Incarnation in the Church

to open the Word of God and to,
especially this time of year, think about the incarnation of
Jesus Christ. It’s an exciting thing. We appreciate
the church here and Ron’s faithful ministry. And, you know, we have a real reason
to come down. Not only do we have Jared and
Megan here, but Ella has taken a big place in our lives And
we’re very thankful for her. And it’s true, Ron, this is the
first time that Dr. Peterson’s, I preached in front
of him since my homiletics class in seminary. And the Lord providentially,
talk about the providence of God. Jerren Megan brought Dr. Peterson’s granddaughter’s home
And when they were closing on the house, she asked Jeremy if
he knew a Lin Howell. And Jeremy said, it’s my dad.
Well, your dad led my mother to Christ. And Dr. Peterson’s granddaughter was
in the youth group back in Castro Valley, where we went to church
when we were in seminary, and then The Lord moved them from
northern Wisconsin to sunny, warm Colorado. And they are now
neighbors with their granddaughter here in Severance area. And we
just are so excited for the privilege of having friendships. And you
know, when it’s in the Lord, you can go a long time, pick
it up right where you left off, and just keep right on moving.
And so this morning I want to bring some thoughts and a message
around the incarnation and Specifically, the incarnation in this church.
Hopefully, we can get some very practical applications of it. And my starting text today, and
that’s all it’s going to be, is a starting text. And that’s
going to be in John 3.16. A text that probably everybody
here has memorized and knows very well because it’s a wonderful
incarnation text. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And at this time of the
year, the Christmas season, my favorite time of the year is
Thanksgiving. And then I thank God for Christmas because we
get to focus on the fact that Jesus has come. And you’ve probably
met some people like I have. who say, well, you know, I don’t
celebrate Christmas on the 25th. I like January 6th. I like August
the 2nd. And people get all caught up
over something very foolish. A date which they’re not going
to be able to establish exactly the birthday of Jesus Christ.
The fact that He came into this earth and was born is an indisputable
fact of history. But this precise day, we don’t
know. But the fact that He came, we
do. And this morning, we want to take the fact that Jesus Christ
came into this world, and we want to get a bigger view of
it. We want to grab hold of it. And then we want to figure out
how do we as a church celebrate the incarnation of Jesus Christ? That God became man. Literally, God came to earth
to show man what God is like. And this morning, I’ve got three
points. The miracle of the birth. And
I’ve been preaching through the book of Ephesians. And if you
can turn there with me to that first chapter of the book of
Ephesians. And it kind of gives us a glimpse of the Incarnation. In verse 3 of chapter 1 of Ephesians,
it says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us with every spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. Just as He chose us in Him, before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love, having predestined us to the adoption
as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure
of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace by which
He made us accepted into beloved. And we see the work of the Father. You follow on. You see the work
of the Son and salvation in this first chapter. And then you see
the work of the Holy Spirit. And notice, He chose us in Him
before the foundation of the world. You see, when we start
and think about the incarnation, I love the passage we read in
Luke this morning, and to think about the Gospels and how Christ
came into this world. But you see, when we start thinking
about the Incarnation, it begins with God. The eternal God has
an eternal plan. Can you process that? You know,
every time I go through the attributes of God in my Sunday school class,
I get to the eternality of God and my mind just starts going
into overload. There was never a time when God
did not exist. And there will never be a time
in the future that He does not exist. Now, can you process that? As I think about an eternal God,
and before the foundation of the earth, and the angels of
God shouted and rejoiced when God spoke the universe into existence,
and He was before that. And you see, Revelation 13.8
is an Incarnation verse. And I’m not going to read it
all, but let me just give you the last part of that verse. It says, the Lamb of God slain
before the foundation of the world. Friends, when we think
about the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, we have to think about
an eternal God. who was and is and always will
be, and He had a plan. Now, you and I would have said,
well, if it had been me, I would have done it different. But we’re
dealing with a God who’s all-knowing. A God who’s perfect. And before
the foundation of the world, before there was ever a planet
called Earth, the Lamb of God slain. before the foundation
of the earth. And in the Gospel of Luke, the
second chapter there, we read that from the first chapter,
but look at the second chapter there. There’s some really exciting
words there in that second chapter because, you see, the birth of
Christ is totally humble. It was a humble birth. The magistrate
of the universe is coming to earth And he’s not coming as
loyalty to this earth. He’s coming in humility. And
in Acts, or in Luke, the second chapter, look at verse 8 there,
or verse 9. And behold, the angel of the
Lord stood before them. And the glory of the Lord shone
round about them, and they were greatly afraid. Here are these
shepherds on the Judean hillside, and they’re seeing something
they’ve never seen before. The angels of God have come to
announce the birth of a baby. And these shepherds are trying
to comprehend all this and look at verse 10. Then the angel said
to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings
of great joy, which will be to all people. For there is born
to you this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ
the Lord. And this will be a sign to you,
you’ll find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in
a manger.” Now, that would have been overwhelming, would it not?
If you and I would have been there? Dark place out in the
middle of nowhere on the Judean hills, and an angel comes, makes
this announcement, and then suddenly, verse 13, There was with the
angels a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill
toward men. You see, this one who was now
being born in Bethlehem was going to bring peace and goodwill to
men. You know, I don’t know a thing
that this earth needs more than peace. Do you? And there’s nothing
that does better in our world than good will. And Jesus Christ
has come to this earth for a purpose. And that purpose is to seek the
sinner. For unto you is born a Savior.
Can you imagine that? Who is Christ the Lord. You see,
this eternal God came to seek sinners. Does that grab your heart to
think about how great God is? How good God is and how powerful
He is. And He’s come to earth in a very
humble birth. For unto you is born this day
a Savior.” A Savior. Friends, it was a miracle birth. Why God came to earth, I still
don’t understand it. Do you? He spoke the worlds into
existence. He could have certainly done
anything He wanted to do. But He had an eternal plan. And
the eternal plan involved the Lamb of God being slain before
the foundation of the world. And the means of birth was a
virgin birth. We read that this morning. It
was the sinless life. It was the resurrected Christ.
It was His return. I’ll give you a couple of my
favorite Christmas passages. Look at Hebrews chapter one.
It’s probably your favorite too. One of your favorites. But Hebrews
chapter one, this is a marvelous passage on the incarnation. Look
at these first three verses in Hebrews chapter one. God, who at various times and
in various ways spoke in the past to the fathers by the prophets. You know, one of the things as
you read your Bible, you study your Bible, you think of all
the Old Testament, and it looks forward to the coming of a Messiah. Christ is coming. And it says
in various times, in various ways, He spoke to the fathers
by the prophets. And in these last days has spoken
to us by His Son. Did you get that? Today, what
do you better be straight on? His Son. Now notice, whom He
hath appointed heir to all things, through whom also He made the
worlds, who being in the brightness of His glory, and the expressed
image of His person, upholding all things by the word of His
power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, and sat down
at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Friends, isn’t that
a beautiful picture of the Incarnation? This Holy One. He made the worlds. And He was the brightness of
His glory, the expressed image of His person upholding all things
by the word of His power. When He had by Himself purged
our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on
high. You see, Jesus Christ came to earth to show man what God
was like. He was God. in the flesh. He was all God.
He was all man. Look at Philippians chapter 2. You’re very familiar with this
portion of Scripture, I’m sure. But look at this. It’s just a
marvelous description of the Incarnation. Verse 5 says, Let
this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being
in the form of God, thought it not did not consider it to be
a robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation
and taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of
man, who being found in the appearances of man, he humbled himself and
became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the
cross. Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given
him a name above every name. that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, of those in heaven and those on the earth
and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”
You see, not only does God come to seek sinners, but God loves
sinners. And the means of His birth were
extraordinary. That’s why the virgin birth of
Jesus Christ is one of the non-negotiables of the church of Jesus Christ
today. That’s why His sinless life is
a non-negotiable issue. He was God in the flesh, sinless. That’s why His resurrection and
His return are critical and non-negotiable issues for the church. Several
years ago, I was with a group in Israel, and we had a Jewish
guide, and she was just a very good guide. Had been named the
number one guide in Israel. And I’ll tell you, we could go
to every place, and she could tell you all about it, give you
chapter and verse. Had people in the group saying,
She must be a Christian, all she knows. She knows the Gospels. She knows the Old Testament.
Yes, she does. And we got to the garden tomb. And she gave
an eloquent explanation of everything. And she says, now, you Christians
believe that Jesus Christ arose again from the dead. And we Jews
believe that He’s still dead. And that is the difference, isn’t
it? A living Savior as opposed to
a good teacher. As opposed to one without hope. Now, turn with me in 2 Corinthians
chapter 5, verse 20 and 21. As we think of God’s
love, Paul said to the Corinthians,
he says now in verse 20, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though
God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ’s behalf,
be reconciled to God. And verse 21 is one of the great
verses of Scripture. For He made Him who knew no sin
to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God
in him. You see, God loves sinners. And as we think about the significance
of his birth this morning, how do we as a church, how do we
as a Christian best celebrate the incarnation? You see, the
God of prophecy is building His church. Today, if you want to
figure out what God’s doing in the world, you need to look at
the church. The church are those redeemed
ones. Would you turn with me to Colossians
chapter 1? Look at this verse with us for
a moment. Colossians chapter 1. And I want
to draw our attention to verse 27. It says, To them God willed to make What
are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles? Now the mystery is Jew and Gentile
who were arch enemies are now one in Christ. You can read about
that in Ephesians chapter 3. Notice, which is, what is this
mystery? Christ in you. The hope of glory. Romans chapter 8 and verses 29
and following, it says, For whom He foreknew, He also predestined
to be conformed to the image of His Son, that we might be
the firstborn among many nations. You see, when we become a Christian,
when we’re born again, Christ takes up residency in our lives. Colossians says, Christ in you,
the hope of glory. Now, God chooses to bless the
church through not only Himself, but the Great Commission. You
remember one of the last things in the Gospel that Jesus did
as He instructed His disciples? He says, go into all the world
make disciples, and then baptize them in the name of the Father,
and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And then teach them all things
whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the earth.” And as we think about this commission,
God coming to earth regenerating, taking up residency
in the hearts of His children. And then He stood with His disciples
and He says, go into all the world. Make disciples. So there is a reason for this. Now, friends, put these things
together. An all-knowing, an all-powerful
God. has an eternal plan, the Lamb
of God slain before the foundation of the world. And then he comes
and he personally is concerned for sinners. His work on the
cross is totally sufficient for our sins. And he says, go make disciples.
Go make disciples. The personal love of God is intimately
associated with the Incarnation. It’s a personal love. For God
so loved the world. You see, this morning as we think
about His public love, The text in Matthew that I just, he says,
now be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We have lost a lot of that in our day. Just last month in Montana,
I got a phone call from a friend of mine. And he said to me, he
said, Len, would you pray for a group of Hutterites? Now, in
Montana, we don’t have Amish, but we have Hutterites. They’re
a religious colony. If you’re not familiar with them,
they’re farmers and ranchers. And a whole group of them will
come in, and they’ll buy up a big area of land. And then they manage
the farms. And they have a religious heritage. And they’re ones around us. They’re Anabaptists. And they’ve
come. And they have their strong religious traditions. But he
said to me, he said, pray for one of the colonies
up north in northern Montana. He said the pastor of the colony
and about 20 ladies got saved. And he said there wasn’t any
problem until they started to understand the Bible says that
believers ought to be baptized. And so they asked somebody to
come and baptize them. And when they got baptized and
publicly confessed that Jesus Christ was their Lord and Savior,
the colony called for a council. They brought in 120 pastors from
Canada and Montana to do church discipline on the
pastor and these 20 ladies. And so they brought them before
the group and every one of them firmly testified that they believed
in Jesus Christ as Savior and they unashamedly stood in the
waters of baptism and they had no intention of recanting. So
the elders gave them one week to think about it and recant.
The pastor was very common. He was the chief financial officer
of the corporation, of the ranch. He had a lot to lose. They met
one week later. Will you recant? And the answer
is no. We believe in Jesus Christ as
Lord. He’s come to live in our life.
And whatever the cost, we’re going to spend the rest of our
lives and make it count for Him. And when you’re disciplined there,
you’re stripped of all your positions, of all your assets, and you can
stay there and eat there until you have someplace else to go. And that was no problem. because
they were convinced of the reality of Jesus Christ. You see, when
we know personally the love of Christ, then we have a desire
to publicly profess Him. You know that? And it doesn’t
matter the cost. Would you look at 2 Corinthians
with me? Chapter 4. The Apostle Paul is
there and he is giving us some of the things
that really drove him as a man. And verse 5 of 2 Corinthians chapter
4, he says, For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the
Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Christ’s sake. Now notice that. He says, I’m
not preaching myself, but I’m preaching Christ. This whole
thing of the incarnation, what’s important about it is Jesus Christ. Did you get that? Paul says,
I want to talk about Him. I want to uplift Him. And you
know, at the Christmas season, it is a marvelous, marvelous
time for us to talk about Him. And verse 6 there says, for it
is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness. And that’s
what it is. We don’t need good Christmas
tree lights as much as we need good lights in the light and
hearts of believers. And notice, he says, who has
shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And then we get Paul’s
philosophy of Christian living in verse 7. But we have this
treasure in earthen vessels. Friends, the treasure is Christ
in you, Colossians says. The Holy Spirit takes up residency
in the heart and life of the believer. For we have this treasure
in earthen vessels. that the excellency of the power
be of God and not of us. That the power be of God. Recently I handed out a book
to our deacons entitled On Being Servants of God by Warren Wiersbe. Some of you may have read the
book. It’s an excellent book. And Warren Wiersbe says this
about ministry. Ministry takes place when divine
resources meet human needs through loving channels to the glory
of God. Ministry. Every believer is called
to be in ministry. And how are we going to allow
the incarnation The fact that Jesus Christ came into this world
and He loved us and He died on the cross for our sins, He was
born, He was crucified and then raised to newness of life. How
are we going to manifest that when divine resources meet human
needs through loving channels to the glory of God? And he goes
on and he says that ministry is not something we do for God,
but something God does in and through us. The willing and the
working both come from God. You remember Philippians 2.13,
for it’s God who works in you both to will and to do His good
pleasure. Serving God is a wonderful thing
if we understand what it is and how God does it through us. Whereas,
he says, Christian service means invading a battleground and not
a playground. And you and I are weapons of
God. We’re weapons God uses to attack and defeat the enemy. And I say, Amen. You see, the message is Jesus
Christ. And it’s the power that it may
be of God, not of us. You see, the incarnation is out
of this world. It begins with God, doesn’t it? And if your and my view of the
Incarnation is just the little baby, we’ve missed it. The Incarnation begins with an
eternal God that leaves us spellbound just as it did the angels. How
could God do that? Humble Himself and take upon
Himself the form of a baby. A helpless baby. And he grew in wisdom and stature
and favor with God and man, Luke says. He grew up like any little child. He had to have his diapers changed.
He grew, but he was sinless. He was the sinless son of God. And in three years, without a
degree and coming from a place, you remember, can anything good
come out of Nazareth? That was across the tracks. This
young man who had never been educated in three years, in word
and in deed, demonstrated that he indeed was the Son of God. And friends, They thought that
He was coming as King. The triumphal entry. You remember
that? They were hailing Him as King. He can overthrow the Romans. I’ll tell you, I saw Him come
into one of those little villages up in the Galilee. And when He
left town, everybody was healed. He raised Lazarus from the dead. He walked on the water, they
said. If all the works, John said,
if all the things Jesus Christ did while He was on this earth,
the world could not even contain the volumes that should be written
about His life and ministry. Now, you see, the Incarnation brings God to
man. God came into this world. You know, for God so loved the
world, He came to seek and to save that which was lost. Friends,
there are two things in this world that are eternal. One is
God’s Word. Heaven and earth will pass away,
but my Word will not pass away. And then everyone in this room
is going to spend eternity someplace. Do you know that? God loves people. For God so
loved the world. He loves people. And the last
thing He told His disciples there, just before He ascended into
heaven, is go into all the world, make disciples. Look at Romans chapter 10 with
me. These words, they just prick
your heart. Verse 14 of Romans 10. How shall they call on Him whom
they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach unless
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace. And friends,
I’m telling you, anybody here this morning that preaches and
tells and puts forth the message of Christ That’s the message
of peace. That’s the message of hope. “…who brings glad tidings of
good things.” And then he goes on, “…but they have not all
obeyed the gospel for Isaiah. Lord, who has believed our report?”
And so then faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God.
And friends, God came into this world to bring
God to man. And he has chosen the foolishness
of preaching publicly, personally. And see, God is for this world. He brings life to men. I think of my own life and I
don’t know where I would have been had not God found me. When I came to realize that Jesus
Christ was real, and that He really loved me, and He really
died on the cross for my sins, and He really raised Himself
from the dead, all of a sudden, there was nothing
in this world more important than Jesus Christ. And friends,
I’ll tell you, 10,000 years from this day, nothing is going to be more important
than our relationship with Christ. Nothing will be more valuable
than those things we invested in love and devotion for Him.
And I love that passage in 2 Corinthians 4, 7, where earthen vessels.
Do you know what that word there that was used? It wasn’t a beautiful ceramic
piece. It was just an ordinary clay
pot. Matter of fact, it would be a
garbage collector. And he says, this earthen vessel has this
treasure in it. And Paul told us in Colossians,
it’s Christ in you, the hope of glory. You see, this world is the dressing
room for eternity, is it not? Pick on my old friend, Dr. Peterson.
We had a wonderful time when he came up to Montana in October,
and we rehearsed what God had done the last 35 or 40 years. It’s been 40 years since I’ve
been with Pastor Peterson. And one of the things that is
so shocking is that that 40 years went just like that. And you know what James says,
what is your life? It’s even a vapor that what appears
for a moment and then vanishes away. And friends, you and I
only have one life. And I just tell you, Devote your
life to Jesus Christ. And celebrate the Incarnation
every day. And during this time when people
want to talk about, argue over the nativity scene on the courthouse,
and I’m for that by the way. But more importantly, people
need to know Christ in their heart, don’t they? And we have
the privilege to tell them of Jesus. who loved us and died
on the cross for our sins. And then he raised himself from
the dead. Get a load of that. That’s not
that’s not a problem for God, but it’s an impossibility for
man. And, you know, the ministry. Oh, God, this is so hard. The clay pot doesn’t do anything. It’s the power that’s in the
clay pot that makes the difference. Are you and I vessels fit for
the Master’s use? For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. May that be the driving
force of our season. Let’s pray. Father, we thank
you so much for the opportunity that we’ve had again to look
at your word. Your word is so clear about who
you are. It’s so clear about what you’ve
done. And Lord, as we think about this holiday season, we pray
that you would help us to be ever so diligent and uplifting
and exalting and honoring and worshiping and glorifying Jesus
Christ. Oh, Lord, let him increase in
each of our lives and let us decrease. May we realize that
we’re just clay pots And all we are are channels that
you can work through. Help us to be yielded to you,
Lord. And we pray that you would be
high and uplifted and exalted in this church and in each and
every life here this morning. And Lord, if there’s someone
who does not know for sure where they’re going to be spending
eternity, I pray that you would bring them face to face with
yourself. Help them to understand eternal
realities and eternal verities that are far more important than
anything this world affords. And so, Lord, today we ask that
you would work in our lives and cause us to fall in love deeper
and deeper with the Lord Jesus in whose name we pray. Amen. And thank you so much for the
privilege of sharing.