Light on the Hill

Guest (Male): The ultimate promise, coming up on this Christmas Day edition of Light on the Hill.

Merry Christmas. We're so thankful to the Lord for this time together with you on this very special Christmas Day. Today on Light on the Hill, we bring you the fifth and final message in our series, "The Promise of Christmas Rarely Told". Pastor James Kaddis will take us to Luke chapter two where we encounter the promise that changed the world forever. The promise of the Messiah brings hope and joy to the world, a promise made to anyone who receives it. Are you ready for the ultimate Christmas story? Here's Pastor James.

James Kaddis: Okay, Luke chapter two. Now, it is important because when we get into this passage, one of the things that I think is really important for us to dig into, and one of the things that I think is really important for us to stop and focus and concentrate on, is the circumstances that surrounded the literal inception of this story. I think that we would be amiss if we did not stop to consider the many things that were happening at the time that the story was being told.

The thing that I should say is this: prior to this happening, there were many prophecies that were in the Bible that told us what would happen. There were many promises that were made. The Bible told us that Christ would be, of course, born in Bethlehem. We know that He would be of Nazareth, we know that. We know that Christ would be born of a virgin; that's told to us in the Old Testament. Do you know that the Bible gives us so many details about Christ?

The Bible tells us that Christ would be betrayed, even tells us for how much silver He would be betrayed. The Bible gives us details as to the life and the movements of Jesus Christ. The Bible notes for us in the Old Testament, as early as thousands of years before, what would happen to Jesus on the cross and what He would do. In 700 BC, roughly 750 BC, 750 years before the time Christ was even crucified, we have what may be the most graphic depiction of Roman crucifixion we have ever seen anywhere.

As a matter of fact, it's really interesting because many of the Jews today will just adamantly deny the last several verses of Isaiah 52 into Isaiah 53 because the description is so unbelievably powerful that it's very difficult for people to understand or even materialize its value. It tends to be, amongst the Jewish community, very much attenuated and made to be a metaphorical sort of assent that doesn't even really depict or communicate anything of real significance. But in reality, if you read the story of the crucifixion, you'll understand very quickly just how remarkably it matches with what you read in Isaiah 53.

And we have lots of other promises that are given to us. We have not only promises, but we have predictions. If you look at the Psalms, the Psalms actually tell us some of the things that Jesus would actually say. As a matter of fact, when Jesus said, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" when He was hanging on the cross, you have to understand that the Jews knew exactly what He was saying and they knew exactly what was going on because you could actually see in the Bible the very moment, per Psalm 22, when Jesus was saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?".

He was quoting it the way it would have been quoted. He was speaking it the way it would have been spoken. Literally, He was quoting Psalm 22, knowing full well that everybody who heard it would have known that this was an exact prediction of the very thing that the Lord would say. The Bible tells us in Daniel chapter nine concerning the fact that Jesus would literally ride into the city of Jerusalem at a very specific time. As a matter of fact, if you read through Daniel chapter nine, you will actually read the account that tells us what would happen.

In Daniel chapter nine, it tells us from the proclamation to rebuild and restore Jerusalem, he accounts for us 173,880 days. How do you come to that calculation? You all know the math; we've gone through it on multiple occasions. He talks about the 69 weeks, and every single one of these weeks is seven days. If you take 69 times seven, you have a certain amount of years because every single one of those days represents a year.

When you multiply those years times 360, according to the Babylonian calendar, it brings you to 173,880 days. And when you open up Nehemiah chapter two and you read about the declaration that Artaxerxes Longimanus makes on March 14, 445 BC, and you count 173,880 days, it takes you to March the 30th, 33 AD, which was the literal day that Jesus rides into the city of Jerusalem. Jesus, as He's standing in Jerusalem looking at everybody, says, "You missed this thy day." You should have known it. If you studied Bible prophecy, you would have seen it. It was told to you exactly what would happen.

So the Old Testament, you could take linguistic forensics. You don't even have to get into numbers; you could ignore all the numbers out there. If you just were to, from a linguistically and grammatically forensic approach, you could literally take apart everything that the Bible says in the Old Testament as it relates to the Messiah and you could build a remarkable timeline. It's really interesting and it's really funny, too, because there are so many things that happen in the Hebrew language that are very remarkable nuances that a lot of people wouldn't understand unless you're a language or a linguistics major.

You would appreciate it because you would understand many of the same constructs that you're studying exist within the context of the Hebrew language. The beautiful poetry associated with the function that you find in the Hebrew language all goes to the nuancing that oftentimes builds the argument for the deity of Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, if you really want to understand that, then you make yourself familiar with Hebrew poetry and then you go and you put it side-by-side, I'm talking about just from a linguistic and grammatical perspective, you put it side-by-side by a writing like the book of Hebrews, which by the way is the most complicated Greek in the Bible.

What you will end up doing is you will end up seeing that the apostle Paul, who I believe is the one who actually wrote the book of Hebrews, does this remarkable thing. He takes the function of language that's associatively valued with the Greeks, and he uses the function of language that's associatively valued of the Hebrews. He takes the cultural precedent that is designed in creating a dynamically equivalent approach with the way you translate the Hebrew Old Testament, and he combines it with the beautiful necessity and very specific and very targeted function of word-for-word translation.

He puts them both together and he makes what might be one of the most spectacular arguments for the deity of Jesus and continues to remind us of the fact that it was prophesied all throughout the Bible who Jesus would be, and he gives us even a deeper and better description concerning all of it. This is why I am offended when I continue to hear people refer to transgenderism as something that we should be thinking about and so on and so forth. Listen, I want you to understand something. From the perspective of a language person, let's just drop all the other arguments, let's just bring a little bit of science and let's bring language into the picture.

From the perspective of a science person, it is XX and XY. There is nothing other than that. It is sex, it is not gender. And when we bring in the use of the term gender, gender should be connotative of a very specific mechanism that is designed to provide what would be a personality or a certain attribute related to some type of poetic function or, dare I say, some sort of attenuated value that takes the understanding of what someone is trying to communicate and adds beauty to it, adds character.

Perhaps one of the greatest examples of this are the types of things that we do in the modern day. You can have the most masculine vehicle in the world; it could be the toughest, biggest hot rod, the greatest thing you've ever seen before. You can say, "Look at that thing, that thing's a manly hot rod," right? But most guys who own hot rods won't say that. They'll say, "Oh, look at her, she's sure pretty, isn't she?" Is she female? No. Can she even move? Well, technically it's a hot rod, right? But is there a value that has been attached to it that really has a human characteristic or attribute? Yes.

By the way, we do this in everything. You know that language doesn't just extend to the use of a series of grammatical constructs or doesn't just extend to a series of words that might be used that might not be familiar to one person, yet it's familiar to another. Language is something that even extends to the way that you express yourself when you sing. There are people right now that when they actually play their instruments, they can make it sound like somebody who actually sings. Have you ever heard somebody like Maceo Parker play a saxophone with Bebe and Cece Winans in the background?

There's an album out there where you cannot distinguish the difference between their voice and the saxophone that he's playing because there's a function of phrasing that's going on. There's a beautiful aspect where the very function of his playing is engendered. This is where we get the term gender from. Gender adds to what is beauty. By the way, the biblical example of this, one of the greatest examples that I can find biblically of this, and there's many of them, is when you look at the Psalms. In the Psalms, it refers to wisdom as a woman.

That's what you see. Why? Because women are precious, they're valuable, they're the weaker vessel. When we say the weaker vessel, it doesn't mean that you're just weak. That's not what it means. Listen, women are generally, physically, less capable than men from the perspective of strength. Okay, understood. We're wired differently; we have bigger muscles. We're made a completely different way. But women are exquisite. That's what you end up looking at, what a woman is in society, she should be treated as the weaker vessel.

When I wear a ring that is made of precious metals, I don't take that thing and throw it on the ground and go, "I'll get to it when I get to it." No, I put it in a nice little box and protect it and I do everything that I can to demonstrate my caution in how I handle it. That's what we're supposed to do with women in our society. But what are we doing? We're not doing that. We're not understanding it, we're not cherishing them. What we do is we actually exploit them and we abuse them.

That's why we put them in places where God never designed for them to be, and as a result, we're destroying our culture. If you think about it, the whole transgender movement is an attack on women. It has nothing to do with men; it has everything to do with attacking women. But this all goes back to the use of language in the Bible, its expressive function and the things that we see, and even through the use of poetry, even through the use of metaphors and types. There's lots of typologies that are in the Bible that speak about the prophecies concerning Christ.

As a matter of fact, Jonah was a type. Jonah being in the belly of a whale, Jesus points that out to us. He was a type of what would happen to Christ when He would actually go into the ground and be resurrected from the dead. There's so much of this that predicts that. The reason why I bring all of that up is because all of that sits as the foundation for the moment that we're about to enter into. You see, the foundation has been set. Remember what I talked about? I talked about the fact that there are opportunities around us everywhere.

It's not about whether or not the opportunities exist, it's about whether or not you have chosen to position yourself in a place where you're ready for the opportunity. Every single time something unfortunate has happened to you, there was somebody else that benefited from it because they made themselves ready for the moment in which would come upon them. Each and every single one of us need to understand that. It's never about the lack of opportunity; it is always about the fact that God has called us to stand ready.

Now the thing is, we can never know what's going to happen in our lives. We can never predict or understand the things that might happen from day to day, but we do know the Creator of the universe who does understand it. If we're going to position ourselves to be ready for each and every single one of those moments, the greatest and most effective thing that we can do is live a life completely sold out and yielded to Him because in doing so, He'll prepare us for all of those things.

Now with all of that said, let me show you some of the things that we have in common with the time that we read about in Luke chapter two. You see, by the time we get to Luke chapter two, everything has already been prophesied. The Bible says in the volume of the book it's written of Jesus. It's all been said. We read about it. We went over the prophecy in Genesis chapter three. We went over the prophecy in Genesis chapter 49 verse 10. We go over the prophecies in the Psalms, we go over the prophecies all over the place from the minor prophets to the major prophets.

We sat down and we've had extensive conversations on the likelihood that any one of these prophecies could have taken place according to the very specific ways and calculated ways it was communicated, and all of it has happened. Every single last one of it. It's incredible to see what's going on. So the foundation is set. Now we find ourselves during the time of these men that we're going to read about, during the time of Christ's birth, that they were living in what may have been one of the most tumultuous times during that time period.

As a matter of fact, the time was so tumultuous, the time was so difficult, the time was so hard, the time was so insane, that even after Jesus was born and a couple of years go by, the Bible tells us that an angel appears to Joseph and warns Joseph that he and his son and his family need to take off and go into Egypt and hide out. By the way, did you know that the Bible even predicted that? The Bible actually in the Old Testament prophesied that Jesus would have to go hide out in Egypt.

I'm particularly interested in that because the Bible also implies that in the future, because of the fact that Egypt was the place that God used to protect the Messiah, that God will have a hand in the lives of the Egyptians in the future in a very specific way and a revival in a very specific way. By the way, there's some pretty amazing things that are happening in Egypt as we speak. But the one thing that I want to say, and I think is really important, is that the foundation has been laid and the type of insanity that was going on in government back then is very similar to the way that we're living today.

Yes, there's a whole series of ebbs and flows that you should come to expect when it comes to human nature. As a matter of fact, Revelation chapter six sort of shows that out that if humanity is allowed to experience everything that humanity desires to experience and it's unchecked, then you will develop a totalitarian ruler and with that totalitarianism, you'll bring in war, and with that war, you will have economic failure, and after that economic failure, you will culture a ruling class, and with all of that coming into fruition, you will bring death.

That's exactly what the white horse and the red horse and the black horse and the pale horse is in the book of Revelation. It teaches us that. We see the pattern all throughout the scripture. I would argue, just like one of my friends Senator Morrell, I would argue that in the Bible you can find an example of every kind of governmental structure that exists within humanity. It's very easy, it's not difficult, and the parallels are predictable and all of it is predictable.

But there are anomalies that the Bible told us to expect that we are seeing right now for the first time in human history, and that's where this story becomes really remarkable. So understand we're living in a very tumultuous time. Look at what it says in verse one of chapter two, and it says this: "And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed." By the way, this is interesting. Well, let me go through the parenthetical here.

It says: "And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria." By the way, this is really interesting. This really helps us to be able to understand the time period that we're talking about right now. Some people will argue about the actual specifics of what day this was. I actually believe we're talking about zero, okay? We're not talking about BC or AD, we're talking right there in the middle. We are talking about the year of our Lord. That's what we're talking about here.

This is very important to note that. By the way, this is interesting because this Caesar was Octavius. There's a lot of very interesting things to learn about him. He led a pretty remarkable life, and when I say remarkable, I mean remarkable in the sense that there's some crazy history and a wild story that comes with this. I suspect that at some point we'll spend some time really examining him because we will get there as sort of a subset of something that we're going to run into in Mark later on.

But this is a very interesting situation and what he's basically doing is this is in essence a census. That's pretty much what's going on. By the way, it's interesting because censuses are still used for very much the same things today that they were back then. As a matter of fact, I think we get the concept of a census from something that's always existed within human nature. As a matter of fact, the census that we deploy today in the United States of America is used to do all kinds of things, both crooked and upright.

As a matter of fact, it seems as though lately it's been a lot more crooked than upright because of what they're doing with all the redistricting and all the other insane crazy stuff that's going on with it. But the reality of it was in those days it wasn't like it is today. It wasn't like that there were all these modern technological tools that enable you to be able to find out certain things or do certain things or understand or research certain things. If you wanted to take or have a census, you basically ordered everybody to go back to the place where they were born or their original upbringing.

You had to do that. Why? Because the records for that person were there. If there were any anomalies that existed in that area, it was their way of being able to identify those anomalies, find out if there were more people born into the family that they weren't aware of, and it was a very valuable tool for Rome because as Rome began to see numbers exponentially increase, Rome also saw the necessity to charge people for that, right? Rome wanted to tax people.

It's interesting, just I think a very unique thing, that here in the United States of America, it seems as though we're kind of going through a lot of this same thing. We're dealing with more debt than we can possibly imagine. By the way, did you know guys that there's a Supreme Court case? As a matter of fact, I'm going through the ins and outs of it. I'm actually doing a project over researching this case, and I'm realizing there isn't just one Supreme Court case, there's multiple Supreme Court cases that actually declare taxes on US citizens to be unconstitutional.

I'm not joking. And I'm not encouraging you to not pay your taxes because if you don't pay your taxes, there's going to be a problem, okay? Pay your taxes and then argue the issue in court. Argue the merits in court, just like the whole thing you a police officer pulls you over, don't go like, "Hey man, that was illegal, I ain't doing nothing." Your face is going to be in the ground, right? Put your hands up, cooperate, all that, argue it with the judge later on in the court, find a good attorney, we know a few of them, and deal with it that way.

But the reality of it is, it's remarkable to me to understand the fact that the same type of corruption that we see in mankind back then is the type of corruption that we're seeing right now. And isn't it funny that when a government is allowed to tax their people in an unmitigated fashion, that that government also chooses to behave in a way that's unaccountable? They choose to behave in a way that actually destroys itself because if there's no accountability for the money that they're taking from people, something changes and it changes radically.

By the way, I'm going to just tell you this right now: I believe the mentality of taxation that has existed in this country for probably the past hundred years has also come from what pastors have taught their people in the pulpit. Because I think it started with pastors being corrupt a hundred-plus years ago. I think it started with pastors taking money from people in the fellowship and not being hardworking, allowing that money to be the very thing that just lines their pocket to do whatever they want, going out and spending that money in exorbitant ways and never being held accountable.

Guess what? People in the pulpit do that, the people who watch them learn that and they go do it at the governmental level, and that's exactly what's going on. And I think that we see this happening more and more. It was happening certainly in the time of Rome. As a matter of fact, that's why people like Matthew were so hated, Jewish tax collectors, because Rome loved Jewish tax collectors because Jewish tax collectors knew the communities in which they served and they knew how many people had how many babies and they were always able to go and tax.

And the Jews hated them because they not only were snitches, but they couldn't give them stitches for being snitches, number one. But then number two and perhaps more significantly, they were able to charge Jews for their expenses. So if you had to pay a 30% tax, you could charge according to Roman law, you could charge them up to slightly less than what their actual tax was. So if they were charged a 30% tax, you couldn't charge them a 30% tax because then you would be declaring that you are as superior as Caesar.

You would typically charge something as like a 20% tax, and they hated tax collectors, right? The same way. And I'll tell you, look, the last time I was in Washington and we drove past the IRS building, the main IRS building there, I could feel the presence of Satan. I mean, you could feel it. But anyway, well, I mean heck, I could feel the presence of Satan when I went by the White House, too, because I remember who was in office then too. It was an evil house, not a white house. It's always look at it now; it's just terrible. But anyway, so it was a tumultuous time. It was a very tumultuous time.

Look at what it goes on to say. It says: "And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, unto Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and the lineage of David." By the way, I want to say this; this is very important. Did you notice how back then as we're reading this verses there was no such thing as Palestine here?

Did you notice that? He went through Judea. To this day the Jews still call it Judea Samaria; they don't call it Palestine. As a matter of fact, did you know that the very first Palestinians that ever existed were actually Jews? Did you know that? I hope you guys understand the story of Hadrian and what actually happened back then. Actually, the word Palestinian or the word Palestine actually came from the Roman governor who was living during that time, roughly around the time of 300 AD or so, basically, he hated the Jews so much that he created within the culture of that area a mandate for the people to refer to the Jews as Philistina, which by the way was the name of their ancient enemies, the Philistines. So the very first Palestinians that existed in Israel were Jews.

"To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn." You know, every single time I read verse seven, it still kind of warms my heart. Like I read the story and I read verse seven, it just makes me feel so good. I think of all my childhood memories, I think of Snoopy, I think of Vince Guaraldi's piano playing, I think of all the cool I just have so many great memories. All these huge manger scenes that we used to see as kids, and so on and so forth.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis and part of a series entitled "The Promise of Christmas Rarely Told". Listen to this study and more at lightonthehillradio.com. Pastor James's teachings are also available through the Light on the Hill app and at oneplace.com. You can listen to us wherever you get your podcasts as well.

When you have a moment sometime today, send us an email. We would love it. It's encouraging to hear what the Lord is doing in our listeners' hearts and lives, and it's an opportunity to thank the Lord for what He's doing. There's a place to contact us at our website, lightonthehillradio.com. If God is leading you to support this radio outreach at year-end, there's a place to contribute at lightonthehillradio.com.

Throughout the week, you can watch our live shows and short videos, many of which relate to Bible prophecy and help you see current events with a biblical worldview. Look for these at jameskaddis.com. Pastor James, it's Christmas day. I know this is one of your favorite times of the year. Why is Christmas so dear to your heart?

James Kaddis: I think perhaps one of the greatest reasons why Christmas is so dear to my heart, besides the obvious, right, we're celebrating the ultimate gift given to us, are the memories that we have from our childhood. The fact that our mother and father gave us the most incredible childhood that any child could ever have, and remembering the picture of all that we got to experience together.

And now as a father, being able to give that to my own children, there's something that goes beyond nostalgia. It's a reminder, a very graphic and beautiful reminder, of the goodness of God and the gift of salvation that we have as a result. And with that said, I think it goes without saying that it is my prayer that every single person that listens to my voice right now will experience Christmas in the same beautiful way that I've experienced it my whole life.

God is good. He gave us His only Son, and we get to celebrate that together. So I want to personally tell each and every single one of you how blessed I am to be able to love on you and minister to you using this great ministry, and I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Spirit-filled New Year.

Guest (Male): Thanks, Pastor James. We all hope you, Nicole, and the kids have a very Merry Christmas, and we at Light on the Hill hope the same for all of you, our listeners. Tomorrow on Light on the Hill, we'll finish up our series, "The Promise of Christmas Rarely Told". This program is presented by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.