Rev. David Holwick ZN
First Baptist Church [well-received]
Ledgewood, New Jersey
December 18, 2011
John 1:9-14
GOD'S BREAK-IN
I. Prison break-out movies.
A. Shawshank Redemption (1994).
1) Based on a Stephen King novella.
2) Oppressed by a self-righteous abusive warden, Tim Robbins
tunnels through rock wall with tiny hammer.
3) Busts through sewer pipe, crawls half a mile through
human waste, then walks into a bank and withdraws the
warden's corrupt money.
4) Moves to a beach in Mexico to retire in style.
B. Escape From Alcatraz (1979).
1) Based on a real event.
2) Oppressed by a self-righteous abusive warden, Clint Eastwood
makes dummies, digs out through roof, floats across Bay.
3) Did they make it? No one knows for sure.
C. God went the other way.
1) Instead of breaking out of a bad situation, he broke in.
2) From the bliss of heaven, Jesus was sent down to do a dirty
mission.
3) Because he succeeded, we can break out of the prisons of
the soul.
II. Prison breaks need a plan.
A. What happened at Christmas was not a lark.
1) Some have the impression that Christmas is just a
hodge-podge of ancient myths and stories.
2) Many ancient religions and societies believed their leaders
were supernatural. [1]
a) The Greeks believed their gods came to earth and messed
around with women all the time.
b) They also believed Alexander the Great was a god who
had been born of a woman.
c) The Romans believed Caesar Augustus was a god who had
been born of a woman.
3) What makes Jesus any different?
a) The parallels to pagan myths are minimal.
b) The Christmas story is thoroughly grounded in the
story of the Jews.
1> You will see this clearly if you read the gospel
accounts carefully.
2> They were excited about the coming of a king and
the fulfillment of prophecies.
3> There really isn't any sex in the Christmas story,
unlike the supposed pagan parallels.
B. The foundation that is laid in the Old Testament.
1) It begins with Genesis and runs through the prophets.
2) The focus is on a future king who will lead the nation of
Israel, and, indeed, the whole world.
3) The details can be confusing.
a) Some prophesies say the king will descend from the sky.
1> Others say he will be born in a village.
b) Some say his kingdom will never end.
1> Others speak of the king being "cut off" - killed.
4) Only after Christmas did it make sense.
a) Early Christians understood that the prophecies were
speaking of two events.
b) The king would come, be killed, then come again in power.
c) Christmas speaks of the first coming.
C. The prophets added the most detail to it.
1) Isaiah - he would belong to David's royal line.
2) Micah - he would be born in Bethlehem.
3) Daniel - he would be born a certain number of years after
the Babylonian Exile.
III. Why God had to break in.
A. The classic Biblical theme of deliverance.
1) God's people are hurting, they cry out to him, and he acts.
a) He usually does this by sending a human leader.
b) The Exodus out of Egypt, led by Moses, is an example.
1> The book of Judges also revolves around this theme.
2) Christmas is the ultimate deliverance by God.
B. Christmas adds a twist.
1) The leader that is born is actually God himself.
a) The Old Testament only gives hints of this.
b) Even in the New Testament it is barely explicit.
c) But the details of the text demand it.
2) John 1:1 - "the Word was God."
a) There is no doubt that "the Word" is a title for Jesus.
b) There is also no doubt that "God" is God with a capital
"G", not a little "g" as Jehovah's Witnesses claim.
C. Christmas is God's way of saving us.
1) The book of Hebrews explains that Jesus had to be like us
in every way so he could atone for us. Heb 2:17
2) Jesus (God) had to see life the way we see it.
In 1989, after his release from prison on petty crimes,
John L. Stanley began the serious study of criminology.
He did lectures and even hosted a Dallas radio program on
crime.
But in December that year he confessed to robbing a
Commerce Bank in Kansas City, Missouri.
His rationale: he needed to return to prison to further his
study.
Stanley told the judge, "There are some things about crime
you can't understand unless you get into the belly of
the beast."
#29335
3) Incarnation put God in "the belly of the beast."
a) (Incarnation means receiving a human body.)
IV. Because God broke into our world, we can break out.
A. We can break out of the prison of sin.
Mary Kay was born in Birmingham, Alabama.
Her mother was a devout Christian but her father was an
alcoholic.
Her father used to become enraged and beat her.
He once raced their car with her young siblings across the
railroad tracks seconds before an oncoming train.
He even tried to destroy their house with dynamite while the
children were in it.
In a hurry to leave her childhood behind, Mary Kay met
Paul Mahaffey and married him 7 days later.
Six months later, she found out that he was on the list of
America's most wanted criminals.
She did not care.
It was a short step from accepting Paul's profession to
practicing it herself.
Her first steps into a life of crime were tentative, like sewing
magnets into her dress pockets and leaning on the gaming
table while Paul rolled his loaded dice.
Then she grew more brazen.
She held people at gun-point, staged bank robberies in midday,
organized her husband's prison break, and even double-crossed
the Mafia on a diamond heist.
She says she was the best safecracker in the South, if not the
entire United States.
This wasn't the Mary Kay who started a cosmetics empire.
This Mary Kay was a shotgun-toting bank robber with flaming
red hair who with her no-good husband was dubbed "the Bonnie
and Clyde of Alabama."
In 1972 the FBI had her on the Ten Most Wanted List.
She ended up with a contract on her life and 35 charges in four
states plus 11 federal indictments.
After her arrest she faced 180 years in prison if convicted of
all the charges against her.
While Mary Kay awaited sentencing (which can take months after
being convicted) she began attending the jail church services.
Not because she was interested in God, but because it was the
only way to get out of solitary confinement.
But Mary Kay was struck by the volunteers at these early
morning services.
Why, she wondered, would any sane person get up at 5 a.m. on
the weekend just to visit prisoners?
"Why do you bother?" she finally asked the elderly volunteer
sitting beside her.
The answer blew her away.
"Jesus loved you enough to go all the way to Calvary," the
woman replied.
"So we love you enough to come in here and tell you about Him."
Over the next few weeks, the Holy Spirit began to work on Mary
Kay's heart.
Alone in her cell one night, Mary Kay opened a Bible the Gideons
had provided.
A verse from Ezekiel caught her eye: "I will give you a new heart
and put a new spirit in you... I will move you to follow my
decrees and be careful to keep my laws."
Instantly, Mary Kay knew she had found the answer.
"God," she prayed, "If you can really change my heart, I'll
give my life back to you."
And God did change Mary Kay's heart.
She began to study God's Word and grew in her relationship with
Christ.
And by God's grace, she received a sentence of just eight years.
When she was released, she entered college and got a masters
degree in education.
She also did something else.
Mary Kay had been haunted by how the female inmates had grieved
for their kids at Christmas, even wrapping up little bars of
soap or shampoo so their kids would have a present.
Now that she was free, Mary Kay began a ministry with Charles
Colson called Angel Tree.
Through donations, they provide gifts to the children of
prisoners.
Seven million have received gifts so far.
#19835 and 30288
1) You are probably not a colorful sinner like a safe cracker.
a) But you are still a sinner.
b) The Bible says everyone is.
2) Perhaps you are caught in a sin that is ruining your life.
a) You can try to reform yourself, but it probably won't
work.
b) Have you tried Jesus?
c) Not just a quickie prayer for salvation, but seeking
to make him the first priority of your life.
B. We can break out of the prison of hopelessness.
1) Many people have lots of money, tons of possessions, and
their Christmas tree will still have gifts piled ten
feet out - but they feel empty.
2) Stuff alone cannot satisfy your soul.
3) Christmas can show us God's purpose for our lives.
a) He shows us how to live.
b) We have a goal to aim for - the Kingdom of God.
C. We can break out of the prison of grief.
1) I had to change about five of my Christmas letters this
week because the recipients had died.
2) In our own church, Fred Broome died about a week ago.
3) Christmas is going to be very sad for these families.
a) But their grief can have an answer.
b) Jesus ended up dying, too. But he was brought back
to life.
c) If we believe in Jesus, we can experience this ourselves.
V. Breakouts are exciting.
A. The EDS experience.
It was near Christmas, 1978.
The nation of Iran was in turmoil with religious revolutionaries
fighting the Shah’s forces.
In the midst of all this, two American employees of the
Electronic Data Systems (EDS) were arrested.
They were charged with attempted bribery and Iran demanded
$12.7 million for their release.
The company negotiated with the government but got nowhere.
So Ross Perot, the leader of the company, made a decision.
He hired a former special operations officer, Col. Bull Simons,
to organize a rescue.
With the help of some Vietnam veterans and a few Iranian
employees, they came up with a plan.
An Iranian employee code-named "Rashid" began associating with
the religious revolutionary groups to gain their trust.
Then he bribed a police chief with $100 to leave the police
weapons room open.
He hauled all those weapons to the next revolutionary meeting
and handed them out.
Rashid announced, "It is our responsibility to free the
thousands of political prisoners."
One hour later, 30,000 revolutionaries stormed the prison and
the guards were stripped down to their long underwear.
No one had to fire a shot.
12,000 prisoners escaped - including two grateful Americans.
#63467
B. Jesus is better than Ross Perot.
1) Perot might be able to bust you out of Iran, but Jesus
can bust you out of hell.
2) The little baby in a manger has freed tens of millions from
a life of fear and despair.
3) Has he broken you out?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
[1] For an interesting examination of this by an atheist see “The Pagan
Origins of the Christ Myth” at <http://pocm.info/pagan_christs_
getting_started.html>.
#19835 “Why Do You Bother?: The Mother of Angel Tree,” by Charles Colson,
BreakPoint Commentary, November 7, 1999.
#29335 “You Have To Be Among Them To Understand,” by Chuck Shepherd, News
of the Weird, <http://m.chicagoreader.com/chicago/news-of-the-
weird/Content?oid=918542>. Also see “Prison Will Help My Crime
Research" at <http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/showthread.php?p
=1026958>.
#30288 “Rogue Angel: A Christmas Story,” by Charles Colson, BreakPoint
Commentary, December 19, 2005.
#63467 “Busted Out of an Iranian Prison,” by David Holwick, adapted from
“Ross Perot’s Private Rescue Of EDS Employees In Iran, 1978” at
<http://feraljundi.com/1742/history-ross-perots-private-rescue-of
-eds-employees-in-iran-1978/> and the Wikipedia.org article
“On Wings of Eagles.”
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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