Christmas 2019: Let us consider the Man who is God
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Let us Consider
Let us Consider
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.
Who is this Christ?
Have you ever considered Him?
Let us indeed consider Christ. I believe that every thing in creation hinges on who Christ is. We have been journeying through the book of 1 John, and in that letter so much thought and exhortation is devoted to esteeming highly who Christ is.
Jesus of Nazareth was, and is a real man who was born in the town of Bethlehem, a town overshadowed by Jerusalem, the city of kings.
Is it possible that anyone of importance could be born in a haystack in Bethlehem?
Many of us have varying levels of experience with farm animals. But if you’ve never raised farm animals, if you ever have driven through Casa Grande, or any dairy farm on a hot day, you know what Jesus’ entrance into the world smelled like.
But the infant would have smelled and heard other things. He smelled His mothers hair as she held Him. He would have felt his father’s rough carpenter hands carefully touch his cheek. And then the sustainer of all life, who was yet sustaining all life, was sustained by His mother’s breast.
How could God have planned this?
How could God send His son to be humbled in this way?
The originator of the celestial lights we call space, who Himself is the fullness of light, was ushered into a dark world, the silent planet, by a great light not yet seen nor seen again.
The Alpha and the Omega had become the incarnate infant.
I AM was here.
I AM is here.
Jesus is the eternal Son of God.
What does it mean to be eternal?
We think of eternal as something that never ends.
In fact this is immortality
But who would someone be if they also had no beginning?
They would have to be the first. Only one thing could come before everything else.
They would have to be God
God tells us His name
13 But Moses said to God, “Look, if I go to the Israelites and I say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is his name?’ then what shall I say to them?” 14 And God said to Moses, “I am that I am.” And he said, “So you must say to the Israelites, ‘I am sent me to you.’ ”
14 And God said to Moses, “I am that I am.” And he said, “So you must say to the Israelites, ‘I am sent me to you.’ ”
Eternity is nestled in that name.
I AM
Not I was and not will be
Not I will be but was not
I AM
To be I AM is to be absolutely first and last.
6 Thus says Yahweh, the king of Israel, and its redeemer, Yahweh of hosts: “I am the first, and I am the last, and there is no god besides me.
12 “Listen to me, Jacob, and Israel, whom I called: I am he. I am the first; also I am the last.
The same man who arrived as an infant in Bethlehem, appeared to His friend some 90 years after His birth.
The boy Jesus grew up.
The boy Jesus learned about life.
He learned about skinned knees, good food, and warm beds.
When He was a man he single handedly in a matter of a few years permanently altered the course of human culture, theology, ethics, and worldview.
This man, who had been a baby in Bethlehem stood before the Jews, who were waiting for a warrior king Messiah, and categorically declared His divinity.
58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am!”
He also permanently altered the human condition of those who love Him as he gasped His last on a Roman cross.
He also permanently altered the human condition of those who love Him as he gasped His last on a Roman cross.
He altered their condition from Death to life.
After Jesus died, He was resurrected by His Father, the one true God, and after visiting His disciples and commissioning them with making disciples of the whole world, He ascended into heaven where He sat down at the right hand of his father.
Two cannot be Alpha and Omega unless they are one.
The same man who arrived as an infant in Bethlehem, appeared to His friend some 90 years after His birth.
John, who wrote the letter we have been working through, was visited by the glorified Christ.
This Christ is the Jesus that will be seen by the world when he comes to gather His harvest.
This is the warrior king that the Jews awaited. But he did not come to kill the Romans.
He came to kill death.
And He will come again to bring all things under His dominion, and forever banish the serpent, our adversary to the place prepared for those who hate God.
We are mortals. We are seeds grown and hardened for planting, intended for the ground, and for a glorious Easter harvest after. The first Reaper is a foe, rending soul from flesh, and oh, how we run from him, how we stop our breathing and cower behind locked doors in our mortal darkness. But when our Brother takes up the scythe, there will be drums and sun and sweat mixed with laughter. Then we will beg not to be Passed Over. - N.D. Wilson
This Christ...
12 When I turned to see who was speaking to me, I saw seven gold lampstands. 13 And standing in the middle of the lampstands was someone like the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash across his chest. 14 His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were like flames of fire. 15 His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. 16 He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came from his mouth. And his face was like the sun in all its brilliance.
Revelation 1:12-
Revelation 1:
On appearing to His friend, John fell on his face.
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.
Revelation 1
This king, this warrior, this man who was an infant once in Bethlehem, says that He is the first and the last.
Two cannot be Alpha and Omega unless they are one.
8 Beware lest anyone take you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ, 9 because in him all the fullness of deity dwells bodily,
9 because in him all the fullness of deity dwells bodily,
1 Although God spoke long ago in many parts and in many ways to the fathers by the prophets, 2 in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world, 3 who is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, sustaining all things by the word of power. When he had made purification for sins through him, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
3 who is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, sustaining all things by the word of power. When he had made purification for sins through him, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
8 The Master declares, “I’m A to Z. I’m The God Who Is, The God Who Was, and The God About to Arrive. I’m the Sovereign-Strong.”
Revelation 1:
"Seeing and savoring this glory is the goal of our salvation." - John Piper
We are to enjoy the radiance of the glory of God, forever.
“Apparently, then, our lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we now feel cut off, to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside, is no mere neurotic fancy, but the truest index of our real situation. And to be at last summoned inside would be both glory and honour beyond all our merits and also the healing of that old ache.” - C.S. Lewis
I long to kneel in a resurrection body, free from sin, before the glorified Christ, and for Him to touch me, and say “Do not be afraid.”
We do indeed look forward to this as Paul says in Titus
Titus 2:13
13 looking forward to the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
What do you look forward to and why?
This has been a year of maturity for our family.
Two ways that you take a tree from adolescence to maturity.
Pruning
Watering farther out.
God has pruned us and made us stretch for water.
Desert Son is not the only church, we are a small branch of the baobab tree that is Christ’s church.
Sometimes when a branch dies, the best thing to do is to remove it completely from the tree.
Your decision is determined to be good or bad when you cut the branch.
Was it dead? Or was it alive?
My favorite example of this in literature comes from the Secret Garden.
In The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett, when the character Mary asks the servant Dickon if a particular plant was still alive, he replied: "It's as wick as you or me,"; and Mary remembered that Martha had told her that "wick" meant "alive" or "lively"."
In the following chapter, Dickon shows Mary how to tell if a branch is wick or dead. … "A body might think this is dead wood, but I don't believe it is-down to th' root. I'll cut it low down an' see." He knelt and with his knife cut the lifeless-looking branch through, not far above the earth. "There!" he said exultantly. "I told thee so. There's green in that wood yet. Look at it." "When it looks a bit greenish an' juicy like that, it's wick," he explained. "When th' inside is dry an' breaks easy, like this here piece I've cut off, it's done for…"
Desert Son is wick.
The global church is wick.
There’s life in it yet.
And that life is the Spirit of the living God.
The Spirit of Christ.
As I consider what this means for our church the word that comes to mind is vision.
Vision for the future.
13 looking forward to the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
As I look around this room I am filled with vision.
For my future, for my marriage’s future, for our church’s future.
I look to young men and women coming through our youth group, and I pray that when my son is older, that these men and women would pour into my son like others have poured into them
I look at the Collins family coming to join our church family and I am filled with vision that God would bring a man to add to the depth of wisdom and love that flows from our leadership.
I look at Dave and Linda Storey and I find myself casting vision for my marriage. Dave and Linda ARE grace. They have walked with the Master and the Master is walking with them. I’m walking behind Dave, because Dave is walking behind Christ.
This is why we take communion. Communion is grace. Undeserved favor. Communion is sharing in the body and blood of Christ that we might look with expectation to the day that we eat with Him in resurrected bodies, new bodies, bodies without sin.
Communion is for confessing believers, believers who have confessed that Jesus is their master.
When we who have confessed this eat this together, if we are all to die today, it will not be the last time we eat it together.
I call a seat next to Skinny Jack at the wedding feast of the lamb.
Distribute the elements while instructing to take time for confession and adoration.
Body
You see, the same flesh that was knit together in the womb of a virgin in Israel, is the same flesh that was nailed to a cross for sinners.
This body, the incarnate God, was put to death, so that in Christ, death would be no more.
This is Immanuel’s body, broken for you, church.
Blood
When Jesus was child, he skinned his knees. Jesus did not live a charmed life because he was the Son of God. He had a real body, with real bones and real blood. Jesus’ blood was spilled on the rocks surrounding Nazareth. Jesus blood was spilled when he inevitably smashed his fingers with a hammer as a carpenter.
These occurences of blood did not cover your sins.
But when Jesus was placed on a cross, and as blood flowed from his head, back, hands, and feet, the sins of the world were being covered by the blood of a perfect sacrifice. The only perfect sacrifice that was to bear the full wrath of the Father.
God hates sin.
God hates sin
God LOVES the church.
Because of Immanuel’s blood, freely spilled for the purification of your souls, church.
This time of year can be a time of joy.
It also can be a time of sorrow.
For some, Christmastime is a painful reminder of past hurts, and for others it is a lonely time because they are not with family.
For others who are surrounded by family, and a level of prosperity that would allow you to give gifts, Praise God for those people.
However remember that
However remember that the greatest gift was for all people. A God who became a child.
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,
Jesus Christ IS the grace of God.
Believe in a master who would lay His hand on you and say…
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.
Go forth and be changed by this grace.