True Incarnational Faith

Turn with me once again to Colossians chapter 2 Paul's epistle to the Colossians chapter 2 this evening our theme true incarnational faith true incarnational faith, but before we

Handle this great mystery of the faith together Let us ask the Lord once again to bless our time our great triune

God Father Son and Holy Spirit We desire to honor you this night To the handling of your truth and through the contemplation of truly the great mystery of godliness that he who

Spoke and the worlds came into existence Entered into his own creation

We asked you would help us to understand that you would help us to lay aside

Any traditions that might keep us from truly understanding? What it is that you have done in the very incarnation of Jesus Christ We asked to be with us by your spirit.

We pray in Christ's name Amen Well the season has started

I commented to my wife as we were Driving out of our neighborhood. I said well,

I think we're going to see a few more lights tonight, and we did I Don't know about you, but I like lights

I like the way they look I think it's beautiful to light up the night with Various colors and things like that, but I cannot help

I think as all believers do as you drive around and as you you hear people using

Borrowing from us in essence some of our language to talk about Jesus Christ and to talk about This particular season

I cannot help but wondering For what percentage of those people these words have any real meaning?

Whatsoever indeed for many Christians There is a desire not to have anything to do with this time period of the year because well

It's just so obvious that for the vast majority of people if this

This season does not impact how you live in June or even in January Then why bother with it at all are you not engaging in?

Rank hypocrisy to even sing the song that we just sang together

Well there may be truth in many of those things But this evening what I would like to do is to talk to believers and to talk about What it is we actually believe about the incarnation of Jesus Christ now

There's a term that of course is not the most popular term in the world But if we are going to have a a true knowledge of who it is that we worship we need to know what the

Bible says about this one and about this amazing claim that we make because we have to recognize that we make an amazing claim

I Mentioned this morning that part of my job involves having to listen to unbelievers of various kinds and various types

Some are Muslims some are our religious unbelievers in the message of Jesus Christ but then there are the atheists and the atheists very rightly point out the radical and strange claims that we make

When we talk about Jesus Christ we are not simply talking about Someone who lived 2 ,000 years ago who had some special insights into the human existence and the human condition we are not merely talking about someone who would be a parallel to a

Muhammad or a Buddha or any other religious leader we are not content in saying that Jesus Christ was merely an individual who had a special relationship with God Now there are many who call themselves

Christians today who will not go beyond that level There is a great deal of non

Incarnational Christianity out there. I use the term Christianity with quotation marks around it because it really isn't

Christianity I do not believe there is such a thing as Christianity without a truly divine

Christ at the center of that faith But the reality is that there are some who call themselves

Christians and they will say well Jesus Christ was just a special man but you know all that stuff that those early

Christians came up with about him being truly God and the incarnation and virgin birth and things like that now we we we want to be more relevant to today than to believe in things like that you see and So they come up with a non

Supernatural Jesus they come up with a Jesus who is less than him that we read about in Scripture Why do we believe in the incarnation?

Why does it matter? Why should it matter to us? I mean over the next month or so you might even have an opportunity to talk about who

Jesus Christ is And I hope you don't do it in this sense. Well, I'd like to tell you who

Jesus is to me. Oh There's so many today to speak like that Well, Jesus is this to me and maybe he can be something like that to you, too

That's not how the Apostles proclaimed Jesus They didn't say Jesus is this to me.

They said Jesus is this for everyone? He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords He is your creator your maker your sustainer and there is no one who can be neutral about him

Those are radical words It is an amazing thing. It is an embarrassing thing from the world's perspective

For us to actually believe that the one who created the entire universe

The one through whom all things came into existence the one who holds all things together by the word of his power

Actually humbled himself to be born in a manger to be

Nestled at the chest of a woman To have men come who were shepherds and They're the only ones who bow down later some

Kings come but but that night you only have these These shepherds who come this lowly birth this lowly life

He never walked the streets of Rome. He did not rub shoulders with the great philosophers

What an amazingly radical claim we are making that this one who stayed in just a small portion of the the backwaters of the

Middle East Was actually the creator himself We can certainly understand why those who do not have a firm conviction that we possess the

Word of God today Find such a claim to just it's just too much It's just we really can't tell people that they really need to believe that this morning we looked at Colossians chapter 2

And I want to go back there. Even though this morning we were talking about Thanksgiving. I want to read just a few more words in that section because it gives us a foundation of understanding our

Incarnational faith because that is what our faith is. Our faith is in Jesus Christ and we believe not just because in The back of our

Trinity hymnal Baptist edition We have the London Baptist confession of faith and it tells us that Jesus Christ is very

God of very God That's not the only reason we believe that the reason we believe that is because that is clearly

What the disciples of Jesus Christ himself taught their followers and gave us in the

New Testament? So note again the words from this morning Colossians chapter 2 Verse 6

Therefore as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord still walk in him having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him and established in your faith just as you were instructed and overflowing with You gotta see ya.

Yes those of you this morning already have that one down gratitude Thanksgiving See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception

According to the tradition of men according to the elementary principles of the world rather than according to Christ for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form and In him you have been made complete and he is the head over all rule and authority

You hear these words you have the warning do not be taken captive Through philosophy and empty deception

That has been a danger All the way down to the history of the church

Now we of course have men in our congregation trained in philosophy, but they will tell you

That philosophy without a knowledge of God is empty babbling

Philosophy that does not find its love of wisdom in him who is the incarnate wisdom is normally merely a pretense for man's own hubris and Arrogance, it's been my experience

And Paul says see to it that no one takes you captive traps you Like the bird caught in the net

Through philosophy and empty deception According to certain things the tradition of men according to elementary principles of the world

Rather than our standard and that is Christ another stumbling block for the wise the world

We make the Jewish Messiah The very standard of all of human knowledge and wisdom think about that for a moment

Who must he be What must his nature be? To make a statement like this.

How can he be anything less? than God incarnate if he is the very standard of wisdom and knowledge

You see The world will always seek to cause us to think on a basis other than that Defined by Jesus Christ.

We are told that we have the mind of Christ. What does that mean? Well, Christ is the very standard that has been given to us because of who he is

Because he is the incarnate one Because he is the one who has eternally existed because he is the

God man Then he lived he spoke he taught in perfect harmony with the will of the

Father And if we have been given his mind Then we will submit ourselves to his lordship and we will view all of life and all of human knowledge

Including everything that our advanced science today is discovering in the light of the

Lordship of Christ It's amazing what you see when you do that. I was listening to a debate yesterday

It was painful to listen to I'll be perfectly honest with you Christopher Hitchens is debating again.

Most of you know that my debate with him was canceled when he came down with the diagnosis of Cancer he's under treatment and he's back speaking again.

We're actually talking about Rescheduling but he was debating a man who had a science and philosophy background

The debate started off and went down from there I'm not sure what down from here is but it it was painful.

It truly was and As I listened to them talking about these these new discoveries

Amazing new discoveries. Have you heard of epigenetics? It's it's a whole new field as we've now mapped the entire human genome.

We've sat back and gone Well, that's not really what we expected Because basically we've got the same stuff that pretty much all of the living stuff has and we thought by mapping the human genome we'd we'd figure out everything there was to know about us, but didn't work that way and Fundamental ideas of how genetics work have had to be completely

Reoriented and we're starting to realize that there's there's just so much more here that we hadn't even

Hadn't even been thinking about once we started peering into the DNA molecule with electron microscopes and things like that and For a lot of people a lot of our young people as they go into university, they see a huge conflict between the old and now the new

And they don't see that as I listen to these men talk about these things as I as I See the complexity of life and as we can look ever more

Into the smaller smaller smaller world of creation or into the larger larger larger world of creation either way you go

What you see and how you see it relating still goes back to where you start

And if you think that we are just a cosmic accident that we have no purpose. There's no transcendent meaning

We're just the result of the the toss of the cosmic dice. That's going to determine how you see how things relate or How they cannot possibly relate to one another but when you start seeing the tremendous evidence of Intelligent design

I was and I was listening to Christopher Hitchens. It was fascinating. I wasn't gonna mention this but I'll say it quickly

I hope you find this interesting He was arguing for the Neo -Darwinian worldview and he was saying well look

I For example, I noticed this and and and it's now been documented But there were there are these lizards in certain caves in Indonesia and They they fell into these caves millions of years ago.

And when you look at them today Their eyes you can see where they were

You can see their cousins up still in the light where their eyes are but their eyes are gone.

You see it proves That life just simply randomly develops and it didn't need its eyes down there in the dark.

So the eyes are gone and As even before his opponent could get up and point out where the problem was and thankfully he at least did that I was riding while listening to this and I was just shaking my head

It might be dangerous sometimes to listen to some of these things if I was in traffic But I was just shaking my head because There's such a huge difference between recognizing that a living creature

Over generations will lose that which it does not need That's called natural selection and it works.

It's real has nothing to do with neo -darwinianism, but that's true There's a huge difference between getting rid of something.

You don't need Developing an eye The complexity of developing the eye all the necessary nerves and interpretations and the massively complex biochemical processes that were involved in an eye

Getting rid of something you don't need or designing something more complex than this.

Oh, yeah, that's the same thing And I could not help but chuckle Because Christopher Hitchens is a very intelligent man

But his starting presuppositions denying the Lordship of Christ denying that there is a creator

Blinds him to the most obvious things and it's so clear so easy to see

If your eyes have been opened So you see Jesus Christ is

The very standard by which we were to judge all things who must he then be while Paul tells us for in him all

The fullness of deity dwells in bodily form There is the incarnation

For in him all the fullness of the atheta's

That which makes God God only place that terms used it is a very strong term

There is a similar term Thyatis. It is used over and run Romans 120, but it's not the same term

They are they toss that which makes God God the very definition of the divine being dwells in Jesus Christ Somaticos in bodily form doesn't just appear to be there

Doesn't just pretend to be there He this deity dwells in bodily form now just briefly

Paul is emphasizing this because of the false teaching he's reacting against The false teachers would say that God would never take bodily form.

They were dualists That which is spiritual is good that which is physical is evil So to say that all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form was a direct

Contradiction of the false teachers that the Apostle Paul was attempting to warn against But this is why

Jesus Christ can be said to be the very standard We are to use to measure everything

Because he is the very creator Who has entered into? human flesh this morning in Sunday school

We looked at just some of the texts from the Old Testament That prophesied the coming of Christ they prophesied different Aspects of his ministry one of those that we looked at is

Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6 For to us a child is born

To us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful counselor mighty

God Everlasting Father Prince of Peace Terms we all know most of us even if we

Didn't have the reference down have memorized those words We've heard them in handles

Messiah, and they become Anything you hear in the Messiah becomes imprinted upon your your soul,

I think But notice what is said To us a child is born

It's the normal Hebrew word for child it's not some special term about about a

Being that just sort of pretends to be human and the word born is the normal Word for the birth of a child if you just saw the phrase a child is born there would be nothing in that It would tell you anything unusual at all the first phrase tells us

Jesus truly entered into the world as Man, there was a pregnancy

Mary traveled while pregnant it was difficult for her to do so there is a period of development and There was a real birth

Unlike the strange mythology that Roman Catholicism has developed where Jesus in essence beams out of Mary's womb and That is the dogmatic teachings the

Roman Church today In regards to the immaculate conception and the perpetual virginity of Mary and all the rest that kind of stuff

All those Marian dogmas come together in this odd strange Gnostic view

There is a real birth and a real child is born The second phrase might just be a repetition of that to us a son is given

But I don't think so It could be Hebrew parallelism to us a child is born to us a son is given very common in Hebrew to Restate something and to re -emphasize something it could be that But I don't think so.

I think what we have here a Son is given the

Son who has eternally been the Son the Son of God is given to mankind and When you think about the horizons of the statements that follow

How much could Isaiah understand when he refers to him as wonderful counselor?

El Gabor mighty God many people say that just means a mighty man You can find

Gabor used elsewhere. Yeah, but the problem is in the very next chapter Yahweh is called

El Gabor mighty God Everlasting Father he's not the father.

That's true but father son and spirit are Trinitarian names revealed in the New Testament not the

Old Testament and in reality the phrase here of the odd would best be understood as father of eternity or the one who creates eternity father is frequently used in the

Old Testament of one engaged in creation and Jesus is described as the one through whom all things are made whether in heaven and earth

Principalities powers to menus authorities all things created by him and for him He is before all things in him all things hold together the

Prince of Peace Therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ How much of this could Isaiah have understood people disagree? But the understanding of the

Prophet does not provide a limitation of the revelation of prophecy Here you have words that are fulfilled in their fullness in the

New Testament especially in those tremendous words of John chapter 1 After describing the word as having eternally existed in the beginning was the word the words with God the word was

God In the beginning was the word as far back as you want to push the beginning the word existed The word was with God there was fellowship between the father and the son the word was

God as to his nature he was deity that word verse 14 says became flesh and Dwells among us and we have seen his glory glory is the only son from the father full of grace and truth

The word became flesh the word did not cease being the word the word

Became flesh he truly was flesh John wants to emphasize both in the gospel and in the epistle the reality

Truth and the reality that Jesus Christ was truly man He did not merely appear to take on human flesh.

He did not merely Manifest what looked like a human body for a period of time The word became flesh and dwelt among us

He went to bed. He got up in the morning. He ate breakfast lunch and dinner

He went fishing he walked along dusty roads and had to have his feet washed he dwelt among us and Yet we have seen his glory.

I Think there he's talking only to believers because unlike all of the pictures you see in the old books

Jesus is walking down The narrow dusty roads of Jerusalem and he has a halo on and he can walk at night because he glows

You know, I mean and they didn't have to worry about tripping over stuff because Jesus is glowed as he walked

No, that's not the case. He did once on the Mount of Transfiguration one time in the presence of the father his glory shown through but The only ones who saw his glory saw his glory with spiritual eyes not with physical eyes

The word truly became flesh and dwelt among us and there is no

Christianity without an enfleshed word There is no fulfillment of prophecy there is no redemption there is no death burial and resurrection

There is no king of kings and lord of lords. You just got a religion If you don't have a divine

Savior But that divine Savior is the one that people don't want to hear about because if he's truly divine

Savior and what he says goes and must be obeyed

The reality of the incarnation is likewise seen remember when we were in Hebrews chapter 2 we read these words

Therefore since the children share in flesh and blood He himself likewise also partook of the same and through death that through death

He might render powerless him who had the power of death That is the devil and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives

To hear those words since the children share in flesh and blood he himself likewise

Also partook of the same that through death You see if he wasn't truly man

Then he didn't truly die he didn't truly give his life and so he partakes of flesh and blood without our corruption

But he shares our nature So the life he gives is a true life

He was the God man not 50 % God and 50 % man There is no mixture

He is not a demigod or an exalted man He is the

God man truly God truly man 100 % God 100 % man two natures one person our

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ But I think the greatest incarnational text of all

Must be that tremendous text in Philippians chapter 2 It is truly the incarnation text

Paul in Giving us an example of humility says you must have the same mindset among yourselves

That was in Christ Jesus who although he eternally existed in the very form of God Did not consider that equality he had with God the

Father something to be held on to at all costs But instead he made himself nothing by taking on the very form of a slave by being made in human likeness

Having entered into human existence. He humbled himself of becoming obedient to the point of death

Even the death one dies on a cross because of this

God the Father exalted him to the highest place And bestowed on him the name which is above every names of the mention of the exalted name of Jesus Everyone who is in heaven on earth and under the earth bows the knee and every tongue confesses

Jesus Christ is Lord all the glory of God the

Father here you clearly have the assertion of the incarnation

Even though he had eternally existed in the very form of God. He had equality with God the

Father He did not consider that equality had with him to be something to be held on to at all costs

But instead he made himself nothing He made himself nothing not he was made nothing now.

I Don't know I'm I'm getting up there in years.

I Can remember back when in eighth grade I had a teacher that really emphasized grammar and And There was actually two

English teachers They really emphasized grammar and I had the one who didn't but every once while we had to go over to the room with the one Who did?

Later on I wished I had the other teacher to be honest with you. It would have helped me a lot when I took

Greek but Grammar means something grammar is how we express things and there is a difference between saying

He made himself nothing and saying he was made nothing

There's a difference between those two statements in the first He is acting upon himself

It's a reflexive action. He made himself nothing in the second

It's a power outside acting upon him making him nothing the voluntary nature of the

Humiliation of Jesus Christ the humiliation the humbling the entering into human flesh the incarnation

Jesus Was involved with that it was voluntary. He made himself

Nothing think about that You see the world isn't overly frightened of the little babe in the manger

Until we emphasize the fact that the babe in the manger Had created the manger

He created the tree from which the manger was built he designed the mechanism by which the hay grew that filled the manger in which he lay and He had made himself nothing he by his power

Had been involved in bringing himself into that place now I'm not talking about a

Gnostic Jesus who lays in the manger and goes hey want to have a discussion of nuclear physics with me

Because the Bible says he was the God man and he grew He didn't talk as a child

Unlike certain Gnostic myths and the Quran says he did he grew he developed

But he made himself nothing and notice How did he make himself nothing?

by doing two positive things by taking on the very form of a slave by being made in human likeness the

Incarnation was the means by which he made himself nothing to step down From the throne in heaven

To veil his glory for the purpose of the eternally chosen purpose of the triune

God father son and spirit that the son not the father not the spirit the son Would take on human flesh.

He would take on the form of a slave. He'd be made in human likeness for the purpose of Humbling himself and becoming obedient to the point of death even the death one dies upon a cross.

That wasn't some afterthought That was the purpose of the triune

God from eternity past That's why he is described as the lamb slain from the foundation of the earth.

But what power is seen in? humility humility is power under control

This one who going to the cross reminded us. I Could ask my father and he would give me a legion of angels

But He doesn't because that power is under control for the purpose the fulfillment of the will of God and it was

God's will that Christ died upon the cross because in that act triune

God is fully glorified the incarnation you may have opportunity over the next few weeks to give witness to your faith and I hope you will be bold in the

Jesus you present Because our society is filled with weak wimpy

Jesus's Jesus's that make no demands

Jesus's that just come along and Sort of fit in where you give them room. There is no such

Jesus this Jesus This one who made himself nothing

Has been exalted the highest place He's been given a name which is above every name and someday every knee will bow

Even Americans who don't bow knees Every knee will bow

Every tongue will confess Christopher Hitchens will someday confess the one that he has hated

Is king of kings and Lord of Lords That will happen

All to the glory of God the Father, but you see without the incarnation without the real

Jesus without the God man, none of this makes any sense whatsoever as you have opportunity to Give witness to Jesus Christ May you do so first of all firmly convinced that you do not worship and honor a myth a

Story from on all of old But just as we saw in the scripture reading tonight all of this took place in time and history the myths of ancient religions never cared about providing us with backgrounds and and where Othernations came from and time frames and who was ruling went didn't care about things like that because they weren't really telling you a real

Historical story, but that's not what the Bible does the

Bible tells us that a certain time a certain place a certain manner God Invaded his own creation and since that time he has been building his kingdom and Now on the other side of the planet

In a language that did not exist No one had even thought of in the days of those shepherds around Bethlehem People who possess technology that those men would have found to be pure magic

They could not imagine the things that we have space travel satellites and everything else and Yes on the other side of the planet

Two millennia later we still bow our knees before the same

You want evidence of the supernatural? You want evidence of miraculous you want evidence of God fulfilling his purpose in this world think about that but after all the world has done to try to Extinguish this message you sit here this evening and as you ponder

What Christ has done for you your heart is filled With awe and wonder awe and wonder that one so powerful one so great one so glorious would do what he did and Then two thousand years would send his spirit into your life

Open your eyes remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh Give you eternal life and forgiveness

Unite you to him not because you did anything

But simply because he's that gracious What a Savior is ours?

What a gospel is ours? Let us pray together Indeed our

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We thank you That you are building your church, and we thank you that when we worship you our

Lord and Savior We do so in spirit and truth Because you are a great

God and Savior you are the incarnate one You are worthy of our worship.

We thank you for what you've done for us Father son and spirit we thank you for all that the triune

God has decreed to accomplish and is accomplishing We thank you that that is included

The founding and the sustaining of the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church and the bringing together on a cold

November night of that congregation to once again consider the great truths of the

Incarnation Lord we thank you for what you've done for us

May we be bold in our witness for you a boldness born of our love

For our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Give us opportunity to bear testimony of these truths