“Expectation of Fulfillment"
December 23, 2012
The 4th Sunday of Advent
Micah 5: 2 – 4/Psalm 80: 1 – 7/Hebrews 10: 5 – 10/Luke 1: 39 - 56
His Eminence
The Most Reverend Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines D.D.
Archbishop of Manila
and
Primate
of the
National Church in the Philippines
and
the Territorial Church of Asia
International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church
The banners help us to know God a little bit better. They are proclaiming the character of Christ, but a personal relationship is the only way these characters can be alive to us. We can say we know, we can say we believe, but unless it comes from the heart, it does not do as much good, any good.
The quietness for this Season has with it the intention of us realizing that when we worship, it comes from us not from another source. It has to come out from the heart. Scriptures says that unless you are obedient, you cannot worship. Obedience is required for worship to be accepted. If a child is rebelling against his parents and saying, “I have a good parent,” will the parent receive that? No, because the obedience is not there.
Many times we think and say, “God, I love you” and go on and do our own thing and everything will be okay. This is not true. We must recognize and realize the necessity of obedience, of following. The banners help us proclaim and declare the character of God. Power – do you think of God as One who can knock down anything that He wants? This is not what it is about. Everything exists because of the power of Christ. Nothing exists that He did not create and sustain whether it is the sun, the moon, the stars or the ability of the earth to bring forth. All of that is because of God’s power, through Christ.
As we begin to receive this, we begin to recognize that everything is dependent upon Him. There is nothing that does not have the need to depend upon Him. He is power; He is might; He is dominion; He is authority. We think we can just live our own lives the way we want and everything is going to be okay. I will not tell you that because of doing that, a person would go to hell. I would not say that because I don’t know. This is God’s responsibility. He is the only Judge. The one thing I know is that if we are obedient, things will be much smoother and much better for us. God did not promise that we would never have a problem, but He did promise us that if we have a problem, He would be the answer. He would be with us to lead us through the problem. In so doing, we are also strengthened.
We look at the “Expectation of Fulfillment.” God has promised many things in the Old Testament. We see that what He promised, He brought to existence and He fulfilled when Christ became flesh and dwelt among us. In Micah, it tells us that out of Bethlehem Ephrathah, a little tiny town that did not qualify to be a part of the clans of Israel, from here, One was coming to come to rule the world. He was coming to fulfill the promise of God. The Old Testament gives us the awareness that Christ was coming. It foretold His coming in detail so that no one could miss.
Israel did not accept the coming of Christ. They did not believe that this was the Messiah. It was the Wise Men from afar. These men were what we call Moslems. They recognized the coming of Christ and that it was something that was fulfilling the promise. They made the two-year journey to come to Christ to bring the gifts – gold, frankincense, and myrrh – their all and they were not even of Israel.
In our lives, do we know the promise that God given to us? Do we believe that He will fulfill the promise? Most of our anxiety today and much of our stress comes because we really don’t believe God. He said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Yet how many times do we believe that we are all alone and we ask the question, “Where is God?”
Listening to the news, I heard about of the twenty children that were murdered in Connecticut where the people asked, “Where was God?” God was there. They asked, “Why didn’t He stop him?” God did not cause it. It was the sin of man that caused the problem. God was there, in the midst of it. His compassion, His love, and all that Him was there. But if man does not submit and follow in obedience to God, then the consequences of that come. Where those children rebellious? Were those children sinners? I don’t think that it was the children that could cause this. But a nation that says, “We are not Christians”; a nation that says, “You can’t pray in school”; a nation that says, “We have to take God out of everything. We can’t mention God in anything.” A nation that says, “You can’t have a Belen on public property.” Is this not rebelling against God?
The consequence then is on men, not on God. It isn’t God’s fault. It is our rebellion, going our own way. The Old Testament, God said, “Choose you this day who you will serve.” But He also said, “Choose life.” It wasn’t that He was giving choice. He was telling us what would happen if we didn’t follow. Do we believe that what He has promised will come true? Do we believe that His provision for us is real? If only we believe, if only we have confidence in Him.
God enriches us but for a purpose so that we will bring glory to Him. He hasn’t given this for our enjoyment. He doesn’t give it for our being exalted and having much and feeling secure with that much. Our security doesn’t come with these things. Our security comes in our relationship with God and the promise of God to us, but we have learned to put our security in material things. We drive ourselves as fast as we come to make more and to have more and to look like we prosper. Does it bring peace? Does it bring fulfillment? The only thing it brings us is a desire to have more and more. We become slaves of that but God blesses so that we can build His kingdom and bring glory and honor to Him.
When we find these things in our lives, do we then realize that our confidence, our trust in Him is the very foundation of our lives? God will supply all of our needs. He may not supply all we want because maybe we really don’t need some of the things we want. Maybe we can get along a lot better without some of them, but because everybody else has it, we have to have it too. We go down the path of lust and greed following others rather than following Christ.
Look at the simplicity of Christ’s life. He didn’t have an entourage of soldiers or a camel to ride on. His life was simple because He had one goal: bringing glory and honor to God. Scriptures says, “In everything you do, do all for the glory of God.” In our lives today, where are we in our goals? Are we building for ourselves rather than building His kingdom? Doing for Him? When you do for Him, you know the principle then, He takes care of you. The more you give to Him, the more He gives back to you because He can trust you.
We have to build this trust if we are going to have the expectation of His promises coming through. Some were declaring that December 21, 2012 was going to be the end of the world. The calendar of the Mayan came to an end and so they said, “This is going to be the end.” There were only a few who believed that because most believed that the world can’t come to an end until Christ has fulfilled His promise to mankind. Christ wants a Body that will build His kingdom.
Hebrews 10 tells us that no longer is the old there. Christ wiped away it. No longer the sacrifices, the things that were temporary; no longer the blood of animals. Christ gave His blood that we no longer need the forgiveness because He forgave. He did what He promised He would do. He would come and redeem us and He would become our Shepherd. He would watch over us; He would guide us. He would protect us like a shepherd would, but we rebel against the shepherd. We don’t believe that He really will take care of us, so we build our own security systems which are then anti-Christ because they are against the very kingdom of God.
We look forward to the coming of Christ. He came first as a child. God said He would. The Old Testament proclaimed it and it came just exactly the way it was proclaimed. God fulfilled His promise. Now, the promise is a body. Christ has been given first a body; the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This was symbolic of the Body that He was building which would be His church. His church would do His work. His church would build His kingdom. The Holy Spirit will work with the Church, and the Church was to represent Him on this earth and they would build His kingdom and bring salvation to the whole world.
Christ said before He left, “Go ye into the whole world and preach the gospel and baptize in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Scriptures says, “The day will come when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.” Do we believe this? Do we expect this? Do we think this is going to happen or do we just say, “Look at the world, it is getting worse and worse. Sin is seemingly taking over.” Maybe, for a moment, but it is on those things that people begin to realize their need of Christ.
After 9/11 in the United States, the Church was filled to overflowing because of the tragedy. In Connecticut, immediately the Churches were filled. I saw pictures of the Church where hundreds of people were on the outside and they couldn’t go in. In tragedy, when things aren’t right, they know they have to come to Christ. Man brings the world to this point of tragedy and he realizes he has to find help someplace else.
Isaiah tells us that the day will come when the system of the world will collapse and they will say, “Come, let us go up to the chief of the mountains, to Zion, and let us say to them, ‘Teach us your ways.’” Their ways have failed so they are looking to the Church for guidance. They are looking for the Church for that Word that will bring them the direction.
Do we have that? Can we share that with others so that others can also realize the reality, the life of Christ that He has given to us? Are we ready to bring that example to others? We are supposed to be expecting these? We are supposed to have faith that this is going to happen. We should be preparing ourselves for such. We should be preparing ourselves to reach out to the lost, the hungry, those who are downtrodden. We are to take life to them and lift them up and build them up for the glory of God and His kingdom.
Are we ready to handle this? Are we ready to bring this to existence? Do we know the promises? Do we really trust the One who made the promise? Do we believe that it will come true? Our God is a great God. Scriptures says that He is the One who gives blessings, riches; the One who blesses. We are the ones to bless Him. Our whole life is to be a blessing to Him. It is not something for ourselves. What are we giving to others? What are we doing in behalf of others that He can be glorified in all that we do?
In Luke 1, Mary comes to the house of Elizabeth. Elizabeth is pregnant before Mary. We have very little understanding of a fetus in the womb. We don’t comprehend the life that is there. When Mary comes into the room with Elizabeth and she greets Elizabeth, John, the fetus in the womb, jumps. The fetus knew what was taking place. There was an awareness that Mary was with the Messiah in the womb. That baby understood the circumstance and responded.
We have a little understanding of the development of a child in the womb. Scriptures tell us that God forms that child from the moment of conception. He develops that child, and John had a ministry to fulfill. Christ also had a ministry to fulfill. Do we believe that every one of those children in that womb is given a ministry? Do we have the confidence, the assurance, and the awareness that God is the One who has caused that life? He is the One who brought that gift of life, that fetus. As He has given that gift, He gives also direction, guidance as that child is developing so that the child will fulfill the portion of the provision that is building the Kingdom.
As a parents, as our child is still in the womb, many times, we are planning for that child what he is going to become. We want him to become a doctor, a lawyer and all these dreams for the child. Have we stopped to realize that child in that womb got its life from God and if that life came from God, there is also came with it direction. There came guidance; there came an ability to bring forth gifts that God has given.
The whole purpose of that life is building the kingdom. It is not the world of man, but the kingdom of God. Do we see this as that which God had set as the course, the direction for building His kingdom? Every child is a building stone that goes into that body and causes the body to be a living stone. Peter says, “There is not one who does not have a place in the building of that Body for Christ, for His kingdom.” We have lost sight and direction of this.
In Elizabeth and Mary, it is shown very vividly to us how that the baby responds. He leaped in the womb and what happened to Elizabeth? Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. God was preparing John in the womb to be the messenger in the wilderness. Smoothing out the rough places and bringing the high places down and filling in the low places, preparing the way of the Lord.
This was John’s task – preparing the way of the Lord. In Mary, the Messiah, Christ, was being formed so that He would come as a messenger of God to the people. He would come bringing hope and light. He would come bringing deliverance. He would be willing all the way to go to the cross in order to fulfill the will of the Father.
We have gotten away from this understanding. We have gotten away from this awareness that everyone of us has that situation that God has given to us that if we would develop it, it would cause great things to happen. Look at John’s life. Look at how he prepared the way of the Lord and how that many came out of the cities to greet Him. John did not have fancy clothes. He did not have a building or those things that will naturally draw man, but he had the Spirit of God upon him. He knew his gift was to share, to prepare the people for the coming of Christ.
When they asked John, “Are you the Christ?” He said, “No, I am not the Christ. I am the one preparing for the Christ. I only baptize you with water. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” John wasn’t taking any credit for himself. He had a job to do. He had a task to do and he didn’t want people looking at him. He was only fulfilling the will of the Father.
This portion of Luke is very powerful to talk to us about our place in the Body of Christ. Look at Mary. Elizabeth says of Mary, “You will be honored among all women.” Is not Mary today lifted high? Shouldn’t we give her credit for her willingness as a sixteen year old young lady? As I was reading what she said, I said, “Wow, a sixteen year old today wouldn’t have the ability to say what she said!” There was an anointing on her because she was willing to risk her life to be obedient to Christ.
Mary said of Christ, “My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regard for the humble state of His bondslave. For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is His name.” Mary is not taking credit for this at all. She is talking about Christ, what God is going to do, because of her willingness to be obedient.
“And His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him. He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers form their thrones and has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things; and sent away the rich empty handed. He has given help to Israel His servant, in remembrance of His mercy, and He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his offspring forever.” Can you imagine a sixteen year old young lady having the ability to speak in such awareness and prophesy what was coming? This is the beauty of obedience. If we find ourselves in obedience, something begins to work within us and it brings out of us that which God has planted within us.
We are looking forward to the coming of Christ. Yes, He came once. He was born and we reenact that at this time of the year; but the time will come soon when He will come back again. If we really believe it, we will be preparing for this. This is what Advent is all about. This is why we have done what we have done this year.
On the first Sunday, I was shocked when we came to the Creed and we couldn’t quote the Creed. We have sung it and because we sing it, sometimes the things we do that way don’t come of the heart. We do it out of our head. When the support is gone, we don’t know what to do. It has to come from the heart. On the second Sunday, when we said we won’t be singing, when the music started, there were those who were just singing aloud and boisterously because they were emotionally stirred by the music. What we need is the stirring from the heart, not from an outside source. It has to come from the heart.
In the midst of silence, that which is in the heart gives stability to us. There is nothing supporting us. It comes out. Scriptures says, “Out of your innermost being shall flow the rivers of living water.” It is not going to come out from the outside. It is not going to come out from a support system. It is going to come out of us.
You can sense in the silence that we get nervous. We get restless. Can we do something? Can we have some music? Can somebody say something? Silence is to let God speak to us. It is to meditate and understand the situation around us. Normally, we move fast to do things that we don’t have a time to meditate on things. We want things to move, “Come on, keep on going. We can’t have the silence.” What is wrong with the silence? It is in the silence when God speaks to us. It is in the silence when Scriptures become alive. It is in the silence where the reality of our salvation brings stability to us.
We are not going to have silence all the time, but what we wanted to do is to bring this awareness in us that stability within us, “I don’t have the music on. I can turn-off my MP3, my Ipod. I don’t have to have those plugs in my ears and turn on the TV or the radio. I don’t have to have noise.” From the heart comes something special and something ministers that brings peace and strength and stability.
I just returned from the funeral of Betty Adler, the wife of Archbishop Adler. To watch the family and their strength and in their stability in the midst of pain, in the midst of sadness, they were not overburdened with the grief. They were grieving but there was a joy that came out of the innermost being because they knew that to be absent from the body was to be present with the Lord. The son said, “I do not grieve for my mother to return. I do not feel bad that she has gone. I am rejoicing because I know that she in the presence of the Lord.”
An awareness that has to come from the inside. The outside is screaming at you. The separation, the loss, the emptiness, all of these things that you didn’t get to do, problems you were not able to straighten out before this happened; but inside, you know and it gives you that ability to stand firm and to stand strong in the midst of the turmoil.
This is how we’ve got to stand. The world around us is going to crumble. The world around us is going to many different ways. If we don’t have that stability, we will be also lost with them. We will be pulled away from the provision of God’s blessing. Lost is not going to hell, but the blessing is not manifested and the peace is not there; the joy is gone because there is a death that comes when we do not walk with God.
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