Note: The hymns "The sermon King" and "I cannot tell" to the tune Danny Boy are perfect for the sermon.
Introduction
One of the greatest yet strangest of stories in the bible is that of almighty God coming into this world and living as we do. ... And there is an even stranger story is that he did not do better than us, as he died as a common criminal, nailed to a cross.
Ok this is from a very shallow perspective, but if you think about it, ... the great God of this universe and beyond, did come to this earth as a tiny little baby. ... He was born in a stable like an animal, ... beside the animals, ... in a country torn apart by "animals".
... Now I use the terms God and Jesus interchangeably at times because Jesus is God in human flesh, ... but could Jesus as God have done things differently? ... Because I was thinking, that if I was God, and everything in heaven and earth was mine, ... I would have chosen the finest, and most comfortable of palaces I could find, ... one with a great view; ... obviously beside the sea, ... in a stable country, with a much better climate. ... I think I would also miss out adolescence.
... And I am sure you too have your own ideas of a suitable location, ... but not Jesus, ... he, being used to all the comforts of heaven, chose a dirty smelly manger, ... so why? ... Well the writer to the Hebrews tries to answers that question today.
And to make a start, we first have to admit, that none of us here did chose the place of our birth; ... our parents did. In fact we did not even chose our parents; ... because we just didn't have that power or authority; ... yet Jesus chose his place of birth, and he even chose his earthly parents.
Can you imagine choosing our own earthly parents, eh! ... Who would we chose, ... think about it, ... and if we could, I think most of us here would pick the best parents we could, to us give us the best start in life possible. ... You may think, "well I am happy with my parents", ... no, that is not what I am getting at here, ... just imagine you could choose. ... who would they be? ...
Well, when Jesus came into the world he chose a virgin of low birth as his maternal mother, Mary, ... a handmaiden who was engaged to a carpenter, Joseph, who would become his stepfather. ... I think if we had a free choice, we would have picked parents somewhere higher up the social ladder for protection, and for the chance of greater opportunities, ... but Jesus needed no such prominent parents, because, Jesus had his paternal father in heaven watching over him, ... so any parent regardless of their status was in some ways, a necessary ... "extra". ...
And Jesus did need an earthly father in order to lead an "ordinary" life, and fit in with the community, but we know God the Father was his true father, and he was watching over him, protecting him, and guiding him by the power of the Holy Spirit. ...
So I hope you see the parallel here, because we, we who acknowledge Jesus as our Lord, also must acknowledge God as our father also, ... God who watches over us night and day. ... And the bible tells us to do that, ... to perceive God in that exact same manner, ... but do we, no we do not, because we find this hard to believe.
Yet there is a very strong and powerful statement in Romans 8 that tells us just that, verse 15 says, ... "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. ... The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, ... that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ". Just how clear can you make that? And yet we still do think of God in those terms, and we certainly do not think of ourselves in terms of being God's adopted sons, or daughters, or if we do, we struggle to believe it, ... but that is what the bible says, and that is what we are instructed to believe.
... Anyway, when Jesus came into this world, he chose a lowly cattle stable in Bethlehem, with the lowly virgin Mary of the tribe Judah for his mother. Matthew 1:23 puts it this way, "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us". Notice Mary is from the tribe of Judah.
Now the writer to the book of Hebrews quotes Psalm 40 in an attempt to explain, ... and he repeats it twice in Hebrews 10, verse 5 from the NIV reads, “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; (and to elaborate, ... he repeats it), ... with burnt offerings and sin offerings, you were not pleased. ... Then I said, ‘Here I am, ... it is written, ... I have come to do your will, my God.
And this is quite clever, firstly because it is making it clear that Jesus will make no animal sacrifices as a high priest because these sacrifices were limited, ... and secondly, Jesus was not allowed to perform such ceremonies, as under the Jewish system, a priest needed to be born through the tribe of Levi, and Jesus was born through the tribe of Judah on his mothers side. So this verse make it clear that Jesus did not come to be an earthly priest, sacrificing animals to cover the peoples sin.
But thirdly, this verse clearly tells us that Jesus came to do the will of his Father, in other words, ... Jesus was continually receiving instructions from his Father on what and how to do his will. ... Jesus was not simply living an ordinary unguided life, by a keeping and living up to a set of rules, (known as the Law), no, Jesus was living a guided life, ... being in constant communication with his real father in heaven through the Holy Spirit.
Do you see the subtle difference here. In one, Jesus would be spending all his energy into doing what is right by keeping and applying the law, in the vain hope that it would please God, ... but in the other, he is continually listening to his father through prayer for guidance and direction on what to do next. ...
So if he fails in the first, he is condemned, ... but in the second, he cannot be condemned because he is doing the will of his Father. ... It is a completely different way of living, and the same goes for us, ... we too are instructed to do the same, ... however and a big however, ... we do need the law as a reference, as we must not break the law, ... and this is so important as the first way leads to sin, conscience of sin and death, and the second ... it leads to death and life abundantly.
The preceding verses in Hebrews 10 explains: Verses 1-3 says ... "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, ... can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year make the comers thereunto perfect. ... For then would they not have ceased to be offered? ... because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. ... But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year".
Do you see how that continues from last weeks sermon, where I said, the burnt offering only covered sin, temporarily, ... they do not forgive us of our sin, they only cover the sin, and they will never lead to salvation. ... Under the New Covenant however, Grace, (which means we do not deserved to be forgiven, but we are), ... under Grace, Sin is completely dealt with, and we are instructed to have "no more conscientiousness of our sin", ... because we too are walking with the Lord, under his direction, least we know it.
Do we have consciousness of our sin, yes? ...Why, ... because we were brought up to have a consciousness through the law, and ... we are still young in the Lord, and not walking consistently in the spirit, ... but by worshipping Jesus, the process in us has already begun. ... And I will give you a sort of example of that, how many times have you done something or said something and later said, "I do not know why I did that, or I do not know what made me do that, but I knew it was the right thing to do". That is walking closely to God, or with the Spirit. You instantly knew what was right, ... not by obeying some law, but because of the law, as we knew right from wrong. ... We must therefore use the law with care, otherwise it will eventually kill us.
And remember, is was said that the law was only a shadow of the good things that were to come, ... but the Law is needed for a reference only, ... it is certainly not a means of gaining Gods favour as so many people try. ...
And the animal sacrifices too were only a temporary measure, a make do, fix, ... because something bigger and better was needed, ... and not only for the person seeking forgiveness, but for the whole of mankind. ... Something more precious than the blood of animals was needed, ... and that was the pure blood of Gods own son, ... the blood of God himself.
... Isaiah 9:6 prophesised this way and we read this verse every Christmas so why not now, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given: ... and the government shall be on his shoulders: and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, ... Prince of Peace". ... Now if you read further on, these verses go on to say that he will be on David’s throne and over his kingdom, ... establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness ... forever.
I hope you now see that by choosing to be a descendant of David, Jesus was fulfilling a different role, not that of priest but as King, ... and that is why He chose the tribe of Judah. ... Jesus therefore had the legal bloodline to become a King, or as we say, the King of Kings, ... and although his "kingdom was not of this earth", Jesus did have his responsibilities here on this earth as we know.
With this kingship in mind, we read verse 5 again, says, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me"; ... this is a quote from Psalm 40 verse 6 which translates slightly differently as ... "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced or “you have dug a hole in my ears.”
Why is this relevant, well, Exodus 21:6 tells us that in the Old Testament days, a slave owner would pierce the ears of his slaves as a symbol to represent the slave belonging to him for life, ... and by using this terminology, ... that is what God the father was calling Jesus to do, ... to ignore the sacrifices of animals, and instead use His own His body as the sacrifice for the people, ... to be a slave unto his master, ... is father, ... to be a slave unto the people, ... be a slave unto death.
Isaiah 53:10 puts it this way, and this is quite brutal, but hopeful, "Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, ... ". You can see here that Jesus the King, was to be a slave for us, and to suffer for us, for our benefit.
And Jesus did that, he did the will of his Father and he carried out his orders. ... He was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil, ... he chased out demons, ... he healed the sick, ... he and raised the dead. ... He also preached the Gospel, and told the people all about the Kingdom of God, ... but after a while, this same Spirit said to Jesus, “I now want you now to go to the cross and sacrifice yourself".
You see, ... Jesus made himself the burnt offering not only to free us from our sin, like as I said last week, ... he died to free us from the Old Testament Law which led to sin and death, and that is a separate issue, ... we are now free from the law that says, "what ever good we do, ... it is still not good enough". And yes I know it does not feel like it, but again that is what we are told to believe, and somehow we better start believing it. ... And if we do not start believing it, we will certainly not believe it.
And most people just do not know this, ... and it is for these people, (which were us at one time), ... that God said to Jesus, ... “now I want you to go die for them; ... on a cross; ... painfully, in agony. ... In fact I want you to die for the sins of the whole wide world. ... And I want you to suffer terribly until you die, ... and then, ... and then I want you to go into hell itself. ... And by the way, ... see when you get there, I am going to desert you, ... you are going to be on your own”. ...
... No wonder Jesus was sweating blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, ... what God was asking him to do was absolutely horrendous. ... The will of God for this King was no easy thing. Yet Jesus complied, ... and he said, “not my will, but yours be done”. The King came to do the Father’s will for the people, ... and it all started by being born a slave in a dirty, smelly, filthy manger.
And this could only be accomplished someone who could act on behalf of the world, not just anyone, ... it would need the life of a real King, ... the life of God Himself. So Jesus was born of the virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit, to fulfil the role of a King while being a slave, ... and so, to take on the Law, ... to set it aside, ... and destroy it; and ... Jesus completed that mission in full; with God saying, “with Him I am well pleased”. ... God can now love us because of the sacrificed Jesus Himself made for us on the cross.
Why was Jesus born in a manger? ... So that we could see his is divinity through his humility; and I have said before, both are positions of strength. This sermon tells us today is that it is not important where we start or how we start of in life, ... it does not mention how we have lived, ... it focuses on how we are to finish, ... and the secret to success is in prayer to God our father, ... not just by telling him our woes and concerns, but to by listening to what He wants us to do, ... while living within his law. I sincerely hope and pray this sermon empowers us to look forward to 2016. Amen, and may God bless us by these words.
Let us pray
Father we thank you for Jesus, we thank you that he came to this earthy as a human, a little baby, to grow and walk the same paths as we do.
Father, because of this, we can thank him that you hear and understand our prayers, ... that you understand our frustrations, our worries and our fears.
Father, this morning, we want to hear from you, we want to hear your voice, we want to be confident that you are watching over us, and guiding us every minute if the day, ... and so in a minutes silence, as we listen, speak to us, ... let us know that you love us, ... tell us you have a plan for us that is within the Law, ... and tell us everything will be as you plan.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Father we listen in Jesus name, Amen.
Note to the reader:
If you have been blessed by this sermon, or any of my sermons, I would be greatly honoured to receive an e-mail from you saying so; I like so many others need encouragement. Simply let me know where you are in the world … and any other information you may want to share or be prayed for.
Donation
If you have been blessed by this sermon, please consider sending a nominal donation to St Oswald’s Church, Cargill Road, Maybole, Ayrshire, KA19 8AF. Although we are part of a larger diocese, and a satellite church to our mother church in Ayr, we are a small but independent, and self sufficient church in the Maybole parish.
Yours in Christ, Gordon.
E-Mail: gccmcculloch @ aol.com or through Sermon Central
Thank you for taking the time to read, and I wish you "all the best" as we say in Scotland … and I pray that your endeavours in the Lord are equally blessed.
Yours in Christ, Gordon McCulloch, Scotland.
