As Far as the Curse is Found Part 2
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Intro:
Intro:
This season seems to have the ability to amplify what is already true for us and of us
Right? So, if things are good in your life then Christmas is even greater!
If relationships are good, relationships are even sweeter this time of year
If family is good, then family becomes better this time of year
But the opposite is true as well,
If things are difficult, this season amplify’s that.
If you are having family difficulties, relationship issues, financial problems, the Christmas season amplifies it all
And so, I know that when this season comes and talks about hope, peace, love, and joy are the themes for some, those are easy to grab on to
To others, it couldn’t be further from your reality.
After all, how could you have hope when your world is falling apart?
How could you have peace when theres so much animosity in your relationships?
How can you experience love when someone you love isn’t with you any longer?
How do you get joy when your heartbroken?
And I know this is easier said then done, but if we begin to look upward more, the outward begins to get clearer.
Not always easier, but clearer.
And the Christmas story serves as a reminder to us that Christ did come so that you can experience all of these things
But as we talked last week, we are under a curse.
The curse of sin.
And so all of these possibilities are still skewed
All of these possibilities we must strive for, work for, labor for
Our songs at Christmas serve to remind us that this season isn’t merely about looking back at that holy night when Christ was born.
Rather, our celebration of his first coming is meant to nurture in us a greater longing for his second coming.
In fact, we miss the point of that holy night if it does not awaken in us anticipation for the glorious eternal day to come.
When the curse is no longer found
The same curse that Issac Watts sings about in his famous Christmas song, “Joy to the world“.
The Joy in the song comes from the fact that Jesus’ coming “makes His blessing flow far as the curse is found”.
Literally, everything that curse broke, Jesus came to restore.
A work he began at His first coming, and will bring to completion when He comes again.
pray
The curse of sin has broken our peace.
We feel the anxiety that comes from this season that is supposed to bring joy.
But it goes deeper than that…
The curse of sin didn’t just steal our peace FROM God, it shattered our peace WITH God.
The world tries to teach us new ways to get back “peace” of mind that is supposed to and only comes from the Lord, but nothing in the world can even pretend to bring us back into peace with God.
I did a quick google search this week on how to find peace
And the first article said the top 6 ways to get peace are
Accept things you can’t control
Forgive yourself
Stay focused
go within
journal
connect with mother Earth
Notice the theme in all of these.
Not that these are all bad practices, but they aren’t remedies
The Peace you need most, is Peace with God.
You can have peace with your spouse and still be at war in your soul
You can have peace with your family and still be at war in your soul
You can have peace with mother earth and still be at war in your soul
You can even have peace with yourself, to an extent, and still be at war in your soul
The Peace you need most is with God
Peace with God doesn’t come through what we can do, but through what Christ has done.
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”
Who freed us from the Curse?
“Christ…”
We aren’t ultimately freed through therapy, we aren’t granted peace through yoga and zin classes, but through a Redeemer!
You have a redeemer!
And this redeemer found you under a curse and went to great lengths to free you from it
So now, peace isn’t just a state of mind, body, and soul
Peace is a person. Peace is the person of Jesus Christ
He is the founder of Peace and all Peace flows and comes from Him
He freed us from present separation and eternal torment.
He freed us from the curse we were under
How did He free us from the curse?
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”
He redeemed us.
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law…”
To redeem is to pay the purchase price. The picture here is that Christ finds us under bondage, under the bondage of sin, and pays the price for our freedom from said bondage.
And he does this by
becoming a curse for us.
“...He became a curse for us…”
He dies on the cross and pays your debt and my debt. Just a staggering reality.
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
Notice that. “He died for the ungodly.” Didn’t die for the godly, there aren’t any. He didn’t die for the good law-keepers.
He died for the ungodly.
7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And we have been, verse 9 says, justified through His blood.
Gospel Presentation - man under the curse
John MacArthur - Grace to You: So when you come to the cross and you think about the significance of the cross, you think about the curse. God pronounced some horrific judgments and, of course, ultimately the judgment of eternal hell on all who violated His Law and Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, snatched us out from under the wrath of God and took the wrath Himself. And did He successfully take the wrath? Yes. That’s why throughout the New Testament, it says over and over and over and over and over, God raised Him from the dead. God killed Him and God raised Him. God killed Him under the weight of the curse. And when His wrath was satisfied and the curse was paid for, He raised Him from the dead.
Why did He make such a sacrifice?
1 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
The TRUTH
We can never be redeemed from the curse of sin through our own efforts!
We can never achieve peace on our own
And here is my concern, Christmas would deceive us into thinking that Jesus can’t achieve it for us either.
Here is why. At Christmas we celebrate Jesus’ birth as we should.
We celebrate all the things.
We have the nativity scenes in our homes
The Shepherds, the wiseman, the stable, the animals, the manger and the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes
And if we aren’t careful, in our minds, Jesus is always that cute little baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.
And how can a baby fight for my peace?
How can a baby die for my ugly sins?
How can a baby rule the world?
How can a baby have any authority over my life?
The birth is only the introduction
Because when we keeping reading the rest of the story what we see is a king establishing His kingdom on earth
A king with all authority! A King of kings
A ruler, Lion of the tribe of Judah.
A warrior
It may be hard to grasp how a baby can give you peace in a world where peace is almost non existent
In a world full of chaos and disorder
In a world full of stress and anxiety
What can a baby do for me?
But, Jesus may arrive as a baby, but he doesn’t stay that way, and who better to give us peace than the prince of Peace.
Who better to take on our sin and bear the wrath of God than the Passover Lamb Himself
Who better to go to when the world is caving in than the author of eternity
Who better to throw down our anxiety and stress to than the alpha and omega
Who better to give all our problems to than our High Priest
Who better to trust with our lives than the Good Shepherd
Who better to relate to us than Emmanuel
Jesus’ story may begin in a manger but it doesn't end there
Jesus’ story may lead to a cross to become a curse for us, but it doesn’t end there
Christ may be born in a manger but he lives on the throne!
Our Savior, our redeemer is seated at the right hand of God and He is the only one who can grant us the peace we so desperately need.
Please, quit fighting the world by yourself.
Please, quit trying to do enough
quit working for it
quit your laboring
Go to the Prince of Peace where life is found
We are no longer slaves to sin, but sons of God!
Joy to the world the Lord has come....and he has come to bring Peace.