Lk:21 and Mk:13.

 Conditions

 Jesus’ employing Apocalyptic oratory devices depicting human civilization struggling with conditions ranging from everything from spiritual deception to war, economic challenges, to natural disasters to epidemics; each challenge growing in intensity up until that moment when our Lord Jesus comes at the sound of the Heavenly Trumpet.

"Look, he is coming with the clouds," and "every eye will see him, even those who pierced him"; and all peoples on earth "will mourn because of him." So shall it be! Amen” Rev: 1:7 

“then they will see the Son of Man coming with the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory” Mk: 13:26

 Come Down O Lord

 This time of the coming of Jesus is what the Prophet Isaiah in a prophetic prayer expressed in Apocalyptic language when he cried out to the God of Israel to come and bring his salvation to Israel and to all nations. The Prophet was calling for the hope of the coming, the Advent of Messiah so that all nations, not just Israel, would know the one true God.

 “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,

that the mountains would tremble before you!

As when fire sets twigs ablaze

and causes water to boil,

come down to make your name known to your enemies

and cause the nations to quake before you!

For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,

you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.

Since ancient times no one has heard,

no ear has perceived,

no eye has seen any God besides you,

who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

You come to the help of those who gladly do right,

who remember your ways” Isa: 64:1-5

 This coming down of the great God to this earth is the hope of all humanity. This is the hope that Christians, that is, believers in Jesus live in continually. But not just someday, for in the message of salvation has Jesus come down to them through the Gospel .Jesus has come in all the power of deity even now to set the captives of this world free to live under his reign even now. To live as children of God, not just some day

 When we hear the message of the Gospel which is sounded like a trumpet throughout the Earth, it is, as if, the Heavens have been rent asunder and we see our God in the person of God’s Holy Son Jesus Christ.

 Jesus comes to us and when he does the high places of our lives, like mountains, are shaken, and brought down before him.

 When we embrace Jesus as our Messiah, the Holy Spirit, like a fire, is kindled in our lives. When Jesus comes to us it is an Apocalyptic moment and the water of the Spirit boils within us and we are then moved to live out Jesus’ coming to us each and every day not just some day.

 “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!

As when fire sets twigs ablaze

and causes water to boil, (1-2a)

  Having Come to Us

 As we live out the hope of Jesus’ coming to us, others can see his coming in our lives and then they too can come to know Jesus through the people of God.

 “come down to make your name known to your enemies

and cause the nations to quake before you!” (2b)

 This means that, our lives are to be lived out in the Apocalyptic reality of the coming of Jesus. The lives of Christians are to declare as a trumpet that our God has come down as the Prophet has prayed.

 Our God has, in the person of Jesus comes down and continues to come down to each and all through his Holy Son Jesus through the Holy Spirit. 

 We are as Christians to have our lives filled with the Apocalyptic reality of our Lord Jesus’ coming, his Advent to us, not just someday in the years to come but even here and now. Our lives are to be lived out with this present hope which is to declare the future reality of Jesus’ coming, his Advent, to all people.

 This is Hope of the Advent season, the hope of Jesus’ coming to each and all now, not just someday.

Benediction: May we each and all live out the reality of our Lord Jesus’ coming to us through the Gospel, today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.

 

Rev. Todd Crouch, Pastor 

Topinabee Community Church

Topinabee, Michigan 

If You Would Like to Know More About or to Support the Ministry of Topinabee Community Church You Can go to Our Web Site.

https://topinabeechurch.org/index.html

You Can Follow Topinabee Community Church on Face Book 

https://www.facebook.com/Topinabeecommunitychurch

                    "If It Is Not About Jesus, It Is Not About Anything"

All Things New

 

Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" 2Cor:5:17

We live in a time when hope is diminished in the land. It is is a time when some people feel that their lives are meaningless and without hope. Hope is dead for many and unfortunately even Christians can succumb to this sense of hopelessness.

Hopelessness

 Hope for many is dead, some don’t even know that there can be hope, they live out their hopelessness in meaningless pursuits or they live with misplaced hopes looking to something in which to find their needs met, yet it never seems to fulfill that deep need.

Dead Spiritually 

Many people pass through life unaware of what Jesus Christ has accomplished on their behalf, that everything needed for salvation has been accomplished for them by and in Christ. This salvation is there for them , an all-new life is there ,they could experience it, yet they do not.

They do not know that a whole new life is there for them, but instead of this new life much of humanity goes its way in ignorance or indifference, and in some cases rejection of who Jesus is.

They are dead spiritually, that is, they are not living that life which they could be, as were all of us, until through Jesus, God moved to make away for a whole new life.  

"And You being dead in your sins and the circumcision of your flesh" Col: 2:13a.

This is how we all conducted ourselves, dead in our sins, yet, this is the state of spiritual slumber humanity lives out of in the ignorance of who Jesus Christ is.

 We “lived” in death. There was no hope in this ignorance of who our Lord is and all that Jesus has done for humanity. This sense of deadness characterizes the lives of millions. Too many follow after meaningless pursuits and attempts to give humanities' temporary existence meaning, but nothing answers this need.

All around us there are those whose lives are marked with attempts to gratify the flesh hoping to fill this hopeless void within themselves. It is almost, as if they are searching for evidence that they are alive. These varies pursuits might tantalize and stimulate for a time, but it can't last.

Many think only in terms of “the now” , many people seem to be going nowhere ,lives becomes meaningless, hopelessness leads some to a life of futile pursuits , sin and debauchery.

One reason the society around us is degrading into sinful life styles and the abandonment of moral purity is, the loss of hope. When hope fails moral restraints are cast away, the idea is "live for the moment".

This is the very state that our Lord has come to set us free from, to give us all redemption, to instill new meaning to life all through Jesus, we could not have done it for ourselves.

"He has quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses “Col: 2:13b

 New Creation

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" 2Cor:5:17

 We are new creations, now, not will be. This newness is experienced by belief and faith in who Jesus is, that is, when we believe in Jesus we see what Jesus has done for us our lives are made new in Him.

The early church thought deeply about the entrance of Jesus into human history ,they pondered its meaning, they asked "what did it mean?" what had changed in humanities relationship with God? 

St.Paul says in  2Cor:5:14 "we have considered", this tells us that though prayer, discussion, and most possibly with contention the early church developed a theology regarding the incarnation and it's impact upon humanities relationship with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  

What is it that they considered? "That one died for all, therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who for them and was raised again"  2Cor:5:14-15  

"I am the Resurrection"

  "I am the Resurrection" when we read this so often we think of this as speaking of Jesus' coming again from the grave , or any future resurrection, but Jesus says this even before his own death.

The resurrection is who Jesus is not just an event that Jesus is a part of. The bodily resurrection of Jesus only showed what has always been eternally true. Death can not hold him, this is why we read in the Book of Acts, which quotes the Psalm.

 "you will not permit your Holy One to see corruption"Act:13:35

The power of Jesus being the Resurrection changes us , and all things forever, for if Jesus does not live we could not live either. 

 In Jesus "all died" , and in Jesus the same "all", we are told, has been "raised" . Jesus could do this as being fully God yet fully human. He has brought the race(all) out of death into life, and can be entered into by simply accepting it by grace.  

Out of death we are brought into a new life with and by and Him. Jesus Being God , is not bound or confined by time, therefore his life, death and resurrection has eternal impact, stretching from eternity past and into eternity future , and touching even all humanity.

The Death of Nothing

There was nothing, that is materially, in the nothingness of the past before creation , and out of this nothing, and it was into the nothingness of death God spoke and brought the material creation into being. The Lord God brings creation and life out of the death of nothing.

"In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth" Gen:1:1 

In the Gospel of St. John, the Apostle is moved by the Holy Spirit to open his account of the life of Jesus in the eternity past , even before the Great God brought the universe into being.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God .He was with God in the beginning"  Jhn:1:1-2 . 

St. John here is using an important literary device, by equating the coming of the Messiah with the uses of the words " In beginning", we see the opening words of the creation epic. St. John is stating that the introduction of Jesus into human history ,as one of us, is a creation event, an all new creation, and in Jesus this new creation is accomplished , as well as, speaking that the very one who created is the one of whom St. John and the other Apostles were proclaiming. God has brought life out of death by Jesus alone. Jesus is life incarnate and has come to retrieve our material nature out of the nothingness of death's grasp.

All Things New

When we see this, and come believe that God makes All Things New in his Son Jesus, this gives us hope of the New Creation that he has made us to be in Jesus; and that we could not have done this on our own . He did it all for us through Jesus Christ.

We are now a new creation, made new, then we walk in newness of life, this new life is what St. Paul wrote of to Roman Christians in his epistle Rom:6:4,  we are now alive and in Jesus.

We are assured of a life in eternity with our Lord Jesus Christ, we have hope . A real hope. A hope that is ours' here and now not just someday in eternity to come, but an all new life here and now upon the Earth.

To Whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory mystery among the gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of Glory" Col:1:27

This hope sustains us even in the face of adversity and crisis, ever with our eyes focused on Jesus, as the One ,who gives us such hope, Rom:8:18-25.

In Eternity 

In the end, what has been made true is that the New Creation which he has made us to be , will be ours' completely and fully. It will be what Jesus has already accomplished for us all fully experienced.

All Things Made New in Jesus. All those things of this life ,and even the old creation will all pass away, leaving only the New Creation . Rev:21:1-3.  

 These words speak of things that are, in truth, beyond the minds of any of us to fully take in and comprehend.

God gives each of us just a glimpse of this eternity that is for each who will but freely receive it.

Yet, there will be some, that will reject this freely given Gift of God, they love their sin more than their Savior. 

But God has called us to have all things made new in his Holy Son Jesus, even here and now and on into Eternity.

Benediction: May we each and all live in that newness of life found only in Jesus, today, tomorrow and forevermore .Amen.

 

Rev. Todd Crouch, Pastor 

Topinabee Community Church

Topinabee, Michigan 

If You Would Like to Know More About or to Support the Ministry of Topinabee Community Church You Can go to Our Web Site.

https://topinabeechurch.org/index.html

You Can Follow Topinabee Community Church on Face Book 

https://www.facebook.com/Topinabeecommunitychurch

                    "If It Is Not About Jesus, It Is Not About Anything"

The Cloud

 

And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight"Acts:1:9

 After giving the Disciples, the Great Commission of proclaiming the Gospel Jesus was then taken up into the Heavens and enveloped with in a cloud. At the Accession of our Lord Jesus Christ, he was enveloped by a cloud which hid him from his Disciples immediate view.

Like many things that our Lord did and said, at first the Disciples, and we, may not have fully grasped the import or the message. Nothing that Jesus did, or does, is an accident. Everything that relates to Jesus is of great importance and speaks to us about who our Lord is and what he does.

What message do we find then in our Lord being enveloped by a cloud? What does this teach to those who follow our Lord?

To understand why Jesus was taken into a cloud we need to return to the Old Testament, the body of writings that we are told speaks to us about Jesus. John: 5:39-47, Luke:24:25-27,44-45

The Cloud in the Wilderness

That is, all the Old Testament speaks to us about Jesus Christ. The Old Testament is the Incarnation Anticipated as the New Testament is the Incarnation Accomplished.

Jesus is found throughout the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation. The Writers of the New Testament understood this, and after the resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit to give them inspiration and understanding, they began to see our Lord throughout the Old Testament.

Jesus is there, even in the wanderings of the Children of Israel. St. Luke , in his history of the Apostolic Church records the sermon of the Deacon St. Stephen to the religious leaders. St. Stephen’s message points away from the Temple at Jerusalem and toward the person of Jesus. St. Stephen is insistent that Jesus, and not the Temple, is the focus of God's purpose and our relationship with God.

 St. Stephen declares that Jesus is and always has been this focus, even citing that Jesus is God and, as such, Jesus is the very one who led Israel in the cloud that went before them, which was manifesting the presences of the Lord.

"This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spoke to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give to us" Acts:7:38

St. Stephen is telling the Jews, and we, that it is Jesus who there in the cloud. This cloud which was a visual manifestation of the Lord's presences and is found in several places in the Scriptures.

This cloud is the Shekinah, in Hebrew it means to dwell or to inhabit. It shares a common entomology with the Hebrew word Mishkan, a form which is used for the Tabernacle, where God dwelt, where the people of Israel met their God. 

Meeting God

Moses met God as the cloud descend atop the highths of Sinai. The manifestation was one of power and was accompanied by the blast of a heavenly trumpet. Tempest and lighting and roaring of thunder. The whole of the mountain was shaken, showing that the Lord God was present.

"The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you.” Then Moses told the Lord what the people had said."Ex:19:9

"On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.

The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain."(16-20)

Moses met the Lord in the Tabernacle as the cloud descend to it.

"And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses."Ex:33:9

The Cloud on the Mountain

The one who descended there upon the mountain was the very one who came in the Person of Jesus Christ, there the Lord "proclaims the name of the Lord" to Moses.

"And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children's children, to the third and to the fourth generation. And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. And he said, If now I have found grace in your sight, O LORD, let my LORD, I pray you, go among us; for it is a stiff necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance." Ex: 34:5-9

 Moses met the Lord surrounded by the cloud, and hears God's word and Moses' responds by worshiping.

 When the Cloud Moves

As the Lord God led Israel through the Wilderness toward the Promised Land, Israel would encamp and stay in a given place until the cloud moved, when the cloud moved Israel moved, when it stopped, they stopped. This tells us that God was controlling the overall direction of the people of Israel. At the close of the book of Exodus, after a display of the glory of God, we read.

"And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys: But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys." Ex: 40:37-38

 Cloud On the Temple

At the dedication of the Temple at Jerusalem the very presence of the Great God, the same that is seen leading Israel, is here, descended to the sound of Trumpets as one hundred and twenty priest sing hymns of praise to God in unity, and fills the Temple with his glory so fully, that the Priest could not stay in the Sanctuary but were forced to go out into the court.

"And came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were in unity, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endures forever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD; So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God." 2Chron:5:13-14

When they were in unity, then the glory filled the Temple, the presence of God was manifested in a powerful way as they worshiped and gave glory to the God of Israel. We see ,that in this moment at the Temple of God what is spoken of in Psalm:22:3- "God inhabits the praises of His people". This speaks of that where our Lord is praised his presences is manifested. 

Our Praises does not "work up" God's divine presence, it simply brings us to realize that he is present. Jesus is with us. He is within the Temple of his church.

 Where He Meets Us Still

 Like in the Temple and Tabernacles of ages past, our Lord still meets us today within his church, the living Jesus who came and dwelt among us as one of us in his incarnation still meets us.

 "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." Jhn: 1:14

We meet our Lord in the Tabernacle of His humanity. It is here that God reveals himself to each and all in the person of His Son Jesus.

“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from  you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me" Jhn:17:6-8

Jesus in the Cloud

The very one who led the people of Israel through the self-illuminating cloud of the Shekinah is the very one who came to humanity in the person of Jesus.

This truth is also seen atop the Mount of Transfiguration where Jesus is seen glorified by the overwhelmed Disciples. Here the voice of God affirming the divine Sonship of Jesus is heard and the cloud surrounded them all as the fell before His glory. 

"While he yet spoke, behold, a bright cloud enveloped them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear you him. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only" .Matt:17:5-8

This moment of seeing the glory of Jesus in the cloud is again an affirmation that Jesus is the one who led the Children of Israel in their Journey toward the Promised Land. 

The cloud would have invoked within the minds of the first Disciples, all who were Jewish, the racial memory of the cloud that their ancestors followed. They would have understood the message of Jesus being enveloped by the cloud.

This told them, and tells us, that the one whom protected, provided for, and led Israel will do the same for the Church. That Israel, as St. Stephen called them "the Church in the Wilderness". As the Lord was with Israel before the incarnation, so Jesus is with his people the Church in the wilderness of this world after the resurrection.

 Jesus Hid By Cloud

Acts records that the cloud hid Jesus from the Apostles view, this teaches us all, that we are to walk by faith and not by sight, to trust our Lord Jesus that he is and will always be with us. And it is when we worship in unity giving Jesus praise, it is then, that we come to discern his abiding presences within the Temple of the Church.

"Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him" Heb:10:38

Jesus, in his accession, is demonstrating that he will lead his Church, protect and provided for it in all of its wanderings throughout the ages just as he did with the Children of Israel. 

In all that the Church faces, Jesus is with us, with all Christians. Jesus will lead us forward moving us ever onward, overseeing the Church's journey to the Promised land of his Kingdom, and even when we enter times of the encampments of little progress, where the cloud of his leading makes no sign of moving, even as with Israel, Jesus will be there as our Shepherd in times of hardship, whatever occurs, he is there with us by way of the Holy Spirit.

"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you." Jhn:14:15-20

 Jesus' ascension, and being hid by the cloud speaks volumes, it tells us that Jesus will lead us onward to the conclusion of His purpose for each and all and is far from being an abandonment of his people, it is rather, a powerful affirmation that Jesus is ever with us as he was with Israel, and that he will do more for us than we can even begin to grasp.

None need to fear, Jesus is with us, his eyes are upon us, he will lead us onward. Jesus is the one in the cloud who is ever present in each of our lives. The cloud tells us all that Jesus will never leave us nor forsake us he will lead us all to the Promised Land of his glorious Kingdom.

Jesus is as he spoke to the Disciples in Matt: 28:20b. "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age".

Benediction: May we each and all ever trust our Lord to lead us and guide us ever in life, today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.

 

Rev. Todd Crouch, Pastor 

Topinabee Community Church

Topinabee, Michigan 

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                    "If It Is Not About Jesus, It Is Not About Anything"