TO
TREASURE AND PONDER THE WONDERS OF GOD
What kinds of things fascinate you? Some people can be absorbed for hours with a video game…others with a powerful telescope…others with a construction site…still others with the wonders of nature. Often the ability we have to stretch our minds around complex subjects will determine what we invest time and energy into considering.
During this
Christmas season, we have taken some time in our studies of the Scriptures to
consider and be fascinated first by the works of God, then by the Word of God
and today by the wonders of God. The
greater our capacity for taking it all in, the greater our capacity for awe and
worship as we consider all that God has done through the gift of Jesus Christ
His Son.
Mary
contemplated the events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ and as we read
the text in Luke 2:19 she treasured what had been made known to her and
pondered those things carefully in order to grasp their impact on her knowledge
and worship of the Lord God.
THESIS: Whenever we allow our minds to contemplate the
matchless wonders of God, especially in the glorious gift of His Son, we cannot
help but fall down before Him with thanksgiving and humble adoration.
Mary had the
ability to withdraw into the quiet place of her heart and mind and let the Lord
open new windows of understanding as she considered and reflected on what she
knew of the Lord.
I.
CAPTIVATED AND COMFORTED BY HIS WONDROUS WORKS
--All that is necessary to be caught up in the
wonder of God is to allow your mind to recall what He has already done and be
astounded that the same God who did those marvels has never changed.
--It is very difficult to consider His power and greatness
for more than a few moments without being captivated by His superiority and
dominion over anything we can ever face.
--Threatening circumstances and troubling situations
shrink before the God of wonders!
Acts 4:24, 29-30 And when they heard this, they
lifted their voices to God with one accord and said, “O Lord, it is Thou who
didst make the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them, …29 “And now, Lord, take note of their threats,
and grant that Thy bond-servants may speak Thy word with all confidence, 30 while Thou dost extend Thy
hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Thy holy
servant Jesus.”
--When our minds become captivated by the wonders which God
has done and what He is capable of doing, our present circumstances have a way
of fading into the background!
A.
ENCOURAGED BY THOUGHTS OF PAST WONDERS
--The trauma of the recent news had shaken Mary and “she was
greatly troubled” by her encounter with Gabriel.
--However, instead of trying to form a response based only
on her limited experiences in life, she wisely chose to put these new
developments in her life into a much broader context…God had done great wonders
in the past—surely He was able to do this as well.
Luke 1:51-54 “He has done mighty deeds with
His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their
heart. 52 “He has brought
down rulers from their thrones, And has exalted those who were humble. 53 “He has filled the hungry with
good things; And sent away the rich empty-handed. 54 “He has given help to Israel His servant, In
remembrance of His mercy,
B. SATISFIED
BY MEMORIES OF INCOMPARABLE DEEDS
--Like the Psalmist, we will find that our recollection of
the incomparable deeds of the Lord in the past will satisfy any need we can
ever face.
--When we remember
and then meditate on the wonders of
the past, our soul is satisfied that nothing will ever be too difficult for the
Lord.
Psalm 77:11-13 I
shall remember the deeds of the LORD; Surely I will remember Thy wonders of
old. 12I will meditate on
all Thy work, And muse on Thy deeds. 13Thy
way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God?
What are your stories of God’s wonders? Many people have confined their memories of
such things to the extraordinary and miraculous acts of God recorded in the
Bible. The Bible alone should be
sufficient to support our faith, but God did not stop working wonders with the
end of Bible days.
Because we are not very observant,
we fail to see the hand of God working wonders in our own lives. As a result, God gets no credit and no glory
because we either ignore or dismiss or forget all that He has done in our own
lives.
God’s wonders may not be as
dramatic as a host of angels appearing to you, but seeing with the eyes of
faith, we can recognize His fingerprints on many things we might otherwise take
for granted…childbirth…providential provision (money or help or
expertise or strength or insight or peace)…health
(medicinal or surgical or nutritional advances)…restored relationships…protection.
Are we paying attention enough to
remember what He has already done? Will
time for meditation and reflection on such past acts of incomparable
faithfulness not give us confidence and reassurance in the face of coming
challenges?
C. OVERWHELMED BY THE FULFILLMENT OF MIRACULOUS PROMISES
--For both Mary and Joseph, the promises of God regarding
the coming of the Messiah were well known and believed so that when the
announcement of His birth was given, they were shocked but not doubtful.
Matt. 1:22-23
Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet
might be fulfilled, saying, 23
“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall
call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”
--When God keeps His promises, we are surprised and not
surprised at the same time…we knew He could and so we are not surprised, but we
were not sure He would, so we were surprised!
2 Peter 1:3-4 seeing that His divine power has
granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true
knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4 For by these He has granted to
us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might
become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in
the world by lust.
--And so Mary was overwhelmed by the way God’s wonders were
played out before her very eyes, how His promises were fulfilled exactly as He
had said.
--Therefore, she was captivated by these things and
comforted by the consideration of what they meant…both in her own life and in
the world for whom the Savior was born.
1. She
Treasured the Privilege of Her Involvement
--As she considered what was happening and reflected on the
overwhelming consequence of such things, how could she not wonder why God would
include her in His grand design?
“God, I have no idea why you chose me, but
I treasure the privilege that has been granted to me and will forever praise
you and thank you for it!”
--Do you take for granted all that God has done in your life
or do you regularly take time to reflect on the advantages He has given you to
make a difference for His glory?
1 Tim. 1:12 I
thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me
faithful, putting me into service;
--Many Christians spend more time complaining about the
things they do not have than treasuring the things they do have by God’s grace!
--Because Mary allowed the Lord to open her eyes to observe,
consider and reflect on the wonder of it all, she realized the vast treasure He
had laid at her feet!
2. She
Pondered this Portion of Her Inheritance
--By remembering His awesome wonders and recalling His
mighty deeds (Luke 1:51), Mary filled her mind with fuel to keep the fires of
meditation burning.
--Instead of stowing the information away on a shelf with
the other useless things she knew, Mary placed these wonders in a prominent
place in her mind to ponder them and examine them and value them.
Psa. 16:5-8
The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; Thou dost support my
lot. 6 The lines have fallen
to me in pleasant places; Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me. 7
I will bless the LORD who has counseled me; Indeed, my mind instructs me in the
night. 8 I have set the LORD
continually before me…
--God had made promises…He had now kept those promises and
the consideration and meditation on those things caused Mary to rejoice with
amazement at the great love of the Lord.
Luke 1:46-47
And Mary said: “My soul exalts the Lord,
47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
A lesson for us…when we ponder the wonders of God, He rewards those
profound meditations with an abundance of joy!
When we ignore and forget and push aside the wonders of God, our souls
dry up and we lose not only the joy but the ability to recognize what we have
so carelessly dismissed.
II.
ASTONISHED AND AWED BY HIS SOVEREIGN DESIGN
--By treasuring and pondering the wonders of God,
Mary leads the way for us to live in constant amazement of who God is and all
that He has done.
--May God forbid that we ever lose the sense of wonder when
we think of Him!
--For
Mary, two factors played a major role in maintaining that sense of wonder:
Inspiration
of the Word—God had been
unveiling His plan all along
Incarnation
of the Word—God had now unfolded
His purpose at long last
A. THE
INSPIRATION FORETELLING THE PLAN
--With over three hundred prophecies concerning the coming
of the Messiah, God had prepared His people for the astonishing arrival of the
One who would save them from the eternal judgment their sin deserved.
--For those who today try to dishonor God’s sovereign plan
for our redemption, the biggest obstacle to their efforts to discredit Jesus
Christ (such as the book DaVinci Code
and the Jesus Seminar and most university religion and philosophy departments)
is the preponderance of Old Testament prophecies that were exactly fulfilled by
the Lord Jesus.
--Do you want to allow your mind to grapple with the
astonishing nature of the accuracy of the prophecies as they relate to any one
person fulfilling all of them?
In Peter Stone’s book, Science
Speaks (1963: Moody Press), he lays
out the mathematical odds of the prophecies concerning the Messiah being
fulfilled in one person.
Focusing on just 8 of the major
prophecies concerning Messiah in the Old Testament, the mathematical
probability of one person fulfilling all 8 is 1017 or 1 followed by
17 zeros. The magnitude of the number
is better seen if that many silver dollars were in 2-foot stacks, they would
cover the entire state of Texas. If one
were marked and then all of the silver dollars mixed together in one pile, the
probability of finding the marked one on the first try blindfolded is equal to
8 of the prophecies being fulfilled in one person!
Now expand that to 48 of the
prophecies. The number then becomes 10157,
or 1 followed by 157 zeros. The
magnitude is almost incomprehensible but let’s try—if you could line up one of
the smallest objects we know about, electrons, for them to form a one inch long
single file line, we would have to have 2.5 x 1015 of them. In order to count them at a rate of 250 per
minute, it would take 19 million years to count them. For a one-inch cube, at the same rate, it would take 19 x 19 x 19
years to count them. Now, the
probability of one person fulfilling 48 prophecies is the same as a blindfolded
person reaching into that pile of electrons and finding the one marked.
--Still having trouble being awed by the kind of Divinely
Inspired Word which could lay out centuries in advance who the Messiah would
be?
--Jesus Christ was born…JUST AS HE SAID!
--And Mary pondered the wonder of it all! How can we not be astonished and awed by
such a carefully planned Sovereign Design?!
B. THE
INCARNATION FULFILLING THE PURPOSE
--But beyond the glorious mystery of the Inspired Word of
God, we have now seen the Incarnate Word of God.
Christ by
highest heaven adored
Christ, the
everlasting Lord
Late in time
behold him come
Offspring of a
virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh
the Godhead see!
Hail the incarnate Deity!
Pleased as man
with men to dwell,
Jesus, our
Immanuel!
Charles Wesley, 1707-88
--The greatest wonder is not the Inspired Word—we do not
worship and adore the Bible!
--The Word only bears witness to the Incarnate Deity, Jesus
Christ, the everlasting Lord!
--So Mary was
not caught up with the means God used to prepare
the way as she was captivated by the Man God sent to BE the way!
--Jesus
Christ Himself was
…the object of her deepest
affection,
…the source of
her greatest delight,
…the reason for
her expansive joy,
…the One who
was her most valued treasure!
--In Him the eternal purposes of the Father were finally
fulfilled as He “gave His only begotten
that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life!”
--Today we ponder what God has done and we treasure His Son
more than life itself!
I hope that this year you can make room
in your heart and mind for some deeper reflection and consideration of the
works, words and wonders of God as we see them related to the events of the
Christmas accounts in His word. Just as
there was no room for Mary and Joseph in the inn in Bethlehem, many turn Him
away with no room in their busy lives to consider and ponder God’s most
wondrous treasure.
If we will allow
our minds to contemplate the matchless wonders of God, especially in the
glorious gift of His Son, we cannot help but fall down before Him with
thanksgiving and humble adoration.
So, Come let us
adore Him…let us worship the God of Wonders…let us fall down before Him with
praise.
May we ponder so
that we may be captivated and comforted
by His wondrous works and astonished and
awed by His Sovereign Design for us through Jesus Christ!
Providence Baptist Church
© David Horner 2004
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