Scripture: John1:1-5, 14; 1 John 4:1-3; Isaiah 9:5-7; Isaiah 11:1-5; Hebrews 2:14-17
Today begins our season of Advent – the 4 weeks in which
we begin preparations to celebrate the birth of our Savior. However, the preparations that we will be
focusing on are not like the glitter and decorations for the secular version of
Christmas, but rather on the spiritual significance and heavenly focus within
our hearts and minds – those attitudes and beliefs that bring glory to the
Father.
And while we always do have some decorations in the
church for this time of year, they should always be seen as a reflection of the
light and glory of Jesus Christ. And in
that regard, our messages during these weeks will also be considering a few of the
aspects of God that will be shown to the world through the coming of the Babe
of Bethlehem.
Today, we consider what the human side of our LORD Jesus
should mean in our celebration. After
all, He is God, who, as the Nicene Creed reminds us, is the “maker … of all
that is, seen and unseen.” So why would
He ever desire to leave His glory to become part of the created order that He
set in place? He didn’t just come to visit
us – He came to be one with us!
Our story of Jesus today begins in John’s gospel, with a
proclamation of both His Godliness and His humanity.
Read John 1:1-5, 14
The opening to John’s gospel
is unique in that it begins with Jesus’ divinity that has been since the
beginning. The other three gospels all
begin with humanity – Matthew begins with Jesus’ human genealogy (Matthew 1),
and only briefly mentions the birth; Mark and Luke begin with events
surrounding John the Baptist’s birth and ministry, and Luke doesn’t get to the birthnarrative until his second chapter!
Of course, even John gives
the Baptist a brief mention, but he quickly gets back to Jesus, where beginning
in verse 9, he describes the overall reason for Jesus’s coming –which is
to bring the “light” of God into the world, and to enable all who believe in
Him the privilege of being a child of God.
Light, or Godly Truth, and
salvation – the coming of Jesus, divine and human, was all about you and
me. No longer would we have any reason to
feel that God had abandoned us, or that God didn’t care about our lives, or
that He was a God of vengeance. In
Christ Jesus, God becomes life, love, hope, and presence once again.
Read 1 John 4:1-3
Just as the gospel implies,
not everyone would come to believe and trust in Jesus – not in His divinity,
and certainly not in His humanity. John writes
that this world, while it is the LORD’s creation and His to do with as He pleases, there
are other powers at work throughout the created order. False prophets are being guided by other spirits,
and while they both may be proclaiming that they have the new truth, their
words and ways have nothing to do with God’s light and truth that is given for
us.
And in this, the concept of
the antichrist is introduced. Satan has
always wanted to be seen as the equivalent of God, and now we see that he is a
copycat! God has a Son at work in the
world, so Satan wants to have the same.
The difference is that the Son of God is at work on our behalf, and for our
benefit, while antichrist is at work for his father, as well as himself, and
for the benefit of no one else!
Even though Satan, his son antichrist,
their demons, and all of their false prophets know who Jesus is, they can never
acknowledge that the One and True God has come to earth, in human form, to be
the Savior of all who will acknowledge Him!
Read Isaiah 9:5-7
And just in case someone
thinks that Christ Jesus, the Incarnate God, was an afterthought in the LORD’s
plans, the prophet Isaiah proclaimed His coming some 7 centuries before the LORD’s
birth. This passage (9:1-7) is a
hymn of thanksgiving, and is proclaiming the hope and promise of Jesus. The chapter begins by saying that the
darkness of the world will be destroyed by “a great light” that will flood the
earth, that believers will greatly increase in number, and joy will abound in
all.
The passage then picks up in
the reading that we just shared, with the source of that light, the growth in
faith, and the flood of joy – that it all will be through the birth of a
child. And this child will have the
wisdom, the insight, and the compassion to explain all that the promised light
will reveal. And the best of all, there
will be no limit, there will be no end to all that He will bring to our lives,
and His presence and leadership will be for us, for all time.
And it will be the passion
and the love of the LORD God Almighty Himself that will accomplish it.
Read Isaiah 11:1-5
This is a proclamation of the
ascendency of a new king, one who will be in the line of King David, the son
of Jesse. Israel saw this prophecy as
one regarding the coming of Messiah. He
would be anointed by the Spirit of God, and would be filled with wisdom, and
understanding, and love of the LORD. He will have
the authority to judge, but it won’t be in the standard, human way – it will be
perfect and right in all matters. The
poor will be vindicated, and the wicked will be held accountable for all they
do in opposition to the Truth.
This ruler will not govern in
the normal way – as a descendent of David, He will be human, but He will not
use His human senses to know what is right and what is evil. His divine Person will guide Him, and will
never make a mistake.
Israel may have thought that
this proclaimed Messiah, the Anointed One of God, was coming as a great and
powerful warrior, but we know that it was to be a far greater Person, not only
as an anointed one of God, not as a warrior king, but as God Himself – born as
a human, and divine in nature.
Read Hebrews 2:14-17
This second chapter of Hebrews (Hebrews 2) is, essentially, about the salvation that
Jesus brings, and how many have come to know His salvation by faith in both His
life, as well as the death He suffered for all.
And in our reading, we discover that the humanity of Jesus was necessary
for one reason – that we sin in our flesh and blood, so the LORD
also had to be of perfect flesh and blood so that He could experience death
– a human death, a penalty and sacrifice acceptable to God, that we might be
freed from our sin and forgiven from the penalty of death that the judgment
over our sin requires.
This is what atonement is all about, but more on
that next week. But suffice it to say
that everything that Jesus was willing to give up for us comes because of His choice
to live a flesh and blood existence, that we might come to know God in a truthful and loving way. He surrendered honor and glory to receive the
world’s hatred and condemnation. He
surrendered majesty to become humble and lowly.
He surrendered Godly power and authority to become subject to human power
and ways. He temporarily surrendered eternal
life to allow human death to hold Him in its grasp for 3 days.
But the life of flesh and blood in Christ proves the
love of God for all who will trust and follow in the life and way that the Babe
of Bethlehem offers to all who will believe. Do you believe? If not, will you today?
