Herald: God With Us

Posted on December 21, 2025 by Jason

The song O Come, O Come, Emmanuel originated as a series of monastic chants over 1,200 years ago. These chants were later combined into a single hymn in the 12th century which was translated into English in the 1850s. The lyrics are drawn from Old Testament prophecies anticipating the birth of the Messiah. This sense of expectation is captured well in the opening lines of the song:

O come, O come, Emmanuel

And ransom captive Israel

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appear

The line that captures my attention is “lonely exile.” Nothing breaks our hearts quite like separation. The holidays can be a wonderful time of fellowship and laughter and joy, but they can also be painful reminders of “lonely exile” for some of us. Maybe you have an empty chair around your table this year. Maybe you’re estranged from a family member. Maybe your children are old enough now that you have to “share” them with their in-laws — and you might be struggling with that adjustment.

The best Christmas songs reflect these kinds of realities. As we navigate our way through life, we face a series of “lonely exiles” — and the greatest separation of all is the one created by sin.

But the best Christmas songs also point us to see the birth of Jesus as God’s answer to our exile. The refrain of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel captures this:

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to you, O Israel

There is such joy in the knowledge that through Jesus, God has come to us. He is present with us because He has promised that He would never leave us and never forsake us. No matter our circumstances, we can rejoice in the truth that, in Jesus, God is always WITH us.

As we continue our Herald series, examining the four angelic announcements which accompany the birth of Jesus, we turn our attention to the story recorded in Matthew’s Gospel. In the previous post, we read Luke’s story about the angel who visited Mary; now we hear about a similar experience from the life of Joseph.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Matthew 1:18-25

Matthew tells us that Joseph is a just man — which means that he is righteous — but he’s also a good man. When he learns that Mary is pregnant prior to their wedding day, he decides to end the marriage, but he doesn’t want to expose Mary to public disgrace, so he decides to end things quietly.

But an angel of the Lord visits Joseph in a dream, telling him that Mary’s child has been conceived by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph is told to name the child “Jesus” because He will save His people from their sins.

And Matthew says this is the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy. About seven hundred years earlier, Isaiah predicted that a virgin would conceive and give birth to a son who would be known known as Immanuel, “God with us” (Isaiah 7:14). Being a righteous man, Joseph likely remembered this word of prophecy. Presumably, the angel helps Joseph to see that he has a part to play in the fulfillment of God’s plan, which is being fulfilled in the virgin birth of this child. His unique birth is a sign that God is with His people.

The word “with” is a really small word but it is also a life-changing word. It simply means, “to be accompanied by another.” And sometimes that knowledge can be enough to change your life — just knowing that someone is with you.

  • When you’re the new kid at school and someone invites you to join in with their group, to sit at their lunch table.
  • When you’re grieving and your best friend drives all through the night just to hold your hand and join you in your pain.
  • When your friends and family gather around to celebrate your birthday and you know, “These are my people.”

These moments are powerful because someone chooses to be with you.

So it’s only natural that we would bring this same idea into our relationship with God. In our “lonely exile” we long for God to be with us. You can hear this in the way we pray: we ask God to be with the people we love. I’ve prayed that prayer at every wedding and every funeral over which I have presided for the last 25 years. Whether in grief or joy, the most comforting thought we can imagine is God being with us.

And in Jesus, God says, “I’m right here…I’m with you.”

The most repeated promise in the Bible is God saying to His people, “I am with you.” it’s as if we have this universal desire to know that we’re not alone — and God seems to have an equal desire to let us know that He is always with His people. Here are a few examples from the scriptures:

When God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush, He told him to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land. But that would mean going back to Egypt. This was the place of Moses’s greatest moral failure, the place where he killed a man and fled as a fugitive. But God says, “I need you to go back there.” God always makes you confront your guilt. He’s kind of relentless about this.

But Moses balks and says, “Who am I to do this? I’m a nobody. On top of that, I’m a wanted man — I’m a murderer. If I go back to Egypt, I’ll never get out of there alive.” And in response to this, God says in Exodus 3:12, “But I will be with you…” Essentially, He says, “Don’t worry. I’ve got this. Just follow Me and I will take care of the rest.”

God’s presence — His with-ness, if we can invent a word here — is great enough to overcome our guilt and our shame, our failures and our greatest mistakes. God says to Moses, “I’m with you every step of the way.”

And God repeats this same promise to Moses’s successor, Joshua, who has the daunting task of leading the Israelites into the Promised Land. God tells Joshua to go to a place he’s never been before; and he will be facing all of these new enemies, new challenges. And he will be doing this without Moses, who has been leading these people for forty long years. That’s a lot of change, a lot of transition — and Joshua was feeling what a lot of us feel whenever we go through times of transition: fear.

But God says to Joshua, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go,” (Joshua 1:9). God promises that He will give the Israelites every place where they set their feet in the land of Israel. All Joshua needs to do is remember that God is with him. God’s presence will help Joshua navigate through this uncertainty.

And it goes on from there throughout the Bible. The people and places may change, but God’s promise is steadfast. He says over and over, I am with you.

And in Jesus, God is saying to us, “I am with you.”

Like Moses, so many of us are crippled by shame. We have mistakes in our past, things we’ve said and done which still haunt us. And those feelings of regret and shame weigh so heavily upon us, to the point that we say, like Moses, “I’m nothing. I’m worthless.” But God’s response to all of that is to say, “Don’t worry. I am with you.” God offers the power of His presence as a counter to that narrative of negativity. God says, “I am with you,” because He knows that His presence is transformative. Just knowing that God is with you can change your life.

And just like Joshua, many of us are facing challenges that seem overwhelming. Maybe you’re dealing with some significant challenges at work or in your family. Maybe you’re dealing with strains in some area of your personal life, like your finances or a relationship. Like Joshua, many of us are fighting our fears. But that’s right where God shows up — in Joshua’s story, but also in our own lives. And He says, “I will be with you, wherever you go.” God must love saying this, because He says it all the time in the Bible. And He says it once and for all in Jesus.

Jesus as “God with us” is a strong counter to some of the false understandings people sometimes have about God. These misunderstandings are their own types of “lonely exile.”

God has abandoned me.

Sometimes people think, “God has forsaken me” and it almost always comes from an overwhelming sense of pain. When the pain is so strong that it’s the only thing we feel, we might assume God has turned His back on us. But the birth of Jesus is a clear signal that this is never the case. It’s a reminder of something God says in both the Old and New Testaments: Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you, (Deut. 31:6; Heb. 13:5). In Jesus, we have the fulfillment of this promise.

God is against me.

This is when we start thinking that God is actively opposing us. We think that He’s seeking to punish us or that He’s working against us as if He’s our enemy. But the birth of Jesus is a sign that God is FOR us, not against us. The arrival of the Messiah proclaims that God is on our side. Romans 8:31, If God is for us, who can be against us? The word of the Lord is certain and we can trust in His promise.

God is apathetic toward me.

Another misconception is “God doesn’t care about me.” With over eight billion people in our world today, some of us might start to think, “I’m so insignificant, there’s no way God could be concerned about me.” But the birth of Jesus counters that misconception, too. He promises to be with you because He cares. 1 Peter 5:7, Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

All three of these views of God are proven to be false whenever we see Jesus as Immanuel, as evidence that God is indeed with us.

We have considered what all of this would have meant for Mary, but it’s worth considering Joseph’s role in the divine plan, too.

In a shame / honor culture, a pregnancy out of wedlock would have brought immense shame. But Mary wasn’t the only one who would have been shamed here. A great deal of shame would have been heaped upon Joseph, too, if he didn’t divorce Mary. Going through with the marriage would have been understood as a tacit admission of his own guilt. He would basically be saying, “The baby is mine,” — which would have brought shame to this righteous man.

But this is where we see some gospel in this story: Joseph willingly accepts this shame — shame which wasn’t rightfully his own, but he was willing to take it on anyway. In this way, Joseph proves himself to be the perfect earthly father for Jesus, the One who would eventually do the same thing by taking the blame for sins He didn’t commit, accepting a penalty He never deserved. Jesus did this because it was the will of the Father above, but also because His earthly father modeled this for him.

Do you know the first verse of the Bible? A lot of people can recite it from memory: Genesis 1:1, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. This foundational statement grounds everything that follows in the Scriptures.

But what about the last verse in the Bible? That one probably doesn’t come to mind as quickly, does it? But the last verse of the Bible contains a foundational truth as well: Revelation 22:21, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

The Bible begins with this epic scene: God speaking the heavens and the earth into existence. It’s this huge, wide-angle scene with the creation of the sun and the moon and life here on earth. But the Bible closes with these simple words of hope: may the grace of Jesus be with His people. The entire Gospel is bound up in that one little word “with.” It’s a word which carries all of our deepest desires — to be with God someday. And Jesus has come to be with us to give us what we need more than anything else: the grace that leads to eternal life.

It’s as if God wants to say this one more time before we close our Bibles: I am with you. If My Son is with you, then My grace is with you. God promises to be with those who put their trust in Him.

Are you in need of His grace today? Are you in need of His presence?

Maybe you have everything you’ve ever wanted, and yet you still feel a sense of “lonely exile,” as if something is missing. That’s because you were made for more than what this life can offer. You were made for eternal union with God — and your soul remains restless until it finds rest in Him.

His grace is extended to any who would respond to Him in faith.

He is Immanuel, God with us. May His grace be with us all.

Posted in Christmas, Church, Faith, God, Gospel, Hope, Israel, Jesus, Music, Scripture, Theology | Leave a comment

Herald: Unexpected Favor

Posted on December 20, 2025 by Jason

Over the course of his long career, Johnny Cash performed more than thirty different “prison concerts” for inmates both in this country and around the world. He played these shows as a way of advocating for prison reform but also because he believed that as a Christian, he had a responsibility to encourage the downtrodden and to give hope to the hopeless. He once told a story about performing at a maximum-security prison where he decided to play the song “Amazing Grace.” Cash said he was absolutely blown away at the way these prisoners sang this old gospel hymn with all of their hearts and all of their souls and all of their voices! When the song was over, Cash paused the show and asked the men, “What does this song mean to you?”

One man who was serving time for attempted murder said, “You know, I was a deacon in the church for years but I didn’t really know what grace was until I ended up here.” It was only after undergoing the humbling experience of going to prison that this man came to repentance. He came to know the grace of God in a personal way after this.

I guess you could say that this man had to be put behind bars in order to find true freedom.

God often works in the most unexpected ways to do the most extraordinary things.

I’m working through a holiday series entitled Herald: Good News, Great Joy. I’m looking at the four angelic announcements recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke heralding the birth of the Messiah. And in our text for today, we will see God working in a most unexpected place and in a most unexpected way to bring about the good news of great joy for the entire world.

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy — the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.”

And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Luke 1:26-38

This is Gabriel’s second special assignment in the Gospel of Luke. In our last post, we looked at the message he delivered to Zechariah and Elizabeth: that they would have a son even though they were well past their childbearing years. We know this child as John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah. In Hebrew, the root of the name John means “grace.” With John’s birth, God is announcing the dawn of a new age, an age of grace. Now, six months later, Gabriel appears to a young woman named Mary who is betrothed to Joseph. And Gabriel has a similar message for Mary: she, too, will bear a son.

Before we get into the specifics of the announcement, let’s talk about the Jewish practice of betrothal. In ancient Israel, the marriage custom had two stages: first the betrothal and then the wedding itself. Parents would often choose a spouse for their child during the early teenage years. This would involve a prenuptial agreement between the families, which was ratified by witnesses, and also the exchanging of a dowry. At this stage, the couple was considered to be legally married — but it’s important to note that the couple did not live together as husband and wife until after the wedding ceremony, usually about a year after they were officially betrothed. It was during this period of betrothal when Gabriel appears to Mary. Luke makes this clear by saying Mary was betrothed to Joseph at the time — but he emphasizes this point by referring to Mary as a “virgin” three different times.

So as Luke tells it, the story of Jesus begins with these two women and two impossible pregnancies: Elizabeth, the older woman, well beyond her childbearing years; Mary, the young virgin, betrothed but not yet married. And yet, against all expectation, both of them will bear sons. These miraculous pregnancies are a signal that God is at work. Yes, these may be “impossible” pregnancies, but as Gabriel himself says in v37, “Nothing is impossible with God.” The older woman’s son will bring an end to the old era while the young woman’s son will usher in the new.

These two women and their sons belong to on story. The way Luke tells these two stories makes this abundantly clear. Look at the parallels in these two birth announcements in Luke 1:

And yet, there are significant differences in these two stories, too.

As we noticed previously, Zechariah and Elizabeth are hailed as righteous and blameless. He’s a priest and she’s a descendant of Aaron, which means she comes from a long line of godly servants. Zechariah is in Jerusalem, serving in the temple, the center of the Jewish world. When Gabriel appears, Zechariah is at the altar of incense in the Holy Place, with only a curtain separating him from the presence of God’s glory.

Mary, on the other hand, is miles away in Galilee, in the obscure village of Nazareth, with an estimated population of no more than 1,500 people at the time, putting it on par with such bustling metropolises as Hackleburg, Alabama and Fleming-Neon, Kentucky. Nazareth was so insignificant that it’s never mentioned in the Old Testament, in the rabbinic literature, or in the writings of Josephus. This is a NOWHERE town. And Mary certainly doesn’t have the credentials of Zechariah and Elizabeth. There is no commendation of her character here. Unlike Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary hasn’t been praying for a child. She’s just a teenage girl waiting for her wedding day. Gabriel’s proclamation to her is completely unexpected.

But as we said, God often works in unexpected places and in unexpected ways to do the most extraordinary things. We probably should expect nothing less from a God who says that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8).

When Gabriel speaks to Mary, he literally says something along the lines of “Rejoice, favored one.” What does “favored one” mean?

Well, for starters, it doesn’t mean “favorite one.” Because God doesn’t play favorites.

This phrase literally means “one who has received grace.” The root word here is used throughout the New Testament to signify God’s grace, His blessing, His kindness. And this must be an important idea because it’s repeated twice: Mary, you are the favored one; you have found favor with God. We should note that Mary has done nothing to earn or deserve this favor. That’s not the way grace works. This is simply the unmerited, unexpected favor of God.

And how do you respond when you’ve received the favor of God, the grace of God? The most natural response is to rejoice.

Do you find your joy waning a bit these days?

Is joy an ever-present part of your life or does it seem a bit elusive?

If you’re struggling to feel joy right now, consider how gracious God has been to you. Think about a time when you were begging God for forgiveness; a time when you didn’t receive the punishment you deserved, but instead God gave you the grace you needed. Remember a time when God was really kind to you, really gracious with you.

If you reflect on these things long enough, you’ll start to feel joy again.

Because when you come to see yourself as God’s favored one, rejoicing will become second nature.

Gabriel says to Mary, “The Lord is with you.” But Mary is troubled by this. Literally, she is confused, perplexed. She’s probably thinking, Why should God be with me? Mary has no social standing, no economic power, no status which would merit this kind of visitation. She’s an unknown girl in an insignificant town, a nobody from nowhere. But Mary is precisely the kind of person God favors. And God seems to work in the most unexpected ways to do the most extraordinary things. This small town teenager receives the most unexpected news of all: God is enabling her, through His gracious favor, to be the mother of the Messiah.

It is fitting that the birth of Jesus should come as an act of unmerited favor because we understand his death in the same way. At the cross, Jesus will atone for our sins, granting us grace we could never earn or merit or deserve. God’s gracious favor toward us is so unexpected that it must arrive in the world in the most unique and unexpected way: a virgin birth. Both His birth and His death are properly understood as acts of unmerited favor.

With Gabriel’s announcement, Mary’s life takes an unexpected turn. Prior to this, I imagine Mary was preparing for her wedding, preparing for her life as a young bride. But those plans change when she hears what God has in store for her. Instead of picking out flowers for her bouquet, she has to start putting together a nursery. Instead of well wishes and congratulations from everyone in her small town, she’s going to receive a lot of sideways glances and judgmental looks. I’m sure she will have some individuals who will continue to stand by her side, but she’ll also have quite a few former friends who won’t have much to do with her anymore. That’s just the messy reality she faces when she hears Gabriel’s announcement.

When God does a most unexpected thing and Mary’s life takes this most unexpected turn, she has a decision to make. How will she react? How do you and I react when life doesn’t go the way we expected?

This young woman is a good example for us to follow. Her response is recorded in v38: “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.”

I think it’s important to note that nothing happens here without Mary’s consent. Gabriel announces God’s plan, but it seems Mary is granted the agency to consent. The birth of Jesus — the One who is both fully God AND fully man — comes through the partnership between the humans and the divine. So Mary agrees to partner with God in this holy endeavor.

In the song, Joy to the World, we sing the line, “Let earth receive her King.” But before this could happen, there’s another line from the song that describes Mary’s situation. It’s the next line of the song: “let ev’ry heart prepare Him room.” Before the earth could receive her King and heaven and nature sing, Mary had to “prepare Him room” — in her heart, yes; but also in her body.

Mary’s consent to God’s will is evidence of her trust in the Lord. She totally submits herself to God’s direction, but also to His protection. Under the Mosaic Law, if a betrothed woman was found to be pregnant, the penalty she faced was execution by stoning. Mary would have to trust that God would protect her from such a fate. And then there’s the matter of Joseph. When he learns that she’s pregnant, he’s well within his rights to terminate the marriage contract. By trusting in God’s will for her, Mary is also trusting that God would work out the details in her relationship with her fiancé, too. When your life takes an unexpected turn, this is an opportunity to grow in trust, to grow in your dependence upon the Lord. This is one of the lessons we can learn from the example of Mary. Her trust in God’s will for her life has “trickle down” impact across the rest of her life, too. She trusts that if God has called her to this, then God will also provide for her. God’s calling and God’s provision are always intertwined.

Luke’s Gospel begins with the stories of these two women — Elizabeth and Mary — and their impossible pregnancies. And the wombs of these women foreshadow the tomb where Jesus will be laid at the end of Luke’s Gospel, after His crucifixion.

  • Elizabeth, the elderly woman well past her childbearing years.
  • Mary, the young virgin, betrothed but not yet married.
  • And the tomb of Jesus, a place of darkness and death.

You don’t expect to find life in any of these places. But as Gabriel reminds us, nothing is impossible with God. The miraculous pregnancies of Elizabeth and Mary are a prelude to that glorious Resurrection Sunday when the light of new creation would dawn once and for all. On that day, Jesus emerges from the womb of that grave as the first fruit of God’s resurrection power. He rises victorious over sin and death and the devil himself. Eternal life for God’s people is now guaranteed because He lives — to this day, He lives.

God chose a graveyard, of all places, as the backdrop for His greatest miracle of all — a place where we would never expect to find life.

And God’s eternal plan unfolds in a backwater, nowhere town in the middle of Galilee and it centers on the willingness of an unmarried teenager as the recipient of His unmerited favor.

Indeed, God works in the most unexpected ways to do the most extraordinary things. Nothing is impossible with God.

Posted in Blessings, Christmas, Eschatology, Faith, God, Gospel, Hope, Jesus, Music, Obedience, Scripture, Social Issues, Theology | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Herald: While We Wait

Posted on December 9, 2025 by Jason

We are told that good things come to those who wait. We’re told that patience is a virtue.

But I have to wonder if we really believe that.

Last year, Walt Disney World unveiled a new feature allowing visitors to bypass the long wait times for some of their most popular rides. The Lightning Lane Premier Pass is a high-priced, one-day pass that provides one-time entry to every designated Lightning Lane attraction in a single park. Instead of waiting in the “regular” line, the Premier Pass gives you immediate access to the Lightning Lane, the shortest line at the most popular attractions at any given time. The price for the Premier Pass varies by date and theme park. A few weeks ago, over the Thanksgiving break, the Premier Pass for Magic Kingdom would have cost you $429 per person per day, and they were completely sold out for the entire week.

Maybe the saying should be, “Good things come to those who are willing to pay up.”

And Disney isn’t alone in this. After surveying more than 650 theme parks, zoos, and aquariums across the country, one travel-research firm reports that about half of them have already adopted a similar “skip the line” option with another 20% saying they would be introducing this option in the coming year. The Lightning Lane concept is a savvy way of capitalizing on our impatience and the latest concession to “on demand” culture. We don’t like to wait for ANYTHING. We want what we want when we want it.

But the Christmas season is really about waiting. I think that’s one of the best things about it. Sure, you could say that Christmas is over-commercialized and there’s a lot of materialism that goes into our celebration. I wouldn’t disagree. It seems that a lot of people think Christmas is about “wanting” instead of “waiting.” And can you blame them? There’s only one letter’s difference between the two words.

But in truth, Christmas teaches us an important lesson about waiting. We start putting out the Christmas decorations weeks in advance — and the anticipation builds while we wait. We begin counting down the days until Santa arrives — and those December days just seem to go by so slowly when you’re a child! When you see a package under the tree with your name on it, you can’t just rip it open. No, you have to wait until Christmas. Think about how counter-cultural that is these days. As best I can tell, this is one of the few ways we’re actively trying to cultivate patience in our on-demand “Lightning Lane” world.

The Christmas season is really about waiting. Some people refer to this as the season of “Advent.” The word itself simply means “arrival.” It’s a reminder that people waited a long time for the arrival of the Messiah.

I’ve been thinking about the angelic announcements recorded in the gospels which herald the coming of the Messiah. Luke describes a time of great waiting, for the people of Israel but also for an elderly couple named Zechariah and Elizabeth.

In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.

Luke 1:5-7

I find it really interesting that the gospel story of Jesus doesn’t begin with Jesus. It begins with other people. Luke and Matthew each record a genealogy — a list of Jesus’s ancestors: so and so begat so and so, generation after generation. The story of Jesus begins with this lineage. It begins among a particular people in a particular place and time. The story of Jesus is told within the context of the stories of Zechariah and Elizabeth, Joseph and Mary, Caesar and Herod. And that shows us something important: it shows us how human Jesus is — because your story doesn’t begin with you and my story doesn’t begin with me. Our stories begin with those who came before us: parents and grandparents and great-greats who loved and lived and died just like us.

When Luke tells the story of Jesus, he begins with Zechariah and Elizabeth. He says that they’re righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands blamelessly. And these righteous people have been waiting. Luke says that they’re without child and they’re both advanced in years. I imagine their walk with God was filled with both wanting and waiting — the fervent prayers asking God to bring them a child, followed by the interminable waiting, the grueling process of thinking, “Maybe this is the month.” In their day and among their people, for a woman to be without child was considered to be a judgment from God. That’s likely why Luke says that Zechariah and Elizabeth were “righteous” and “blameless.” It’s to let us know that their condition is not the result of some hidden sin, some punishment from God. They’ve been faithful to God, even when they haven’t received their heart’s greatest desire. They’ve done a lot of wanting and a lot of waiting. It seems that those two often go hand in hand.

And in this way, Zechariah and Elizabeth are a microcosm of the Jewish people of their day. By the first century, the Jews had been waiting a long time for God to send His promised Messiah. As N.T. Wright puts it, even though the Promised Land was occupied by the Romans, the Jews in the first century lived with a feeling that there was more to come in this long story of redemption God was writing. I guess that’s one of the important elements of waiting: a sense that there is more to come. Zechariah and Elizabeth’s waiting parallels the waiting of the people as a whole.

The Old Testament closes with God promising to send a messenger to prepare the way for the Messiah. In Malachi 4:5, God says that this prophet will come in the spirit of Elijah. By Zechariah and Elizabeth’s day, the people had been living with this expectation for four hundred years. It was like this present under the tree with their name on it, but the people didn’t know when they could open it.

So this waiting couple is part of this waiting people. But as we will see, things are about to change.

Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.

Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous — to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Luke 1:8-17

Zechariah was a priest and he was chosen by lot for the burning of the incense at the temple. The altar of incense was in the Holy Place with a curtain separating it from the Holy of Holies. Twice a day, in the morning and in the evening, priests would burn incense on this altar as a perpetual offering to the Lord. Given that there were approximately 18,000 priests serving the temple at this time, this usually occurred only once in the lifetime of a priest.

And that adds another layer of “waiting” to this story. This is a career highlight for Zechariah the priest. He has waited his whole life for this moment. And this clues us in that all of this waiting is about to come to an end.

The angel says, Your prayer has been heard. Which prayer? Well, the prayer for a child, of course. The angel promises that Zechariah and Elizabeth will have a baby boy named John who will go before the Lord in the spirit of Elijah. We know him as John the Baptist. What was promised through Malachi is now being fulfilled.

“Your prayer has been heard” is a clue that Zechariah and Elizabeth never lost faith, even while they were waiting. That means that they were continuing to pray for a miracle, even in their old age. Either that or the angel means that God was now sending the answer to the prayers they prayed all those years ago. Either way, this points us to the importance of prayer as the activity of God’s waiting people. This is how we live out faithfulness — by praying as we wait. This is how we keep hope alive.

This story is a reminder that God hears our cries. Sometimes people give up on prayer because they’re not sure that anything is happening. It doesn’t seem like their prayers are going through, like they’re not making any real difference. Their circumstances remain the same and nothing ever changes. But Zechariah and Elizabeth’s story reminds us that God does hear. And God answers as God wills. Sometimes He answers quickly; at other times, we have to wait. But while we wait, we pray.

This is the great danger of an on-demand, Lightning Lane culture. It conditions us away from the long work of prayer. We pray about something once or twice and God doesn’t answer immediately so what do we do? We throw in the towel and think that God doesn’t care or God doesn’t hear our cries. And we miss out on the lessons we’re supposed to learn while we wait.

Here is what I am trying to say: often times, faithfulness simply amounts to waiting.

Waiting on God to show you what you should do.

Waiting on Him to answer your prayer.

Waiting on God to open a door or close a door or give you a sign.

We get frustrated sometimes because it may seem as if nothing is really happening while we’re waiting. But from a faith perspective, a LOT is happening in the waiting. There are some really important lessons we learn as we wait:

  • David was anointed as the king of Israel when he was a teenager, but he didn’t take the throne until much later. He spent as many as fifteen years in the wilderness, running for his life from King Saul, who wanted to kill him. Sometimes waiting involves time in the wilderness — but that’s usually where our character is formed.
  • Abraham and Sarah waited twenty-five years for God to fulfill His promise to them. Like Zechariah and Elizabeth, they were well beyond their childbearing years and this tested their faithfulness. But through those long years of waiting, Abraham and Sarah learned to trust God and to trust His timing. And that’s the same lesson we learn when we wait: when we wait, we’re learning how to trust God and trust His timing.

Are you waiting on the Lord to do something?

In the waiting, there might be a lesson.

When we wait, we learn how to trust.

Trust God and trust His timing.

Often times, faithfulness simply amounts to waiting.

And all of that sounds really nice in a sermon. But real life is sometimes messier than the sermons make it sound. And the next part of the story demonstrates this.

Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

Luke 1:18

Why does Zechariah say this? I honestly don’t know. Gabriel tells him that his prayers are being answered, but after all this waiting, it seems like Zechariah is having a little moment of doubt. He says, “How can I be sure of this?” I’m thinking, “I don’t know…maybe the fact that an angel has come down from heaven to deliver this message directly to you? Isn’t that proof enough?”

The only thing I can figure is that the waiting has worn Zechariah down.

I’m thinking that’s the case because sometimes the waiting wears me down, too.

And waiting probably wears you down, too.

I’m thinking that some of you are waiting right now: waiting on a job, waiting to find the right relationship, waiting to get pregnant, waiting on test results, waiting on this season of grief to come to an end — so many of us are waiting right now.

Has the waiting worn you down?

If so, I just want you to know that you’re not alone. If you heard the stories I get to hear on a weekly basis, you’d know that you’re not alone in the struggle. If the waiting is wearing you down, don’t lose heart. Hold fast to God’s promises. Keep hope alive. The Word of God is certain. He may not act according to our preferred timeline, but may we never mistake His unhurried pace for unfaithfulness.

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

Psalm 27:14

Hope is trusting in God’s character and God’s promises. So even if the waiting is wearing you down, keep hope alive.

Because he questioned God’s messenger, Zechariah is struck with silence until the child is born. But when the time comes for him to be named, Zechariah writes on a tablet: “His name is John.” And immediately his ability to speak returns — and he praises God. The time of waiting has come to an end. And God has put into motion this good news of great joy.

Good things do come to those who wait…those who wait on the Lord in faith.

Posted in Christmas, Church, Devotional, Eschatology, Faith, God, Gospel, Hope, Prayer, Scripture, Theology | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Translation in Every Generation

Posted on December 6, 2025 by Jason

In the preface to his translation of the New Testament, The New Testament for Everyone, N.T. Wright answers the question, “Why do we need another translation of the Bible?” Fair question, especially at this stage. Depending on who you ask (and what you consider to be an official “translation” rather than a paraphrase), there are between 450 and 900 English translations on the market today, with more than 100 of these having been produced in the last 25 years alone. With such a proliferation of Bibles available to readers, I suppose one answer Wright could offer would be, “What’s the harm in one more?” But that’s not the response he chooses.

Instead, Wright argues that translation has been the characteristic activity of the church since the beginning. On the Day of Pentecost, as God’s Spirit filled the followers of Jesus, the mission was carried forward in the proclamation of God’s Gospel. This Spirit-filled annunciation took the form of various languages so that those assembled on that day could have access to the public truth of God’s crucified and raised Messiah. This universal message was appropriately contextualized in the tongues of the day. As Paul will say in Romans 10:14, “How are they to hear without someone preaching?” Parenthetically, we grasp what is implied: “and how are they to hear the preaching unless it is translated into language they understand?”

Wright argues that each generation ought to be about the work of translating the Bible. This work constantly requires fresh, contemporary language. The staunchly conservative crowd will surely cross their arms at this, at least at first. Are you saying we have nothing to learn from those who have gone before us? Of course not. That’s hardly Wright’s point. He doesn’t argue that each generation should throw out everything that has come before and start from scratch. But he does bring up a point that few Bible readers ever consider — at least in my opinion. Each generation needs its own translation, not because the timeless message of God has changed, but precisely because language patterns and usages change ALL THE TIME. The worst thing we can do (with apologies to the KJV crowd) is make the life-giving message of God’s Word archaic and inaccessible. We need Bible translations which adhere to the best principles of exegesis and hermeneutics, but these same translations must always be laboring to express the biblical message in easily understandable terms. We will never come to know what the text “means” if we don’t have adequate contemporary language with which to express it.

Just as Jesus taught us to pray for our daily bread, our bread for each day, we can never simply live on yesterday’s bread, on the interpretations and translations of previous generations.

Wright, The Bible for Everyone, p.928

Posted in Books, Church, Culture, Gospel, Paul, Scripture | Leave a comment

A Proper Pastor

Posted on December 2, 2025 by Jason

I received a few cards today from some of the young people in my church.

I love the “Open” arrow guiding me to the sealed part of the envelope. Very helpful!

I’m just over here trying to be a proper pastor!

Here’s a second card I received:

Our church building is in a valley partially surrounded by farmland and mountains. I think Caleb has done a great job of depicting God’s beautiful creation all around us!

I have the best job in the world!

Posted in Church, Faith, Humor, Preaching | 2 Comments

Rocky Top with Joshua

Posted on November 29, 2025 by Jason

Even a loss on Rocky Top is a fun day when you’re with Joshua! Had the best time together talking football, preaching, relationships, and life in general. So grateful for time together like this.

Posted in Family, Fathering, Football, Kids, Sports, Video | Leave a comment

Harsh and Difficult

Posted on November 27, 2025 by Jason

One of the Desert Fathers, Hyperechios, said:

“Monk (solitary one / alone one), do not show yourself to be harsh and difficult. Be mindful that no one who is harsh and difficult has persevered.”

I need this word, because I’m afraid that I am often harsh and difficult.

My words can cut deeply.

My tone can leave a bruise.

I don’t know why it’s so easy to be difficult.

But perseverance requires repentance, a turning away from these harsher and more difficult inclinations.

Lord, just for today, help me to not be harsh or difficult.

In place of harshness, make me gentle.

Instead of being difficult, help me make for peace.

Thanksgiving 2025

Posted in Desert Fathers, Devotional, Faith, God, Jesus, Prayer, Quotes, Repentance | Leave a comment

The Mission of God: Blessed to be a Blessing

Posted on November 21, 2025 by Jason

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us — so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.

Psalm 67:1-2

Why does God bless His people?

Is it because we have earned His favor? Does God bless the “good people” because they have kept His rules better than “bad people?” Does God play favorites with His children?

The Old Testament rejects such claims. Isaac favored Esau over Jacob (Genesis 25:28), a rejection which is repeated a generation later as Jacob makes the mistake of singling out Joseph to receive the coat of many colors (Genesis 37:3). But in contrast to these human practices, the Scriptures reveal that God offers His blessings so that His people will use them to bless others. As far back as Genesis 12, God tells Abraham that he will receive a blessing which will eventually bless the entire world.

I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing…and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

Genesis 12:2-3

Writing centuries later, the Psalmist picks up on this thread. Invoking the priestly blessing of Numbers 6, the writer of Psalm 67 declares that God’s grace has been extended to us not merely for our sake. No, He has been gracious so that His salvation would be known among the nations. He has made His face shine upon us in order to illuminate His ways in all the earth.

In short, we have been blessed in order to bless others.

And this is the mission of God. This is how the Kingdom comes.

Our God is a generous God, which is most fully evident in the gracious gift of His Son. In receiving this gift — the gift of salvation — we become more than mere consumers. We become stewards of God’s generosity for the sake of the world. As those who have experienced God’s goodness, we seek to share that goodness with others. As those who have been served by the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53; John 13), we seek to serve others in His name. Disciples of Jesus inherit this rich biblical mandate to steward God’s blessings in a way that would bless others.

How has God blessed you?

And how might those blessings be used to bless others?

Over the years, I have known many people who have taken those questions to heart. Some of them have given their lives to serve the local church as ministers and elders and deacons. Others have sought to reflect God’s goodness in the marketplace and in their neighborhoods. Some of my dear friends — like Stephen and Amanda Stockbridge — have heeded God’s call to move to a foreign country to expand the borders of the Kingdom. I greatly admire Stephen and Amanda, both for their obedience to God’s will for their lives and for the humble way they pursue this calling.

Our church family has been supporting missionaries at locations around the globe since the early 1960s. And for many years, we have taken short-term mission teams to support the work in these mission points. A few years ago, Stephen and Amanda were a part of one of these short-term mission trips. And they began to feel a stirring in their spirits, a call to dream a Kingdom dream. What if we moved here? What if we served here full-time? And so they sought God’s will. They prayed. They sought wise counsel. They prayed some more. At every turn, God seemed to be affirming their Kingdom dream. It’s such a joy to see the Stockbridges now — using their blessings to bless others, living on mission for the Kingdom of Christ.

To be clear: God’s mission isn’t just for missionaries who live halfway around the world. Or to say it differently, the mission of God is so much greater than “missions.” The mission of God is to work through His covenant people in every time and place to announce the glorious Good News of Jesus Christ. This call is for all who would respond in faith: fishermen and tax collectors, prostitutes and Pharisees, attorneys and day laborers, ministers and missionaries, Jew and Gentile, young and old, rich and poor, male and female. The mission of God is alive in each one of us who has received the blessing of salvation in Christ. We have received this blessing in order to bless others — wherever we find ourselves.

In his book, The Skeptical Believer, Daniel Taylor offers these compass points for believers wrestling with doubt. But they also speak to the mission of God:

First, I remind myself that I have been invited not into an argument but into a story.

Second, I recall that this story gives me not just something to believe but something to do.

Third, I propose to myself that the real test of any story is what it asks me to love and what kind of life it requires me to live.

A story, not an argument.

A story that gives me something to DO, not just something to BELIEVE.

And a story that asks me to love indiscriminately, to pour myself out on behalf of others just as Jesus poured Himself out for us all.

This is the mission of God, alive in the world today.

How has God blessed you?

And how might those blessings be used to bless others?

Posted in Blessings, Books, Church, Discipleship, Faith, Friends, God, Gospel, Jesus, Ministry, Missiology, Obedience, Scripture, Stewardship, Theology | Leave a comment

Mentone Getaway

Posted on November 16, 2025 by Jason

November is a time for expressing gratitude and today I am thankful for a wife who is intentional about investing time and energy into our marriage. A week or two ago, Sunny suggested that we get away to Mentone for a Friday / Saturday trip prior to the holidays. So that’s what we did! We had the best time making glass Christmas ornaments at Orbix Hot Glass in Fort Payne (highly recommend) and seeing the sights at the Little River Canyon Preserve. Best of all, we had lots of time to talk and laugh and listen to Christmas music even though the temperature was pushing 70 degrees!

I am so grateful God saw fit to bring Sunny into my life over 30 years ago. She showed up when I was questioning a lot of things, but she has been a constant source of encouragement and a conduit of God’s love for me. She is my favorite!

Posted in Blessings, Marriage, Sunny | 1 Comment

A Bad Idea

Posted on November 16, 2025 by Jason

Some things ought not be wedded together…like pumpkin spice and Cheerios.

Posted in Humor | Leave a comment