Tag Archives: messiah

Sermons

Why Christmas Part 3

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Merry Christmas!

May the Lord bless you and your families this Christmas week, and may you know the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ over your homes.

As we continue our series on the “why” of Christmas, I have three more questions.

Why is His Name Jesus?

As Shakespeare once wrote in Romeo and Juliet, “What’s in a name?” We associate people or characteristics with names. Let’s face it; the reason we don’t like certain names is because we once knew someone by that name whose actions or personality ruined the name for us. 

But the name Jesus is a name that means so much to us. Not because the letters grouped together carry any sort of power in themselves but because the man Jesus gives power to the name.

The name Jesus is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew “Joshua” meaning, “God Saves”. The Hebrew name Joshua and the Greek equivalent Jesus were common names at the time of Jesus’ birth. The name Jesus continued to be popular during the life of Jesus Christ, but after he died and rose again, the name became uncommon. 

Historians have found that after the 1st century,  the name Jesus simply vanished from use in that region, presumably because the name held controversial meaning following Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection. For early Christians, the name means so much that they felt that no child was worthy to carry the same name as the Messiah. For those who did not believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah, they did not want their child to be associated with such a controversial character.

The fact that God chose such a common name for His son demonstrates that Jesus came to the earth as a common person. The people of Israel expected their Messiah to come as a mighty warrior; they missed him because he came as a carpenter.

The name of Jesus holds profound meaning for us; we call on the name of Jesus for our salvation, and we pray in the name of Jesus (see 14:13-14 and Acts 4:12). The name of Jesus carries immeasurable power; there is no more powerful name in the universe than Jesus, not because of the name itself, but because of the One, the Christ, who gives the name power.

Why Did He Come as a Baby?

Why didn’t Jesus simply appear as a full-grown man and immediately perform miraculous signs and wonders? Why did he go through all the difficulties and challenges of youth and only begin his ministry when he was thirty? 

The teachers of the day, when speaking of the promised Messiah, must have described someone who had the wisdom of Solomon, the charisma and authority of David, the leadership ability of Moses, and the military genius of Joshua. But instead, Jesus comes into the world as a little baby—weak, needy, and humble, just like any other baby.

But Jesus was both God and man. The virgin birth is proof that he was divine; he was not a product of this world—he was God. Being born as an infant shows that he was also human in every way. Jesus went through trials and testing of being a young boy, a teenager, and a young adult (see Hebrews 4:15).

If Jesus had not taken on the form of a man, his sacrifice would have been unconvincing because he would have been aloof and separated from the common man. If Jesus had been a mere man and not God also, he would have died a martyr’s death, just like thousands of others. We can trust this same Jesus with our lives because he knows what we are going through, yet he overcame the world and all its temptations (see John 16:33).

Why Do You Need to Be Born Again?

Jesus came as a baby; he took on flesh; he took on a new name, and he came in order to be the Savior of all who would place their faith in him.

Jesus, in speaking to a Pharisee named Nicodemus, made this profound statement; “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” (John 3:3). The phrase  “Born again” can be translated in Greek to mean “Born from Above”. There is a spiritual dynamic to this new birth (see John 1:12-13). 

What does it mean to be born of God? We call this transition by many different names: we say, “I was saved,” “I became a Christian,” “I decided to follow Christ,” or “I became a believer.”For many people, this equates to a decision to raise your hand in a meeting or walk down the aisle at a service for prayer. The truth is that there are many people who claim to be Christians who show no evidence of a transformed life; they show no evidence of being born from above.

Jesus made it clear that to follow him is not a simple decision or a raising of the hand; to follow Jesus means to die to your old self, to take on a new name, and to completely give everything you have to God (see Galatians 2:20). When we are born again, we take on the name of Jesus, and we become so closely identified with him that we are his ambassadors (see 2 Corinthians 5:20). Do we understand what this means?

He who gave up everything for you and me asks us to give up everything for him.

Is he Lord of your life? Are you living every day as His ambassador?

This is what it means to be a Christian.

Sermons

Sermon, Sunday February 21, 2021, Hope Fulfilled

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Mark 1:1-13

We have all experienced seasons when we longingly hope for something to happen, but it seems that the fulfilment of the hope is so far away. Proverbs 13:12 says that hope deferred makes our hearts sick.

The people of Israel knew about hope deferred. In 2091 B.C., God told Abraham and Sarah that He is going to make them a great nation. They had to wait twenty-five years for Isaac to be born.

Between the Old and the New Testament, there is a period of 400 years where God does not speak at all to the nation of Israel and they are waiting for a promised messiah. At some point the people must have made the shift from “hope deferred” to “hope lost.”

After 400 years of silence from God, there is a stirring, stories of a miraculous birth and a man who performs amazing signs and wonders, could this be the hope?

Mark, the author of the Gospel account begins by saying that the book is the, “Good News of Jesus Christ”. Christ means the anointed one, the messiah. Mark was making it clear in the first sentence that this is the hope fulfilled, the one the prophet Isaiah wrote about.

As we read in verse 4 and 5, John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As we read in verse 6, he was not the type of herald that the people were expecting to introduce the messiah. But then again, the messiah wasn’t what they were expecting either. They were expecting a military ruler, but Jesus was so much more, and they didn’t recognize him.

As John was preaching one day, Jesus walked up and asked to be baptized. John Baptizes Jesus and suddenly, there is an unexpected display of the glory and power of God.

As Jesus comes out of the water, God the Father declares his love for His son. God the Father is declaring that this man is the one that the world has been waiting for and the hope of all mankind.

Then the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, descends on Jesus like a dove.

John’s retelling of this event informs us that the Spirit came down and remained

with him (John 1:33). It is the Holy Spirit who remained with Jesus, leading him into the wilderness, and throughout his life on the earth.

The Holy Spirit sends Jesus into the wilderness where we are told that he fasted and was tempted by Satan for forty days. Mark’s Gospel does not detail the temptations as the other Gospels, but I think this helps us understand that Jesus was not simply tempted with three questions as we sometimes like to understand the temptation in the wilderness. Jesus was constantly tempted until Satan leaves him.

This is a good reminder that we too are tempted daily. James 4:7 says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” We need to be on guard, daily being aware of the attempts of the enemy to take us off the path that God has for us.

Jesus was God, he was also fully human, and the Holy Spirit was what empowered Jesus to perform miracles (Matthew 12:28). In Romans 8, we read that it was the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus openly declared his dependance on the third person of the trinity.

With that in mind, how can we live as a follower of Jesus without acknowledging and relying on that same Holy Spirit in our lives (John 14:16-18)

So, getting back to verse 12. Jesus has just been recognized as the Messiah, the trinity was all present, the Father declared His love and pleasure in the son. This seems like a perfect time to go into the city and begin establishing his kingdom. But instead, Jesus is led to be broken and tempted. God is orchestrating all of History for His purposes. God the Father orchestrated and allowed Jesus to be tempted for forty days for a clear purpose.

1 Corinthians 15:45 refers to Jesus as the “Last Adam.” In Genesis 3, we read that the “First Adam”, was tempted by the serpent in the Garden and gave into that temptation. As a result of Adam’s sin, we are all born with a sin nature, separated from God. This is the primary need of all mankind, to be made right with our creator.

Jesus is the “Second Adam,” which means he is only the second man to walk the earth without sin. Jesus isn’t born of the seed of Adam but the seed of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20). Unlike Adam, who gave in to temptation, Jesus successfully resisted the temptation of Satan and won a decisive victory in the wilderness and lived the rest of his life without sinning.

Because of his sinless life, when Jesus was crucified, he was the perfect spotless lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice that God required for our sins to be forgiven.

Can you imagine being there for the official introduction of Jesus to the world?

It had been hope deferred for over 2000 years since Abraham. The hope of Jesus was planned before the creation of the world (1 Peter 1:18-21).

The complete Proverb 13:12 reads, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12).

Mankind’s longing has been fulfilled. As a follower of Jesus, the longing to have a relationship with your creator and live a life full of meaning and purpose has been fulfilled in Jesus.

Jesus is the tree of life for us today, providing the hope fulfilled. Without Jesus we have no hope.

What are you hoping for today?

Maybe it’s a job, a family member to be saved, financial breakthrough, freedom from addiction, the baby you have been praying for? Whatever you are hoping for, bring that to Jesus today, the one who can fulfill our hopes.

Sermons

What’s the Big Deal about Christmas? Part 1. Sermon Sunday December 15, 2019

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It is the Christmas season and almost everyone is talking about shopping and gifts. Society views Christmas as a big deal, it’s time off work, celebrations and family time. However, a lot of the big deal is driven by greed and commercialism. I wonder if Christmas would be celebrated the same way if we didn’t give gifts? If there was no commercial benefit in Christmas, would the malls and stores promote it so widely, if at all? Sadly, the modern-day Christmas celebration is a distraction of the Big deal that really took place 2000 years ago.

The first few verses of Paul’s letter to the Roman church is not your typical Christmas sermon text, but it is a concise record of why Christmas is such a big deal for us.

Paul introduces himself in verse 1, and in the original Greek, he used ten words to describe all that the Roman church needed to know about him. In English it is around eighteen words, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God” Romans 1:1

Paul begins by calling himself a servant. The Greek word is Doulos, which means a humble slave or servant. Paul never exalted himself because he realized that he was a sinner saved by grace (see 1 Timothy 1:15). As followers of Jesus, we are all undeserving sinners, saved by grace, called to be servants of the King of Kings.

Next, Paul says that he was “called to be an apostle”.  Jesus appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus and called him, changing his life completely (see Acts 9). He was called to be an apostle, which means an ambassador or messenger sent by God. Paul was sent by Jesus as his messenger to proclaim the Gospel to the world.

Paul then says that he was consecrated, “Set apart for the Gospel of God”. Paul was completely transformed from his old way of life and he was set on a new path. This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ, to be set apart and placed on a new pathway, one that leads to eternal life for the glory of God. If you don’t know that you are set apart, you are probably not saved.

Paul was set apart for the Gospel. We sing carols at Christmas that speak about “glad tidings”, which means the good news. The good news that God reached down into this broken world. He lived amongst us, dying for our sins in order to provide the perfect sacrifice so that we could be set free from the burden of sin. Jesus was raised back to life on the third day and through him we can live an abundant life, a life of meaning and purpose for the glory of God (see Isaiah 9:2).

After Paul uses the first verse to introduce himself, he steps out of the way and introduces Jesus, the reason for his letter. He begins with the fact that the Old Testament has hundreds of prophecies declaring the arrival of Jesus, the messiah.

Jesus Christ coming into this world to live and die for our sins was not an afterthought or a “plan b” by God. This gospel message was planned and originated before the foundation of the world.  Jesus came with a primary purpose, to live a perfect sinless life so that he could offer his life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. Jesus, the creator God, who spoke all of creation into existence, stooped down, and humbled himself for the sake of his creation.

Donald Grey Barnhouse said, “love that gives upward is worship, love that goes outward is affection, love that stoops is grace.”

This is overwhelming because we have no concept of the greatness of God. We speak about it, we sing “How Great is our God”, but we really have no idea. Moses had a unique relationship with God and in Exodus 33, we read how Moses asked God to show him His glory. God knew it would be too much for Moses, so he sheltered Moses inside the cleft of a rock and then covered him with His hand while God let His goodness pass by Moses.

In the next chapter we read that Moses came down the mountain with the stone tablets of the law and the people are terrified of him because his face is shining. Moses spent time with God, and he radiated the glory of God.

Because of Christmas, the cross and the empty tomb, we can come into the presence of God and speak to God, coming into His presence through Jesus Christ. This is prayer and this is why prayer is such an amazing privilege and source of power. Do you radiate the presence of God because you spend time daily in the presence of the most Holy God? Those around us should see the effects on our lives as a result of our prayer life.

Jesus came down from Heaven to be born in a manger in Bethlehem. This amazing God stoops down and provides a way for us to be saved and then in verse 5 Paul continues, “through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations,”

We are not saved to simply sit back and live our “best lives now”. We are saved by God in order to be a witness for him, to proclaim this good news to all the world. When you are saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, you are equipped with power from Heaven, and a new purpose in life (see Ephesians 2:10).

The final phrase of verse 5 is the purpose of it all, for the sake of His name, for the glory of God. All the redemptive story of Christmas and the Gospel focuses on the glory of God.

Christmas is a big deal, but the big deal is that God came down to His creation so that we could be saved from an eternity separated from God and that when we are saved, we are called to share this good news to a lost and dying world.

Oswald Chambers wrote: “There is only one relationship that matters, and that is your personal relationship to a personal Redeemer and Lord. Let everything else go, but maintain that at all costs, and God will fulfil His purpose through your life. One individual life may be of priceless value to God’s purpose, and yours may be that life.”

Christmas is a bid deal, and it is the time of the year when everyone around us is celebrating the birth of our savior. What a tremendous opportunity we have to introduce people to a personal relationship with him.

Who are you going to tell this week about your relationship with the King of Kings?