Way in 1973

If there's a difference between this Christmas and all the other Christmases that we've experienced in our lives up to now, excuse me, up to now, it's the atmosphere of uncertainty that lurks beneath the colored lights. Never has there been a Christmas, at least in this land, where there have been so many questions like, will the government survive the winter? Will the economy last? Will I still have my job in spring? Will we make it to another Christmas without a global war? But what most of us don't seem to understand is that the trembling and the shaking that's going on across the earth right now is directly connected with the one whose birth we celebrate tonight. And in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people.

It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever. The stage is being set for the breaking up and the destroying of all the kingdoms of this earth by the kingdom of God. Now, how long it will be until the boom falls, only God knows.

But for us who are followers of Jesus, if we're followers of Jesus, this is no time to be sitting around waiting for the trumpet to blow as if there's nothing else to do. Because the kingdom of our Lord, while it is not of this earth, is nevertheless very much present on the earth right now. And every government and every human structure, whether it be economic or political or military power, has its days numbered the minute it is touched by our Lord's kingdom, for instance.

Well, before we get to that, let me just say this. This does not mean that Jesus is out to destroy people. He's not out to hurt anybody.

He doesn't get some kind of delight out of seeing somebody go down the drain. When he comes, he always comes to bring healing, forgiveness, and life. And yet, look what happened to Herod.

When the wise men bring the news of this new king of the Jews, Herod flies into a rage, massacres the babies of Bethlehem, and shortly thereafter is himself destroyed. Pontius Pilate, you know, is minding his own business, living as if there were no such thing as the Jesus of Nazareth, until one day the mob brings Jesus right to him and says, we want him crucified. Now, Jesus doesn't mean any harm to Pilate.

He doesn't want to hurt Pontius Pilate. And yet, when Pilate consents to Jesus' crucifixion, his star falls. The city of Jerusalem.

Jesus loved Jerusalem. Long to gather her children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, weeps over that city, heals her sick, teaches in her streets. But when Jerusalem rejects him, her days are numbered.

And it is not long before her glory is reduced to rubble and dead bodies. And she is exactly as Jesus predicted she would be, trodden down by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled, almost 20 centuries, until only six and a half years ago. Now, when the kingdom of God comes, it always comes bringing with it an open door, welcoming people into the very heart of God's love.

It doesn't come to damn anybody. It doesn't come to hurt anybody. But when a man or a woman looks through that open door and sees that love and turns his back, he damns himself.

Very shortly, the nations of this world are going to find themselves having to do something about an epidemic of radical Christianity that's going to be springing up and causing the gospel to be preached on street corners and housetops. And behind this epidemic of radical faith will be the sheer divine love of God, causing the good news to be going out to the earth for the last time. Then when the nations have to deal with this, and this is one of the nations that will have to deal with it, you know, and it will deal with the kingdom of God as nations always do.

There will be repression. There will be jail sentences. There will be death sentences.

And these things will mark the beginning of the end for nation after nation, as war, famine, plague, false prophets, false Christs, natural catastrophes will cover the earth with dread. And then suddenly our Lord will be seen in the heavens and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. And there won't be a person anywhere, man, woman, or child who will be able to say, wait a minute, I never knew this.

Nobody cleared this up to me. Everybody from the least to the greatest, from one end of the earth to the other, will know whose light that is up there. There will be no doubt in anybody's mind, none.

As you look, a stone cut out by no human hand appeared and it smoked the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. And then the iron and the clay and the bronze and the silver and the gold all together were broken in pieces and became like the chapel, the summer threshing floor and the wind carried them away so that there was not a trace of them that could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and fill the whole earth.

Now the kingdom of this Jesus that has the nations in commotion even now, you know, is nevertheless at root and at bottom, a thing of love, always of love. He isn't here to hurt anybody. He has no desire to destroy somebody.

You know, he was born into this world for our good only. And the things that he taught were for our good. And he died on that cross for our good.

And he rose from the grave for our good. And he's in us right now to bring to us unspeakable blessing. This night, as we remember his birth, nobody knows what day he was born, but this night is as good as any.

He is present here and wherever brothers and sisters anywhere on this earth gather in his name. And especially tonight, he flings wide open the door of his kingdom and urges all to come into it. And all of us who have already entered it to penetrate more deeply into the center of the father's love.

And there are three things that he says to us tonight. And the first is this. Don't be afraid of me.

Now, when the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water, they were afraid. And when the multitude saw that man sit up in his coffin at the command of Jesus, rise up in his coffin and speak, they were afraid. And when we begin to get any sense of who this is who's talking to us and speaking to our hearts, we begin to feel fear.

And I dare say, if there are people in this gathering right now who have never known that fear, pray for it, because it's a beginning. It's the introduction to the reality of God. And all too many of us have no sense of this at all.

And if it takes earthquake and fire to bring it to you, may it be so. But once you get that sense of who's talking to you and your heart begins to tremble and you really begin to know the fear of God, then Jesus turns around and says, don't be afraid. And he points to the place where he was born, you know, a stable born of a peasant girl, dirt poor all his life, no connections with people in high places at any time so that the lowest, the poorest person on this earth, you know, the meanest sinner, the most tormented mind, the most twisted and warped personality can draw near to Jesus without being afraid of being rejected.

He's not going to push you away. He's not going to make some kind of excuse and slam the door in your face. And he's not going to throw your sins up to you.

You know, if you confess those sins, he's going to take them one by one and he's going to wash them away in his own blood. And the second thing Jesus says to us tonight and to many others, no doubt. He says, I know what you are going through.

You know, I was born into the human race for that purpose. And there's no temptation and there's no sorrow and there's no loneliness and there's no pain. I haven't known.

And there are many of us right now who, you know, who are living as if we really believe that there are certain problems that we have to face, you know, that Jesus couldn't possibly understand. Don't ever believe that he understands. He understands.

And he understands not as somebody who at a distance observes you, but he understands as your brother and your friend who walked that road before you ever got here. Without sin, yes, but not without the pain and not without the loneliness and not without the temptation that you know all about. He knows it, too.

He says, I know your works and your toil and your patient endurance. I know your tribulation and I know your poverty and I know the slander of those who say they're Jews and are not. I know exactly where you are and where you're having trouble and where you're dejected and where you're having a difficult time.

I'm here tonight to help you and lift you up and I will do this. And where you're cutting corners and where you're falling into a spiritual slumber, I'm here to wake you up. And call you to repentance and tell you to get on with the life that you have to live, that I called you to live while there is still time.

And there's one more thing he tells us tonight. If you will come into my kingdom all the way and commit yourself utterly to it, no half-baked thing here now, all the way, I will enable you to live in this world and in the middle of the turmoil that's coming, as I lived in this world of flesh and blood. The works that I did you will do also and greater works than these will you do because I am at the right hand of the Father and I quicken you and I intercede for you and I empower you.

I'm here to help you and if you will walk this road with me, I'm going to enable you to do everything that I did. That rock cut out of a mountain without human hands began as my crucified and resurrected body 20 centuries ago and it continues on this earth now as the body of my saints. And if you are part of my kingdom, you are part of that stone.

As the Father sent me, so I send you. As the Father anointed me, so I anoint you. Not just to sit in church and not just to say a prayer at night before you go to bed, but I anoint you to go out there and preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.

I anoint you to do this. I give you the power to prepare the world for my return. I give you the power to manifest my grace by bringing forgiveness to the penitent and healing to the sick and hope to those who are downtrodden.

And I want you to do this. You, says our Lord to us, are the way into my kingdom. Not angels, not spirits, but flesh and blood, sons and daughters of the kingdom are the only way in.

If the people out there in that world, friends, are ever going to see the love of Jesus Christ for real, it will have to be through us. Don't depend on Billy Graham to do that. You're going to have to do that.

If they're ever going to see this, it's going to have to be through flesh and blood, people they can reach out and touch, people they can talk to, people they can spend some time with. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.

You. There's another thing to consider in this. If the salt loses its savor, it's good for nothing but to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by man.

And when he makes us the light of the world, and when he makes us the salt of the earth, he holds us accountable. We are accountable. May it be the spirit of God that really goes with us tonight as we leave this place.

You know, and not just to go home and dance around the Christmas tree, but to make the most of the hour, make the most of the time in the days that are left. May he anoint us that we will use the days that remain for us to live in this world in flesh and blood, that we may indeed, all of us, preach good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, set at liberty those who are oppressed, that people may find their way into the kingdom of God through us before the door of the kingdom shuts forever. There may be some people here tonight who are standing in the doorway of that kingdom and have not entered it.

And there may be some people here tonight who know very well that there was a time when they were obedient and for a long while they haven't been. I say to you in the name of the Lord, the door of the kingdom of God is wide open for you. And the spirit of your Lord is calling you to come through that door tonight, not tomorrow, tonight.

And he promises that everything you need, everything you need, he'll give you. And he'll give you a confirmation of his word in whatever place you're hurting the most tonight, that you'll only come through that door. He's inviting you now to draw near just the way you are, not after you quit smoking, not after you stop doing that, but tonight the way you are.

Whoever comes to him, he will in no wise cast out. And so now as we go to prayer, you know, may the spirit of God just search our hearts and help us to get ourselves right so that we may be effective as his ministers in the difficult days that lie ahead of us and have our eyes open and our minds clear. And may the spirit of God guide anybody here who's outside the door right in to the kingdom of God tonight.

Let's pray. Heavenly father, we pray that those who are really looking for the peace that they have not yet found may find it in the name of Jesus this very night. And that those who hear the call of Jesus to draw near right now may not be hindered by their own pride or their fear of man or their worry about what somebody else is going to think of them.

Help them to come through right now. And we pray also for those who know they've been far from the father's house and want to come back, that they'll receive strong encouragement from the spirit himself this night. And we pray for those who have been called and know they've been called into ministries who've been cutting corners and indulging the flesh and indulging in pride, that they'll be cleansed and strengthened tonight.

Help us all, O God, to really do the business of the kingdom and to walk out of this place clean and forgiven and with a single eye and with our masks off and with our pride removed and with our wounds healed. O God, confirm your word to us. Father, just draw into the kingdom anybody right now that wants to make it right now.

Take away the fear of man, set them free in Jesus Christ. We ask you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.