The Real Meaning of Christmas (Part 2)

SERMON        GMT14-023

SERIES:          Topical Messages:  Christmas

SETTING:        North Kelso Baptist Church

SERVICE:        Sunday AM (Dec 14, 2014)

SUBTITLE:    The Real Meaning of Christmas (Part 2)

SCRIPTURE:      Philippians 2:7c-8

SUBJECT:        God became a man

SUMMARY:    God became man in order to redeem his people from their sin.

SCHEME:    that believers appreciate the incarnation of Jesus Christ

_____________________________________________________________

Our theme is: God became a man

This is a good reminder for us all that as the Christmas season approaches with all of its frenzied excitement, we do not lose sight of the true or the real meaning of Christmas.

 Proposition:  God became man in order to redeem his people from their sin.

Interrogatory Sentence:  What does God want us to know about the incarnation of Jesus Christ?

Transitional Sentence: The passage before us identifies three (3) aspects of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. As we develop our theme we will clearly see the real meaning of Christmas.

The Real Meaning of Christmas is seen in:

1. The Person of the Incarnation         3.  The Prize of the Incarnation
2. The Purpose of the Incarnation   

The Real Meaning of Christmas

Philippians 2:7c-8

(Part 2)

REVIEW

Last week we looked at verse 6 and the first part of verse 7. The passage under of consideration deals with the humbling of Jesus Christ as He entered this world through the incarnation. It goes on to speak of the exaltation of Christ by God His father because he did humble himself. He humbled himself by the act of emptying himself of His glory.

Our theme was: God became a man

This was a good reminder for us all that as the Christmas season approaches with all of its frenzied excitement, that we do not lose sight of the true or the real meaning of Christmas.

 Proposition:  God became man in order to redeem the human race from sin.

Interrogatory Sentence:  We asked the question “What does God want us to know about the incarnation of Jesus Christ?”

Transitional Sentence: The passage before us identifies three (3) aspects of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. And so as we develop our theme we will clearly see the real meaning of Christmas.

The Real Meaning of Christmas is seen in:

1. The Person of the Incarnation    2.  The Purpose of the Incarnation
1. 3.  The Product of the Incarnation    

[Last time we saw the real meaning of Christmas as we looked at…] 

1A    THE PERSON OF THE INCARNATION (VSS 5-7b)

“…who, existing in the form of God…”

[As we looked at the person of the incarnation, we looked first at…]

1B    The Concept of the Incarnation (6)

[To help us understand the concept we looked at the fact that it was…]

1C    Stated in our text

We see this clearly in verse 7:

“…taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of  men…”

We examined this statement three different ways:

[First of all the concept can be stated…]

1D    Philosophically               

The idea of deity taking on various forms or expressions was    not new with the NT. Greek religion was filled with gods taking on various forms and even frequently changing forms. Legends  state gods were present in human form and magic, spiritual forces take on the appearance of human bodies.

[Secondly, the concept can be stated…]

2D    Judistically

In the OT the idea of God having a perceptible form was totally alien. They did not conceive of God as having an identifiable form. The Rabbis had a very clear sense that one could speak of the form of God only in a very figurative way.

[We then saw that this concept is supported in the NT, particularly in the gospels]

2C    Supported in our text

1D    “I and my Father are one.”     (John 10:30)

2D    “…though you do not believe me, believe the works that you          may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in                  him.” (John 10:38)

3D    “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father            in  me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my            own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the                works.”  (John 14:10)

4D    “And the glory which you gave me I have given them that              they  may be one just as We are one.” (John 14:22)

5D    “…without controversy great is the mystery of godliness;                 God was manifested in the flesh…  foranw - ”to make                  visible”  God was made visible in the person of Jesus Christ.

6D    “By this you know the Spirit of God; every spirit                               that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of             God, and every spirit that denies that Jesus Christ has come            in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of anti-                   Christ…”  (1 John 4:2-3)

7D    “…who being the brightness of His glory and he                               expressed  image of His person…” (Hebrews 1:3)

[Then secondly, we looked at…]

2B    The Character of the Incarnation (6b-7b)

“…did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of  no reputation taking the form of a bondservant…”

The concept which we just looked at dealt with the issue of the form that  Jesus had, his shape – the form or shape of God, Jesus had all the essential qualities of God.

The character centers on the issue of equality and the emptying of           Christ’s glory. Jesus considered himself to be equal to or with God, and He laid aside his heavenly glory in order to enter time and space as a man.

[So, let’s take a minute and examine…]

1C    The Equality of Christ

[I think it will help us to clearly see this equality if we first see it…]

1D    Identified

The word used here for robbery “uarpagmos” is used nowhere else in the NT. The verb form is used only a few times.

This word was not the common word for “being.” It describes    that which in any circumstance, remains the same. So Paul is    saying that Jesus was essentially and unalterably God.

According to this definition, it means something eagerly sought after or eagerly seized. What is the thing eagerly sought after?  Right, equality with God.

Jesus Christ is God! The real meaning of Christmas is that God in the incarnation became a man while remaining God in order to redeem sinful mankind.

2C    The Emptying of Christ

“…but made Himself of no reputation…”

1D    The Emptying kenwsis

The Greek word is kenow. It is from this word that we get the                     word kenwsis. Jesus became man in the incarnation emptied                     himself of several things.

He did not give up his omniscience, omnipotence, and                         omnipresence. He laid aside his glory but did not give up his                     deity. He set aside his glory as God for 33 years. He set aside                     and refused to use all of the power he possessed as God                         temporarily.

This word was used of removing things from a container, until                     the container was empty. Or the pouring out of something until                     nothing was left to pour.

Is it becoming a little more clearer? Are you getting the picture?                 The real meaning of Christmas is that God set aside His glory                     that depicted God as God and became a man in order to save                     His people from their sins.

This is unimaginable! It is unimaginable that God would do                     something such as emptying Himself of all of His eternal,                     majestic, and heavenly glory in order to take on the shape or                     form or characteristics of a human being.

If there is anything such as “Christmas” this is what Christmas                     is all about. We cannot forget nor pervert this tremendous truth.

So, the real meaning of Christmas is seen in the person of the incarnation. We now move to the next two points in our message where we see that the real meaning of Christmas is seen in…

TRUTH FOR TODAY

The Bible teaches that the pre-existent Christ became a man. The historical facts are recorded in the gospels, such as Matthew and Luke. Galatians tells us that God sent a Son who was born of a woman. Men have tried and tried to prove that Jesus was a myth or merely a good man.

James Orr wrote:  “the narratives of the nativity in Matthew and Luke are     undoubtedly genuine parts of their respective gospels…the chapters in question     (1 &2) are found in every manuscript and version of the gospels known to exist.”

We need to remember that there are some 8,000 Greek, Aramaic, and Latin     manuscripts. Most are very old or ancient and come from all parts of the eastern     world; some are Egyptian, some Syriac, and many are Latin.

So, if the incarnation is so important, a fair question would be why did Christ     empty Himself of His glory and enter this world through such a humbling means as     the incarnation? In other words what is the purpose of the incarnation? What did it     accomplish?

[There are at least seven (7) viable results that demonstrate:]

2A    THE PURPOSE OF THE INCARNATION (7c)

[Let’s see how many of these we can get to this morning. Let’s start with the first         purpose of the incarnation…]

1B    It was to Establish God’s promise

Christ Jesus, the second member of the Trinity or the Godhead became a             man in order to establish and confirm the promises that God had made to the         patriarchs and fathers throughout time and history.

[For example:]

1C    “Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the                     circumcision for the truth to confirm the promises made to fathers.”                 (Romans 15:8)

2C    “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between                 your seed and her seed, He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Gen 3:15)

3C    “Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His                 name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)

4C    “…Bethlehem Ephrathah, which art little to be among the thousands                 of Judah, out of thee shall one come forth unto me that is to rule in                 Israel…” (Micah 5:2)

God has a various times promised to send a Son into this world. The                 incarnation of Jesus establishes or confirms and fulfills those promises             of God. The Jews had been waiting for this promised Son for                     centuries.

So some extend because of the influence of the Jews, some Gentiles                 had been waiting for God to establish His promise. Tragically, they                 refused to recognize Him when He came.

[So, the first purpose of the incarnation was to establish the promises of God. The second purpose of the incarnation…]

2B    It was to Expose the Character of God as Father

In the OT, God was revealed primarily as the creator and governor of all             things. Christ makes known the father and exposes His character to those             who will listen and believe. Christ Jesus exposed or revealed the character of         God as a Father to the Jewish Nation.

This is truly astounding! The Jews knew what a good father consisted of,             and what a good father’s responsibilities, and what a good father was to do.             But Jesus came along and through the incarnation demonstrated the fact that             the Jews could actually look to the Sovereign Creator as their “Father.”

1C    “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten son, who is in                 the bosom of the father, has declared him.” (John 1:18)

2C    “Jesus says to him, “Have I been so long time with you and dost thou                 not know me Philip? He that hath seen me has seen the Father.” John                 14:9)

3C    If you read John 16-27 you will see that the Father loves His children,                 those who are His.

4C    Matthew 6:8 tells us that the Father knows our needs even before we                 know it and ask him – just like a good father he will meet our needs

5C    The Father will not withhold anything good for us (Matt 7:11)

G. Campbell Morgan commented about the revelation of God as a Father:             This manifestation wins the submission of the reason; appeals to the love the         heart; demands the surrender of the will.”

[So the first purpose of the incarnation was to establish God’s promises and the second purpose was to expose the nature or character of God as a Father. Thirdly, the purpose of the incarnation…]

3B    It was to Exercise the office of the believer’s high priest

Jesus submitted to the incarnation in order to become qualified in order to             act as our high priest. If you remember the chief responsibility of a high             priest was to take the people of God to and before God. Christ came to enter             every human experience, except sin, in order to serve and function as our             high priest.

Remember Hebrews teaches us that priests were taken from among men so             that they could represent men. Christ had to become a man in order to                 represent man before God.

1C    “And no man takes this honor to himself to become High Priest but                 it was He who said to Him: ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten you. As He also says in another place, You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedeck.’” (Hebrews 5:4-5, NKJV)

2C    “For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to aid                 them that are tempted. (Heb 2:17-18) Why? Because it behooved him to become made like his brethren that he might become a faithful high priest in the things that pertain to God!

3C    “For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling             of our infirmities.”

4C    Don’t forget we have been told that we can draw near to God in our                 time of need and we are assured we receive the help and mercy that we need.

The message is clear, and should be exciting and refreshing, Jesus Christ can effectively minister on our behalf because while remaining fully God, he was fully man and experienced every human emotion that we face today and he can meet our needs because he is our great high priest.

So, we see the purpose of the incarnation as it establishes the promises of God, as it exposes the character of God, and as it exercises Christ as a faithful high priest. Fourth, we see the purpose of the incarnation…

4B    It was to Exculpate the believer of sin

The incarnation was necessary so that Christ Jesus could make a                 propitiation, or an appeasement or satisfaction for sin by offering himself to             God as a sacrifice.

[For example]

1C    “…He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice by the sacrifice                 of Himself.” (Hebrews 9:26c)

2C    “The Son of man came not to be ministered to but to give his life a                 ransom for many.” [I don’t want to upset your apple cart, but notice a                 ransom for many, not a ransom for all – he died only for his people, not every individual. (Mark 10:45)

3C    “And we know that He has been manifested to take away sins…”

(1 John 3:5)

4C    “And she will bring forth a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for             He will save His people [not every single person] from their sins.”                 (Matt 1:21, NKJV)

We can never forget the real meaning of Christmas, whether it was in December or in April or the spring – Jesus became a man in the incarnation to die for the sins of His people.

The Heidelberg Catechism says:

The justice of God requires that the same human nature which had sinned should     make satisfaction for sin; but no man being himself a sinner could satisfy for     others.

The death of Christ became the foundational prerequisite for every other blessing     that we experience and enjoy. Everything we have and experience as a believer,     every promise, every assurance, every provision comes to us as a result of Jesus’s     death and payment for our sins, not merely or simply his life.

We are reminded of this when the wise men first showed up to worship Jesus. One     of the very gifts that they brought to give him as a part of their worship was myrrh.     Myrrh was a spice used in the embalming and burial process of a deceased corpse.     The incarnation of Christ was a precursor to this ultimate and eventual death.

We live in a wicked world that is increasingly wicked. This world oppresses the righteous, persecutes them, and even destroys them. The wicked are seemingly prospering, multiplying, and growing more wicked in their behavior.

There is coming a day when God is going to set the record straight. He will put away sin and punish the disobedient. Jesus came to exculpate His people from their sins.

[The fifth purpose that we see as a result of the incarnation…]

5B    It was to Eradicate the works of the devil

We don’t need to and won’t spend a lot time on this point. But let is suffice             to say:

One of the greatest truths of the real meaning of Christmas is that death, hell,         sin, and the devil are defeated.

1C    1 John 3:5 – “And you know that He was manifested to take away our                 sins, and in Him there is no sin.”

2C    1 John 3:8 – “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from             the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that                 He might destroy the works of the devil.”

3C    John 12:31 – “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this             world will be cast out.”

4C    Hebrews 2:14 – “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of                 flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same that through                 death He might destroy him who had the power of death that is the                devil.”

5C    Rev 20:10 – “The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of                 fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they             will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

So, Satan shall one day be destroyed. Not in the sense of being non-existence, but rendered absolutely ineffective and locked in suffering and punishment for eternity.

Well, to establish the promises of God, to expose the character of God, to exercise the office of priest, to exculpate the believer from sin and to eradicate the works of the devil are quite a list of purposes of the incarnation. And it is in the person of the incarnation and the purpose of the incarnation that we are able to see the real meaning of Christmas.

But we are not done, let me give you a couple more purposes of the incarnation. Sixth, we see the purpose of the incarnation…

6B    It was to Exemplify God’s Holy Standard

This purpose of the incarnation might not be expressed in these exact words             or in so many words. However, I think it is implied in so many different             references.

1C    First of all, don’t forget we are commanded to be holy and to live holy             lives.

1 Peter 1:15, 16 – “…but as He who called you is holy, you also be                 holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am                 holy.’”

2C    2 Peter 3:11 – “Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved,                 what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and                     godliness.”

Since this is the case – that we are to be holy in our everyday living,                 listen to what Jesus says:

“Take my yoke upon you and learn of me…” imitate my character.

3C    1 John 2:6 – “He that sayeth He abides in Him ought himself to walk                 even as He walked.”

4C    1 Peter 2:21 validates and supports this sixth point that Christ is our                 example:

“…for hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for you,                 leaving you an example, that ye should follow in His steps.”

The incarnation gives us an example of what God wants us to be. Jesus says look to me, use me as an example and be humble. Be as humble as I was when I laid aside my glory and was born into this world as a man through the incarnation.

“who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with         God, 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.”

The most powerful incentive to holiness is not a command, but an example of one     whom we are closely associated with. The reason we are not more like Christ is the     fact that we are not associated with him as closely and consistently as we need to     be.

God gave the standard of what mankind should live up to when He gave the law. It is obvious that no one can live up to that standard, but He also gave us Christ as the one who is our example of one who did keep God’s standards. We are to imitate His example.

I hope this is giving us a real clear picture of the real meaning of Christmas. We see the real meaning of Christ in the Person of the Incarnation and in the Purpose of the Incarnation. So now, let’s finish with the seventh purpose of the incarnation:

7B    It was to Expect the Second Coming of Christ

1C    Listen to Hebrews 9:28:

“Christ, also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall             appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him unto                 salvation.”

2C    Listen to Luke 12:40

“Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you             do not expect.”

3C    Listen to Revelation 16:15

“Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blesses is he who watches, and keeps             his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”

4C    Here is another one:

Revelation 22:7 – “Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who                 keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”

5C    Finally the last word of John’s letter

“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely, I am coming quickly.’                 Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus!”

6C    If we had the time you could read Matt 16; 27; Matt 25:31; 1 Cor 4:5;                 2 Tim 4:1; Jude 14; , Luke 19:13;  and on and on and on.

Jesus is coming. Are you expecting him?

Salvation has three parts. As the elect we have been saved in the                 eternal past, we are being saved now, and we will ultimately be saved                 in the future. There is the provision of salvation and then application                 of salvation.

The Real Meaning of Christmas is that the triune God became a man                 in the incarnation. He came to die for the sins of His people and to                 prepare them a place where when he comes again for them will take                 them to live their forever.

One day Christ will return!

So a valuable purpose the incarnation is to create an expectation that Christ is coming a second time to remove us from the presence of sin and to establish His kingdom eternally.

So, the real meaning of Christmas is seen in the purpose of the incarnation. The seven purposes of the incarnation are to establish God’s promises, to expose the character of the father, to exercise the office of high priest, to eradicate sin from the believer, to eradicate the works of Satan, to exemplify the character of holiness and to create an expectation of the second coming of Christ.

Well, our theme has been: God became a man

This is a good reminder for us all that as the Christmas season approaches with all of its frenzied excitement, that we do not lose sight of the true or the real meaning of Christmas.

 Proposition:  God became man in order to redeem the human race from sin.

[Well, let’s wrap this up, shall we?]

CONCLUSION

Augustine said, “He was created of a mother whom He created. He was carried by hands that He formed. He cried in the manger in wordless infancy. He, the Word, without whom all human eloquence is mute.” ~Augustine 

Nate Saint once said, “If God would grant us the vision, the word sacrifice would disappear from our lips and thoughts; we would hate the things that seem now so dear to us; our lives would suddenly be too short, we would despise time-robbing distractions and charge the enemy with all our energies in the name of Christ. May God help us ourselves by the eternities that separate the Aucas from a Comprehension of Christmas and Him, who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor so that we might, through his poverty, be made rich.”  ~Nate Saint 

[Exhortation…]

  And So, I exhort you as genuine believers to dig deep in the richness of these seven purposes of the incarnation in order to deepen your appreciation of the real meaning of Christmas.

Remember Isaiah said in Isaiah 9:6a…

“For unto us a Child is born….”

Let’s pray! J

Benediction Blessing:

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all! (2 Corinthians 13:14, NKJV)