146 Sermon Illustrations on Incarnation

There was once a man who didn't believe in God, and he didn't hesitate to let others know how he felt about religion and religious holidays, like Christmas. His wife, however, did believe, and she raised their children to also have faith in God and Jesus, despite his disparaging comments.

One snowy Christmas Eve, his wife was taking their children to a Christmas Eve service in the farm community in which they lived. She asked him to come, but he refused.

"That story is nonsense!" he said. "Why would God lower Himself to come to Earth as a man? That's ridiculous!" So she and the children left, and he stayed home. A while later, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blizzard. As the man looked out the window, all he saw was a blinding snowstorm.

He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening. Then he heard a loud thump. Something had hit the window. Then another thump. He looked out, but couldn't see more than a few feet. When the snow let up a little, he ventured outside to see what could have been beating on his window.

In the field near his house he saw a flock of wild geese. Apparently they had been flying south for the winter when they got caught in the snowstorm and couldn't go on. They were lost and stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter. They just flapped their wings and flew around the field in low circles, blindly and aimlessly. A couple of them had flown into his window, it seemed.

The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought. It's warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm. So he walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide, then watched and waited, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside. But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly and didn't seem to notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them.

The man tried to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them and they moved further away. He went into the house and came with some bread, broke it up, and made a breadcrumb trail leading to the barn. They still didn't catch on.

Now he was getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo them toward the barn, but they only got more scared and scattered in every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where they would be warm and safe. "Why don't they follow me?!" he exclaimed. "Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm?" He thought for a moment and realized that they just wouldn't follow a human. "If only I were a goose, then I could save them," he said out loud.

Then he had an idea. He went into barn, got one of his own geese, and carried it in his arms as he circled around behind the flock of wild geese. He then released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn--and one by one the other geese followed it to safety. He stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed in his mind: "If only I were a goose, then I could save them!" Then he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. "Why would God want to be like us? That's ridiculous!"

Suddenly it all made sense. That is what God had done. We were like the geese--blind, lost, perishing. God had His Son become like us so He could show us the way and save us. That was the meaning of Christmas, he realized.

As the winds and blinding snow died down, his soul became quiet and pondered this wonderful thought. Suddenly he understood what Christmas was all about, why Christ had come. Years of doubt and disbelief vanished like the passing storm. He fell to his knees in the snow, and prayed his first prayer: "Thank You, God, for coming in human form to get me out of the storm!"

--Author unknown

1. Silent night! Holy night!

All is calm, all is bright

Round yon virgin mother and Child,

Holy Infant, so tender and mild –

Sleep in heavenly peace,

Sleep in heavenly peace,

2. Silent night! Holy night!

Shepherds quake at the sight;

Glories stream from heaven afar,

Heav'nly hosts sing alleluia!

Christ the Saviour is born!

Christ the Saviour is born!

3. Silent night! Holy night!

Son of God, love's pure light

Radiant beams from Thy holy face

With the dawn of redeeming grace –

Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth,

Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.

[Tune “Stille Nacht”]

On the afternoon of Christmas Eve in 1818, in a tiny village called Oberdorg, high in the Austrian Alps, Joseph Mohr, the local Catholic priest, wrote some appropriate stanzas for the season. The church pipe organ had given out and could not be repaired in time for that evening, so the church organist, Franz Gruber, wrote a simple tune, setting the words for a tenor, a bass, and two guitars. That very evening, at the midnight service, “Silent Night” was heard for the first time. The song soon made its way beyond Oberdorg, but anonymously, without mention of the composer or poet. Until the 1850s, neither Gruber nor Mohr, living in their remote village, knew that their song was rapidly becoming the most beloved piece of Christmas music ever written — nor did the world know of Gruber and Mohr.

Reader’s Digest Canada web-site - December 19, 2001

1. The first Noël, the angel did say,

Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay;

In fields where they lay keeping their sheep,

On a cold winter's night that was so deep.

Chorus

Noël, Noël, Noël, Noël,

Born is the King of Israel.

2. They looked up and saw a star,

Shining in the East beyond them far;

And to the earth it gave great light,

And so it continued day and night.

3. And by the light of that same star,

Three wisemen came from country far;

To seek a king was their intent,

And to follow the star wherrever it went.

4. This star drew nigh to the northwest;

O'er Bethlehem it took its rest,

And there it did both stop and stay,

Right o'er the place where Jesus lay.

5. Then entered in those wise men three,

Full rev’rently upon their knee,

And offered there, in His presence,

Their gold and myrrh and frankincense.

6. Now let us all with one accord

Sing praises to our heav'nly Lord,

That made heav'n and earth of naught,

And with His blood mankind hath bought.

____________________

The Christmas song telling the story of "The First Noël" ("Noël" is the French word for Christmas and stems from the Latin natalis, meaning "birthday") is thought to date from as early as the 13th or 14th century, when the Miracle Plays, dramatizations of favorite Bible stories for special holidays, were popular. The tune, which may be English or French, is undoubtedly very old. It was first published with words by William Sandys in his 1833 edition of Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern.

Reader’s Digest Canada web-site - December 19, 2001

*

1. Ring the bells, ring the bells,

Let the whole world know

Christ was born in Bethlehem

Many years ago:

2. Born to die that man might live,

Came to earth new life to give,

Born of Mary, born so low,

Many years ago.

3. God the Father gave His Son,

Gave His own beloved One

To this wicked, sinful earth,

To bring mankind His love, new birth:

4. Ring the bells, ring the bells,

Let the whole world know

Christ the Saviour lives today

As He did so long ago!

*

1. Joy to the world! The Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let evr'y heart prepare Him room,

And heav'n and nature sing,

And heav'n and nature sing,

And heav'n and nature sing.

2. Joy to the earth! The Saviour reigns!

Let men their songs employ;

While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat the sounding joy.

3. No more let sin and sorrows grow,

Nor thorns infest the ground;

He comes to make His blessings flow

Far as the curse is found,

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat the sounding joy.

4. He rules the world with truth and grace,

And makes the nations prove

The glories of

His righteousness

And wonders of His love,

And wonders of His love,

And wonders of His love.

[Tune “Antioch”]

__________

Though the triumphant words "Joy to the world" exemplify the Christmas feeling, the familiar text is actually a translation based on five verses from Psalm 98 in the Old Testament. Isaac Watts, the English hymnist and cleric, published his Psalms of David, which contains these verses, in 1719. More than a century later, in 1839, American composer and music educator Lowell Mason decided to set them to music, modestly including the phrase "From George Frederick Handel," apparently to honor his idol, the composer of Messiah and many other masterpieces. For nearly 100 years, the world accepted this ascription, until musicologists pointed out that not a single phrase in the music can be said to have come straight from any work of Handel's.

____________

Reader’s Digest Canada web-site - December 19, 2001

1. Come, Thou long-expected Jesus,

Born to set Thy people free;

From our fears and sins release us,

Let us find our rest in Thee.

Israel's Strength and Consolation,

Hope of all the earth Thou art:

Dear Desire of ev'ry nation,

Joy of ev'ry longing heart.

2. Born Thy people to deliver,

Born a child and yet a King,

Born to reign in us forever —

Now Thy gracious Kingdom bring.

By Thine own eternal Spirit

Rule in all our hearts alone;

By Thine all sufficient merit

Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

[Tune “Hyfrydol”]

*

1. O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant;

Come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;

Come and behold Him, born the King of angels:

Chorus

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

Christ the Lord.

2. Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation;

Sing, all ye bright hosts of heav'n above;

Glory to God, all glory in the highest:

3. Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning;

Jesus, to Thee be all glory giv'n;

Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing:

[Tune “Adeste Fideles”]

_______________________

Latin words attributed to John Francis Wade, music by John Reading

John Francis Wade was an 18th-century British exile who moved to a Roman Catholic community in France, where he eked out an income by copying and selling music and by giving music lessons to children. Perhaps he himself wrote the Latin stanzas, beginning "Adeste fideles," which have made his name known; perhaps they were a text he was called upon to translate. In any case, he combined the text with a bit of music, probably by another Englishman, John Reading, and published the resulting hymn around 1751. More than a century later, the English version, "O Come, All Ye Faithful," was turned out by Frederick Oakeley, a British clergyman who felt that if congregations had good literary texts to sing, they would sing well. This hymn proved his point.

_______________________

Reader’s Digest Canada web-site - December 19, 2001

1. What child is this, who, laid to rest,

On Mary's lap is sleeping?

Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,

While shepherds watch are keeping?

This, this is Christ the King,

Whom shepherds guard and angels sing:

Haste, haste to bring Him laud–

The babe, the son of Mary!

2. Why lies He in such mean estate

Where ox and ass are feeding?

Good Christian, fear – for sinners here

The silent Word is pleading.

Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,

The cross be borne for me, for you:

Hail, hail the Word made flesh–

The babe, the son of Mary!

3. So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh–

Come, rich and poor, to own Him:

The King of kings salvation brings–

Let loving hearts enthrone Him.

Raise, raise the song on high–

The virgin sings her lullaby:

Joy, joy, for Christ is born–

The Babe, the son of Mary.

[Tune “Greensleeves”]

The Internet has undoubtedly transformed the ways in which we live, work, learn, and play. We are clicks away from discussing politics with someone in Zaire, researching history from libraries in Europe - all this from our living rooms.

Cyberspace is indeed a vast world, moving not always in positive directions. Just decades ago, it would have seemed odd to hear of Internet addiction, or of the many online ethical issues. Do you know that psychologists actually have a name for the study of Internet-related conditions? The "Psychology of Cyberspace."

It is significant to note what these psychologists call the "Online Disinhibition Effect."(1) The effect describes the difference in behavior in the non face-to-face Internet world. The sense of anonymity and invisibility in the "virtual world" causes people to behave in ways they would not otherwise in the "real world" - effects of which are most often destructive.

It strikes me that this impact is simply an embracing of the hazardous idea of facelessness. An intangible identity allows for intangible morality. Pirating a CD is perceived less a crime than walking into a store and stealing it. Actions in the name of anonymity have somehow become more acceptable. Is it any wonder that in a culture tempted by the whims of a faceless world, we have become most comfortable with a faceless God?

But you will find the Bible teaches something profound about the face and identity of God - unique to any other religion. Scriptures tell us God gave us His only begotten Son....

You see, that Christ was begotten of the Father means something significant. Everything we create is different to us. Only that which we beget is identical to us. One simply cannot divide the Father from the Son. We are gravely mistaken when we represent the Son as doing that which the Father does not do Himself.

And I want you to understand how He reveals this identity to us. It is so beautifully portrayed in the Scriptures; not a faceless being, but a divine person, in whose image your face was created. Jesus Christ is that Person, the very face that looked out upon the crowd of mockers, cynics, and skeptics alike, and on that cross spoke the words with your face in mind, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." No, we are never faceless, and His is the face of matchless love.

1. John Suler Ph.D. (2001) "The Online Disinhibition Effect." In the Psychology of Cyberspace. [Originally published in 1996] http://www.rider.edu/users/suler/psycyber/disinhibit.html

_________________________

Copyright © 2002 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

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J. I. Packer wrote in his book “Knowing God”:

“The really staggering Christian claim is that Jesus of Nazareth was God made man ... and that he took humanity without loss of deity, so that Jesus of Nazareth was as truly and fully divine as he was human. ... Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the incarnation.”

________

Quoted in "Caught Between ‘Bah, humbug’ and ‘God bless us, everyone’," by Lee Eclov, November 16, 2015; .

*

[The original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #18962]

In the early days of the nineteenth century, men were following with bated breath the march of Napoleon and waiting with feverish impatience for the latest news of the wars. And all the while, in their own homes, babies were being born.

Just think of some of those babies. In one year, lying midway between Trafagar and Waterloo, there stole into the world a host of well-known men! During that year, 1809, Mr. Gladstone was born at Liverpool; Alfred Tennyson drew his first breath at the Somersby rectory; and Oliver Wendell Holmes made his initial appearance in Massachusetts. On the very self-same day of that self-same year, Abraham Lincoln made his debut in Old Kentucky. Music was enriched by the advent of Frederick Chopin at Warsaw and Felix Mendolssohn at Hamburg.

But, nobody thought of babies. Everybody was thinking of battles. Yet, viewing that age in the truer perspective which the years enable us to command, we may well ask ourselves which of the battles of 1809 mattered more than the babies of 1809. When a wrong wants righting, or a work wants doing, or a truth wants preaching, or a continent wants opening, God sends a baby into the world to do it. This is why, long, long ago, a Babe was born at Bethlehem.

It was at a wayside inn that God began making the world all over again. Momentous things were set in motion at that inn at Bethlehem.

=================================

Another version, from Rev. Brett Blair, 12/16/01:

Take the year 1809. The international scene was tumultuous. Napoleon was sweeping through Austria; blood was flowing freely. Nobody then cared about babies. But the world was overlooking some terribly significant births.

For example, William Gladstone was born that year. He was destined to become one of England's finest statesman. That same year, Alfred Tennyson was born to an obscure minister and his wife. The child would one day greatly affect the literary world in a marked manner. On the American continent, Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. And not far away in Boston, Edgar Allan Poe began his eventful, albeit tragic, life. It was also in that same year that a physician named Darwin and his wife named their child Charles Robert. And that same year produced the cries of a newborn infant in a rugged log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. The baby's name? Abraham Lincoln.

If there had been news broadcasts at that time, I'm certain these words would have been heard: "The destiny of the world is being shaped on an Austrian battlefield today." But history was actually being shaped in the cradles of England and America. Similarly, everyone thought taxation was the big news -- when Jesus was born. But a young Jewish woman cradled the biggest news of all: the birth of the Savior.

Adapted from Charles Swindoll

*

During the course of our lives, God hands us different lenses through which to view Him. In my middle years, highly aware of the fragility of life, I have begun to notice things about Jesus I never saw very clearly before -- such as the utterly vulnerable way He lived.

The word vulnerable means able to be wounded. That’s why the word so aptly describes Christ. He was always right out there in a risky place, His heart on the line, where pain and rejection were virtually guaranteed. He held nothing back. As I face how much pain a fallen world can dish up -- and my tendency to look for the easy way out -- I am more and more awed at Jesus’ choice to walk smack into the worst of it.

THE LAMB OF GOD

Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" John the Baptist declared (John 1:29). There is, perhaps, no more vulnerable animal than a lamb. From the beginning, Christ’s anointing and His power are coupled with His vulnerability. He is the Lamb who was slain, and He will be in that most glorious of days the Lamb who reigns.

This aspect of Christ laces the gospels. I see Him agonizing in the Garden of Gethsemane as He faces the cross before Him. And what does He do there? He asks for the prayerful support of His close friends. Jesus lets Himself need someone! There are times in my own life when to ask something from a friend, to lean on someone else, has a humbling sting. But there in the garden I watch Jesus ask His friends to stand by Him, even though they will sorely disappoint Him.

Or I turn to Christ’s conversation with Peter, after he has denied Him. As they prepare breakfast along the shore of Galilee, Jesus voices three times a simple question: "Do you love Me?" (see John 21:1-17). And while it’s clear that Christ is making an important point with Peter, still the question is an astounding one. What other deity ever asked anything like this? "Do you love Me?" Jesus asks, because real love always holds out the possibility of refusal. Otherwise, love is forced and, therefore, not real. And as all of us know, when someone really matters to us, there are no more vulnerable words to be spoken than these: "Do you love me?" It’s like hanging your heart out to dry. These are the words of Jesus.

The scenes that so fill the gospels -- of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, of Him weeping at Lazarus’ tomb, of His thorough pleasure in the company of Mary and Martha -- can tend to grow ordinary over time -- until I remind myself who, exactly, this is. This is the One, Isaiah said, who leads the stars out at night and arranges them in the sky like a teacher taking his pupils out for recess. Nahum tells us that this is the One who breaks the rocks up into small pieces with His anger. This is the Christ who chose to live among us as a man despised and forsaken, from whom we would willingly hide our faces.

AN ASTOUNDING CHOICE

This year at Easter my husband and I became focused on the same verse in Luke’s gospel. "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life" (Luke 9:22). We find an interesting succession of verbs in this verse: suffer, be rejected, be killed, be raised. The idea that Christ had to experience rejection in order for the picture to be complete deeply moved us both. Not just suffering and physical pain, but all the rejection and humiliation, the loss and disappointment that accompanied the cross -- so that we would know He knows the very worst of it. So that we would know we are not alone in what we suffer. That it is truly a "fellowship of suffering," as the Apostle Paul said (see Phil. 3:10).

A few years ago, our daughter contracted a mysterious illness in Moscow that left her sick and debilitated for more than six months. As she steadily lost weight and lived with pain that doctors could neither pinpoint nor cure, I became increasingly aware of my powerlessness. It’s terrible to be a mother with a child whose pain you cannot alleviate. It’s miserable.

When the crisis ended and she began to mend, I was reflecting one morning on how much more I could now identify with God the Father as He watched His Son’s anguish. Yet the obvious struck me with great force: My experience was different in its very nature, because unlike me, God was not powerless! He could have delivered His Son at any moment. He chose to let Him suffer. Jesus could have called 10,000 angels to His rescue. He laid down His life of His own initiative. He chose to die.

The heart of the miracle of Jesus’ vulnerability is that His, unlike my own, is a chosen vulnerability. As much as I may deny and resist my vulnerability, I cannot escape it. No matter what I do, a certain amount of pain will be mine simply because I am an imperfect human being living in a fallen world. But Jesus is a different story. All power in heaven and earth is His. At every juncture, He had a real choice. He could have chosen an easier path, an option less painful. When I let myself take in His chosen powerlessness, His willingness to assume the weakness of my nature, I am moved to awe.

This is the place -- in the vulnerability of Jesus -- where I come to fall in love with Him. I find myself often returning to the words of the 17th-century hymn "O Sacred Head Now Wounded." I am convinced that the author was thinking of this very aspect of Christ’s nature when he wrote:

What language shall I borrow,

to thank Thee, dearest friend,

For this Thy dying sorrow,

Thy pity without end?

Oh, make me Thine forever

and should I fainting be,

Lord, let me never, never

outlive my love for Thee.

*

The little boy was having a hard time getting to sleep - he was scared of the dark, even though his mommy told him God was there, watching over him. He responded, "Mommy - I need God with skin on."

Because of Christmas, we've got God with skin on. The Bible says that the Son of God "became flesh and made His dwelling among us." (John 1:14) Jesus isn't just another prophet or religious leader - He's God with skin on. This Jesus, who asks for your heart, has walked your trail. He knows what it's like to be lonely ... to be abandoned ... to be betrayed ... to be a victim ... to be tortured ... to die. That brutal death on a cross was ultimately His choice - He loves you so much that He chose to take the death penalty for your sin so you could be with Him forever.

And now, this Jesus wants to walk every mile of the rest of your life with you - if you'll give yourself to Him. You'll never spend another day alone.

________________

Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. 'Practical Answers to Real Life Issues'

1. Good Christian men, rejoice

With heart and soul and voice;

Give ye heed to what we say:

News! News! Jesus Christ is born today!

Ox and ass before Him bow,

And He is in the manger now:

Christ is born today!

Christ is born today!

2. Good Christian men, rejoice

With heart and soul and voice;

Now ye hear of endless bliss:

Joy! Joy! Jesus Christ was born for this!

He has opened heaven’s door,

And man is blessed for evermore;

Christ was born for this!

Christ was born for this!

3. Good Christian men, rejoice

With heart and soul and voice;

Now ye need not fear the grave:

Peace! Peace! Jesus Christ was born to save!

Calls you one and calls you all

To gain His everlasting hall:

Christ was born to save!

Christ was born to save!

[Tune “In Dulce Jubilo”]

*

1. I heard the bells on Christmas day

Their old familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet the words repeat

Of peace on earth, goodwill to men.

2. I thought how, as the day had come,

The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along th'unbroken song

Of peace on earth, goodwill to men.

3. And in despair I bowed my head:

“There is no peace on earth,”I said,

“For hate is strong and mocks the song

Of peace on earth, goodwill to men.”

4. Yet pealed the bells more loud and deep:

“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,

With peace on earth, goodwill to men.”

5. Then ringing, singing on its way,

The world revolved from night to day–

A voice, a chime, a chant sublime

Of peace on earth, goodwill to men.

[Tune “Waltham”]

*

1. It came upon the midnight clear,

That glorious song of old,

From angels bending near the earth

To touch their harps of gold:

“Peace on the earth, good will to men,

From heav’n’s all-gracious King!”

The world in solemn stillness lay

To hear the angels sing.

2. Still through the cloven skies they come

With peaceful wings unfurled,

And still their heav’nly music floats

O’er all the weary world:

Above its sad and lowly plains

They bend on hov’ring wing,

And ever o’er its Babel sounds

The blessed angels sing.

3. And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,

Whose forms are bending low,

Who toil along the climbing way

With painful steps and slow,

Look now! For glad and golden hours

Come swiftly on the wing:

O rest beside the weary road

And hear the angels sing.

4. For lo, the days are hast’ning on,

By prophets seen of old,

When with the ever-circling years

Shall come the time foretold,

When peace shall over all the earth

Its ancient splendours fling,

And all the world give back the song

Which now the angels sing.

[Tune “Carol”]

___________________

Oliver Wendell Holmes once declared this hymn to be “one of the finest and most beautiful ever written.” Sears, a retiring young Unitarian minister from Massachusetts, was dismayed by such public praise, saying he preferred to lead a quiet life in some half-forgotten parish. The poem was first published in 1849 in a church magazine and was adapted the following year to a tune composed by Richard Storrs Willis. Willis, by that time an eminent editor and critic for the New York Tribune, had studied music in Europe as a young man, with, among others, Felix Mendelssohn, who so much admired Willis’ work that he arranged some of it for orchestra.

Reader’s Digest Canada web-site - December 19, 2001

1. While by our sheep we watched at night,

Glad tidings brought an angel bright:

Chorus

How great our joy!

Great our joy!

Joy, joy, joy!

Joy, joy, joy!

Praise we the Lord in heav'n on high!

Praise we the Lord in heav'n on high!

2. There shall be born so he did say,

In Bethlehem a Child today:

3. There shall the Child lie in a stall,

This Child who shall redeem us all:

4. This gift of God we'll cherish well —

Jesus, our Lord Emmanuel:

*

Love was when God became a man

Locked in time and space without rank or place;

Love was God born of Jewish kin,

Just a carpenter with some fishermen.

Love was when Jesus walked in history —

Lovingly He brought a new life that’s free;

Love was God nailed to bleed and die

To reach and love one such as I.

Love was when God became a man

Down where I could see love that reached to me;

Love was God dying for my sin —

And so trapped was I my whole world caved in.

Love was when Jesus rose to walk with me —

Lovingly He brought a new life that’s free;

Love was God — only He would try

To reach and love one such as I.

*

1. One day when heaven was filled with His praises,

One day when sin was a black as could be,

Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin,

Dwelt among men – my Example is He!

Chorus

Living – He loved me, dying He saved me,

Buried – He carried my sins far away;

Rising – He justified freely, forever:

One day He's coming – O glorious day!

2. One day they led him up Calvary's mountain,

One day they nailed Him to die on the tree;

Suffering anguish, despised and rejected

Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He!

3. One day, they left Him alone in the garden,

One day He rested, from suffering free;

Angels came down o’er His tomb to keep vigil–

Hope of the hopeless, my Saviour is He!

4. One day the grave could conceal Him no longer,

One day the stone rolled away from the door;

Then He arose, over death He had conquered,

Now is ascended, my Lord evermore!

5. One day the trumpet will sound for His coming,

One day the skies with His glory will shine;

Wonderful day, my beloved ones bringing!

Glorious Saviour, this Jesus is mine!

*

”Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called [to be] an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, [and] declared [to be] the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” (Romans 1:1-4 NKJV)

The Preacher and His Theme

• Paul — see introduction

• [bond]servant — Gk., bondsman

• called…Apostle — 2 Tim 1:11, Acts 26:17-18, Eph 3:7, Rom 15:16 — “a called Apostle.” (Macknight) “A commissioned Apostle;” (Dr. C. J. Vaughan) “specially called.” (Alford)

• separated — Gal 1:15 — “set apart and dedicated.” (Wordsworth)

• unto…Gospel — the advocacy of which, by tongue and pen, the great aim, henceforth, of his life

• of God — 1 Tim 1:11 — from whom it is a message of reconciliation

• which…Scriptures — Gal 3:8, 2 Pet 1:21, Rom 3:21, 16:26 — which Gospel

• concerning…flesh— John 1:14, Gal 4:4, Matt 1:6, 16 — salvation by Christ the great subject of the Gospel.

• declared — Gk., defined.

• Son…God — Luke 1:32, 1 Tim 3:16, Matt 3:17, 16:16-17, 1 Jn 4:14-15 — God manifest in the flesh

• power — miraculous power (Locke), strength of evidence by which He was proved to be the Son of God (Macknight)

• Spirit…holiness — Rom 8:10-11 — the Holy Spirit that dwelt in Christ

• by…dead — Acts 13:33 — the one decisive sign of His Sonship (Dr. Vaughan)

The true preacher and his great theme — U. R. Thomas

I. The true preacher:

1. His spirit;

2. His preparation;

3. His aim:

(1) From God;

(2) For all men.

II. His great theme. Great, because of

1. Its author;

2. The method of its fore-announcement;

3. Its subject — Christ :

(1) His position in regard to us;

(2) His exalted human ancestry;

(3) His relationship to God.

The author of this Epistle described — W. Burkitt

I. By his name — Paul.

II. By his general office — a servant of Jesus Christ.

III. By his particular office — called to be an Apostle.

The inspired penman. — We must picture to ourselves, in reading this profound Epistle to the Romans, a man full of thought, his hands, perhaps, occupied at the moment in stitching at the tent-cloth, dictating one clause at a time to the obscure Tertius beside him, stopping only to give time for the writing, never looking it over, never, perhaps, hearing it read over, at last taking the style into his hand to add the last few words of affectionate benediction — and when we keep all this in mind, we shall cease to wonder if in one place we find kauchomethoi where we should expect kauchometha, and in another stumble upon a superfluous w[omega–iota subscript] which brings ruin into the flow of a magnificent closing doxology. — Dr Vaughan

Apostolical succession:– Impossible — Apostolical succession is no more possible as a law for the Church than an equivalent theory would be in the world of art. Think of trying to institute in such a way the right and the gift of teaching beauty! Think of an hierarchical pretension in the artistic world, claiming that only the students upon whom Raffaelle, or Michael Angelo, or Murillo, or Rubens, or Reynolds, or West, or Turner, or Allston, had laid his hand’s, were rightfully consecrated and equipped to paint, and to educate the taste of men! By all means have, studies, and studios, and thorough intercourse with the masterpieces of ages. But leave room for genius — its freedom, its new, methods, and its fire. And do not try to conduct the potent and volatile essence of inspiration, which flows only from the laying-on of God’s hand, along the fixed methods of any confederation. — T. S. King

“Christ acknowledges ‘the Law and the Prophets,’ as the two connecting parts of the existing moral revelation, which He ‘came not to destroy,’ but ‘to complete’ and establish for ever.” — Davison

Oh the humanity!

Consider for a second. Did you take that opening phrase to be an exultation or a lamentation? Was its tone exuberant or sorrowful?

If you are a Christian, like me, I suspect you took the phrase as a lamentation. If so, it's not surprising. We think immediately of the Fall, of the marring of the image of God, and the ensuing wayward humanity. And of course, human history and our human experience probably accord with this negative sentiment. Thus it seems reasonable that such a negative tendency in viewing humanity would arise.

Such a tendency, though, forgets another Christian teaching. Christ is fully human; He became one of us. And it is not just that He became one of us, it is also what He accomplished as one of us. John Owen, that great Puritan theologian, said this well:

[God's purpose is that Christ] might be the pattern and example

of renovation of the image of God in us, and the glory that doth

ensue thereon. [Christ] is in the eye of God as the idea of what

He intends in us. [1]

So in Christ's humanity we have the pattern and intention of God for our humanity. We are not only saved from fiery pits in the hereafter, but we are saved from our sinful flesh in the here and now. Christ is the exemplar of the restored image of God in humanity. He is the second and better Adam. And just as through the first Adam we came to be marred, we are, through the second Adam, to be restored to fullness in our humanity. That is “the glory that doth ensue thereon.” The glory is a human properly imaging God here on this Earth; that is, a human being like God. That is glorious.

Of course, I do not mean “like God” in that we become omnipotent or some such else. But we become like Christ, the Son of God. On this earth He lived a glorious life that the Father said pleased Him well. That life, here on earth, in spirit and in truth, is God's intention for us. And we gain it through a consistent and intentional faith in Christ and His Way.

This Gospel truth ought to figure into how we think about our humanity. If it doesn't, the Gospel can become merely an escape raft for the afterlife. That is an impoverished Gospel. Indeed, when the glories of the abundant life, the Way, the New Man, our available, having only eyes for the afterlife is blindness.

Oh the humanity! Oh how beautiful Christ's humanity!

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1. As quoted by Alan Spence in Persons Divine and Human, ed. Christopher Schwobel and Colin Gunton (Edinburgh, Scotland: T & T Clark, 1991), p. 84.

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Copyright © 2003 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

The word “iconoclast” originally meant someone who destroys religious images. Iconoclasm reached its height in the eighth and ninth centuries when religious icons were highly controversial; the practice also became commonplace following the Reformation. In recent centuries, however, the word “iconoclast” has come to connote one who destroys ideas. Any person who displays revolutionary or countercultural thinking is liable to be labeled an iconoclast.

In July of 1960, C. S. Lewis watched his wife die of cancer. A year later, Lewis, under a pseudonym, published an account of his struggles with grief. The book A GRIEF OBSERVED (which quickly came to be recognized as Lewis's own work) is a raw and heart-wrenching monologue. In it, Lewis expresses the feeling that God is ruthlessly destroying any of Lewis's preconceived notions of who God should be. Lewis recognizes that his own idea of God had become a “graven image,” one that he himself fashioned and expected to remain motionless. He writes,

Images, I must suppose, have their use or they would not have

been so popular. (It makes little difference whether they are

pictures or statues outside the mind or imaginative constructions

within it.) To me, however, their danger is more obvious.

Images of the Holy easily become holy images - sacrosanct. My idea

of God is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered time after

time. He shatters it himself. He is the great iconoclast.

Could we not almost say that this shattering is one of the marks

of his presence? The incarnation is the supreme example; it

leaves all previous ideas of the Messiah in ruins. And most are

'offended' by the iconoclasm; and blessed are those who are not.[1]

It is inescapable that we will latch onto images of God; in fact, that is the way our finite minds work when attempting to grasp the infinite. Our view of God is often heavily influenced by our parents and role models. It may also be influenced by the advantages or disadvantages we have had, as well as every other significant life experience.

One's idea of God is always changing. God himself does not change but remains the same yesterday, today, and forever. In contrast, the believer's idea of God always falls short of the truth and must be continually toppled with the aim that it be rebuilt and come closer to the truth. As Lewis discovered, pain is frequently the instrument God uses to remind us that our “idea of God is not a divine idea.”

Has your pain shattered your view of God? It requires desperate faith, such as the faith Lewis demonstrated, to believe that God has not departed and left us in pain, but is instead refashioning our impressions of who He is. God does not shatter our ideas of Him gleefully as a spoiled child ruining another's sand castle. Instead, he lovingly wrenches from us the false gods we cling to so that we can have the real thing. Scottish theologian Samuel Rutherford was known to remark that when cast into the cellars of affliction, he was reminded that this is where the great King keeps his wine.[2] The redeeming purpose of suffering in life is that it may send us into the arms of our maker.

Do you want to know God as He is, or as you would like Him to be? I have a hard time honestly answering that question. I find myself clinging to the idea that God will make me always comfortable because He doesn't want me to feel pain. I might as well think that water was created to fill swimming pools, and has nothing to do with quenching my thirst or washing me clean.

____________

1. A Grief Observed (Faber and Faber, 1964).

2. Quoted by John Piper in Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 1996), p. 222.

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Copyright © 2003 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

“but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, [and] coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to [the point of] death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:7-8 NKJV)

Humility of Christ

• but…reputation — Isa 53:3 — emptied, or stripped Himself

• and…servant[bondservant] — Matt 20:28, Luke 22:27, John 6:38 — by taking the form of a servant; a servant’s condition and labour

• likeness — Heb 2:14, 17, 4:15 — He was no mere man

• fashion[appearance] — outward appearance, mode of life

• he…himself — 2 Cor 8:9 — still further in the course and conclusion of His life on earth

• death — John 10:17-18 — even unto death

• even…cross — Gal 3:13, Heb 12:2 — yea, death on the cross

Christ humbled — Flavel

I. In His incarnation — the Ruler of all brought to the state of a creature – to the state of an inferior creature, a man not an angel — at a time when this state was stained by sin-to be scorned by men — put at a distance from His Father, and the joys of heaven-born on earth of obscure parents.

II. In His life-persecution in His infancy-born in a stablepoverty in worldly things –tempted of Satan — ungratefully received by the world.

III. In His death — the death of the oross — a malefactor’s death.

Humility not contemptible — Humility did not make John the Baptist contemptible; but when he refused the name of a prophet, Christ saith that he was more than a prophet. Humility did not make Moses contemptible; but as he was the mildest man upon earth, so he was the greatest upon earth. Humility did not make David contemptible; but when he humbled himself he said unto Michal, “I will be more humble yet, and lowly in mine own sight, yet thou and thy maids shall honour me.” As Christ ceased not to be a King because He was like a servant, nor to be a Lion because He was a Lamb, nor to be a God because He was made man, nor to be a Judge, because He was judged; so man doth not lose his honour by humility; but he shall be honoured for his humility, as the son was honoured when he was humbled (Luke 15:18-25). Thus humility path found that which pride sought; like little David, which was least accounted of, and yet got the victory, yea, when no man durst encounter with the giant (1 Sam. 17:28). — H. Smith

“Humility, that low, sweet root, From which all heavenly virtues shoot.” — Moore

“Modest humility is beauty’s crown, for the beautiful is a hidden thing, and shrinks from its own power.” — Schiller.

The more prosperity a man enjoys, the more humility God enjoins.

Luke 2:40–52 — Jesus’ Early Life « Leader information shown in this fashion »

A. We left the story of the Life of Jesus last week on the subject, “The Trip to Jerusalem Complete” — 39 So when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth.

1. and noted that Luke’s history does not cover the coming of the Magi and the flight into Egypt as is recorded in Matthew 2:1-23

a. it is most likely that those events fall in the middle of this verse, since

(A) the information given to the Magi was that the King was to be born in Bethlehem, and,

(B) it was thither that the Magi were sent by Herod, with Mary and Joseph living in a house in that town

b. an alternative interpretation is that the Magi followed the star, not to Bethlehem, but to Nazareth whither Mary and Joseph had now returned; this is less likely

(A) since Herod’s slaughter of the innocents was confined to Bethlehem and district, there would have been no need for the flight into Egypt, and,

(B) since, a flight from Nazareth into Egypt would have taken them back through the heart of Herod’s domain and hence the most dangerous district

c. however, we cannot be certain as to either the timing or place of these events.

2. but before leaving the subject, Read Matthew 2:12–14. What do we discover about the nature of Jesus?

a. « Luke portrays Jesus as the Son of Man; as perfect Man he nevertheless follows the pattern planned at man’s creation, that of a helpless baby dependent upon his parents »

b. « as the Son of God, He does not exercise His divine powers which He has set aside throughout His life (v. Philippians 2) and His delivery is accomplished external to Himself »

c. « and as God the Son, even from the moment of incarnation, He was involved in the continuing battle with Satan »

3. the fact that Jesus is really, really, really, really, really God, and that Jesus is really, really, really, really, really man, is of paramount importance to every believer; why?

a.

b.

B. the Childhood of Jesus — 40 And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.

41 His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. 42 And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast. 43 When they had finished the days, as they returned, the Boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem. And Joseph and His mother did not know it; 44 but supposing Him to have been in the company, they went a day’s journey, and sought Him among their relatives and acquaintances. 45 So when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking Him. 46 Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. 48 So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.” 49 And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” 50 But they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them. 51 Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart.

52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men. Luke 2:40-52 (NKJV)

1. We know nothing about the childhood of Jesus apart from what Luke tells us in this story. There are apocryphal stories of this time in His life, including tales of miracles that He did. However, all such tales are unworthy of belief. What does John 2:11 tell us on this subject? « — it gives the particulars of Jesus’ first miracle »

2. this story is introduced and concluded by similar statements. (In your Bible you may find the paragraphs different.)

a. what do we learn about the boy Jesus in these verses?

(A) « “in wisdom and stature” tells of the normal and special maturing of the child Jesus. J. B. Philips translates the first part of verse 52 as “… grew in body and mind … “ which is not a bad paraphrase, at least for that part of it. »

(B) « John Gill comments on “became strong in spirit,” saying, “or in his soul; for as he had a true body, he had also a reasonable soul; the faculties of which were far from being weak, they were exceeding strong, and appeared stronger and stronger every day; his understanding was clear, his judgment solid, and his memory strong and retentive, his will, and the desires of it, were to that which is good, and his affections cleaved unto it.” »

(C) « the word “grace” in verse 40, and “favour” in verse 52 are the same (cariv); it would be wrong to use the usual simplistic explanation of “grace” as “unmerited favour” in this instance; it is the manifest approval of God in accordance with what He showed to Adam and Eve prior to the Fall »

b. Consider the following references:

(A) 1 Samuel 2:26; who manifested the same development?

(B) Proverbs 3:1–4; what is the source of these? Would this have been true of Jesus? How much? Can they be true of us? How much?

3. At thirteen, a Jewish boy became “bar mitzvah” or “son of the commandment” and full member of the synagogue (Mishnah, Aboth 5:21, Niddah 5:6); he might take part in prior years as a preparation (Mishnah, Yoma 8:4) « Mishnah references from “Luke” by Leon Morris, The Tyndale New Testament Commentarires » . Hence Jesus at 12 did here.

4. This was our homework! In this story, verses 41 to 51, in what ways fo you find the two natures of Jesus revealing themselves?

a.

b.

c.

d.

e.

f.

C. The passage next week is Luke 3:1–20, “John Prepares the Way.” This is a résumé of John’s ministry. Identify the various groups and individuals involved, noting the response of each to John’s message.

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,

And with fear and trembling stand;

Ponder nothing earthly minded —

For with blessing in His hand

Christ our God to earth descendeth,

Our full homage to demand.

[Tune “Picardy”]

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