And we shall call Him Emmanuel

(which means “God with us”) Matthew 1

 

Mark 2 14As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

15While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”

17On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

 

The gospel of Matthew was written by Levi—that tax collector in the verse above.  And many would say that this is the great hypocrisy of the Christian faith. But the reality for me is that it is the proof of it.

 

You see, this is a crazy thought to someone on the outside looking in—the idea that a thief who was hated by the Jewish people would write them a letter compelling them to change their focus.

 

And yet he did.  And God used it to stir up the greatest movement in the history of the world.  And it was because HOPE came down.

 

And that—–can not be stated enough times.

 

HOPE came down.

 

HOPE came to the world that rejected it and did not leave until it had been given in full measure.

 

HOPE came in the form of none other than Jesus Christ.

 

And HOPE did not discriminate.

 

It saw the disease that had all the fruits of hopelessness.

 

The fruits were not just despair, or loneliness, or sadness.

 

Hopelessness lives in lust and greed and hatred and covetousness also.  It lives in revenge and selfishness and pride also.

 

Hopelessness does not “disappoint” in its ability to bring destruction.  It can generate all of the depravity we see.

 

But HOPE, it snuffs out hopelessness.

 

Romans 5 20 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more …

 

Sin can’t win.

It won’t win.

The championship game has been played…and decided.

The winning team has been crowned.

And that team belongs to Jesus.

 

When Danny Gokey lost his wife, it was devastating.

She was gone and he was not sure what to do.

But that was not the end of her story…it was the beginning.

 

And all of us, no matter where we are, can have a beginning.

 

And all of that, is because HOPE came down.

 

What he sings about.  What God did for us. All of this.  People do not know about it. SHARE IT.  Because the world could use some HOPE.  And it could use a beginning.  Make sure that all you know know who has the winning team—-and who HOPE is.

 

Hope In Front Of Me

Danny Gokey

There’s Hope In Front Of Me

There’s A Light I Still See It

There’s A Hand Still Holding Me

Even When I Don’t Believe It

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KIhYZQ_ovw

 

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

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Coach J