Christmas 2017 – The theme for my Christmas sermons is the Character of Christmas. I will be using Isaiah 9:6-7 as my text. In these two verses we find the descriptive nature of Jesus Christ. There is something about His name – Phil 2:5-11; we know that His name is the name above all names. He earned His name, through obedience to the Father in Heaven in all things. It was the plan of the God-head to send The Son into the world in the form of man. While Jesus is completely human in all aspects like us; he retrained His deity. The Son never ceased to be God. Some would hold that Jesus didn’t “get” his divinity until He was baptized; I am not of that opinion. I would agree that His baptism – anointed Him for His Earthly ministry. Jesus is the earthly name given the Son of God; Christ is His title and Savior is His work.
In Isaiah 9:6-7 we find these names: Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God; Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. These names [titles] are descriptive of the work Christ will accomplish. When we look at the book of Isaiah itself we find a context of religion and society that is very similar to our own in 2017. There was great corruption both in the Church and in politics. The prophet Isaiah ministered during the reigns of four kings. The fifth king is to be believed to have sawed Isaiah in two pieces. There were both national and international worries. The great Assyrian armies to the North were gaining power, while Israel [Northern Kingdom] and Samaria were crumbling. Isaiah lived from 730BC – 660 BC approx. His ministry was to restore the nation back to God. In 722 BC Samaria already fallen, is joined by Israel. The Promise of a deliverer – the Messiah had already been prophesied. Yet still there seemed to be no answer or relief. In fact the situation would get worse; much worse before it got better. In ever imaginable aspect the people and nation were in crisis. The same could be said for America. Just when I think I have heard the most absurd atrocity, someone exceeds my imagination. The people and prophets were looking for an answer, but the answer did not come as they hoped. The book of Isaiah is about the promise of hope in the midst of God’s judgment of His people. In our own land, I find that many Christians are hoping for some “relief” answer so they will not have to be subjected to the holiness and righteousness of God. News flash, if God did not spare His elect Israel from punishment and captivity, why would we think we should escape?
In our time, I find we are in much the same situation. The Church/Christians have failed – not all but as a whole from obeying God’s word. The church has sought comfort and ease when it should have been loudly objecting to the immorality of our land. There are 1000 churches that will close this year. They will close because the members would rather die that become repentant toward God for their apathetic living out of the gospel. Jeremiah preached to Judah, yet Judah refused to listen; ultimately they were led away into captivity. In our American churches we have turned a deaf ear to “what the Spirit speaks to the churches.”
Just as there was an answer for Israel, albeit 700 years later; there will be an answer for our world also. There was hope of a Savior, yet when the Savior came, Israel rejected Him. It was through their rejection that the Gentiles [me] got access to the Gospel. Israel had the prophets, the prophecies and the Promise in their day and missed Jesus. We have history, archeological data and the preserved Word of God; yet we reject Jesus much like Israel did.
The last part of Isaiah 9:7 says “on the throne of David and over His kingdom; to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness.” Jesus came bringing salvation, for man was already in crisis of sin – doomed to eternity in Hell, separated from God. But Jesus came and is coming again – He is our Hope, the Light in the Darkness. The Answer – Jesus has come and is coming again!
Instead of looking for a Crisis Answer, let us look to Christ who is the Answer.
Incarnation of Christ
We all know the various prophecies that tell of Jesus’ birth in the Old Testament. These predictions come to fulfillment in the New Testament. There are many questions of how Mary could conceive a child without a man; the conception being through the Holy Spirit. When we try to imagine God putting on flesh like the very creation He, himself fashioned – well that becomes mind blowing. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, we beheld His glory as the Only Begotten Son, full of grace and Truth.” [John 1:14] In the beginning was the Word, The Word was in the beginning with God, and the Word was God. The incarnation is the revelation to Mankind of the presence of God in visible form. Jesus told His disciples “if you have seen Me, then you have seen the Father; I and the Father are One.” [John 14]
When I think of the story line of scripture, from Genesis with God making man from the dust of the earth and breathing into him the “breath of life, and man becoming a living soul, I am overwhelmed. When I think of the Fall in the garden of Eden and the devastation as a resulted, that even Creation cries out for restoration and reconciliation – it again is overwhelming. The Law of Moses given to try and reveal to harden mankind the failure and inability to be holy and to restore ourselves to the Only God – our creator, the situation seems hopeless.
Thinking through the past four and half years of blogging, the scripture reinforces the fact that only God can restore mankind back to Jehovah. No matter how holy or righteous we are in our behavior and attitudes, we will always fall short. Even today in churches across North America the clarion call is for “disciple making” instead of sharing the Gospel through evangelism. Men must be saved, not instructed on how to live better lives.
Jesus came because the Father in Heaven so loved us. Jesus came because it was the Trinity’s plan to do so. At the end of the Law there was not the restoration of mankind. Sin had not been dealt with, and mankind had become institutionalized by religious performance. The Pharisees and Sadducees in particular revealed the hypocrisy of performance oriented religion that makes us feel good about ourselves; yet does nothing to reconcile us to God.
Jesus came to show us the Father; He came to make the invisible, visible – Col 1. Jesus is the second Adam, for the first Adam, although created holy and innocent, rebelled and believed the lie of Satan, that man could live without God. Jesus, as the second Adam, revealed what mankind “could have been” had they lived in obedience to the Father.
Jesus was subjected to temptation and sin like as we all are, yet without sin. He [Jesus] came to be the vicarious atonement for all sin, the enmity that separated man from God would once and for all be dealt with, and the Accuser of the brethren – Father of lies would be dealt an eternal blow. Jesus came to deal with our sin, defeat Satan, and rose again for our justification – all by faith that the Father would be faithful to His own word. In the Birth of Jesus, a new era or day came. No longer would men be shackled by The Law requirements. Faith in Christ as the Anointed, Messiah to do for man, what man could never do for himself – to give life instead of death, to give hope in a hopeless situation. This Jesus born of a Virgin, lying in a cradle would change history forever, regardless of who sat on the thrones of kingdoms of earth. This Jesus would serve and be sacrificed as a Lamb before God, and God would be pleased – opening the pathway for all who would call upon Jesus as Savior and Lord to begin “New Life” being a “new Creation” having the Breath of Life breathed back into them. Oh, what a story of redemption!
Thank God for His amazing Love, Grace, Mercy and Hope – all because Yahweh acted on our behalf. The Plan of God is not complete, for this Jesus will return in like manner one day. Acts 1. Until then let us rejoice and live out that which is now living in us – Christ in You the Hope of Glory [Col 1:27]
Merry Christmas!
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Tagged as Breath of Life, christmas, incarnation, Jesus Christ, justification, reconcilation, restoration, second Adam, vicarious death