The Christmas Hymn You Must Sing - [1 Timothy 3:16]

I don't know about you, but pretty much everyone I know loves to sing Christmas carols. I mean, who doesn't? Away in the manger to hark the herald angels sing. Did you enjoy singing hark the herald angels sing?

I think almost everybody did. Except I read this week that some parents in Montana said that singing Christmas carols at the public schools is a form of bullying. Their children feel bullied that they have to sing songs about the baby Jesus.

Missoula County Public School District said, songs like Joy to the World and Good Christian Men Rejoice need to be replaced with secular tunes. They should not be singing about Jesus the Lord, even though it's a historical holiday.

They said we won't have any problem with Frosty the Snowman or Santa Claus. The superintendent did say one of the largest complaints last year was the young children singing about their Lord. Separation of church and state and all those things.

By the way, I thought it was interesting, the superintendent is named Alex Apostle. So his word is key. Did you feel bullied this morning when you were singing those songs? I hope not. I like to sing Christmas songs.

I know you do. This morning I'd like to introduce you to a Christian Christmas hymn that is perfectly biblical. Sometimes people don't like to sing songs because they can't carry a tune. Sometimes people don't want to sing a song because maybe it's not truthful.

But this is a biblical hymn that's the perfect Christmas hymn. And maybe I could put it this way. You actually must sing this song if you'd like to get to heaven. Okay, I'll back off a little bit. You have to believe the lyrics to be a Christian.

Inspired lyrics from the Bible. Condensed Christian truth. If you could condense Christianity out into six key truths, I wonder what they would be. You know, the great part about it for those who can't sing like me, I don't have to worry about tempo with this song.

I don't have to worry about pitch and resonance and tone and chromatic scales. I don't need the help of a shower to assist my voice. Acoustics of the hall, not a factor. Let's turn our Bibles to 1 Timothy 3 this morning, verse 16, to see the one Christmas hymn that you really need to understand and believe.

The singing part was just extra. But I think in your heart of hearts you'll want to sing it. These are the six essential truths of Christianity. Oh, there are some more essential truths. But in this wonderful hymn, this poem, there's so much truth about Christ Jesus.

I read this week that there's a bird called the red-eyed vireo. It sings 20 ,000 songs in a day. Can you imagine? Today, one song, one hymn, straight from the Bible, so we can sing the grace of God together.

This in 1 Timothy 3 is really the high point of the letter because it's all about Jesus Christ, the Lord of the church. We're going to see this morning the prelude, means to just play before, Latin, and then the stanza, and the stanza has six lines.

So prelude, stanza, six lines, all about a Christmas hymn that I think you're going to love to learn. If you're a Christian today, you're going to say, yes, that's right, He's the Lord, He's the King, He's the Savior, Jesus Christ.

And if you're not a Christian today, then I want you to sing this song. I want you to believe its truths by the grace of God. You want to be forgiven, don't you? When you die after living on earth, breaking God's laws and sinning, you stand before God, you want to be forgiven, don't you?

Of course you want to be forgiven. And so today we learn about the King of Kings who grants forgiveness to people just like you. Let me read to you the hymn. Christ exalting, God focused, He did the work.

Great indeed, 1 Timothy 3 .16. We confess, is the mystery of godliness. That's the prelude. Now listen to the lines here in the stanza. It's all about God, it's all about the Son. He, speaking of Jesus, was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

Now before we look at this hymn, today's going to be my first exegesis of a hymn for a sermon. I think it's only appropriate for this hymn. Look back two verses and we see that Paul the Apostle writes to his protege Timothy in this letter how to conduct yourself in the church.

And if you read verse 14, you'll see a little context here in what we call a pastoral epistle. How to be a pastor in a local church. He says to Timothy, verse 14 of chapter 3, I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that...

Here's the purpose of the book. That's easy. If I delay, you may know how one ought to behave or conduct yourself in the household of God. Then he describes what the household of God is, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

What is the truth that the church has to protect? What is the truth that the church believes? What is the truth that the church needs to have as its support? Answer? Verse 16. It's contained in this hymn.

Now we think it's a hymn or some kind of creed because there's all kinds of rhythm to this in the original language, parallelism. You can even see in your Bibles, if you have one of the newer Bibles, that it seems like there's a lot of white space around this verse and there's not a lot of white space around other verses because, at least with the ESV, it's trying to show you that this is poetical.

It's hymn-like. All focused on the historical person, Christ Jesus. And it's a lot different than devoting yourself to myths and endless genealogies like he talks about in chapter 1. So, this morning, let's take a look first at the prelude, then the six lines of the stanza of this great hymn of the faith.

The prelude first. Verse 16. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness. Here's what he's saying. We confess as a church, we agree with, we say the same thing. This is our confession. Do you want to know what we believe?

Paul writes it in such a way that the church is almost wanting to stand on tippy-toe and say, this is what we believe. Everyone listen. What do Christians believe? This is what we believe. It's a call for affirmation.

Do you believe this? Of course the church believes this. We consent. We affirm. Is the gospel great? Is the truth about Jesus great? Yes, we confess that it is. On the positive side, most certainly. On the negative side, undeniably.

Now think about this for a second. Look at the text again in that prelude. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness. It's great! What would you consider great today? I am the greatest. Right?

Muhammad Ali. How about we think ourselves as the greatest? Patriots, you know, they're great. My wife's great. My kids are great. My religious background is great. Now, sometimes we think that way. But Paul is writing to Timothy, where does Timothy live?

He lives at Ephesus. What do they like to say at Ephesus? What do they like to sing? In America, people like to sing the Star Spangled Banner. It's got a real point to it. Star Spangled Banner. We have all kinds of songs we like to sing.

What did they love to sing at Ephesus? Well, just listen to this. This is fascinating. About that time, there arose no little disturbance concerning the way. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made shrines to Artemis, or Diana, brought no little business to the craftsmen.

These he gathered together with the workmen in similar trades and said, Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods.

And there's danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis, or Diana, may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be disposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.

Paul's coming in here to Ephesus, and he's saying, You can't worship these little votive gods, and you can't worship that big god, Diana, either. When they heard this, they were enraged, and they cried out.

What did they cry out? Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. So the city was filled with confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus and other companions of Paul.

Verse 34, it said they shouted that out for how many hours almost? Almost two hours. Great is Artemis. Great is Artemis. Great is Artemis. Great is Artemis. Great is Artemis. Great is Artemis. Great is Artemis.

And now Paul writes and he says, Listen, the church is built on a truth. And by the way, the truth that it's built on, it's a great truth. You know the Greek word, by the way, for great, don't you? Mega.

It's a mega truth. It's great truth. Great not is Diana, but great is Christ Jesus. And you ought to confess it. It's ought to be a confession of the church. Take a look at the passage again. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery.

Notice that, is the mystery of godliness. What's a mystery? We know at this church what a mystery is. Something that we didn't know before. Now God tells us. Something you couldn't figure out. How many hours you sat on top of Everest and contemplated things.

It was a secret that God had. It was a truth about God that he decided to unclose, to reveal, to uncover, to let us know. It's a mystery about the plan of salvation and the person of salvation, Jesus the Lord.

It's unveiled truth of the plan of God and how he reconciles sinners so he can have fellowship with them. And do you notice what kind of mystery it is? A mystery of godliness. That's right. Do you know if you're a Christian and you focus on the head of the church, Christ Jesus, he, God, the Spirit, works in you what?

More godliness. More holiness. Yes, you're positionally holy, but now practically more godliness. It's the mystery that produces godliness. No longer hidden. It's for us to see. Focused on the person and work of Christ.

That's the prelude. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness. Well, every prelude has to have some other lines to it. There's nothing that it would pre. So, let's take a look at the six lines of the stanza.

Six affirmations of the truth about godliness, about what is the mystery of godliness. Jesus the Lord, it's all focused on Jesus. And maybe I could put it this way, since the gospel of Christ Jesus is so undeniably great, so indubitably great, you need to believe this.

You must believe this. If you don't believe this, it is our prayer for you that you do, because these are God's revealed truths. For Christians, this is a good sermon, because it leads to thankfulness and godliness.

And for unbelievers, this is good, because it focuses on the person and work of Christ Jesus in a neat, poetical fashion. By the way, for those of you that know some of the Greek language, it's easy to see how poetical it is, because these are all passive verbs.

They all end the same way in a T-H-E sound in Greek. Revealed, vindicated, beheld, proclaimed, believed, taken up. They've all got the same use of the prepositions except one, and it just flows. It's just easy to memorize.

If you don't memorize scripture, this is a good one to memorize. And it's all about Jesus. Do you see the passage there? He, the beginning of the first line. Everything else is about Him. He is the center.

The pronoun refers to Christ. It's a relative pronoun. He, who. Some old translations say God was manifest in the flesh. That's true as well, but probably not the best translation. And I thought this morning, as we celebrate Christmas, why don't we have the focus on Jesus Christ?

Why don't we think about what He did and who He is in a song-like fashion? I think you'll be encouraged. I think you'll be reminded about Christ's work, how it's made known, and the response to it. Jesus, Lord at thy birth.

Line number one, that you must believe with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. He was manifested in the flesh. By the way, every point is just right out of the passage. He was manifested in the flesh.

God, the Son, the eternal God, cloaked Himself with humanity. This refers to what? The day we celebrate. Christmas, Christ incarnation. Wayne Grudem said, it is by far the most amazing miracle in the whole Bible.

Far more amazing than the resurrection and more amazing than the creation of the universe. The fact that the infinite, omnipotent, eternal Son of God could become man and join Himself to a human nature forever, so that infinite God became one person with infinite man, will remain for eternity the most profound miracle and the most profound mystery in all the universe.

He appeared. He was manifested. When you read that word manifest or appear, regularly used of Christ incarnation. Listen to 1 Peter 1. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last time.

Hebrews 9. He has appeared or may be made manifest once for all at the end of ages. I like George Whitefield's comment. Jesus was God and man in one person, that God and man might be happy together again.

Man sinned. Man had to redeem. Christ has appeared. Just think if He didn't appear, what would become of us having to pay for our own sins? But Christ has appeared. And notice what the text says. In the flesh.

Now sometimes flesh means that sin principle dwelling in us. But sometimes flesh just means what? Flesh. He just appeared in human flesh. He was manifest in human flesh. He was human flesh. He got tired, took naps, got hungry.

This just means when it says in the flesh, He's human. Doesn't mean He was sinful. Of course not. The eternal God that existed forever before Genesis 1 -1, He took at His incarnation flesh. You say, oh, that's not that big a deal.

How about this? Did you know if you deny the incarnation of Jesus, you have the spirit of the Antichrist? Wow. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out of the world.

But by this you know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, it's from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist.

It doesn't mean you are the Antichrist, but it means the same kind of attitude the Antichrist will have in the future you would have now. We don't want that. We don't want to believe that. Wolfert said the incarnation of the Lord Jesus is the central fact of Christianity.

And I know you believe that. And I want you to keep on believing that. Now look at the text again, He who is manifest in the flesh. We talked about this a few weeks ago in a different context. How do you talk about your birth?

How did your parents talk about your birth? Well, if you'd like me to talk about my birth, I know the focus is not supposed to be on the preacher, but I'll just do this for the sake of argument. I was manifest in the flesh, May 12th, 1960.

I was manifest in the flesh. I mean, who talks like that? Let's see. Moses was manifest in the flesh. Aaron manifest in the flesh? No. John Calvin, manifest in the flesh? No. Martin Luther? Who talks this way?

I was manifest in the flesh. So I just... You know, we have so many children here. My child was just born, and my child was manifest in the flesh on December 12th. It's just crazy. Here's the only way you can talk about manifest in the flesh.

If you existed in eternity past, if you had a pre-existence, and then there was a spot in time, a moment in time where you were manifest in the flesh. That's the only way you can talk about it. Did you know Jesus was alive before He was born?

How about that? The Eternal Son. No wonder Jesus says in John, I have been sent, I have been sent, I have been sent. I have come, I have come, I have come. Only one time does He say, I've been born. And then He makes sure nobody mistakes that.

So He says, I was born to this end. I came into the world. We celebrate Jesus who was the Eternal Son, and then was manifest in the flesh on the day we celebrate for Christmas. Micah chapter 5 is a very popular incarnation prophecy.

But you, O Bethlehem, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel. Can you imagine? Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years before Jesus was born, Micah prophesied that out of Bethlehem, the Messiah is going to come.

But interestingly, we don't talk about this very often in Micah chapter 5. Whose goings forth is from old. What do you mean whose goings forth are from old? Jesus was manifest in the flesh on Christmas Day, but whose goings forth were manifest from old.

Who showed up to talk to Abraham? The second person of the Trinity, the Eternal Son. Who showed up to talk to Manoah, Samson's father? Jesus, the second person of the Trinity. His goings forth are from old.

Who appeared to Gideon? The second person of the Trinity. Paul said, but when the fullness of time had come, Galatians 4, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.

God sent forth His Son when the time was right. And since Jesus is God, then we know what God requires. And Jesus is able to accomplish what we never could. And He was made under law. No wonder when I read Hebrews chapter 10 earlier today, it was said of Jesus, I have come to do Thy will, O God.

Can you imagine? Have you kept the will of God? Have you perfectly obeyed everything that God has required? Of course we can't. That's why we need someone who can. If you haven't read Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, you ought to.

Faith and Christian were talking, two characters. And Faith said, but good brother, hear me out. So soon as the man, Moses in the law, overtook me, he was but a word and a blow. For down he knocked me.

In other words, when you have to try to get to heaven by being perfect and obeying perfectly, you're going to get smacked because who can do it? He struck me with another deadly blow on the breast and beat me down backwards, so I laid his foot as dead as before.

So when I came to myself again, I cried for him to give me mercy. Give me mercy, Moses. Give me mercy, law. And with that, he knocked me down again. How could we ever get to heaven? Whitefield said, try to get to heaven by your own good works.

It's like trying to climb a ladder made of sand to the moon. He had doubtless made an end of me, Faith said, of the law, God's requirements that are holy and just. But that one came by and bid him forbear.

Somebody came by and stopped it all. Christian asked, what do you ask? Who was that that bid him forbear? I did not know him at first, but as he went by, I perceived the holes in his hands and in his side.

So then I concluded that he was our Lord. Who can live up to God's standards? Who can live up to the law and his requirements? He's holy. Only one could, Jesus the Lord. S. Lewis Johnson said, he wore the things that he should wear.

He ate the things that he should eat. He also did everything that he should do. He lived under those precepts so far as they pertain to civil life, to spiritual life. He carried out all the commandments concerning the offerings.

And even to the last night of the Lord's Supper or the last Passover, every little detail was carried out perfectly by our Lord Jesus so that no fastidious Pharisee or eager angel could have found anything wrong with the observance of that last Passover.

He carried it out perfectly. Even on the cross, he cared for his mother and committed her to the keeping of John. He came to be under the law. We needed that representative. And so man sinned and man redeemed.

Adam, the first man. Jesus, the last. The great Puritan John Howe said, the wrong that man had done to the divine majesty should not be expiated by none but man and could be none but God. I think that's worth singing about.

Let's go to the second line. The second line of our stanza today, the first one is Jesus was manifest in the flesh. Secondly, he was vindicated by the Spirit. Justification there isn't the best translation.

Vindicated by the capital S, Spirit. If you look down in verse 4, we see the Spirit again talked about, the Holy Spirit, capital S. And so the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, vindicates Jesus.

What do you mean, vindicate Jesus? Well, Jesus said he was God. I and the Father are one. He said when people said that he was God, Peter, you're right. Who do you say that I am? You're the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And he says, yes, flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, but my Father did. That's true. When he did healings and other things, he always said, I've come to do my Father's will. Everything he said was true and therefore he didn't have to pay for his own lies.

If he would have had to pay for a lie, he would have been a liar and the Spirit of God would have kept him in the tomb, but he never lied. Everything he said was true. All the miracles were to focus on the Father and the Spirit vindicates him.

How did the Spirit vindicate him? How did the Spirit say, that's right, everybody notice what he did was true? Answer, you know this. He was raised from the dead. Vindicated by the Spirit speaks of the resurrection.

Romans 1 is the best commentary on that. Declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Holy Spirit by his resurrection. Pretty amazing. All his claims of life, true. People thought he was an imposter, didn't they?

Look at him, king of the Jews. You say he's king of the Jews. But he was the Messiah. He wasn't a blasphemer. He wasn't a slander. I've not stolen this, I don't think, but I didn't make this up. When Jesus was raised from the dead, the resurrection was the Father and the Spirit's form of saying, Amen.

He was delivered for our offenses and raised again on account of our justification. Romans 4 .25. Was Jesus' death good? Was it sacrificial? Did he have a blemish? Did he really pay for the sins of his people?

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us. It is written, Cursed be everyone who hangs on the Galatians tree. Did it work? Did it happen? Did he really bear the sins of those people?

Answer, yes, because God raised him from the dead, vindicated by the Spirit. Sacrifice accepted. Well, number three. First, he was manifest in the flesh. Second, he was vindicated by the Spirit. Three, seen by angels.

Well, this is kind of neat because it confirms the resurrection. These angels are around the resurrection. Well, angels are around Jesus all the time, right? Gabriel announces to Mary, Jesus is going to be born.

Right? Jesus receiving ministry after the temptation. Jesus receiving help in the Garden of Gethsemane. Angels proclaiming the birth of Jesus to the shepherds. But the angels were also around the resurrection.

After the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. Behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone.

I like this next part. Don't let this pass you by. And sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him, the guards trembled. It became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.

He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. Jesus was raised from the dead. The angels saw it.

And by the way, the word angel means good angels. Some people are like, Are these good angels, bad angels? These are the good angels. But by the way, Jesus did make proclamation to the bad angels as well, which I find very interesting.

In Colossians chapter 2, it says he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. Seen by angels. Well, let's keep going. Number four, we have three left.

Proclaimed among the nations. What's a song that every Christian should sing? At least they believe with their heart. Manifest in the flesh, just vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations.

Doesn't this all seem to make sense flow-wise? So far, it does. Manifest in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit through the resurrection, seen by the angels after he was resurrected. And then what do you do?

What do you do if he's in the tomb? Well, you don't say anything. Because he was a fraud. He was a lunatic. But if he is gone and he has been raised from the dead, then what do you do? Hide it under a bushel.

See? No, you tell people. You can be forgiven with all the sins of things you did and didn't do that you should have done, sins with your hands, sins with your mind. God can freely and openly say, I want to be your God and you be my people.

And if you've got a good message, you've got to tell people. And so look at the passage. Here's line four of the stanza. Proclaimed among the ethnos, the nations. Of course it was originally proclaimed to the Jews, but if you're living in Ephesus, you're saying, I'm certainly glad that Gentiles get saved too.

And do you notice here? What's proclaimed among the nations? He, a person. And so you say, well, now I'm anti-doctrine and I'm pro-person. Well, everything we know about the person is doctrinal, so the focus must be on the person, but we speak of doctrinal truths about Jesus and the virgin born.

You talk about Christ and you immediately go into evangelism. Christology leads into missionology. Jews are Gentile. You preach. Because if Jesus has been raised from the dead, you preach. What's the response to preaching?

Line five. Manifest in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world. What's the response for this great news that Jesus Christ, the eternal God, cloaked Himself with humanity, lived a life you couldn't live, died the death you should have died, was raised from the dead.

Reconciliation. You think about people that get divorced for irreconcilable differences. When the Bible says Christ reconciled us, He reconciled us to God. And now we're friends. Irreconcilable friends?

No. Reconciled friends. The response is not, you've got to do something. The response is I can't do anything, but I'll take God's Word for what He says. That's what faith is. That's what trust is. God, I believe what You say.

You're a God of Your Word. Your Word is Your bond. I take You at Your Word. That's what belief is. Belief doesn't say I add something. I believe now God can do His work. Belief says I can't do anything because everything I do is sinful and tainted by Adam's sin and my own sin, and so I'm just going to have to take Your Word for it.

God, You said You've cloaked Your Son with humanity, and He died on the cross for sinners like me and was raised from the dead, and now it's been preached to me, and my response is, believe. That's the response.

The response is not, well, let's see, how can I measure this out? Well, what's my pedigree like? Well, for me, I don't know. I think I kind of earned heaven a little bit. For me personally, I had some water sprinkled on my head in the name of the triune God when I was a baby.

I went to appropriate response there. Probably did that. I went to confirmation. I went to church. Not just on Easter either. I went on a backpacking trip up to Colorado with other Christians, a youth group.

I went down to Galeana, Mexico, and told other people about Jesus and how He was the only Savior and they should believe it. I even got baptized in the Jordan River. Anybody here been baptized in the Jordan River?

I told you I could earn salvation, and you couldn't. The Jordan River. They dunked me into the Jordan River. I went to ten years of theological seminary. Certainly God would accept me. The response to manifest in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, and preached to me is not, God, look at what I can give for you.

You're going to be really lucky if I'm one of your believers. It's, you know, I don't know why you'd ever want to love somebody like me, but the Bible says you love sinners. And I believe Jesus did die for me and was raised from the dead.

God, I believe. That's the response. Faith alone. The power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. And can you imagine? Isn't it remarkable that anyone would believe? Slaves to sin. Slaves to Satan.

Slaves of the world. You can't even watch a Subway commercial without wanting to have some kind of BLT. I mean, we are so influenced. We are so slaves to our own sin. How can anyone believe? When you think about it, the Gospel says this.

As one writer said, the Gospel says, you're sinners. The Gospel says, you're dead. The Gospel says, you're weak. The Gospel says, you're without strength. The Gospel says, you're ungodly. All these things are insulting.

The Gospel says, you must be born again. How does anyone believe? The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead through the preaching of the Word at His will and at His pleasure makes people born again.

He gives them faith. He gives them regeneration. He saves them. That's a mystery that you can solve through the work of the Holy Spirit. So, when you tell someone who's enslaved to sin, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, God regularly, at His pleasure, opens their heart.

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, what? You shall be saved. If you believe that message, you can know something for certain.

That God in eternity past chose you. That Jesus at Calvary died for you. And at that moment, the Spirit of God has quickened you, made you alive. Everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die.

Jesus said, do you believe this? Yes Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God who is coming into the world. Well, there's one last line. We can't forget the last line of this great hymn.

Found in verse 16 at the very end. You see it there. Taken up in glory. This one had to be at the end even if it's not chronological. Taken up in glory. There are other times the word taken up, ascension.

That's what it is here. Jesus was taken up in glory. How about this? Then He led them out as far as Bethany and lifting up His hands, He blessed them. While He blessed them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven.

You'd think they'd be sad. And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God. Taken up in glory. What must have that been like? Dazzling, white, radiant, splendor.

Taken up in glory and by the way, taken into glory because that's a good description of the presence of God. The dazzling, effulgent glory of God. Jesus was our representative. He finished His job. He did what the Father sent Him to do and the Father said, work is done and He ascends to heaven and sits at the right hand of God taking His throne seat.

The hymn that every Christian sings and everyone must sing is God revealed Jesus Christ in the flesh. Because His substitutionary atonement and perfect life was actual, the Spirit of God vindicated His claims by raising Him from the dead.

Angels saw it. Disciples proclaimed it. People on earth believed it. He was taken up in glory. Feel bullied? No. It's not to bully people. It's to implore them. To implore them that if you are a Christian to remember during this season especially the next couple days, especially, to say, you know, I'm a sinner saved by grace and grace alone.

Everything I have. I've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. God, You have done this all for me and You received the praise and the glory and the honor. God, I want to be a living sacrifice for You.

If you're not a believer, I don't want you to be bullied. I want to beg you. You must believe. One day you're going to stand before God and then what? Well, my parents believed. My parents were faithful.

My parents loved the Lord. My parents, my parents, my parents. So I want to say, today's a good day to believe. Today's a good day to respond to the proclaimed news given to the nations. I don't know what it is about Christians but they love to sing.

I don't know if atheists like to sing. Do they? Well, I'm sure they like to sing pop music songs. But I mean, let's all get together at our atheist convention and then let's sing. Pass your anti-hymnals around and I don't know what you sing.

To know God, be the glory, great things He hasn't done. I don't know what you do. Kim and I were in New York City the last couple of days and there's this huge mural on the side of a wall north of Times Square.

It's a picture of Jesus and a picture of Santa Claus. And on top it said something like ignore the myth. It had a picture of Jesus. And then it said embrace the reality or something like that. And it had a picture of Santa.