December 2006 chaplain's corner
The Chaplain's Corner is a monthly message for chaplains.
Chaplain’s
Corner – December 15, 2006
Rev. Rich Hines
Have An Angelic, God-Centered Christmas
This message is primarily for those who call on the name of Jesus Christ as
their own Lord and Savior from sin, and serve as a Chaplain in a jail, prison
or a follow-up ministry such as a rescue mission – in the United States.
All Scripture quotes are taken from the New King James Version (NKJV) of the
Bible, copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson,
Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. When quoting a
text, any deviation from the NKJV text is placed within parenthesis signs ().
These usually occur as direct translations from the original languages,
or as notes from the original setting to help apply the text to today’s
culture.
ALL CAPITAL LETTERS are sometimes used to emphasize words in a text, or to make
a comment about a biblical text, or emphasize a statement.
This month we celebrate Christmas. As we do, I think we should strive to be
more like the heavenly angels than earthly men. I say this because I often
sense that there’s too much self in our “Christian”
Christmas celebrations. We should take a lesson from the angels and strive to
be more like them, especially at Christmas.
The Holy Spirit through Luke records how a bright angel from heaven announced
Christ’s birth to lowly shepherds. Then, in Luke 2:13,14
the Scripture says:
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host
(other angels) praising God and saying:
14 “GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
One popular Christmas song has the words, “Jesus is the King, BORN FOR YOU AND ME, …” While that’s true, He was ALSO BORN TO GLORIFY His
Father by obediently going to the cross and redeeming His people. Although they
receive wonderful blessings, believers are born into His family - FOR HIM. Have
you ever turned the words of that Christmas song around and thought, “Jesus is
the King, I AM BORN FOR HIM?”
Holy angels obviously know that those of their kind that sinned with Lucifer,
and were subsequently cast out of heaven, will never be saved (compare Hebrews
2:16). But, these same holy angels (that is the ones that didn’t rebel with
Satan, and therefore don’t need to be saved) are amazed by the wisdom and grace
of God in saving sinful humans.
To save believing sinners, God had to become one of us. Christmas was God in
Christ entering the world to die a substitutionary
death for the sin of His people. As 2 Cor. 5:21 says,
“He (the Father) made Him who knew no sin(Jesus), to
be sin for us,…”
In saving these sinners, God made them into one new family. Non-Jewish people
would become fellow inheritors with true believing Israelites. This new
identity in the New Testament is called “the church” and “the body of Christ.”
This new body was not revealed in the Old Testament,
hence it is what the New Testament calls a “mystery.”
Speaking of saving both groups, and making them one new body, Ephesians 3:9-12
says:
9 …to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the
beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through
Jesus Christ;
10 to the intent that now (meaning after Christ’s first advent) the manifold
wisdom of God might be MADE KNOWN by (or through) the church TO THE
PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS IN THE HEAVENLY PLACES (a reference to angels),
11 according to the eternal purpose (i.e. saving us that believe) which He
accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord,
12 in whom we have boldness with confidence through faith in Him.
Then in the end of 1 Peter 1:12 there’s a phrase that says the salvation
message about what Jesus obtained for His people (spoken of in verses 9-12),
contains:
“ – things which angels desire (literally, ‘intensely long’) to look into.”
Quite literally, here the Bible says heavenly angels get passionate about what
God has done in saving lost men and women. When we think about that fact, we
should be challenged. Why? Because again, the Bible teaches that lost angels
cannot be saved. The remaining holy angels apparently will never sin.
The angels that are seen pouring out praise to God for saving men, are NOT IN ANYWAY THEMSELVES BENEFITED BY THAT
SALVATION. Yet they’re more intense in praising God than we are! There’s
something wonderfully unselfish about the praise and worship of God by the holy
angels. THEY ARE TOTALLY GOD-CENTERED. And, we need to be that way also.
It’s no wonder that Luke 2:13,14 records that a
multitude of angels poured out praise to God at the birth of the God-Man. They
understood He was born to die a substitutionary death
for sinful men and women. They understand something of how holy God is and how
awful sin is. They hover in awe and amazement at God’s salvation plan.
According to what we’ve already seen in Ephesians 3:10, they also will praise
God eternally for what they see Him do by His Spirit, in making God’s new
family, the church.
Remember in Luke 15 Jesus repeatedly said that the angels in heaven rejoice
when one sinner repents (see Luke 15:7,10).
Furthermore, Revelation teaches us that around the throne of God in heaven,
myriads of holy angels PRAISE HIM for saving sinful men and women.
Immediately after the saved in heaven are seen praising Jesus for redeeming
them BY HIS BLOOD (in Rev.5:9,10), Revelation 5:11-13 says:
11 Then I (the Apostle John) looked, and I heard the VOICE OF MANY ANGELS
around the throne, the living creatures (a reference to other special angels),
and the elders (representative of the redeemed church in heaven); and the
number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,
“Ten thousand,” is literally “muriades,” from which
we get our word, myriads. It was the largest number in the common Greek
language, so the multiples of the myriads plus thousands simply mean it was an
INNUMERABLE number. Verses 12,13 record what this
innumerable crowd of many angels, and other creatures said:
12 saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain (i.e. Jesus) to
receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor AND GLORY AND
BLESSING!”
13 And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth
and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: “BLESSING
AND HONOR AND GLORY AND POWER be to Him who sits on
the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!”
I am reminded of Isaiah who said: “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and
lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it (the throne)
stood seraphim (literally, “bright burning ones,” these seraphim are special
holy angels); each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he
covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said:
‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; THE WHOLE EARTH IS FULL OF HIS GLORY!’
” (Isaiah 6:1-3)
From that passage we learn the holy angels are always God-centered. We who are
the beneficiaries of His salvation through the Lamb, Jesus Christ, ought always
to be like them. We ought to be that way now, on earth, even especially at
Christmas!
In heaven none of us will ever say to any other saved human, “Hey! Good to see
you here, I’m glad YOU made it!” As if we had something to do with it. Rather,
if we say anything to each other at all it will be along the lines of “TO HIM
who saved us and brought us here BY HIS AMAZING GRACE IN CHRIST, be ALL PRAISE
AND GLORY AND MAGNIFICATION for all time, forever and ever!”
Again, my point is that we should be doing that heavenly activity, EVEN NOW.
Teach the inmates and residents that profess to be in Christ, THIS IS WHAT WE
HAVE CHRISTMAS FOR. Christmas is the celebration of His birth and all He
subsequently did during His first advent on earth. Christmas is to praise God
for His amazing grace and mercy. It’s to be caught up in worshiping Him who
designed such a wonderful salvation plan!
The words from the wonderful Christmas song, “O Holy Night,” express this
praise and worship.
“O holy night, the stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear
Savior’s birth!”
“Long lay the world in sin and error pining, till He appeared and the soul felt
it’s worth. A thrill of hope a weary world rejoices,
for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.”
But don’t miss this line:
“Fall on your knees, O HEAR THE ANGEL VOICES. … HIS POWER AND GLORY, EVERMORE PROCLAIM!”
You could use these words as a basis from which to launch a gospel message. They
speak of a Savior who came to earth and of the plight of hopeless sinners
without Him. But DON’T MISS THE WORSHIP OF THE HOLY ANGELS.
I exhort you and those who receive the gospel from you, to be more angelic this
year. In other words, be more angel-like in worship. The heavenly angels
praised God simply for the wonder of what He was doing, even when it did not
directly benefit them!
Yes, it’s true as born again believers we are eternally benefited and blessed
because God became a human being to die in our place. We need to thank Him for
that. But like the angels, we need to focus more on the Benefactor, than even
on the blessing He gave.
If Christian inmates ever really start doing that, they won’t be struggling
with what they “don’t have” on December 25th, or any other day.
They’ll be forgetting about their temporary setting, and be lost in the praise
and wonder of the God who in His incomprehensible power and wisdom, sought them
to be with Him in heaven forever.
Romans 11:36