Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Joint service, acknowledge Pastor Arnold.

Members of FIlipino organizations.

Anecdote:

We’re going to have our Christmas lunch after this service.

What is Christmas with a Christmas party of some kind?

How many here have already been in a Christmas party, with co-workers or friends?

We’re going to have our Christmas lunch after this service.

What is Christmas with a Christmas party of some kind?

How many here have already been in a Christmas party, with co-workers or friends?

In the time and culture we live in, parties are a must around the holidays.

Imagine, for a moment, that your birthday is coming up.

And you find out that your friends decided to throw you a big birthday party.

This makes you happy of course..

You heard that they are making preparations for your big day.

You knew who are planning your party and who would come to it.

So you heard invitations are being sent out.

Days passed, you find out that the party was all set and ready to go, but you haven’t received information on the time and place.

You found out one day that the party will be that day at a very nice restaurant.

So out of curiosity you went to the place.

But when you arrive, standing outside the restaurant, people just ignored you and passed by.

You find the music so loud and your friends having such a good time that they can't hear or see you knocking outside.

As you press your face up against the glass, you see pictures of yourself on the tables.

You overhear people telling stories about you.

Saying that you are the reason they are celebrating.

You saw people coming with gifts, but instead of giving you the gift for your birthday, they are giving gifts among themselves!

Everyone is having a great time celebrating your birthday while you're standing outside, knocking on the door.

And it is cold outside.. baby it’s cold outside..

I won’t sing the song this time.

But they won’t let you in to your own birthday party!

This may sound ridiculous but this portrays Christmas in our time.

It is a birthday celebration where the birthday celebrant Himself, Jesus Christ is not allowed to enter in and join.

This time of the Christmas holidays, Jesus remains outside the gatherings.

Second message in the sermon series “The Glory of Christmas”,

-Last week I talked about the glory that Jesus gave up for us.

-Today I’ll share about the glory of the incarnation.

When God became man.

The message of the Incarnation is exactly the opposite to what happens in our Christmas celebrations during Christmastime.

Jesus came to us not only to be in our parties and celebrated around the Christmas season, He came to permanently dwell among us.

Jesus is our Immanuel

The Big Idea of the message this morning is this is simple:

Big Idea: The Incarnation of Jesus is both a Miracle and a Gift that we Receive and Accept into Our Lives.”

Jesus is not Only the Reason for the Season.

He is the Reason for Our Lives!

The prophet Isaiah was the one who wrote the title “Immanuel”, and he foretold the coming of Jesus as the Messiah over 700 years before Jesus was born.

The glory of its history.

The glory of the Main Character.

The glory of the gift.

The prophet Isaiah foretold the coming of Jesus as the Messiah over 700 years before Jesus was born.

Jumping to..

-2

Jumping to..

Isaiah 9:

Part I.

The Glory of the Miracle.

This is a big deal if we wrap our minds around this.

The only way the birth of Jesus could be foretold centuries before is that God has ordained it in eternity, outside of time.

Here in Isaiah’s prophecy is the key why Christ should be all in all..

Reality of Christ’s royalty.

“For unto us a child is born == born speaks of Christ’s humanity.

He had to become human in order to save us.

He had to grow up as a boy, he had to live like any human being..

He had to go through physical, emotional pain so that He can sympathize and empathize with all of us..

Bible says in that even Jesus was

Bible says in

says He was tempted just as we are

So the child being born talks about Jesus’ humanity, but remember Christmas is not just about a baby lying in the manger in our nativity sets.

We used to have a beautiful outdoor nativity scene displayed on our front lawn until some vandals kidnapped our baby Jesus.. really who does that?

We are stuck with an image of Jesus as a baby being born, and lying on a manger..

The central picture of Christmas is not just the birth of the baby, it is that a Son was given..

The word for “given” in Hebrew was Natan.

Nathan, your name is special because it means “gift from God”.

Jonathan, your name is also special because it means God has already given.

Talks about God being the giver of the gift, and the gift is His own Son.

“A son was given” talks about Jesus’ deity.

The King of the Universe, God’s only Son was given to us, and was born as a child..

This is profoundly important because this is unique to Christianity.

This is profoundly important because this is unique to Christianity.

Well someone may ask: What is so unusual about the birth of Christ the King?

Other men who became kings were also babies once!

Here is the difference:

A thousand times in history a baby has become a king, but only once in history did a King become a baby.

What’s truly amazing about the birth of the King of the Universe is the miracle of it:

Can we imagine just how the King of the Universe, through which all things were created, with the power of His spoken Word everything came to being, Paul in COlossians said through Jesus all things were created and that in Him all things hold together.. the power that He had, in eternity and then He entered time, He took on human flesh, it sounds so simple, but that’s figurative, he didn’t just take on human flesh, He formed his own DNA, cells, tissues, body parts, everything that we have and yet unlike us, He remained uncreated and became a small baby?

He became 100% man, and yet He remained 100% God.

Well it doesn’t add up, Ramon you can’t do math.

Well, chalk it up as the divine mystery of the incarnation.

But it is more the miracle of the incarnation that we should believe by faith!

Jesus is not limited by the dichotomy of He is either God or man, He is the Only ONE WHO IS BOTH! Hallelujah!

J.I.Packer, a renowned theologian said this:

“It is here, in the thing that happened at the first Christmas, that the profoundest and most unfathomable depths of the Christian revelation lie.

“The Word became flesh” (); God became man, the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child.”

(J.I.

Packer)

Some have argued that the supreme miracle of Christianity is the incarnation.

This is why...

If someone can believe that the beginningless, omnipotent creator of the Universe took on human nature and remained God, so that Jesus of Nazareth was both fully human and also fully divine, then he can believe the other miracles of Jesus, that His death is the perfect atonement for the sins of humanity and they will even believe the resurrection.

This is the wonder and the glory of the Incarnation of Jesus!

So what does this tell us?

If we can believe in the supreme miracle of the incarnation, you can trust that His incarnational presence in your life is enough to see you through any situation or challenge in your life.

What are the Names of Jesus according to Isaiah?