God’s Story: The
Incarnation
1: So
far we have seen God explode on the scene through his creation
2: Everything
he created was good
3: God
lived in perfect relationship with
humanity
4: That
is, until the humans chose to disobey
God
5: Sin
infected their relationship with God
3: With
each other
1: With
their children
2: and
with all of creation.
4: God’s
holiness could not tolerate sin
5: God
tried to establish the Law through
Moses
4: But
no matter how hard the Israelites tried,
3: The
Law did not make them holy.
2: It
only showed them the depths of their
sin problem.
1: Israel
ask for kings
3: God
gave them what they wanted but once
again
5: Sin destroyed any attempt for a human
kingdom to save them
2: Many
attempts that God tried to initiate with humans did not work
4: Because
when sinful people are confronted
with a holy God
3: The
only response is fear, terror, dread
and a revulsion of our sin.
1: But
God found another way to invade the
world that the devil has claimed for himself
2: A
way in which the God of the Universe would confine
himself
3: to
the limitations of human flesh.
4: All
of history pointing to this one event.
5: A
Messiah, a King, a Savoir who would
set things right again!
3: The
prophets foretold
1: The
temple foreshadowed
2: The
kingdom looked forward to
4: One
who embodied the prophet, priest and
king.
3: One
who would come to save the whole world!
1: You
know this story.
2: Except
your version has been sanitized.
3: A
cute, cuddly baby Jesus
4: A
beautiful manger scene.
5: Angels
and shepherds all celebrating
3: And
wise men from the East bearing great
gifts.
1: It
brings us warm fuzzies
2: And
excitement about the Christmas season.
3: But
our hallmark card mental image could not be further from the truth.
4: Imagine living in a society where an unwed teenage girl who is pregnant
could get the death penalty for her apparent immorality.
5: Imagine living under a dictator who regularly killed anyone
who may pose a threat to him, including
his own sons and his wife!
4: Imagine having to hide your pregnancy when the normal thing to do is to allow this time to be a celebration within your
family and community.
3: Imagine having a story about an angel visiting you and saying that you
are going to be the mother of God.
2: Let’s
be honest. In today’s more civilized world, if Jesus would have come in the 21st century he would have never made it out of the womb.
1: Mary
would be considered mentally unstable, a
liar and a lunatic
5: Jesus
may very well have been aborted if
no other family was willing to help
3: This
is the Christmas story
2: when
the kingdom of heaven
4: collided with the kingdom of earth.
1: Two
pregnancies
5: Two
miracles
2: Once
celebrated
4: One
hidden.
3: Elizabeth
gave birth to John.
5: Everybody
was there to share in the joy of a
child miraculously born to an aged woman
1: Mary on the other hand
2: A
teenager pledged to be married to Joseph
3: Is
awakened by an angel.
4: “Rejoice, favored one! The Lord is with
you! Don’t be afraid, Mary. God is honoring you. Look! You
will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him
Jesus. He will be great and he will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father. He
will rule over Jacob’s house
forever, and there will be no end to his kingdom.”
3: Then
Mary said to the angel,
2: “How will this happen since I have not
had sexual relations with a man?”
3: The
angel replied,
4: “The
Holy Spirit will come over you and
the power of the Most High will overshadow
you. Therefore, the one who is to be born will be holy. He will be called
God’s Son.
3: And
then Mary said,
2: “This
is the craziest thing I ever heard.
Thanks, but no thanks. Why in the
world would God use a nobody like me to birth the Savior of
the world. This is a joke, right? If I was a wealthy, powerful princess of a
royal family maybe I would understand
this. But I am a poor, insignificant, nobody of a teenager!”
3: Actually
she did not say that. Instead she
replied:
2: “I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be with me just as you
have said.”
3: Then
the angel left her.
1: Did
she understand it all?
5: No.
1: Did
it make sense to her?
5: Probably not.
1: Did
she see the potential for gossip,
slander and judgment.
5: I
am sure she did.
1: Did
she realize that to explain this story just as it happened would probably not be
received well?
5: Yep,
crazy girl who needs to be locked up.
1: Yet
she submitted to the will of God and
gave herself to his plan.
2: As
luck would have it, the governor declared that a census was to be taken right when
Mary was at the final weeks of her pregnancy.
3: Everyone
had to register in their home town
4: Joseph
lived in Nazareth but now had to travel to Bethlehem
to register.
5: Mary went with him.
4: Upon
their arrival, the contractions
began.
3: Joseph needed a place quick.
2: This
baby is coming now. On this road
trip.
1: As
many people were traveling to register for the census all the hotels were booked.
5: Accept
one owner who saw the predicament that Joseph and Mary were in and offered his stable.
3: The
baby born in a manger.
1: Visitors
came that nobody would have ever expected.
2: The
religious leaders of Israel?
5: NO
3: The
political leaders of Israel?
5: NO
4: The
business leaders of Israel?
5: NO
1: A
group of shepherds.
2: Those
who were considered unclean.
3: The
fringe of society.
4: Shady guys who often are looked down upon.
1: Then
these wise guys from the East.
5: Not Israelites.
4: Definitely
considered outsiders, pagans, gentiles.
3: Here
to worship Jesus as they followed
the star.
1: In
fact there was one Israelite that
responded.
2: King
Herod met the wise men.
3: He
acted interested in wanting to also worship this newborn king.
4: But
an angel revealed Herod’s true motives
and the wise men returned to their town
without reporting back to Herod.
5: This
initiated a genocide of that
generation of boys.
4: Herod
in his lust for power was willing to
kill anyone who got in his way.
3: His
wife
2: His
own sons
1: His
relatives
3: and
now all the boys who are 2 years old
and under.
5: Through
God’s protection, Jesus and John
escaped this bloodshed
2: But
they grew up with a sizable dent in
their generation of friends
4: A
slaughter that happened to try and exterminate
the Christ
1: What
can we learn about Jesus through the
incarnation?
2: First of all, the HUMILITY of Jesus is revealed.
1: The
God of the universe allowing himself to be confined
to human flesh
2: The
Maker of all things shrank down,
down, down, down so small as to become an ovum,
3: a
single fertilized egg barely visible
to the naked eye,
4: an
egg that would divide and redivide until a fetus
took shape,
5: enlarging
cell by cell inside a nervous teenage.
2: He
was born in an animal shelter, not a palace
4: He
was born to a couple of no real
significance, not royalty, not wealthy by any means
3: Secondly, God has now become
very APPROACHABLE.
1: No
more fear and terror when God shows up on a mountain
2: Now
God is one of us.
3: He
can relate to us on our level.
4: Third, Jesus represents the UNDERDOG.
5: He
stood up for the poor and powerless and oppressed.
1: His
birth was without power or wealth, without rights, without justice.
5: And
lastly we see Jesus as COURAGEOUS
1: He
came to fulfill a mission
2: He
came to claim what was rightfully
his all along
3: He
came to reclaim the territory that
the devil thought he owned.
4: Heaven
and earth collided in this one
moment.
5: The
kingdom of heaven has broken into
the kingdom of earth.
1: God’s kingdom has now come, his will is being done, on earth as it is in heaven.
3: The
birth was God bursting onto the
scene in a most extraordinary way.
5: But
now the question becomes:
1: What
is his plan?
2: What
is his message?
3: Why
was he sent?
4: Come
back next month as we look at these very things.
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