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This page was last updated 02/18/10

Week Of:   December 6, 2009

Title:    Preparing the Way for Christmas

Series:  Christmas – Part 1       

Scripture:   Luke 3:1-6

1.                  I trust that everyone is prepared for Christmas or at least is preparing for Christmas.  We’ve got our houses decorated.  Are your trees up and your presents bought? Maybe most of them but not all…

2.                  Anyway you’re preparing for Christmas, right?  Yes but are you preparing for the Lord? Our world wants us to prepare for Christmas by opening our pocketbooks, and really from what I understand many businesses would go under if not for the Christmas holidays.  Yet while the world is preparing for a financial holiday, Christians should be preparing for a holy day.

3.                   Now the preparation can be seen in some of the ways the world does things.  For example, we can prepare the decoration of our homes with the Savior in mind, rather than for the neighbors in mind.  No matter what we do in life it is awful easy for us to get caught up in impressing other people instead of impressing God. 

4.                  So as you decorate your homes, you might want to ask why do you do what you do and most importantly, how can your home be more impressive to God than people driving by that you may or may not even know?

5.                    In addition doing our part to help out a struggling economy is great, but like all things, we often get too carried away.  I just thought yesterday about all the people that spend their way in debt during Christmas and don’t get out until the next Christmas or beyond.

6.                  And really, it is great to give and to have a giving spirit, but how many of us give gifts only to someone who can or will give them back, instead of giving to someone something who cannot give back (children and grandchildren excluded)?

7.                  I guess the best thing that I know we do, is Operation Christmas Child.  For many people that might be the most Christ-like gift that they will give this Christmas.

8.                  And then if I remember correctly, birthdays in our culture are usually celebrated by giving gifts to the person having the birthday, not to guests that are attending the party.  We’ve somehow got that wrong.

9.                  But how do you give something to someone who literally has everything? How do you give a gift to someone who the Bible says has made and owns everything? Jesus spoke these words about that fact in Matthew 25: 34-46.  Please read.  Not a very Christmas-ie thought, is it?

10.              Yet isn’t there another way we can give to Jesus? Yes, you can give the gift that just keeps on giving?  Yourself, if it is given genuinely and faithfully, is such a gift!  Another might be what you have the least of!  A great armchair philosopher by the name of Winston Meade used to say: “People say they have more time than they have money, but how do they know they do?” You might have a dollar in your pocket, but not enough time to give it away or spend it. 

11.              Our dear friend Velma has spent the last couple of days pondering and asking herself, why she didn’t see Johnny’s illness coming.  His illness snuck up on her and Johnny!

12.              Life is too short and time is too precious no matter how long we have to live not to dedicate it to our Savior.  Ourselves represented by the time we have is the most precious gift we can give our Lord whether it is Christmas or not.  Yet, what do we declare is the busiest time of the year? Christmas!

13.              Yet what about preparing our minds?  Do you know next to the resurrection of Jesus what the most contested doctrine about Jesus is? The virgin birth!  Turn to Matthew 1:18-25 and read.

14.              We call the virgin birth—the virgin birth, but really that is not accurate for us as Protestants—for us non-Roman Catholic types.  As Baptists, we believe that Jesus was born as normal, theoretically as anyone else is born.  There was nothing special to the way in which Jesus was born—it was the way that He was conceived that is special.   Jesus was conceived not of man, but of the Holy Spirit (verse 18).  Now some of you might be thinking “what difference does it make how we refer to it?”

15.              That maybe true until you consider what our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters say they believe.  Some Roman Catholics believe that the virgin birth means that Jesus was not born in a normal fashion.    Instead, they believe that Jesus simply passed through the wall of Mary’s uterus—like a miraculous “C” section. They do this in part because some Roman Catholics want to perpetuate the virginity of Mary, that she had no son and daughters born to Joseph and Mary.  So when you say you believe in the virgin birth, that might mean something different to a Roman Catholic.

16.              Once we get our terminology right, what does the miraculous conception or virgin birth of Jesus Christ mean?  Does anyone know? 

17.              One thing is that the virgin birth is a reminder that our salvation is supernatural.  John says that those who believe and become children of God are born “not natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”  We are born of God and the virgin birth is a reminder that our Savior was conceived of supernatural means.

18.              Maybe Roman Catholics make too much of Mary, but chances are we don’t make enough about Her.  She certainly had characteristics that God could use, like faith and dedication to God, but in the final analysis she didn’t even have a husband.  Yet, God’s grace was supernaturally sufficient to bear God’s Son, so that we could freely and graciously become Children of God.

19.              The doctrine also says that Jesus was uniquely God given. He really was special in every way.

20.              Last, but not least, this is a reminder that “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

21.              Read Luke 3:4-6 again.

Week Of:   December 13, 2009

Title:   Do As I Do

Series:  Christmas – Part 2     

Scripture:   Matthew 1:18-25

1.                  Have you ever said “Don’t do as I do, but do as I say?”  Of course you have…and when we do, it doesn’t carry much weight does it?

2.                  I think all of us have certainly seen our share of people that seem to live according to that philosophy of life.  Over the last several weeks, we’ve seen that Tiger Woods has had his share of difficulty in living up to his squeaky clean, family man persona.

3.                  What really got me thinking about this sermon was a little experience I had last week.  I was traveling to Bristol and ran upon this minivan that had a bumper sticker that said, “Show your love, hang up, and drive.”  And under that it had a motorcycle and a young man’s picture on it.  Well, several things went through my mind, but I finally decide that it must have been a grieving mother who had lost her son due to person driving and talking on the phone.  Anyway I was feeling sorry for anyone who could have lost a child in a tragic way, and pulled over in the left lane to pass the person.  Sure enough it was a lady, but guess what this lady was doing?  She was talking on the cell phone! In fact, she was so busy talking on the phone that she didn’t even notice me horse laughing her.  And the longer she drove, the more funny it was to me…We must have driven two or three more miles, and she was still talking on the phone…and I was afraid we’d end up parking in the same parking lot, and I knew if she did I would have to say something to her.   So I begin to pray, Lord please let her go on…

4.                  Now don’t get me wrong…I have no doubt that I have my glaring moments of “don’t do as I do, but do as I say.”  But this really opened my eyes to how funny and tragic it must be to the world, when we as Christians practice this philosophy of life.

5.                  But yet our heavenly Father does exactly the opposite, “He practices what He preaches.”  Our heavenly Father is perfect, and everything he does somehow coincides with what He says. 

6.                  We may not always understand what He does…nor are we always told what He is up to, but there is a perfect, righteous and loving connection between what He thinks and what He does.  In other words, God always has mankind’s best interest in mind and seeks to do what He thinks.

7.                  However, He also allows natural and human evil in this world to give us the choice and freedom to sin because, with choices and responsibility, we grow as persons.   No choice, no consequences to bear with those choices, no maturity as human beings.  

8.                  So when God acts, He does so ultimately with His good will and intent in mind.  The most obvious is found in Genesis chapter one.  Repeatedly he speaks by saying “let there be…and in each instance there was.”

9.                  What God says and thinks is divided up in the things that have already come, to past done, what He is currently doing in the present, and what He shall be doing in the future.  It is wonderful to study what God has done before us, it is breathtaking to open our eyes to what He is doing around us, and it is beyond our imagination to understand what He will be doing in the future.  There is a wonderful, perfect correlation between what He thinks, says, and does.  And if anything goes wrong, it is only by His ultimate permission and our involvement with sin. May God’s will be done.

10.              Yet, the problem isn’t reality, but the perception of reality.  Yes, God only has the best of intentions toward His creation, especially His human creation. 

11.              He had only the best intentions when he wrote the 10 commandments and gave them to Moses.  The problem has always been convincing us that He has our best intentions in mind.  For example, most people don’t see the 10 commandments as something that was given for our betterment.  We only see it as something, at best, to make life harder and at worst, to take all the joy away from life.

12.              Many people just see God out to make their lives miserable.   And all those dos and don’ts that the Bible throws at them is just another example how God wants to take away all their fun.   Of course, what they don’t see is that God does not want to ruin their party and the good time, but simply protect us from ourselves and other people who are resentful, selfish, and who want to ruin everyone’s good time.  They don’t see that without the 10 commandments the society as we know it would collapse around our heads.

13.              But the problem is that we are just too sinful and thickheaded to see what is best for ourselves, our family, and our world.   We think that we know what is more important and better for us than God does.

14.              So how does God get through our sinful thickheads and open our eyes to the reality of His good thoughts and good actions?  How does He show us the wisdom of what is right and good?

15.              He tells us what He wants, but how does He get us to see?  He draws us a picture.  He draws us a living breathing picture to show us what He wants us to be like.  The picture is the life of Jesus Christ.  A baby lying in a manger to start out for sure, but more than just that. 

16.              In fact, our world just doesn’t seem to see Jesus much past a little baby lying in a manager.   In fact, many of us complain about the world not seeing the true meaning of Christmas, and that is true, but that’s not the real problem.  Many don’t see Him as being Lord and Master of their lives.  Jesus ceases to be simply a cute little baby when we bow down on our knees to the Lord and Master of the Universe.

17.              Verse 23 of our scripture says that “they will call Him “Immanuel” meaning “God with us.”  The miracle of Christmas is that the God of the Universe—the God that is incredibly infinite, beyond our wildest imagination became flesh and dwelt among moral and finite human beings.  He became one of us, and was with us.

18.              So you might say that God drew a picture for us.  He had been trying to show us what He was about and what He wanted us to become.  So He drew us a picture of Himself in the flesh and walked among us.

Week Of:  Week of December 20, 2009

Church closed due to weather.

Week Of:  Week of December 27, 2009

Title:   Who is Jesus Christ

Series:    Systematic Theology – Part 13   

Scripture:   Luke 2:39-52

1.                    We have just celebrated Christmas.  To which I hope everyone had a good holiday.  But when we talk about Jesus Christ the new born being, what kind of being are we talking about?

2.                  One thing is certain, He was and is more than just an ordinary person.  He has to be the most unique being ever existed because Jesus is God.  Unique because, how can Jesus be God and yet a human being at the same time?

3.                  In fact, the Christian doctrine of incarnation says that Jesus the Christ was fully God, and fully man in one person, and will be so forever.

4.                  However, I am sorry to say that the exact nature of Jesus the Christ has not been one that the Church has always agreed on.  Some early Christians really emphasized the humanity of Jesus… wanting to say that Jesus was flesh and blood and only became God at His death and resurrection.  Others just thought of Jesus as being spiritual and God in nature, saying that Jesus may have looked like he was flesh and blood but really He was spirit.

5.                  In our scripture passage, Luke wanted to emphasize that Jesus was human flesh and blood, not a ghost-like spiritual deity, because in talking about Jesus it reads “And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.”  In addition, verse 52 says “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in the favor with God and man.” 

6.                  In the Gospel of John, we find these striking words about Jesus that said “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word (Jesus) was God.”

7.                  And what became the Christian norm of course was that Jesus was both God and human. 

8.                  Yet to that exact understanding, and what that understanding meant was not worked out until 325 A.D.
 

9.                  Can you imagine that, up to the 4^th century, there was no general agreement upon the nature of Jesus Christ?  It was not until at a meeting later called the Council of Nicaea, Christians from all over the Roman Empire hammered out such basic doctrines as who the Jesus was.

10.              They finally agreed that He was fully human and fully divine; not one or the other, not half and half, but fully human and fully God—one hundred percent God and one hundred percent man.

11.              Why 100 percent God and 100 percent man?  Why not 50-50? But then which part is human and which part is God?  No, Jesus was fully human in every respect and fully God in every respect except with some minor qualifications.  

12.              What qualifications did we see with his humanity?  He was the very best of what it was to be human.  He did not sin!  Hebrews 4:15 says “…but One who has been tested in every way we are, yet without sin.”

13.              How about qualifications with His deity?  Limitations you might say!  In the flesh as Jesus the eternal Logos, could not be as God the Father was and is beyond time and of course everywhere at once. 

14.              And Jesus himself said that He was limited in His knowledge.  Mark 13: 32 says, about His return, “But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

15.              So the early church wrestled with all of these scriptures and more and finally said, “look we know it might sound rather mysterious but let’s say Jesus is 100 percent man and of course 100 percent God and not try to decide which is which.” 

16.              Of course most Christians today just see Jesus as human only in the flesh and blood aspects of His existence and divine in His mental and emotional aspects of His existence.  Other words, God did a divine brain transplant with a human being to come up with Jesus.

17.              But yet if we really think about it, we’ve got to believe that Jesus was more than that.  We believe He is both God and Human through and through.   Both in His body and in His spirit and mind.  Now if you don’t understand that I don’t blame you because I don’t either.   The early church fathers were smart enough not to try to fully explain what they meant, but simply to state it as clearly as they could.

18.              One person who did that very well was a man by the name of Gregory of Naziansen who was at the second ecumenical council in Constantinople in 381.  He said this about Jesus: “Remaining what he was, he assumed what he was not.”  Repeat that with me.  What does that mean?  “Remaining what he was” that is remaining God, unchangeable, impassable, eternal—he took up what he was not.  Namely his humanity with certain limitations, mortality, changeability, the ability to die. 

19.              It is a beautiful way to describe what the eternal Logos did for us.  He remained God, but then He took up humanity in all its frailty.

20.              When you begin to ponder these things then it gives new meaning to John 3:16 “for God so loved the world that he gave He only begotten son and whosoever believes in Him shall have eternal life.”