Category: Church Calendar

LUKE 2:8-10

⁸Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. ¹⁰Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

In every Christmas pageant and every nativity scene there are always shepherds with staffs and lambs because of this part of the Bible. Shepherds and sheep show us about God’s leaders and God’s people and even God Himself. If we were to visit that hillside on the first Christmas Eve we would see that shepherds are ordinary folks with dirt under their fingernails and mud on their sandals. That night they were probably sitting around a campfire telling stories watching for dogs or wolves. Maybe they were talking about a very famous shepherd that lived in the same area, King David. Then suddenly they were very surprised and afraid because of the glory and light of the angel’s presence. Continue reading “Seventeenth Day of Advent”

LUKE 2:1–7
¹And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. ²This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. ³So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. ⁴Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, ⁵to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. ⁶So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. ⁷And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT
If I were to ask you to tell me the story of the birth of Jesus, where would you fit the name “Quirinius” in? You would probably tell me about the shepherds and how there was no room at the inn. You might work in something about swaddling clothes and a manger, but you would probably be hard-pressed to shoehorn into the story much about the Syrian governor Quirinius. So would I. I can’t ever remember mentioning his name in my own tellings of the story. You probably don’t have a Governor Quirinius action figure to go along with your nativity scene. Continue reading “Sixteenth Day of Advent”

LUKE 1:57-80—The Benedictus—Zechariah’s Song

^57Now Elizabeth’s full time came for her to be delivered, and she brought forth a son. ^58When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her. ^59So it was, on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him by the name of his father, Zacharias. ^60His mother answered and said, ”No; he shall be called John.” ^61But they said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.” ^62So they made signs to his father—what he would have him called.^63And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, saying, “His name is John.” So they all marveled. ^64Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, praising God.^65Then fear came on all who dwelt around them; and all these sayings were discussed throughout all the hill country of Judea.^66And all those who heard them kept them in their hearts, saying, “What kind of child will this be?”And the hand of the Lord was with him.

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

There are four “New Testament Psalms” in the book of Luke which the Church has sung throughout its history, particularly during Advent. Their names are taken from the first word of each song in the Latin Vulgate translation: “The Magnificat” sung by Mary—”My soul magnifies the Lord” —Luke 1:4-6; “The Benedictus” sung by Zechariah— “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel”—Luke 1:67-69; “The Gloria in Excelsis” sung by the angels—”Glory to God in the highest” —Luke 2:13-14; and “The Nunc Dimittis” sung by Simeon—”Now let Your servant depart, O Lord”—Luke 2:22-32. The song before us today, “The Benedictus” is a revelation from God. Zacharias was “filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied…” (v. 67). He does not speak as a private individual but as a prophet in Israel, to Israel. His son, John the Forerunner, will be the last of the Old Covenant prophets. He would be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb. Continue reading “Fifteenth Day of Advent”

LUKE 1:34-35

³⁴Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” ³⁵And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.”

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

In response to the angel’s statement that Mary will conceive in her womb and bring forth a son, Mary asks, “How can this be? How can this be, since I do not know a man?” Upon a cursory reading of the text, we might assume that Mary’s response is one of faithless disbelief. Yet this seems unlikely…. How could it be that the one chosen to bear the only-begotten Son of God be lacking in faith? How could it be that Zechariah who had not believed was condemned to silence, but Mary, if she had not believed, would be exalted by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit? No… Mary’s “How can this be?” was same “How can this be” that a child utters the first time he peer through a microscope and sees a world that he never knew existed in a tiny drop of water. It is the “How can this be” of wonder and awe. It is a “How can this be” that bows down, submitting to a divine mystery that not even she will ever fully comprehend. It is a question that springs from the heart of one who ends the thought with “Yet… not my will, but Your will be done.”

It is then that the Holy Spirit comes down and works things which are beyond description and understanding in the life of the believer. Ah, the mystery of the incarnation.

—Pastor Gene Liechty, Christ Church, Cary, North Carolina

PRAYER

Creator God, we praise You for all the mysteries which You have placed round about us. They are too wonderful for us and we ask with the writer in Proverbs 30: “Who can understand the way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, or the way of a man with a virgin?” Yet, Father, when we come to the incarnation, we arrive at Your greatest work of all… a virgin conceives, eternity takes on flesh, and the world is forever changed. We praise you for this mystery and we thank You for giving us the faith to believe the unimaginable. In Jesus name we pray, AMEN.
ADVENT APPLICATION

Talk with your family about some of the outlandish promises that God makes in regard to you and your children and your future. Discuss the origin and importance of faith in our lives as we walk this God.

We praise you, the Lord God Almighty,
who is and who was.
You have assumed your great power,
you have begun your reign.

The nations have raged in anger,
but then came your day of wrath
and the moment to judge the dead:
The time to reward your servants the prophets
and the holy ones who revere you,
the great and the small alike.

Now have salvation and power come,
the reign of our God and the authority
of his Anointed One.
For the accuser of our brothers is cast out,
who night and day accused them before God.

They defeated him by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
love for life did not deter them from death.
So rejoice, you heavens,
and you that dwell therein!

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
– as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

LUKE 1:32-33

^32He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.^33And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

In these verses the angel Gabriel has already told Mary that she would have a son and that His name would be Jesus. He has told her not to be afraid and one of the reasons she should not be afraid is that her new son would be great. Her baby was no ordinary human who would be born and then grow up and eventually die. He would be great. Of course, we know how great He would be because we can look back at what He did and who He is. But Mary couldn’t do that. She could only listen to Gabriel and accept what He said. And He said the most amazing things! Jesus would be called the Son of the Highest. There is only one way to understand those words: Mary’s little baby boy would be called the Son of God. Can you imagine how she felt looking down into the manger nine months later and thinking that this little child was the very Son of God? But Gabriel had more amazing things to say about the baby that was growing inside Mary. He would be given the throne of David and therefore rule over the people of God forever. God promised that David would never be without a descendant on His throne and now Mary’s little baby was going to sit on that throne forever, ruling God’s people in love and justice.

—Pastor Gene Franklin, Jr., St. David’s Church, Hockley, Texas

PRAYER

O Lord, you have been so gracious to keep your promises to your people. Long ago you promised that David would always have a descendant on the throne of Israel, then you sent your Son to make sure that will always be true. Please give us that same spirit of faithfulness. In Jesus’ name we ask it, AMEN.

ADVENT APPLICATION

Talk with your family about the importance of keeping your promises and show then that God was always faithful to keep His.

LUKE 1:26-31
²⁶ Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” ²⁹But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. ³⁰ Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

Do you like surprises? God sure does. He likes ad libs and pretzelly plot lines. Take this passage for instance. How many surprises can you count?

Well, maybe you found more than I, but here goes. First, imagine an angel appearing to you. Angels are scary people. That certainly must have made Mary drop something valuable. Gabriel gave no advanced warning. He didn’t make an appointment. One minute, Mary is day dreaming about her wedding to Joseph, and then—pop!—Gabriel is there in the living room, “Rejoice highly favored one!” Another surprise is wherethis girl lived. She lived in Galilee of the Gentiles. The Jews from Judah had a habit of harrumphing around Galilean Jews. But this is a surprise within a surprise, because God chose not just a distasteful region, but perhaps the worst town He could find within it. Nazareth. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Why, actually. . . yes. Jesus did. Is anything better? Surprise!

And then, Gabriel came to see a surprising person. Mary was a poor girl, living in a gross city. You never would have thought to look at her, but within this humble girl ran the blood of Ancient Kings. And Mary was surprised not only by the sudden arrival of the angel, but by what he said. He called her, highly favored one. Certainly she did not think of herself this way. Had Gabriel got the wrong house? The next big surprise came when she learned she was to have the baby, Jesus. How could she be pregnant when she was not married? And God wasn’t even through with the surprises, though I am through with my verses, and my allotted space.

Why does God give so many surprises? Why does he do things so differently than we would? Well first, just because He likes to. But also, He chooses foolish things to shame the wise, and weak things he chooses to shame the mighty. A baby and a pregnant virgin and a backward town of second-rate Jews—these are weak things. And through them, God upended the world.

—Pastor Joost Nixon, Christ Church, Spokane, Washington

PRAYER

Almighty Father, you show your power in hidden ways. You use weak things to overcome the mighty, and foolish things to overcome the wise. We praise you for sending Jesus in the way you did, and for hiding things from the proud, and revealing them to babes. Grant us the humility, Father, to see the wisdom of your foolishness, and the power of your impotency. AMEN.

ADVENT APPLICATION

God saved us from His wrath through unexpected ways. And He grants smaller salvations, daily, after the same style. Give an example of how God has surprised you with one of His deliverances.

MATTHEW 1:22-25
So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: ²³”Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” ²⁴Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, ²⁵and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus.

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT
The prophet Isaiah said that Jesus would be called Immanuel, which means literally God with us! (Isaiah 7:14). The prophet goes on in the next chapter to explain how the people of Israel were not to fear their earthly enemies. Rather he tells them,” Jehovah of hosts, Him you shall hallow; let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.  He will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem” (Isaiah 8:13-14).

We see that the God, who is now with us, is to be our dread and our sanctuary. This baby would not grow up to be the wimpy Jesus that is often pictured. Rather He would grow in stature with God and men to become the Savior of the world who we are to properly fear and dread. The one to whom we must flee for sanctuary from the wrath of God (a wrath that is due to us because of our sins), calling only on the name of Jesus to be saved.

The prophet also warns us that we must not allow Jesus to be a stumbling block through unbelief. We must come to Him believing that He is Immanuel, God with us, or else we too will fall and stumble as did many of the inhabitants of Jerusalem in that day.

We see this proper fear and obedience in Joseph who when he awoke “did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.” No doubting or demanding, just simple obedience! Doing what would ruin his “reputation” and be hard to explain to all of his friends, but doing what needed to be done so God’s great plan of salvation would move forward.

This Advent season may we truly see Jesus as Immanuel who has come to save His people from their sins, and may we respond with the faithful and simple obedience of that simple carpenter Joseph. We must remember the promise of Romans 10:13: “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

—Pastor John Stoos, Church of the King, Sacramento, California

PRAYER
Father, we thank you for the gift of your Son Jesus! We thank You that when the time had come you brought Him forth from a virgin to be the Savior of the world. We thank You for His great name Immanuel, reminding us that God has truly visited His people. By your grace, may we live our lives in such a way that we show forth His love to a needy world. AMEN.

ADVENT APPLICATION
Discuss with your family the significance of names. Discuss some of your family names and perhaps share the stories of how some of these names were chosen. You could even look up the meaning of your names. But, most importantly, discuss how we get a new name when we are baptized into the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The world now calls us Christians. We are saved because we have called upon the name of Jesus! What does this mean for how we should live our lives?

MATTHEW 1:18-21
Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. ²⁰But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. ²¹And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT
In this story about the birth of the Messiah, we see Joseph’s godliness under difficult circumstances, his inability to perceive good, and God’s mysterious use of “unlikely” things. Joseph made a worthy attempt to start a family by finding an exemplary young woman, Mary, and becoming engaged to her. Although he behaved honorably, she was suddenly found to be pregnant! How could Mary have “done” this to him? Imagine Joseph’s disappointment and humiliation! How could he marry this woman and bring the apparent shame of infidelity to himself and to his family?

Most people in Joseph’s situation would feel a need to get even and to assert his own innocence by punishing Mary. But we see that the heavenly Father, in His wisdom selected a godly man to act as an earthly father for the Son. Even under the duress of a broken engagement and a sullied reputation, we see Joseph exercising self-control and concern for Mary.

But even with his good disposition, Joseph could not see what was happening or how he should respond. It was only by God’s grace in sending an angel that Joseph could begin to understand that the very one who he thought was unclean and dishonorable was actually the incarnation of righteousness and honor. The one, who appeared to be illegitimate, was the only true Son. The one, who looked like Joseph’s potential ruin, would become not only his Savior, but the world’s Savior.

—Pastor David Givler, Christ Covenant Church, San Antonio, Texas

PRAYER
Our gracious heavenly Father, we thank You that Your good will toward Your children is so pervasive that even bad things turn out to be for our blessing. Send the Holy Spirit to us as you sent the angel to Joseph so that, like him, we can comprehend Your goodness. Help us to have faith like his so that we would be stable and selfless under trying circumstances. And though we are small, weak, and sinful; we pray that You would be pleased to use us as unlikely vessels to glorify yourself. In Jesus’ name we pray, AMEN.

ADVENT APPLICATION
Discuss with your family how God likes to accomplish His will through weak and despised things like a stuttering Moses who would lead Israel out of slavery, a blind man who would be healed, and a little child of inexplicable origin who would save mankind from its sin. If God works through these types of things, should we expect Him to work through our weaknesses? If He does work through our weaknesses, then how should we behave when confronted with difficulties and suffering? What do we need to help us to see God’s goodness and to behave properly at difficult times?

MATTHEW 1
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham: ²Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. ³Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. ⁴Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon. ⁵Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, ⁶and Jesse begot David the king.

David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah. ⁷Solomon begot Rehoboam, Rehoboam begot Abijah, and Abijah begot Asa. ⁸Asa begot Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat begot Joram, and Joram begot Uzziah. ⁹Uzziah begot Jotham, Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah. ¹⁰Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Manasseh begot Amon, and Amon begot Josiah.¹¹Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon.

¹²And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel. ¹³Zerubbabel begot Abiud, Abiud begot Eliakim, and Eliakim begot Azor. ¹⁴Azor begot Zadok, Zadok begot Achim, and Achim begot Eliud. ¹⁵Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot Matthan, and Matthan begot Jacob.¹⁶And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ. ¹⁷So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT
We have just read Jesus’ family tree from the Bible. Our family tree tells us something about us; it tells us where we came from and who our people are. In the same way, Jesus’ family tree tells us something about where Jesus came from and who His people are. It shows God’s love for His people throughout the centuries. It shows that God is continually at work in our world. And, it shows that His faithfulness continues to reach to all generations as His covenant love goes from parents to children. The genealogy of Jesus teaches us that the only way we can get from Abraham to David to Jesus is because of God’s providence. Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, is evidence of God’s planning. That the promises made centuries earlier to Abraham and David are fulfilled in Jesus is proof that it is God who is at work here. The genealogy of Jesus reflects the working out of God’s plan of salvation in history.

—Pastor Randy Booth, Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, Nacogdoches, Texas

PRAYER
Our gracious heavenly Father, Your kind providence has directed all the details of history, including the birth of Christ, our Savior, as well as our own birth and life. We are thankful that You use even sinful men to accomplish all Your holy purposes. Teach us to remember Your faithfulness in the past so that we might rest in You for our future. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.

ADVENT APPLICATION
Discuss with your family how God has used your family tree (the good and the bad) to providentially bring the gospel to your household. Discuss how our adoption by God, through Christ, makes all the genealogy of Jesus our own.