Searching For Significance

Our significance is found in God’s salvation.   ~~~   Zechariah is an old man without a son; without a boy to pass down the family name and legacy, to teach how to hunt or throw a spiral, or change a flat. But one day Gabriel, an angel, shows up and announces to him that his elderly wife will become pregnant. Two shocking things: an angel speaks to him, and the promise the angel makes. Zechariah finds that hard to believe, and as a result of his unbelief, Gabriel makes him mute. So for the pass nine months Zechariah has not been able to speak. He is trapped basically in his own mind with his thoughts. And as soon as he is liberated to talk, he begins to speak. But what is of special interest is about whom Zechariah speaks. We would expect him to go on and one about His new baby boy! That’s what I did when my kids were born, But who does Zechariah begin singing about? Is it his newborn son? NO! It is Jesus! Why? Because his son, John the Baptist, has no real significance outside of Jesus and His work. And I love this lyric Zechariah speaks: “He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David…that we should be saved from our enemies!” Doesn’t that just fill your heart with Christmas cheer?! Well, what is he talking about when he speaks of raising up a horn? Is Jesus like a trumpet that blasts forth His message. Well, Jesus is like that, but that is not what Zechariah has in mind. The answer lies in the fact that just like the Israelites, the chosen people of God, had enemies, we too have enemies. And because we are sinners with a rebellious heart, we have been separated from God, we are really enemies to ourselves, and we choose the advice and company of our enemies. And those enemies want to maintain the separation that exists between man and God. God created the world and everything in it, including you and me. And all of creation finds its meaning and purpose in life in Him—who we are, what we are supposed to be doing on earth, how we are supposed to relate to one another—all of those life-questions find their answer and content in God. But Satan, an enemy of God who wanted to destroy all that God had created, convinced the first people, Adam and Eve, to turn their back on God and to find their significance in themselves. God had told them not to eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the garden, but they rebelled against God’s love and rule, and chose to eat the fruit, thereby breaking their communion with God and exalting themselves in their minds to a god-like position. Isaiah 59:2 says, “Your sins have made a separation between you and your God.” They essentially said, “God, we don’t want to find our significance in you. We want to find it in ourselves. We will determine what makes us significant.” And so they ate the fruit of the tree. And ever since that day, people have been attempting to find their significance in themselves or in created things, and they have been coming up empty, frustrated, depressed, lonely, angry, jaded, and on a constant search for significance. You might try to find your ultimate significance in your husband. His love for you, his concern for you, his attention brings you ultimate significance. But your husband was not created for you to find ultimate significance in. Rather, marriage is a picture and the husband is to picture for us how Christ loves the church. But your husband is not Jesus. He is going to mess up. Or we gain our significance in our jobs. Our lives become defined by our job titles and our significance and security is wrapped in our careers. But our careers are not meant to serve in that capacity. Work is a picture. It is to remind us that we are producers and servers in God’s kingdom. For some you find your significance in what label you wear. And so your clothes are what make you feel special and significant, and if you can’t have a certain brand of clothes, a certain style of shoe or name brand handbag, then you feel less than and would rather just stay home. But clothes are not meant to bring us significance, but even they are a picture. They are a picture, reminding us of the fact that our shame and guilt needs to be covered, and God is the one who sacrificed in order to do just that. But instead of finding significance in a redeeming God, we find it in designer jeans. If your ultimate significance is found in the picture and not the reality, then you are reflecting the world’s worldview. And this is why marketers advertise in the way they do. They want you to believe that a pack of Marlboro cigarettes makes you a real, rugged man. They want you to believe that real motherhood is that you can successfully juggle career, home, family, and appearance, so long as you use their special product. They are selling significance, and we are buying it, and ending up frustrated, depressed, insecure because none of those things were designed to bring ultimate significance. Those are things the enemy uses against you to keep you separated from God. You have enemies. You are one to yourself because you want to be your own king. And you are searching for that which makes you significant, and other enemies are feeding you lies. And since we have real enemies who want to keep us in our sin and separated from God, we need a real Savior who has the power to overcome our sin, deliver us from sin, and reconcile us to God. And that is exactly what Jesus did. Just like John the Baptist’s significance was directly tied to what God was doing in order to bring about redemption for mankind, so too is our significance found in God’s salvation. And when we find our significance in God’s salvation, by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, the door opens for us to see and get involved in God’s story.