Come In, And Know Me Better Man!

Advent 1: The Promise of Jesus is Our Hope

Reading 1: Good morning, today is the 4th Sunday in Advent. As we move closer to the day when we celebrate our Savior’s birth, we reflect on what the Christ child brings as the culmination of everything promised and done. The hope of the prophets (light the first candle) reflect the promises of the loving-kindness of God given to Abraham and thus to all of mankind. These promises are ours by faith. As we believe in who God is and what He has done, we receive the promise of the seed, which is Jesus Christ, we receive the promise of a nation of people, which is the church of Jesus Christ, and we receive the Promised Land, which is our home in heaven someday.

Advent 2: Resting In Jesus is our Peace!

Reading 2: As we put our faith in the truth of God’s Word knowing that He will fulfill His promises, it brings us peace (light the second candle); peace with God, peace with our fellow man, and peace with ourselves. This peace allows us to live our lives knowing that God is our Immanuel, God with us. God promises to never leave us nor forsake us. It gives us confidence knowing that He has our back, will provide for us, and bless us with good things.

Advent 3: The Light of Jesus is Our Joy

Reading 3: This recognition of salvation causes us to be joyfully thankful (light the third candle) to the King of Love, who poured out His life on our behalf because of His great love for us. The joy of the Lord is our strength in this life as it enables us to weather the storms of life knowing that the joy that we experience now is but a glimmer of the joy that is to come. This helps us look beyond difficult circumstances and find our satisfaction and contentment in God Himself, and not the temporary things of this world.

Advent 4: Jesus is Our Love Come Down

Reading 4:

As we remember Christ’s first Advent, we are reminded that God is faithful to His promises. At the proper time perfect, pure, and true Love entered the world through Jesus (light the fourth candle). As we put our faith in Jesus, true love finally enters our hearts and transforms us so that we can not only love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, but so that we have the ability to love others as He has loved us.

Isaiah 54:7–10 NASB95

“For a brief moment I forsook you, But with great compassion I will gather you. “In an outburst of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, But with everlasting lovingkindness I will have compassion on you,” Says the Lord your Redeemer. “For this is like the days of Noah to Me, When I swore that the waters of Noah Would not flood the earth again; So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you Nor will I rebuke you. “For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, And My covenant of peace will not be shaken,” Says the Lord who has compassion on you.

Come In And Know Me Better Man!

The Word (John 1:1-5)

The Word Existed Before Everything

eternal

The Word Was With God

Distinct from

The Word Was God

In essence the same

Establishing that “the Word” was fully God.

JW try to add “a” to the text here.

The Word Created Everything - not created.

Arius tried to claim that the word was the first created being. The first in the order of creation.

The Word brings Life and Light

The Word will be Victorious

Overpower, conquer

Understand, comprehend

The Word Became (Philippians 2:5-8)

To Come Into Existence. To enter our realm. The Creator was becoming His creation.

Jesus Chose To Give It All Up

Even though he was in essence God, He did not need to hold on to it. He had every right to retain His essence.

Grasp it - translation “robbery”. Jesus did not consider losing His form of deity as something being forcefully taken from Him.

He willingly gave it up.

Jesus Emptied Himself – Gave up His Privileges / Rights

Limitlessness – No boundaries to taking on boundaries

born - finite vs. infinite

omnipotent - Jesus was not able to do many miracles due to their lack of faith.

omniscience - even the son of man does not know the day nor hour of His return.

omni-present - Jesus could only be in one physical location at a time.

Blamelessness

He accepted the sentence and the punishment of a criminal

He was submitted Himself to death.

Jesus Humbled Himself - Gave up His Prestige

Dignity – From King to Pauper

form of a servant

He made Himself of no account

Glory – From accepted and recognized praise and honor to denial and abuse.

likeness of men vs. image of the divine

human form vs. spiritual form - God is spirit.

The Word Became Flesh (John 1:14)

Born in the likeness of men.

Hebrews 10:5, 10 (ESV)

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me;And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

1 Peter 2:24 (NASB95)

and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

Soma

Prepared especially for Jesus

Emphasizes being fully human

Emphasizes His physical body

This is my body, broken for you.

Sarx

Weakness and frailty

Hebrews 4:15 NASB95

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

Although this term is applied to a physical body, it also implies proneness to sin.

Often it is translated human nature and is behind the idea of sin nature.

The emphasis on the human nature is to show He conquered the sin nature.

Sacrifices And Offerings

Colossians 1:21–22 (NKJV)

And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—

Once For All

One sacrifice made for all to have the chance to believe

The Word Became Flesh

Fully God And Fully Man

Physical body died, but the Word did not.

The Word never sinned, but the weak, frail, sin-prone nature rendered dead through His death.

He was born to die as a sacrifice. Became obedient to death.

The Word Became Flesh And Dwelt Among Us

Tabernacle – A Temporary Abode

The Feast of Tabernacles - temporary shelters during the wilderness wanderings.

THE Tabernacle – a foreshadowing of Christ

To Live In A Tent

Among Us

Did not come, be a hermit, and then die for us.

Immanuel – With us, God.

He pitched a tent in our living room.

We Saw His Glory

Hebrews 1:3 NASB95

And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

We Saw

Perceiving with deliberate contemplation the spectacle before us

Savoring with pleasure and delight the wonder in front of us

Seeing and Savoring – John Piper’s book

Shekinah Glory

Exodus 40:34–35 ESV

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

When the pillar of fire left and went on ahead, it was time to move on to the next location.

Full Of Grace And Truth (John 1:16-17)

God had dwelt among them before, but it was external, separate, law based.

God Was Revealing Himself In Ways He Never Had Before.

He is making the glory of God visible to us in a whole new way.

That glory is seen through His only begotten son.

As opposed to the Law (vs. 17)

Grace - Unmerited favor

From that fullness He grants us grace upon grace, or, blessing upon blessing. (vs 16)

Christmas is for salvation.

Truth - The essence of what is real and the foundation of reality.

From that fullness He grants us the ability to hear, know, and believe in that truth.

That grace and truth is revealed through Jesus Christ.

I Reveal Myself To You, That You Might Know Me - (John 1:18)

Come In And Know Me Better Man!

Jeremiah 9:23–24 (NASB95)

Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me...

John 14:9 NASB95

Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

Philippians 3:8 (NASB95)

More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,

Striving to do and learn about everything else in life pales in comparison to gaining knowledge about Jesus Christ.

Gnosis – present and fragmentary knowledge.

Even knowing Jesus a little bit is better.

Vs. epignosis – clear and exact knowledge and expresses a more thorough participation in the object or knowledge on the part of the knowledgeable subject.

Like a treasure hunt, let’s find all the bits we can know.

Study

Practice

We Strive To Know Him Better (Ginosko)

Philippians 3:10 (NASB95)

that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;

Acquired knowledge.

To believe, trust. Because He who truly comes to know Jesus, believes.

It’s almost like, if you don’t believe in Jesus, you don’t really know Him. Because if you knew Him, you’d believe.

Intimate knowledge through experience - love

To know Christ is to be in personal fellowship with him

To know Christ is to be directed by love

Come In And Know My Love

1 John 4:8–9 NASB95

The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

The Result Of Knowing Him Better

To Become Like The One Who Is Known.

Ephesians 3:18–19 NASB95

may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

To Love Like The One Who Is Known.

1 John 4:7 NASB95

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

Sacrifice

Submission

To Do The Will Of The One Who Is Known.

John 15:9–11 NASB95

“Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

We don’t obey to gain approval. We obey because we want to please the approver. We’ve already been approved because of what Jesus did for us.

We don’t obey because the law says to, we obey because we love the giver of the law.

We don’t obey because we have to, we obey because we want to.

We don’t love to gain His love, we love because He first loved us.

We Desire To Make Him And His Love Known.

Luke 2:16–18 NASB95

So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.

Just like the Spirit of Christmas Present told Ebenezer to Come In And Know Him Better, so Jesus cries out to us to Come In And Know Him Better. And He made it possible to know Him and His love better by first coming down to us and becoming love to us.

Jesus loved us to death. Let us go and do the same and tell others about His love.

Closing Song: Go Tell It On The Mountain