Sermons for Christmas CCCH 12-21-97
INTRODUCTION
A. One of 1995’s biggest singles was Joan Osborne’s “One of Us.” The song earned 7 Grammy Award nominations, and made a virtually unknown singer an overnight sensation. It’s a song of spiritual questioning and about conceiving of God in a modern age.
These are some of the words of that song:
“If God had a name, what would it be,
and would you call it to his face,
if you were faced with him
in all His Glory,
what would you ask if You had just one question…
Chorus: What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us?
Just a stranger on a bus, trying to make his way home.
Those lyrics concerned some conservative Christians groups because of their irreverent tone, and because the song’s popularity among young people seemed to imply a complete absence of faith in the God of the Bible. Now I’m not claiming that this song has any of the right answers,
But that question, “What if God was one us?” could very well be the most important question ever asked this side of heaven. The central question in all of history. The answer to that question, if it were known, would do no less than change every conceivable aspect of life for people on planet earth.
Most people today aren’t asking about the existence of God. For most that’s a 60’s or 70’s question. Today it’s rather passe. Recent Gallup poles say that 96-98% of us in America believe that God exists. The question is can God relate to me?
“What if – What if God was one of us?” It’s a question that a lot of people would like answered. That question could very well be what most of us want answered too.
B. Our focus today is the Incarnation; that is, the act of God becoming flesh.
THESIS: We will appreciate the birth of Christ to an even greater degree when we understand the implications of the Incarnation.
READ SCRIPTURE: JOHN 1:1 – 14
TRANSITION: One of the ways that we come to appreciate Christmas through an understanding of the Incarnation is that:
I. WE WILL BELIEVE THAT JESUS IS GOD
The baby born in Bethlehem to Joseph and Mary was without a doubt God – here on earth.
A. There are many Scriptures in the Bible that clearly show us that Jesus is Divine.
1. We find this in prophecies about Jesus:
Isaiah 7:14 – “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (which means God with us.)
Isaiah 9:6 – “And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
2. John 1:1 says, “The Word was God.”
It may seem unusual that John calls the Son of God, “The Word.”
“Word” was an important concept to the Greeks and to their great thinkers. Their word for it was logos, and men like Heraclitus was the logos as the “common universal law” – that which was “the truth.”
In the OT, we can read of the Word of God – such as “the word of God came to the prophet…”
We know that by his divine word God spoke the creation into existence.
In the NT, the word of God is never mentioned as coming to Jesus himself. It doesn’t have to – because he IS the word of God.
And his words have force, not just because they are God’s word, but because he is the Word. John calls Jesus the Word to show that Jesus was existent from the very beginning. Before creation. He is without end, and He is all that God is – His very word. He is God.
3. Jesus proves this with things he said about himself:
John 8:58: “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am!” (referring to where God told Moses to say “I am” sent you.)
John 10:30: “I and the Father are one.”
John 14:7: READ
Other NT writers show this:
Paul writes in Colossians 1:15: “He is the image of the invisible God.”
v. 19: “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.”
Philippians 2:6 speaks of Jesus as “being in very nature God.”
Hebrews 1:3: “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.”
The Bible clearly shows that Jesus is God.
B. The resurrection of Jesus also shows us this.
Many of the very first Christians had been devout Jews. Jews who were monotheists – that is they very, very strictly believed in ONE God and one God alone. One of the primary statements in the Scriptures that they clung to was Deuteronomy 6:4:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One.”
1. And yet, after experiencing Christ’s resurrection from the dead, the early Christians cried, “Jesus is Lord!”
Did they all of sudden break the central code of their faith and believe in 2 gods? Of course not! They saw Jesus as God.
2. When the Apostle Thomas saw Jesus alive again and saw the nailprints in his hands, he said, in John 20:28, “My Lord and my God!”
The early church held to a couple of principles that helped them understand who Jesus was. They believed:
C. Early Church Principle #1 – “Only God can save.”
Those first Christians experienced Jesus as their savior, therefore, they had no trouble believing He is God, because only God can save.
The first ecumenical council established it in Nicea in 325 A.D. Jesus is fully God.
D. This truth contains some implications for us.
1. We can have a real knowledge of God.
If we want to know what God is like we need to look no further than the life of Jesus. His compassion, love, holiness and sacrifice all show us the very heart of God. We can know God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2. We are saved by and united with God.
We are not saved by some creature that God created, we are saved by God himself. The God I follow died for me on a cross outside Jerusalem and rose to life again three days later. He himself paid the price for my sin to rescue me, and reunite a relationship broken by my unfaithfulness to him. That makes all the difference in the world to my faith in God.
3. We should worship Christ.
We should sing praises to him.
It’s very appropriate to sing “Jesus, I adore you,” “Jesus, I’ll praise you forever,” and “Jesus, Name Above All Names” directly to Jesus.
Philippians 2:10-11 says that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
TRANSITION: Not only does examining the Incarnation help us believe that Jesus is God, but another way we can appreciate Christmas even more is that:
II. WE WILL THANK GOD THAT HE BECAME FLESH
A. In John 1:14 the words, “lived for awhile among us” comes from the root word for “tent” or “tabernacle.”
The Tent of Meeting in the OT. The tabernacle had 2 interior parts, one of which was called the Holy of Holies, and contained the Ark of the Covenant. This part was separated by a veil and was entered by the priest only once a year, on the Day of Atonement.
1. The tabernacle was the portable structure where, “God dwelt among His people.” (Exodus 25:8)
Later it was replaced by the Temple – a permanent structure with the same layout and function.
2. The physical body of Christ was the new tabernacle, or even temple. The word became flesh and tabernacled among us. His body marked the presence of God on earth. Where Christ is, that is where God dwells.
He once said of his body, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in 3 days.”
The imagery is especially rich when we see that on the day of Atonement at the exact moment that Jesus died on the cross – that is when the temple of flesh gave up the ghost – the curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the common people in the temple of stone was completely ripped in 2. No longer would it be said that God’s dwelling place – his presence – could be entered only by one man once a year.
God became flesh to change all that.
B. We can be thankful that Jesus shared in our humanity.
1. “For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way.” (Hebrews 2:17)
Read Hebrews 2:14; 17-18.
2. “To get ready for Christmas, God undressed. God stripped off his finery and appeared – how embarrassing – naked on the day he was born. . .God could not be God-with-us if he wasn’t flesh.” (Mary Ellen Ashcroft, “Gift Wrapping God,” Christianity Today, 12-8-97, p. 32-33)
The second principle the early church held to:
C. Early Church Principle #2 – “Only that which God becomes is fully healed.”
Not only did the Council of Nicea affirm that Jesus was fully God, they affirmed that Jesus was fully man. God became human...only that which God becomes is fully healed.
D. This truth also contains some implications for us.
1. We have a friend who can truly empathize with us.
Illus. I remember my first intramural basketball game as a Freshman at L.C.C. I had just purchased some new shoes, Air Jordan’s (the originals). I was really juiced up. Our team took the floor, music was blaring and we started the layup drill. I got the ball, charged to the basket with the biggest burst of energy I could muster, jumped and layed the ball off the backboard, returned to the ground looking up over my shoulder to see if the ball went through the hoop, and at the same time rounding my way back to the other line in full stride.
But I didn’t take into consideration that the basket was probably only 5 or 6 feet from the wall. I hit the wall at full speed, fell backwards and landed flat on my back.
Welcome to reality. You’re not Michael Jordan. You’re just a human – pathetically human.
Jesus understands what it’s like to be human. He understands us completely. He understands the human weaknesses and limitations. I bet Jesus maybe even spilled food on his clothes from time to time, or he might have even gotten the flu or a cold. He was completely human, and subject to everything that means.
"As evangelicals we have focused on the saving death of Christ but thrown out the Incarnation in our Christmas wrappings. As we cover God with Christmas, we hide what is most distinctive about Christianity. And this is the tragedy: What many don’t know about Christianity is that God has chosen to identify with their pain, their humanness, their flesh. This is what we’ve lost as we’ve exchanged the Feast of the Incarnation for Christmas." (ibid, Mary Ellen Ashcroft)
2. We have an example to follow.
If we ever want to know how God wants us to live, how to act or how to love, we have a real human example in the person of Jesus.
Charles Sheldon’s book “In His Steps” is a story of a group of people who began asking themselves in every situation, “What would Jesus do?” Current WWJD bracelets ask the same question.
Since he was God living in human flesh, it’s appropriate to pattern our lives after him.
3. We are fully healed.
God didn’t become a dog or a cow – or even a foot or an arm. He became a whole, real, living person – from birth to death. Just as we can believe that if Jesus is not really God, we’re not really saved, we can also say that if Jesus was not fully human, then we are not fully healed.
CONCLUSION
A. Examining the mystery of the Incarnation makes Christmas so much more than a season just for giving. It is the focal point of the Christian faith.
B. GOD WAS ONE OF US! And knowing that makes all the difference in the world.
And God is willing – still – to take part in human life. Yours if you let him!
“Perhaps we need to call December 25th the Celebration of the Incarnation, to greet each other with Incarnation greetings – instead of “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas” we could shout, “God chose flesh!” “God became one of us!”
“The Feast of the Incarnation is the time to dance to the descending scales of God’s throwing off omnipotence.
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us – God closer than close. That’s what we could be celebrating. This is the Christmas story as it should be told. This naked God is the path to God.” (Ashcroft, Christianity Today, 12-8-97)
Word of the Father, Now in Flesh appearing
O come let us adore him,
O come let us adore him,
O come let us adore him,
Christ the Lord.
