God With Us: Why The Incarnation Matters
Notes
Transcript
God With Us: Why The Incarnation Matters
God With Us: Why The Incarnation Matters
Why The Incarnation Matters
Why The Incarnation Matters
INTRO:
each year, immediately following Thanksgiving, the Church begins to celebrate the advent season leading up to Christmas Day.
definitely my favorite time of the year....
sights - christmas lights on all the houses, christmas tree in NYC… picture of the tree in downtown ft worth
sounds - christmas carols on every channel and if you’re lucky, maybe even some carolers in your neighborhood
smells - food being made in the kitchen and served around the table
but of course the reason for the season if you will… is to give emphasis to the most incredible miracle ever… the incarnation of God.
and that’s what we are doing in this sermon series titled God With Us...
we find the reason for this series title in Matthew 1:23
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us).
Matthew is quoting here from Isaiah 7 and clearly implies that this baby boy, this Jesus, is the prophesied Messiah.
Now, when we talk about the miracle of christmas… the miracle of the incarnation.... God taking on flesh.... do we:
take it for granted? (is it just that thing that allows us to get to the sights, sounds and smells of christmas?)
or maybe even more dangerously… do we not even know for sure what we believe?
this morning i want us to spend some time considering why the incarnation matters.
i want us to consider that this miracle of the incarnation must be central in our doctrine as Christians.
CS Lewis says, “The Central Miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation… Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this...”
JI Packer says, “not in the Good Friday event of Christ’s crucifixion or even in the Easter Sunday event of his resurrection. Rather, the Christmas event of Christ’s birth is where the profoundest and most unfathomable depths of Christian revelation lie.”
and finally...
Martin Luther said, “jesus christ condescends to assume my flesh and blood, my body and soul. He does not become an angel or another magnificient creature; He becomes man. This is a token of God’s mercy to wretched human beings; the human heart cannot grasp or understand, let alone express it.”
The ultimate mystery, that the Word became flesh, that God, in the person of Jesus, came out of heaven and took on the same human nature that we posses, is at the center of our Christian faith.
i think that modern christians don’t look at the incarnation with wonder but with confusion
this miracle gets pushed to the side… it become peripheral rather than central in our belief system
3 questions for us to ask and answer today:
1. Who is Jesus?
2. Why did he come to be with us?
3. Why does it matter to me?
[PRAYER]
BODY
1. Who is Jesus?
Jesus asked this question of his disciples in Matthew 16.
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
“son of the living God” is the same thing as saying Jesus is God....
So who is Jesus?
1. first of all Jesus is God
Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 1
Hebrews 1:1-3a
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.
it goes on to talk about the difference between Jesus and the angels
Jesus vs. angels
angels are divine beings but they are NOT God
this Son is both a divine being AND God
vs. 6 says angels are commanded to worship the Son
the Son does not worship angels
in fact no one is supposed to worship angels because worship is reserved for God
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
miracles....
forgives sins.... the leaders asked, “who can forgive sins but God?” they were right! no one can! but Jesus could because he WAS God.
1. Jesus is fully God
2. Jesus is fully man
11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,
14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
It is difficult for us in our limited human reasoning to see Jesus as fully divine and fully human at the same time.
But that is the clear teaching of the Bible, that Jesus Christ is one person with two natures. From the moment of His conception in the womb of Mary, God the Son has had and will forever have a human nature as well as a divine nature.
He is not two persons, but one person with two natures. The two natures did not mix into some third kind of nature which combined both. They remained distinct and separate, a completely human nature and a completely divine nature residing within the same person.
If we can grasp that, then we can understand better some of the things that Jesus said and did during His earthly ministry. Some things came from His human nature and other things came from His divine nature.
For example, when Jesus said (John 8:58),
"Before Abraham was born, I am," claiming that He had existed forever, He was speaking from His divine nature.
But we know that Jesus was born as a baby in Bethlehem, so that refers to His human nature.
In His divine nature, Jesus knew all things
but in His human nature, He did not know the day that He will return to earth.
His human nature got hungry, got thirsty, and got tired.
God is spirit. and in his divine nature would never get hungry, thirsty or tired.
And God cannot die, so when Jesus died on the cross, that was His human nature that died, while His divine nature, of course, did not die.
Jesus is fully God AND Jesus is fully man.
(not a suit he takes on and off like Batman. he is always God and he is always man)
no… when God the Son… the second person of the triune God came down to earth and took on flesh… he added human nature to his person. for eternity. so now the God/man Jesus is both God and Man.
God’s humiliation did not begin on the cross but began when He took on flesh and added humanity to his divinity. His humiliation ended with the cross and His death on it because afterward He was resurrected and then glorified by returning to heaven, rejoining the Father in His rightful place.
fully man and fully God
Hark The Herald Angels Sing
veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
hail the incarnate Deity,
pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus, our Immanuel.
2. Why did he come to be with us?
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,
Creation and Redemption have been joined together in the person of this “Son”
9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.
man was not the first to fall
angels fell. Satan was an angel named Lucifer. Lucifer led a rebellion against God and talked 1/3 of the angels into following him. God kicked them out of heaven and down to earth.
but God did not send the Son to redeem the fallen angels. he sent the Son to redeem fallen man.
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
he came to be with us… to save us.
3. Why does it matter to me? (the incarnation is necessary for our salvation)
many Christians have never fully understood that our redemption began with the incarnation. They tend to separate Christ’s work from his person, as if his incarnate humanity were just the outward apparatus that was needed so that he could eventually die.
the apostle paul tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. and that the wages of sin is death.
22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
in the old testament, we see a precedent for a substitute taking the place of the sinner. in the law, God made a way for the priest to atone for the sinner by sacrificing a spotless lamb. t
he shedding of the lamb’s blood provided forgiveness for the sinner.... but animal sacrifices under the law were only temporary. the people had to continually offer them in order to remain in a right standing with God.
however, eventually God would accept a substitute for all of humankind’s sin.
but what kind of substitute would be acceptable?
man sinned so a man must be sacrificed
but the sacrifice must be spotless… unblemished and all men have sinned so there was not a human that would make an acceptable sacrifice.
BUT… God the Son, sinless and holy from all eternity past, became human, creating a new Man who was qualified as spotless.
this is why Paul says in 2 corinthians 5...
for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
death was the penalty required but God could not die.
a sacrifice without blemish was required but no man could be found acceptable.
Jesus the God-Man solved both issues making the forgiveness of sins possible!
Christ the man was the acceptable substitute.
not only was Jesus’s death vicarious… but so was his humanity.
he took our flesh and made it his own to become for us what we could not be
and to do for us what we could not do.
his incarnation matters to us because without it, there would be no salvation for mankind.
his incarnation matters to us because only those who:
look on him
and believe in him
will have eternal life.
those who do not.... will not.
CONCLUSION:
so i ask, where do you stand today?
what does the incarnation.... God taking on flesh to dwell with us.... mean to you?
have you looked on and believed in the fully God and fully human Jesus Christ?
if the answer is yes… i’m excited to call you brother or sister because we are children of God… brothers and sisters with Jesus
but if your answer is no… i regret to tell you that there is no other way to heaven....
there is no other sacrifice that is acceptable to make you right with God
but the Good News is that it’s not too late
you can decide today, this hour.... to turn your eyes upon Jesus, believe in Him and receive his perfect grace and mercy.
can we pray?