Scripture: Matthew 2:1-12
Introduction
- I’m having an Epiphany, but I don’t quite know what it is yet
- According to the Cambridge dictionary, epiphany is a moment when you suddenly feel that you understand, or suddenly become conscious of, something that is very important to you – a religious experience.
- Speaking of religious experience, we also celebrate Epiphany with a capital “E”
- Epiphany celebrates the manifestation of a deity in the world
- For us this happened a couple of times:
- First, was the visit of the Magi to the Christ child that our Scripture today covers
- Second, was when Jesus, the adult, while being baptized by John was announced from heaven
- I think the kind of epiphany that I am having is when I am seeing the deity manifest here.
- I feel like I am right in the middle of something supernatural here – just like the Magi.
- Have you ever found yourself suddenly – well, BESIDE YOURSELF??
- It was kind of an unnerving feeling I had the other day in the clothes closet.
- It was almost as if I was having a panic attack, but in a good way.
- As I listened to the people in the clothes closet on the verge of panic, talking about the amount of clothes that were backing up, it came to me that we are in the middle of something
- There are three epiphanies I want to tell you about today:
- God is on the verge of something great.
- God has put me here for a reason.
- God has picked up the tab.
1. God is on the verge of something great
- Mind you, I am not really sure what is happening yet, but He has my attention.
- Think about those Magi who have come to worship this new king,
- God certainly got their attention: He put a new star in the sky for them,
- We believe that the Magi were Zoroastrian priests from ancient India and Persia
- The Greeks believed that the Zoroastrians founded astrology and
- So, for them to seek out this new king in Bethlehem was a supernatural thing.
- By now, Jesus was around two years old and living in a house.
- This is not the manger scene with the wise men that is such a Christmas tradition.
- These guys were convinced that the child, Jesus, was a deity worthy of their worship.
- They said themselves:
Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.
- These are men who spent their lives studying the stars and seeking truth in the stars.
- We seek truth in the Bible – they seek truth in the stars.
- They could tell that the world was on the verge of something great because of the star.
- So, they followed the star to the tiny Jewish country; occupied by the Roman Empire.
- They went to the capital city of Jerusalem and found Herod, the Great – a Jewish Roman client king who was king of the Jews at the time.
- The possibility of another king posed a threat to Herod and he was disturbed by it.
- So he pulled together the chief priests and teachers of the law and asked them where the Messiah was to be born.
- They told him Bethlehem because of what the prophet Micah had said in Micah 5:2-4:
But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.
- Micah had made this [accurate] prophecy more than 700 years before.
- Herod thought he would use the Magi to spy for him so he said go to Bethlehem.
- He lied and said he too would want to worship this new king though he really wanted to destroy Him.
- The Magi found Jesus and Mary and bowed down and worshipped Him and gave Him expensive gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
- The myrrh was a bit of foreshadowing because it was an embalming perfume for the dead
- This gesture was equivalent to the anointing of a great king and fulfilled that purpose.
- They were warned in a dream not to return to the vicious Herod and so, left another way.
- These men had an epiphany that Jesus was for real and now I’m having an epiphany that what Christ is doing here with us is for real and that we are on the verge of something big
- Now we just need to listen carefully for our next instructions.
2. God has put me here for a reason.
- Can we all agree that the Magi were sent to meet Jesus for a reason? YES
- They were sent there by God to independently verify the deity of Jesus Christ.
- They weren’t Jews or Muslims or any religion that recognized the God of Abraham.
- They were star-worshippers, and they studied the phenomenon of this new star in the context of the Hebrew belief system because of where it led them.
- I believe God sends people to illuminate the truth about what He is doing in the world.
- I believe He sent the Magi to verify that what was happening with Jesus was the real deal.
- And, I believe He has sent me to be illuminate the truth about what is happening at Biltmore Baptist church.
- I think part of my job as the Pastor is to help make sense of what God wants to do.
- Right now, He has literally buried us with clothes and the supply is coming faster and faster.
- Each time we have done more, He responds by doing even more.
- Now we are overwhelmed by God’s supply and see that we are rapidly outgrowing ourselves.
- What must we do next? How many more sheds do we need? What do we do with all these clothes?
- We have been scrambling to offload surplus clothes to other outlets.
- Could it be that God is making us into both a retailer and a wholesaler of clothes?
- I really don’t know yet. I’m going into it with my eyes wide open expecting a miracle.
- God is working in a powerful way through the missions of Biltmore church.
- I know one thing, He has taken a church that was on the way out into a powerful mission,
- We don’t see people in our community who are drug addicted or alcoholic, or homeless.
- We see people that we want to help in any way that we can.
- We are grateful for the opportunity that God has given us because it gives us real purpose
- And it is infectious – more and more people are coming to us looking for ways to help.
- Isn’t this what church should be about? I like to think of church as APPLIED faith
- This is what I believe James was talking about in James 2:14-17:
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
- Faith in Jesus Christ needs to find an outlet. Matthew 5:14-16:
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
I believe we are all here for a reason – including me – and this is my epiphany.
3. God has picked up the tab.
- When I first came to Biltmore we were scratching for money.
- The boiler needed costly repairs, the air conditioner on the roof caught on fire.
- The decision had been made to cut the Pastor job in half and make it part time.
- Which actually made it possible for me to slide on in since I have another full-time job.
- The Premises team was trying to hold this almost 100-year-old building together.
- Things were pretty scary but yet, somehow, we kept it together – barely.
- The budget was hovering around $100,000 and we were cut back to bare bones.
- On top of that, we lost several major financial contributors.
- Years of neglect had started piling up and the ship was sinking – leaks everywhere.
- Yet an amazing epiphany hit me when I looked closely at the numbers from Wednesday.
- God has worked through His people here; to do the “loaves and fishes” thing right here.
- We have repaired all the leaks and are well on the way to restoring this church financially
- Through the generosity of people whom God has touched, He has picked up the tab.
- Our operating budget reflects a church that is obedient to giving to others.
- We took in $116,863.00 through our operating budget fund, mostly from offering plates.
- But that doesn’t tell the whole story because we also took in another $98,644 in designated funds.
- That means that our unified budget for 2022 was $215,508. God is picking up the tab.
- That includes a generous donation of $50,000 for the sanctuary and $13,000 in Dover grants, but we have gotten everything done and there is money in the bank for 2023.
- I have an epiphany that we have been obedient to God’s call on this church
- And I believe, through all of you, God is picking up the tab.