Month: December 2014

Christmas: A Message of Joy and Peace

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Few times throughout the year in NYC evoke a unified theme throughout this great metropolis. Such diversity that exists throughout our city provides a constant flow of variety. But it’s as a result of this rich diversity—certainly something to be celebrated—that the city experiences few events that impact almost everyone in the city. Even when hosting the Superbowl this past January, the city practically continued on like normal. But there are a few holidays and events that supersede much of this diversity. Memorializing 9/11 is certainly a somber example. On the other end of the spectrum, Halloween is basically a city-wide extravaganza—kids to adults of all ages.

One other holiday overtakes this city: Christmas.

Decorations have filled stores since just after Halloween. Midtown is covered in lights, trees, and ornaments. You can find Christmas trees for sale on practically every street corner. Everyone is brought into the cultural fervor around Christmas: Christians and non-Christians alike (although, there are certainly many who are celebrating other holidays this time of year).

As a result, we have a huge opportunity to easily bring the message of the Gospel into everyday conversations. Why?

The message of Christmas, the reason we celebrate, is a message of Joy and Peace.

The angels in Luke 2:8-21 clearly declare this message.

The message of a baby in a manger is one of eternal joy and peace. Sounds crazy, but it’s so true. When Jesus came his mission was to make a way out of the brokenness of this world, a way to reconciliation with our God, and thus, ultimately, a way to joy and satisfaction in God and who he made us to be.

He also came as a King to bring peace. He accomplished peace by the blood of the cross (see Ephesians 2:11-22). He made a way for peace between God and man and among humanity itself. He didn’t establish a political peace, but one day he will provide eternal and complete peace when he returns and makes all things new (Revelation 21).

During Christmas, everyone is talking about the holidays. People are talking about their traditions and asking others about theirs. We have an opportunity to share this message of joy and peace by asking simple questions that can spark conversations.. We can ask why Christmas is such a big deal? We can simply talk about our traditions and how Jesus is involved in those.

Take advantage of this season when people are connected to such a Christian event, and use conversations about Christmas as bridges to the Gospel.

The Story 2015

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As we prepare for a new year, it’s a great time to refocus and develop a clear plan for reading Scripture. One of the most fruitful disciplines in my life is reading through the entirety of God’s Word. Seeing the entire story of Scripture come together as a whole can only happen as we read the Bible in its entirety.

Thus, this upcoming year at Gallery Church, we are going to read through the entire Bible together.

The Story 2015

Know the Story – 
The Bible is God’s Story and our story. It’s a story of truth, life, and hope. In order to experience it’s riches, we must know it.  So join us as we read through the whole Story in 2015.

Live the Story –
Knowing the story is not  the endgame. We need the truth, life, and hope of Scripture to shape our lives. So as we read, we seek to apply it to our story.

Share the Story –
A story of such beauty can’t be kept hidden. So as we know and live this story, we seek to share it, too.

Check out the first two months of the plan below:

Story Postcard

Celebrating Christmas Well – Part II

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Christmas is an incredible time of year. The hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping starting on Black Friday (well, maybe even earlier than that now), the vast arrays of decorations on seemingly every street, the ice skating in Central Park, the temporary Christmas markets set up at Union Square and Columbus circle, all add up to create a magical feel in NYC at this time of year. OK, maybe magical is a bit too much, but I simply LOVE Christmastime in this city. There are so many great traditions, and millions throughout the nation and the world celebrate this great holiday, each culture with their own unique twist to the celebration.

But how do we celebrate Christmas well? Without succumbing to a culture of materialism and covetousness?

The key to doing this lies in allowing this entire season to bring us to meditation upon and celebration of an absolutely crucial aspect of the Gospel: the humanity of Christ. I believe this is often a portion of the Gospel that is tragically under appreciated. And what better time than Christmas to invigorate and renew a passion for this essential truth!

The New Testament is full of references to the humanity of Christ, emphasizing the importance of this to the Gospel. 1 Timothy 3:15b-16 makes this incredibly clear:

which is the church of the living God,
a pillar and buttress of the truth.
Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:

He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated in the Spirit,
seen by angels,
proclaimed among the nations,
believed on in the world,
taken up in glory.

Paul sets forth a summary of God’s redemptive plan for humanity, i.e. the Gospel. This is the truth that the Church is to uphold, and very prominently at the beginning of this confession, the humanity of Christ is highlighted. But why is this truth so important to the Gospel, and why are we as the church called to protect this truth?

The Gospel Coalition’s Statement of faith provides several reasons that the humanity of Christ is essential to include:
“1.Christ as our model of true humanity– We realize from this that we weren’t meant for sin. Humanity is sinful because we have fallen not simply because we are human. Humanity was meant for so much more than this fallen world, and we see the image of God in humanity untainted in the person of Jesus. Christ in his humanity is what we were meant to be like.
2.Christ’s representative obedience– In Romans 5:18-19, Paul compares Adam’s representative sin that caused all of humanity to fall with the representative of Christ which provided all of humanity with the hope of being made righteous through His obedience.
3.Christ as our substitutionary sacrifice– Jesus had to be made like us in order to take our place and bear the wrath of God toward our sins. (Hebrews 2:17)
4.Christ as our mediator– Paul emphasizes Christ’s humanity when he discusses His mediatory role in 1 Timothy 2:5. Christ can stand in the gap between humanity and the Father because he has both a human and divine nature.
5.Christ as our sympathetic high priest– Jesus has experienced the hardships of humanity. (Hebrews 4:15-16)
6.Christ as our true example of holy human conduct– In Christ’s life we see what a truly holy life looks like. (1 Peter 2:21)”

Each of these without the humanity of Christ is lost, thus we must realize not only the great responsibility we have in guarding this truth but also the beauty of this truth.

We see the splendor of this truth lead Paul to worship in the short hymn of Philippians 2:5-11:
Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus,

who existing in the form of God,
did not consider equality with God
as something to be used for his own advantage.
Instead He emptied himself
by assuming the form of a slave,
taking on the likeness of men.
And when he had come as a man in His external form,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient
 to the point of death—even death on a cross.
 For this reason God also highly exalted Him
 and gave Him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow—
of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth—
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Let us turn our celebrations and affections this Christmas season to this integral and beautiful aspect of the Gospel: the humanity of Christ. And let us, as His Church, defend this doctrine, for apart from this, the Gospel crumbles. If we are to redeem Christmas, we must simply celebrate the Gospel.

This doesn’t mean that we must toss out the cultural traditions, but instead, let us celebrate in such a way that our giving and receiving, family gatherings, and other traditions are expressions of our joy in Christ and in His grace, humility, and love that he showed by becoming human for our sake.