Podcast

Today we make HIStory! History is often made with the routine. When you change your routine you change history. The challenge that I have issued was made with that in mind.
We are in the Lenten season. Forty days before Resurrection Sunday the church focuses on the work of Christ and His sacrifice. Many people choose to fast or give something up for Lent to remind themselves of the sacrifice that Jesus made. Making History is taking this up a few notches. First of all we are going to carry this beyond Resurrection Sunday and will see how Resurrection both completed the work of Christ and began the work of Christ. 2. The challenge is designed to increase your 'followership'. That is to help you MAKE HIStory as you follow Jesus. I will talk about this more in a few moments.
22 weeks ago we began our journey through THE STORY. Today we come to the defining point of THE STORY. God came down. God invaded history and made it his own. To say History is all about God is an understatement. God is beyond history. He defines our history when He invades our story.
Consider this, God could have chosen any time in HIS Story to invade history. He worked all things together at just the right time, then he stepped out of eternity into history.
John 1:1-14
As we turn the page o another chapter and move from Old Testament to New Testament we can miss much of what was happened in history.by 323 BC Alexander the Great had conquered most of the world that we have been looking at for the past several weeks. After his deaths he empire was divided.
The Seleucid Empire was founded by Alexander's general Seleucis. His descendents were generally named either Seleucis or Antiochus. India and much of the lands to the east of Persia revolted and returned to local rulership on the death of Alexander
The Ptolemaic Empire was founded by Alexander's general Ptolemy, who took Alexander's body with him to Egypt. The ruling men of his line were all named Ptolemy; and the women, Cleopatra
Macedonia was claimed by members of Alexander's family, who were all eventually murdered. The land reverted to the status of a small kingdom until it was taken by the Romans
Much of Greece had been virtually independent of Alexander even during his lifetime. On the break-up of the Empire, Greek cities started forming leagues for defense. Some came under the control of several of the competing generals, and there was a rather confused period which culminated in the take-over by the Romans
In the waiting years Palestine would be ruled by either the Selucids or the Ptolemys depending on which country was strongest at the time. After the death of Alexander the Great, his kingdom was divided into four kingdoms: Egypt, Syria, Pergamum, and Greece. Only three of these really rose to the status of a power center, however, and of those three, two made the greatest impact upon Judaism. These two powers were Egypt, being governed by Ptolemy I Soter (ruling from 323-285 B.C.), and Syria, being governed by Seleucus I Nicator ( ruling from 312-281 B.C.).1 In general, the Ptolemies allowed for Judaism to function according to status quo without much intervention. It was not quite the case in the second century B.C. when the Seleucids gained dominance of the region of Judea. In 175 B.C. the ambitious new Seleucid King, Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-164 B.C.) sought to bring Egypt under his dominion. Rome intervened and thwarted what would have been a solid victory for Antiochus, who was forced to return home without fully accomplishing his goal of conquest. Newsome explains what happened next:
On his return home, he vented his frustration on the Jews of Jerusalem. The Seleucid army entered the city and slaughtered large numbers of the inhabitants and carried away as slaves many others. The Temple was looted of its treasures and profaned by the imposition of pagan sacrifices. Antiochus' violation of the city was one of the major causes of the Hasmonean revolt.2
The Hasmoneans were of the priestly class. Since the time of Ezra and the rebuilding of the new temple, the political organization of Judea had changed. The political authority no longer rested in the hands of a monarch, but now its power was wielded by the High Priest and his order. Nor was his power limited to religious affairs, but he essentially functioned as the head of the state. This was not a term-length position, but a hereditary position held for life.3 The Jewish High Priest at the time of Antiochus IV's desecration of the Temple was Onias III, who, according to Sch?er, was "a zealot for the laws (2 Mac. 4:2)."4 By this time, Hellenistic influence had pervaded Judaism so that there were Hellenistic sects of Jews. These pro-Greek Jews were, of course, disdained by those Jews who held to their ancestral orthodoxy. One of the strongest pro-Greek Jews, however, was Onias III's own brother. He solicited Antiochus IV through bribery to have himself appointed as High Priest in the place of his brother, Onias III. Antiochus concurred and this resulted in great offenses to the Jewish sensibilities. Once again, Sch?er explains:
[The] 'lawful institutions' were abolished and 'new usages contrary to the Law' introduced (2 Mac. 4:11). A gymnasium was erected below the citadel and the young men of Jerusalem practiced the athletic skills of the Greeks. Even the priests left their service at the altar and took part in the games held in the palestra. The contempt for Jewish customs went so far that many removed their circumcision artificially.
The build-up of this "forced Hellenization,"6 found its climax in Antiochus IV's desecration of the Temple as a result of his frustration regarding the incomplete takeover of Egypt. This was the "final straw" that led to the Maccabean revolt (166-142 B.C.). The record of this revolt is the subject matter of 1 & 2 Maccabees. The fallout of all of this led to the tearing down of the walls of Jerusalem with a permanent Seleucid military presence established there, making Jerusalem its citadel.7
It was at this time that members of the Hasmonean family withdrew to the mountains after a bloody confrontation with one of the king's officers who was there delivering an edict of the king regarding a sacrifice that was royally mandated. He rallied some other Jewish rebels around him and one Judas became the commander of the rebel forces. He was given the nickname "Maccabeus" (meaning "the hammerer"). Their resistance was enough to defeat Seleucid forces and ultimately achieve an independent state.
Palestine was under Greek control and rule until the middle of the first century B.C., after which it changed hands into Roman rule. The Roman era began with Pompey's invasion into Judea in 64/63 B.C. which resulted in Aristobulus, the Jews' High Priest at that time, being carried off in a Roman triumphal procession as a result of General Pompey's military victory. A general period of peace in Jerusalem resulted. Herod became the ruler of Judea in 40 B.C. and implemented a magnificent reconstruction of the Temple in 20/19 B.C.1 Herod's Temple is referred to as the Second Temple. Roman dominance would continue all the way through the fall of the Second Temple (and beyond).
This was the political climate that Jesus stepped into. Look with me at John chapter 1

• The Word was made flesh and made his dwelling among us. John 1:14

• • The Word, who was God, was made flesh. John 1:1 and 14.
• • “Word” is from the Greek logos from which we get logic, reason.
• • Heraklitus, a philosopher who lived in Ephesus and who observed that you never step in the same river twice, said that logos is omnipotent wisdom
    that steers everything.
• • Plato offered the possibility that a Word (logos) may one day usher forth from God.

• The Word who is God is revealed in Jesus Christ. John 1:1 and 14

• • John 1:1 “In the beginning...” is an echo or return to Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created...”
• • God created by words, by speech, “Let there be...and there was...”
    

• Jesus was born as an ordinary person to ordinary people. Luke 1:34-35

• • Jesus was born of a young virgin girl, needing no help from us to be born.
• • His earthly father, Joe, was an ordinary carpenter.
• • Jesus’ birth was truly humble.
    Application: Jesus is humble enough to know what you’ve been through this week; humble enough to know what keeps you awake at night; humble enough to hear an Ethiopian immigrant or a squatter in Brazil; humble enough to know a cold night and a hungry belly. The Word became flesh. He came to us and for us.

• The Word, Jesus, was turned away by many. John 1:10-11

• • The innkeeper was not the only one to turn Jesus away. We can only imagine what went through his head as he rejected Jesus, claiming it was too crowded to have a pregnant woman give birth in his inn.
• • The world is always “too crowded” to receive Jesus—crowded with deadlines and headlines, phone lines and long lines, full itineraries, full schedules, jam-packed lives.
• • Jesus comes not to complicate our already complicated lives, but to simplify our lives, even to give us life.

• Making History happens when we follow Christ.

• Read The Story with us Chapters 22-31, 1 chapter a week.
• Attend church each week during this season
• Connect with others in a group to unpack HIStory
• Find a way to serve others in your Connect Group
• Put God first in your Tithe for 10 weeks. Prove God to be true to His Word.