Mystery Majesty

Faith Community Church by the SeaDate

TitleGalatians 5:19-21 “It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a

stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-

consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided

lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and

uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on…”

How did Christmas day feel to God? Imagine for a moment becoming a baby again: giving up language and muscle coordination, and the ability to eat solid food and control your bladder. God as a fetus! Or

imagine yourself becoming a sea slug—that analogy is probably closer. On that day in Bethlehem, the Maker

of All That Is took form as a helpless, dependent newborn.

Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew (Zondervan, 2002), p. 106

 

the Incarnation: God becoming man

“A Full and undiminished divine nature as well as a perfect human

nature were united in the historical person of Jesus of Nazareth”

Hank Hanegraaff

Luke 1:26-37

In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to the Galilean village of Nazareth to a virgin engaged to be married to a

man descended from David. His name was Joseph, and the virgin's name, Mary. Upon

entering, Gabriel greeted her: Good morning! You're beautiful with God's beauty, Beautiful inside and out! God be with you. She was

thoroughly shaken, wondering what was behind a greeting like that. But the angel assured her, "Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a

surprise for you

Luke 1:26-37

You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call his name Jesus. He will be great, be

called 'Son of the Highest.' The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David; He will rule Jacob's house forever— no end, ever, to his

kingdom.” Mary said to the angel, "But how? I've never slept with a man.” The angel answered, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Highest hover over you; Therefore, the child you bring to birth will be called Holy, Son of God

Luke 1:26-37

"And did you know that your cousin Elizabeth conceived a son, old as she is? Everyone called

her barren, and here she is six months' pregnant!

Nothing, you see, is impossible with God."

God Selects a Messenger, Luke 2:26“Gabriel”

• God’s primary messenger• Fresh from a visit with Zechariah• Deeply interested in Helping Mary believe

God’s message

God Picks a Mother, Luke 2:27-33“Mary”

• Of King David’s Lineage• Approached by Gabriel with a message

Gabriel’s Approach was…Everyday

Positive

Measured

Growing in Significance

Radical!!!

Christmas tells us that God became breakable and fragile. God became someone we could hurt. Why? To

get us back … . No other religion—whether secularism, Greco-Roman paganism, Eastern religion, Judaism, or Islam—believes God became breakable or

suffered or had a body.

Tim Keller, Pastor of Redeemer Pres. Chuch in NY and author of Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus:" (Crossway Books,

2008), pp. 38-39

 

Numbers 23:19

God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change

his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?.

Colossians 2:9

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.

Romans 9:5

Theirs (Israel’s) are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human

ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

John 1:18

No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the

Father's side, has made him known.

Hebrews 1:8

But about the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.

Hebrews 2:14-18Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he

might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil-- and free those who all their

lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. For this reason he had to be made

like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in

service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able

to help those who are being tempted.

God Picks a Mother, Luke 2:27-33“Mary”

• Of King David’s Lineage• Approached by Gabriel with a message• Troubled and Greatly Disturbed• Confused and Nervous about the

Implications• Aware of God’s Love, despite her worries

God Picks His Method, Luke 2:34-38“The Holy Spirit”

• Third Person of the Trinity• Creator of all things

God Picks His Method, Luke 2:34-38“The Holy Spirit”

• Third Person of the Trinity• Creator of all things

• Past at Creation of the World• Present in Mary’s Womb

• “Come on you…Overtake”• “Overshadow you…Influence”

• Future in our Lives

Romans 8:1-3 With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's

being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is

in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air,

freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. God went for the

jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and

unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the

disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all.

Titus 3:3-8 It wasn't so long ago that we ourselves were stupid

and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when

God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in,

he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside

and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God's gift has restored our relationship with him and given us

back our lives. And there's more life to come—an eternity of life!