Last is First

We’re only going to spend two weeks in Advent retelling the story of Jesus this year, but I think that’s okay. If you spent any time listening to the children’s service at 10:30 AM, you’ll realize that we’re just joining in with them in this oddly strange Christmas season. The Christians call this season “Advent” and that just means the time of expectant waiting and preparation for the coming of the savior. If we take a look around, we can see that something isn’t quite right with the world. Political unrest, poverty, unemployment, and the list goes on. But here’s the amazing mystery of Christmas: God saw the trouble, confusion and strife and He did something. But it wasn’t what people expected – God came in the form of a baby, to a seemingly inconsequential part of the world. The people were expecting a conquering king; He came as a humble servant. They wanted a freedom fight; He brought a freedom that runs much deeper. When Jesus came, He turned everything Upside Down. We’re going to talk about the “Last is first” principle and how that idea and notion, when put into practice can turn the world that thinks it’s right side up, entirely upside down. No, this is not a sermon on slow and steady. This is also not a sermon on how being in last place in anything is the Christian way. Wrong. I don’t preach feel good hippie nonsense here. This is a message about how when we put ourselves last, God puts our needs first, then as a result of that, how things fall into play with our lives and what effects that has on life. Let’s go to Genesis 4. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. ³ In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. ⁴ And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, ⁵ but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. ⁶ Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? ⁷ If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” (Genesis 4:2-7). You all know the results of this story right? Abel dies at the end because Cain kills him. I’m not talking about that though. I want you to see what happens when we are NOT INTENTIONALLY putting ourselves last; verse 3, the Bible says, “Cain brought some of the fruits…” meaning that there was nothing special or particular about what he was bringing to God who actually gave him the fruits to begin with. We can only speculate here because the Bible doesn’t say anything and I’m not going to speculate that these were bad fruits because I simply don’t know. What I will say though is that there was nothing special about these fruits to Cain. Now, let’s flip that around and look at what Abel brings to God—it is the firstborn of his flock—that is the first signs of success was sacrificed for God by Abel. Abel decidedly gave that to God, putting what he desired last. Here’s what I mean: it is human nature to want our cut first. We need to take care of ourselves first. That is always the case. Am I wrong? When we do something, we want first credit—when you get to my age, you just want any credit, but when you’re young and ambitious, trying to move up the corporate ladder, you want first credit. Tell me I’m wrong. So, Abel, flips this human impulse to want his first and decides to give it to God. As a result, God looked up Abel with favor and He let Cain’s offering rot, sort of speak. The crazier thing about this situation, which Genesis highlights about human nature in the first place is that Cain was upset that God didn’t think something Cain was offering was special and that made Cain angry—at the same time, Cain didn’t think what he had offered God was special. And so there is this double standard. Cain didn’t think what he gave to God was special, but he wanted God to appreciate it as special. Yes, that’s human nature and in fact that’s what we do. We put in half the work in and we pass it off as “our best” or we want a good grade for it and then we get upset when we don’t get it. Am I right? I saw this in every single school I went to and graduated from and I was in school a very long time. Granted I was never an “A” student, but I didn’t complain about “B”s because I knew that was the amount of effort I put into it. Yet there are always those kids that put nothing into their work, get a “B” and then whine about it and they look at me, and they know I’m not putting my best effort into it because I already have a job and things that are important to me that I need to deal with other than playing games at school, and they get angrier—they become Cain. Yeah, I know. You know what happened as a result, God made it a law. He was sick of how people were defiling themselves this way—because this is how the world operates—that is, it wants to be put first even though they don’t make the effort to be first and not be last, although they deserve to be last. Yeah, trust me. I know. Exodus 13. ¹Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Consecrate to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast; it is Mine.” (Exodus 13:1-2). This is the law now. Here’s how you practice that law and I’m only telling you this as background information. This is about offering, not because I need your money or that the church needs your money, but this is how you prioritize what you do and how you give in life. ¹¹ “And it shall be, when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and your fathers, and gives it to you, ¹² that you shall set apart to the Lord all that open the womb, that is, every firstborn that comes from an animal which you have; the males shall be the Lord’s. ¹³ But every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. And all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. ¹⁴ So it shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ that you shall say to him, ‘By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ¹⁵ And it came to pass, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all males that open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’¹⁶ It shall be as a sign on your hand and as frontlets between your eyes, for by strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.” (Exodus 13:11-16). Check this out—when you put yourself last by giving to God all that you cherish first—in this analogy that is your first born and your first fruits—because it belongs to God anyways; He took it by law, we saw that in verse 1 and 2; we signify that God is responsible for our lives (verse 16). I know there was a great big leap that you might not understand: verse 11—the “land of the Canaanites” is the promised land. It is what I historically called the “sweetspot” (the place you need to be in order to maximize your potential in God). What we’re reading is simple, that God will bring us into the sweetspot, but we have to give our love, our effort, our first of everything to Him—this is offering. This means that your devotion to work, school, boyfriends, girlfriends, friends, everything comes secondary to giving yourself and your needs wholly to him. You understand what’s going on here? Verse 16 says when we do this—we are telling the world, that putting myself last, I don’t have to worry about me and it is by this way, when we live, God brings us out of that place that binds us in shackles. We became first when God brought us out from being last and when we offer our firsts to Him and becoming secondary at best, we see the power of God at work in our lives. But this law continues on. God didn’t just invent the principle that he couldn’t keep or wouldn’t exemplify. Let’s go to Luke 2. This is the very reason we have a Christmas, why we celebrate anything in the first place. ¹⁵ When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶ And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. ¹⁷ And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. ¹⁸ And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. ²⁰ And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. ²¹ And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. ²² And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord ²³ (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) ²⁴ and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” (Luke 2:15-24). Let’s pick this up again from verse 21—Jesus, God’s first born and only son was presented to God, the Father. When Joseph and Mary brought baby Jesus to the temple, they presented Jesus to God. This was the Mary’s pride and joy, her first child. Likewise, this child was the reason she had endured the hardship, mockery and almost divorce of her husband. She could have been stoned. But Joseph, her husband relented by the gift of God and the terror of an angel to make this offering. They could have easily said “no” but they gave away what they prized so much, to the glory of God. I want to ask you, what did you every sacrifice to God that you cherished in your heart and put first in your life? Because that is the challenge of Christmas. This is the challenge of God today in our systematically vain and cowardly world. I want to give you an example of that which probably all of you heard and are weighing heavily on your minds as you came to church or contemplated the power of God in a society like this—that is to say, we have all these churches and all these messed up things happen—like why did those 20 kids have to die? Why in the world did that woman own three or four guns? They don’t live in the wild west where bears roam free, they lived in congested Connecticut, less than an hour drive from here. What if we were to stop looking at ourselves and our needs and wants and put ourselves last for the people of this world, would the senseless violence change? Perhaps? There was a 6 year old in that school that saved the lives of his classmates because he put himself last and made sure his classmates ran out the door before escaping himself as the gunman killed his teacher. He saved lives that can now have a sweetspot in God. Jesus, in the same way, gives us freedom from slavery to our own sins by dying on a cross. He was first—the son of God, he had no need and no want. But made himself less than God and took the form of an anemic human being, then he died on a cross. Not for the sake of dying, but for the sake of turning the world upside down, for changing the way the world has to be and by proposing a world that can be. Let’s go to Hebrews 10, and I’m going to close here. ⁸ First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. ⁹ Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. ¹⁰ And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ¹¹ And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.¹² But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³ waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. ¹⁴ For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:8-13) Jesus put himself last and His sacrifice made us first and foremost in God’s eyes. We are being changed, sanctified and realities altered because he was willing to be last, as a sin offering even though he didn’t need to. What if we put ourselves last this Christmas and make others first—how would our worlds change? Let’s pray.