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Introduction: Redeeming the Christmas Holiday
What is Christmas?
It’s all about giving and giving things to others, and oh yeah, something about Jesus, and oh yes, be nice to others, etc. Let’s take a short quiz to see what you think about Christmas.
True or False
December 25 is the actual day Jesus was born.
Since the days of the Apostles, Christians have always celebrated Christmas.
Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus) is a complete myth.
Attending church on special holidays such as Christmas and Easter helps make us right with God.
Christmas is entirely a pagan holiday that Christians should avoid altogether.
The last question gives us the challenge to consider what we can or should do in regard to this holiday.
Can we redeem this holiday season from its misconceptions?
Should we even try?
I suggest that we look at redeeming it by emphasizing Biblical truth, namely, the doctrine of Incarnation.
Today we begin a series of messages looking at the Incarnation.
What is a Doctrine?
OT - what is received - the teaching of the Torah - Law of God.
NT Includes the act and content of Biblical truths.
The Incarnation is Necessary
Incarnation: The act of grace whereby Jesus came to earth and took on a human nature into union with his diving nature becoming “God incarnate” for the purpose of our salvation.
Although the Bible uses the term “flesh” at times to describe the sinful human nature that we all humans have, it is never used in that way to describe Jesus when he took on flesh.
When Christ is spoken of as having flesh, it is in the context of Him having a human body without a sinful nature.
Romans 5:12,17,19, reveal a pattern of the sin nature being passed through the father (man).
The Virgin Birth circumvented the transmission of a sin nature resulting in the Eternal God taking on human flesh and remaining sinless.
Scripture is very clear that Jesus had a human nature (flesh - as a human body and not as the sinful nature described by NT authors).
The early Christians distinguished themselves from heresy by this doctrine.
To deny that Jesus had a human nature is a rejection of God’s Spirit in favor of the Spirit of the antichrist (being against Jesus Christ embodied in a person who leads others in rejecting Jesus).
When we speak of the incarnation, we must also speak of its purpose, the atonement.
Atonement: The act of grace whereby Jesus suffered and died on the cross for the forgiveness of sins.
Both of these terms are important elements of our Christian doctrine.
We must have both to have a gospel.
It was necessary that sin be dealt with through “the flesh” so God accomplished this through Jesus Christ.
Our Advent Celebration focuses on recognizing the grace of God in the incarnation through recognizing four concepts: Hope, Joy, Peace, and Love, which point to what Christ gives to all who trust in Him.
We light four candles for each concept and light the fifth candle on Christmas Eve as we celebrate Christ who is the Light of the World.
Christ’s Glory before the Incarnation
The doctrine of the incarnation is based upon the preexistence of Jesus.
Jesus was not created.
He is the Creator.
John 1:3.
He is God.
He does things shared only with God and receives worship only as God should.
Jesus was of the same substance of God and shared the same glory, therefore, He is God.
From these verses, one can see how another doctrine, the Trinity (One God revealed in three persons. 1 “What” and 3 “Whos”) is based upon the Incarnation.
Although these doctrines defy our scientific and logic, they do so appropriately because they describe the One True God who can not be confined or fully comprehended within our means or ability.
So we stand back in amazement of God’s greatness with awe and humility.
We worship him and conclude that our God is great.
Hope from the Incarnation
Luke's gospel gives us much detail about the birth story.
He was born and spent the first night was in a barn-like structure with a feeding trough for a bed.
He was born to parents of lower socioeconomic status that could only give the poorest offering for Mary’s purification offering.
Forty days after giving birth, a woman had to present herself at the Temple with items for a burnt offering and a sin offering.
Mary brought two pigeons because it was all they could do, for it was the least expensive option that was allowed.
Jesus Christ, God-Incarnate, was brought to the Temple as an infant for presentation, an act of obedience that acknowledge God as the owner and giver of life.
What may have seemed like an ordinary day at the Temple proved to be something unique for God had two people prepared to meet Him, Simeon and Anna, who testified of the child.
The Incarnation Leads to Salvation
Simeon praised God that he saw God’s Salvation before dying just as God promised.
He saw the Lord’s Christ, Anointed One, who would bring salvation.
What salvation should they expect?
Christ did not come to fix the immediate geopolitical, economic, or social situation.
Rather, He would go to the root problem of humanity, the sinful heart.
Sin is a short word that describes a big problem.
Sin is any deviation from a divinely revealed will.
It is the source of evil, corruption, and death, and is what humanity and all of creation must be saved from, according to the Scriptures.
Sigrist, David J. “Sin.”
Ed.
Douglas Mangum et al.
Lexham Theological Wordbook 2014 : n. pag.
Print.
Lexham Bible Reference Series.
The Incarnation is for All People
Simeon’s song includes an important clarification about Jesus.
He correctly understood that God’s salvation was to impact both Jews and Gentiles.
It was for all people.
Jesus may have come first as a covenant promise for Israel, but He also came for the world He created.
The whole world lived under the stain of sin.
The covenant people of Israel were just as guilty of sin as the gentile.
Paul made this same statement in his letter to the Roman church.
The incarnation is the solution for our sins against God and each other.
As we look at our country today, we realize that we have the Divided States of America.
News Media helps promote lies, and it is difficult to make any sense out of how ugly things have become in the past years.
People are angry and respond purely on emotions.
Who is to blame?
We could fill in the blanks with the ones we most disagree with, but we had better not forget our sinfulness before God.
Listen to the following quote of a wise man in his old age.
“My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things—that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior.”
These words were spoken by John Newton.
He was once involved in the slave trade in the 1700s, but after experiencing God’s grace and salvation, he became a minister within the Church of England and an abolitionist.
God saved a sinner who understood that the Savior restored the sinner to God and the sinner to other people.
Our country has experienced various incidents that have shown that human-to-human relationships need the Savior to change the hearts.
The early church had to deal with this early on.
How do Jews and Gentiles get along and fulfill loving God and loving neighbor?
They did so by recognizing their sinfulness and relying upon the grace of the Savior to love those different from themselves.
But as we look at church history, Christians have deviated from the divine will of God.
Our world needs to see from the Christian Church how the Savior is for all people.
We must take a close look at how we reflect our divided world rather than reflecting the community of Christ.
We must be mindful that we have churches that are united together according to GRACE rather than RACE.
The Incarnation Demands a Response
Alongside Simeon’s promise of hope stands the reality that the Incarnation would cause tension, a “rise and fall,” and a “sign that is opposed.”
People will have to make up their minds about it.
Some will accept, and others will reject.
The Incarnation fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah concerning the Cornerstone.
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