Sermon Tone Analysis

Jesus

A man stood before the statue of Christ at Johns Hopkins University’s Medical Center.

After a while he walked to another position to look again at the statue.

Then he walked to the other side of the statue, still gazing intently.

Finally, he walked away, frustrated.

A young girl, who had been watching all of this, ran up to him.

Gently tugging his coat sleeve, she exclaimed, “Sir , if you want to see His face, you must kneel down.”

Indeed, if we would see Jesus, we must “kneel down.”

Seeking to understand Jesus and what He has done for us demands that we “kneel down” again and again in prayer.

To know Him and begin to comprehend the divine/human nature of Christ is impossible without divine help.

Yet, even a child can understand the simple truths about Jesus.

Prayer

Preview

So let’s look first at the virgin birth.

The angle told Mary that the Holy Spirit would come upon her, and the child that she would bear would be holy.

Look at this way "She, as mother, contributed to him all that any human mother contributes to her child, sin excepted.

Through the umbilical cord, Jesus is this particular man, the son of this particular woman, the bearer of the whole previous genetic history of her people and the recipient of innumerable hereditary features.

He was a unique genotype ( meaning no else like him) precisely because she contributed at least half his chromosomes (as any human mother would).

How the rest was contributed remains a mystery.

The one certainty is that Mary couldn't herself have contributed the sex-determining chromosome, Y, which is always provided by the biological father.

This chromosome, at least, must have been provided miraculously; and it remains possible that all the chromosomes normally derived from the male parent were provided in this way, the divine act which fertilized the ovum simultaneously creating twenty-three chromosomes complementary to those derived from the mother" (Donald Macleod, The Person of Christ, p. 162).

Think about that for a minute and let it sink in.

This birth is beyond comprehension for humans, but God made it possible to show that the incarnation of Jesus is unique.

Because Jesus is both divine and human He can save all who come to Him.

His divinity gives Him the power to change us.

His death makes it possible for Him to save us.

His humanity enables Him to express compassion and care fur us.

With His humanity Christ encircles the human race; with His divinity He grasps the throne of the Infinite, uniting us with God.

You’ve all seen rainbows.

They are made from the union of sunshine and shower.

The higher the sun the lower the rainbow.

If the sun rises above 40 degrees, a rainbow doesn't happen.

If Christ were to have come in His divinity, we as sinful humans could not see or understand Him.

But He came united with humanity, so that from our sinful angle we might behold His refracted loveliness and be attracted to Him.

The next time you see a double rainbow, notice that the brighter primary bow has the red color on the outside while in the less-distinct secondary how the color is reversed.

God’s mercy is the primary bow with the red blood of Christ prominently outermost.

In the secondary bow, that represents God’s justice, it is reversed.

To His sinful but repentant children God says, “Live - I have given you a ransom in Jesus, to accept Him in peace.”

Points to Ponder

Why did God ordain “before the foundation of the world” ( Peter 1:20) the plan for Jesus to become incarnate?

This demonstrates God’s love for the entire universe, showing that salvation from sin was not a hasty thought in the mind of God.

In Their infinite wisdom, the Godhead provided that should sin arise, God the Son would come to this earth as a man.

The bluebird has many enemies, but the worst is the house sparrow, which delights in taking over the bluebird's house.

If there are eggs, the sparrow pecks holes in them.

If there are baby bluebirds, the sparrows kill them by pecking their heads.

Then they build there nest on top of the little bluebirds’ bodies.

The father bluebird fearlessly goes into the box to do battle with the intruders.

Like the bluebird’s rescue mission, Jesus came into this world, the stronghold of the devil, to rescue His children.

He gave His life in the attempt.

Because of His love, because of what He has done on the cross, we shall praise Him all through eternity.

2. Why was God specific in prophesying the time when Jesus would come to earth?

By giving a specific timetable for the coming of Jesus, God showed He is in control of the affairs of earth.

This also gives believers another “hook” on which to hang their faith.

It is an assurance that the other promises of God - including the promise of the sinners’ restoration - are true.

3. What prophecy gives the time of Jesus’ ministry and death?

Daniel 9:24 specifies that the Messiah would appear during the 70 weeks (490 years) prophecy.

It is part of the 2300 days/years prophecy.

Nuts & Bolts

1.

What strange symbol did God use in the Old Testament?

Why did He use it?

2. Let’s look at the Old Testament predictions that were fulfilled in the New Testament

3. If someone who believed the Bible asked you or I to prove that Jesus was truly God, how would you explain His divine attributes?

4. People often see that Jesus is called the Son of Man as well.

How can we help them to understand that the Bible describes Jesus’ human nature, His human feelings, and that He depended on His Father?

5.

Although divine, what sacrifice did He make?

6. Christ’s holy nature was extremely sensitive and pained in any contact with evil.

Look at this verse.

7. The Bible says that Christ knew no sin.

Obviously, Jesus was not tempted to use drugs.

No did He indulge in watching degrading TV programs.

So how could he be tempted in all points as you and I are?

If you do word studies on the points and tempted, you will find that we tend to put a very personal aspect to this verse.

We tend to immediately thing of all the ways that we are individually tempted.

Those lists are very much related to modern day things.

The word points can be translated: all, all things, every respect, every way, and all points.

Also all kinds.

The word tempted: testing, has been tempted, has been tested.

The ESV states the verse this way

Imagine two prisoners of war being tortured to make them do a propaganda radio broadcast.

One, after two months, can stand it no longer and yields.

The other resists beyond the two months for years, even though the pressures increase.

Both learned something of their weakness as the pressures grew.

But only the one who continued to resist really knew how weak he was, as he daily had to cope with and overcome his human frailty.

Only the one who continued to resist understood the full weight of pain that being a human being involves.

Jesus because of what He endured has been tempted as we are.

Just like the prisoner, He was tempted beyond what we could endure and hence He truly knows what it means to be tempted here on this earth.

Just because we are tempted with things that He didn’t come in contact here doesn’t make his temptation any less.

He succeeded without sinning.

We have not!

So who knows more about being tempted.

8.

The Bible teaches that Jesus is in the heavenly sanctuary now serving as our High Priest.

What encouragement can you gain from His ministry there?

9. Who Pleads for us if we sin?

10.

Jesus is not only Priest but King.

His Kingdom actually has 2 aspects.

First, the kingdom of grace.

It was instituted immediately after Adam sinned.

Jesus, when He began His ministry, refereed to this when He proclaimed:

Second, the kingdom of glory.

It will be established when Jesus comes to the second time.