Gary Gleans

http://biblehub.com/parallelgospels/The_Visit_of_the_Wise_Men_to_Jerusalem_and_to_Bethlehem.htm The sovereignty of God is amazing to observe and is on constant display throughout the Scriptures and in our day to day lives.  We are not always aware of it but it is always there.  I like to play chess, but I have learned that I am a novice.  I can easily whip up on those who are just beginning but recently I played with someone who really knew what they were doing.  I would think and strategize for what seemed like forever only to realize that my far more gifted opponent had already anticipated that move and I had fallen into yet another trap.  Satan has been striving to thwart God’s plan of redemption from the moment he fell from heaven.  The history of this world is marked by his futile attempts to undermine and destroy God’s plan.  However, we see time and time again that God is truly sovereign and that He is in complete control of the affairs of this world.  We see this truth on

http://biblehub.com/parallelgospels/The_Visit_of_the_Wise_Men_to_Jerusalem_and_to_Bethlehem.htm Response is the determining factor to many circumstances in our lives.  Good and bad things happen in all of our lives.  What determines the outcome of these circumstances in almost always how we respond to them.  The Magi in the story of the birth of Jesus are one of the most mysterious and most often misrepresented characters.  Most Christmas pageants and nativity scenes portray them as having arrived shortly after the shepherds.  This is clearly not the case.  More than likely Jesus was somewhere between one and two years of age when the Magi arrived.  We know this because of Herod’s questioning as to when the star had appeared and his decree to kill all the children under the age of two.  In today’s text we see three different groups of people receiving the same news about Messiah’s birth.  In that way, their circumstances are identical.  However, their responses are very different

http://biblehub.com/parallelgospels/The_Presentation_of_Jesus_in_the_Temple_in_Jerusalem.htm Old age can be a wonderful blessing but for many it is seen to be a terrible curse.  Anna was an elderly woman who did not allow her age or the hardships of her life to take her away from the service of the Lord or make her bitter.  On the day that Mary and Joseph entered the temple to present Jesus and offer their sacrifice they had a special encounter with Simeon followed by another divinely appointed meeting with Anna.  These things are not coincidental and were clearly designed and planned by God in order to prepare the way for Messiah.  We can learn many things from the example of this faithful elderly saint.  There are at least three characteristics that describe Anna; all of which are worthy of imitation. A FAITHFUL SENIOR: All of us have hopes and dreams for our lives and there is nothing wrong with that.  The problem is when we become so desirous of something that we use not h

http://biblehub.com/parallelgospels/The_Presentation_of_Jesus_in_the_Temple_in_Jerusalem.htm Yesterday we looked at this passage from the perspective of who Simeon was and what he would do.  Today we turn our attention to the most significant thing that he did that was recorded in Scripture.  He blessed the Lord Jesus as a baby in the temple and gave all those present a description of who Jesus was and made a declaration about what Jesus would do.  The fact that Jesus was a special child sent from God had to have been very evident to all who were in the temple that day.  Apparently very few took Simeon’s words to heart.  They may have thought that they were just the ramblings of a crazy old man.  As we look at the content of what Simeon said there are two things we must ask ourselves: Do we believe in who Jesus was and what He did to purchase our salvation?  Are we faithfully telling others about the person and work of Jesus so that they might be saved?  A DESCRIPTION OF WHO J

http://biblehub.com/parallelgospels/The_Presentation_of_Jesus_in_the_Temple_in_Jerusalem.htm Who we are and what we do is very important to God.  The two are linked to one another.  Our character determines our productivity before the Lord.  It is possible and even common for people of low moral character to accomplish many impressive things in the sight of man.  However, those things will all burn away in the judgment of God.  They are wood, hay and stubble in God’s eyes.  From man’s perspective there are people who have great character that seem rather unproductive.  They don’t build much, they don’t have much and they many live in poverty and obscurity.  However, their lives and their efforts are of great significance to God.  He sees them as gold, silver and precious stones.  Today’s text introduces us to an obscure person named Simeon who was used of God to bless Jesus in the temple and to reveal who Jesus was as well as what He would do.  It is always a great honor to be inv

http://biblehub.com/parallelgospels/The_Circumcision_of_Jesus_in_Bethlehem.htm http://biblehub.com/parallelgospels/The_Presentation_of_Jesus_in_the_Temple_in_Jerusalem.htm If there was ever anyone about whom it could be said that they were “above the Law” it was Jesus.  However, Luke is very clear to record that Mary and Joseph followed the Law completely in regards to the rituals required after the birth of Jesus.  These rituals were to be symbolic of how sin was to be viewed by God’s people and how they were to be separated from sin unto God.  None of these rituals were necessary for Jesus personally because He was born without sin.  Since He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, He did not inherit the sin nature that was passed from Adam to all succeeding generations.  However, Jesus came to fulfill the Law completely in order that He might offer Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.  These rituals were performed in obedience to God’s Word and were a foreshadowing of

http://biblehub.com/parallelgospels/The_Song_of_the_Angels_to_the_Shepherds_near_Bethlehem.htm The announcement of the Angels about the birth of Jesus to the shepherds set into motion a series of events that contributed to establishing the true identity of Messiah.  One thing that we notice is that the shepherd’s new found knowledge cased them to spring into action.  There was no way that they could pretend that nothing had happened.  This is always the proper response to any encounter with God or understanding that comes from God’s Word.  Knowledge of the truth is a great blessing that must change the direction of our lives and motivate us to pass it on to others.  We don’t control how others will respond to what we say; that is not our responsibility.  We are, however, responsible to repeat the truths that God teaches us.  We can see that this is exactly the reaction that the Shepherds had. RESOLVE TO FIND THE TRUTH: The immediate response of the shepherds was to go confirm

http://biblehub.com/parallelgospels/The_Song_of_the_Angels_to_the_Shepherds_near_Bethlehem.htm Angels play a very large role in the birth of Jesus.  The birth of Jesus was not like any other birth for obvious reasons.  His conception by the Holy Spirit through the Virgin Mary was a unique event in History.  The announcements made to Mary, Joseph and Zacharias were also made by angels who were preparing the way for the incarnation.  These are not events that happen on a regular basis by any means.  However, in some ways these people all had to be informed of what was going on as they were “key players” in these events.  Today’s passage is not like that.  The angels filled the sky with songs of praise that announced the birth of Christ to some shepherds that were out in the fields that night.  There was really no necessity to inform the shepherds of this glorious event.  It just seems that it was unacceptable for the birth of Jesus to take place in almost complete anonymity.  The wo

http://biblehub.com/parallelgospels/The_Birth_of_Jesus_in_Bethlehem.htm Things do not always happen the way that we expect them to happen.  The birth of Messiah certainly would fit into this category.  The expectation of Messiah was that He would be a powerful political figure that would liberate His people from oppression.  Certainly it was imagined that He would be born into an influential family with wealth and power.  However, that is only half of the picture that Scripture paints of Messiah in the Old Testament.  The Bible describes Messiah in two distinct ways.  He is described as a suffering Savior as well as a reigning Ruler.  The image that was most attractive to the people of this day was that of the Ruler.  Reigning is always more attractive to us than suffering.  However in the case of Jesus; one was not possible without the other.  Since man’s rebellion against God in Eden; all of mankind had been transferred from the kingdom of God to the kingdom of Satan.  Without t

http://biblehub.com/parallelgospels/The_Annunciation_to_Joseph_in_Nazareth.htm Planning is a part of all of our lives.  Some people love to plan and seem to have their lives scheduled out for the next five years.  Others are less structured and like to kind of take life as it comes on a moment by moment basis.  However, both types have dreams and aspirations that they plan to fulfill in their lives and they make decisions based on those hopes.  No matter what our tendency in the area of planning, it is important that we recognize God’s sovereignty in all of our planning.  We know very little about Joseph, the man who was engaged to be married to Mary and the earthly father of Jesus.  We know that he was a manual laborer who likely had a rather simple plan laid out for his life.  This plan might have looked something like: marry Mary, work hard, raise a family, be faithful.  He is called a just man.  He seems to love Mary deeply.  Never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined

http://biblehub.com/parallelgospels/The_Birth_and_Childhood_of_John_the_Baptist.htm Blessings are gifts from God for which we all long.  Blessings are also pronouncements of good from one person to another.  Zacharias did not speak for over nine months; but when the Lord did lose his lips; he spoke of blessings.  He recognized the incredible gifts that were flowing to him from God in the person of Jesus.  He also made a beautiful pronunciation about the role God had graciously given his Son to play in bringing those blessings to pass.  Both types of blessings are important for us to verbalize. God delights in hearing our praise of His greatness and our rejoicing about His great gifts in our lives.  God is also pleased when we encourage others with words that recognize God’s favor on them.  God has given us the ability to speak so that we might express gratitude for His blessings and give encouragement to others.  It is significant that Zacharias used his first words after nine mon

http://biblehub.com/parallelgospels/The_Birth_and_Childhood_of_John_the_Baptist.htm We all want our lives to have a positive impact on the people around us.  However, the only real way that this will happen through our lives is through the divine work of God.  The birth of John the Baptist had an impact on his family and all of the people in his neighborhood.  This was a birth that had been planned and orchestrated by God.  In some ways his birth was just like the birth of any other child and the reactions of the people who witnessed it are predictable and normal.  In other ways this was there was clear divine intervention and involvement.  There are at least three observations that we can make about the birth of John and the impact it had. REJOICING TO HIS MOTHER: It is completely normal for a mother and the friends of a family to rejoice at the birth of a child.  There are naturally tense and painful moments along the way but when a new life comes into our lives it is a reas

http://biblehub.com/parallelgospels/The_Magnificat_of_Mary_in_Reply_to_Elisabeths_Greeting.htm Worship is what we were created to do.  There are many ways that we worship, in fact most everything that we do is some kind of an act of worship.  Mary demonstrates one form of worship in today’s passage as she describes the greatness of God.  Starting with herself she reviews the wonderful works of God to those who desperately need it.  Many people think that God is only a friend to the rich and powerful and that He has forgotten those who are suffering.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  We must never confuse current circumstances with the approval or blessings of God.  Just because someone is powerful and prosperous does not mean he is being blessed by God.  Those who suffer are not under some sort of a curse from God.  God’s promises are not all about the here and now.  We can only be assured of the fact that justice will be reveled in eternity.  Mary’s song of praise points

http://biblehub.com/parallelgospels/The_Song_of_Elisabeth_When_Mary_Visits_Her.htm Blessings are favors from God in our lives.  God blesses us in so many ways that we do not deserve.  Too many times we act as if blessings are owed to us and we tend to complain when we do not get what we think we deserve.  Elizabeth did not have this kind of attitude when Mary came to visit her.  Shortly after Mary found out she would give birth to Jesus and that Elizabeth was also pregnant with the prophet who was to be the forerunner of Jesus; she went to pay her a visit.  They were both in similar circumstances and I am sure Mary was anxious to open her heart to her elder relative.  It is a good thing for us to look for support from one another when we face difficult circumstances in our lives.  Today’s passage records Elizabeth’s words when she heard Mary’s voice.  The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit filled her so we can be assured that these words of blessing come from the heart of a woman

http://biblehub.com/parallelgospels/The_Annunciation_to_the_Virgin_Mary_at_Nazareth.htm Six months after Elizabeth conceived God sent Gabriel once again to deliver a message about a miraculous birth.  This announcement would be quite different from the one made about John the Baptist.  He was born of an elderly woman who was barren.  The announcement about Jesus tells us that He would be born of a young woman who was a virgin.  What is very clear is that this would be a major event in the plan of God for the reconciliation of man to Himself.  God begins to reveal just exactly how He would pay the price for man’s sin.  The Old Testament had foretold many things about the Law of God and the coming of Messiah.  The New Testament unfolds the history of how God fulfilled His plan of redemption.  Scripture records for us the reactions that Mary had to the announcement of Christ’s birth, but more importantly it reveals to us several realities about Jesus.    THE REACTIONS OF MARY: Ma