Christmas Message Part 3

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Christmas is the good news that God has spoken to us in person. Jesus Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. In Christ, we have God in a comprehensive way.

How do we benefit from that? Only the one who knows the Father can take you to the Father. This is the good news of the arrival of the Son of God.

This is from Vance Havner. We say much of the meaning of his coming to earth, the mission, the message, but we sometimes overlook the manner of his advent. God set it up in a pattern where we never would have dreamed.

He was born in a stable to a lowly peasant couple in an obscure corner of the Roman Empire. See, God moved beyond the lofty idea of reconciling man to himself, and he came to us. He got dirty.

He got broken. Think how we would have arranged it today. Publicity mad, image-obsessed day. That same pattern our Lord Jesus followed all his days. And the church might take a hint today when Hollywood sets the style. This is why in verse 5, which is the chief imperative of this text, let your attitude from the Holman Christian standard, let your attitude be that of Jesus Christ.

That's the chief. That's what we're aiming towards in this message. This is not a standard and typical Christmas message today.

But it is Christmas, because Christmas is what makes all of this possible, and this to this end is what Christmas is all about. And so as God spoke through the prophet Isaiah, God says, Behold, my servant. Hear him pointing to Jesus. Behold, my servant.

He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. So incarnation, when God became a man. And then he talks about his humiliation. He humbled himself. And you're sitting there, wait a minute, isn't that what he was just talking about?

And yet there's more. That the sovereign creator of the universe, the second person of the Trinity, emptied himself and came as born in the likeness of men and took the form of a slave. Isn't that humility? And yet Paul feels it necessary to talk about, yet he humbled himself. What's important is that he humbled himself sacrificially.

The person with a submissive mind does not avoid sacrifice. Sacrificially, he humbled himself that he became obedient to the point of death. Hebrews 5-8 says, Son, though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered. He was so committed to his father that he obeyed as far as death. And that death was a separation. That's something you and I will never be able to comprehend, because here he is, the second person of the Trinity, eternally preexistent with the Father as God. And yet for our redemption, for our reconciliation, there was necessarily a separation between the Son and the Father. That's why he prayed in the garden the night of his betrayal.

Father, if there's any way, let this cut pass from me. Hebrews 10, verses 5-7, the Lord is saying it's a prophecy made true of the Lord Jesus. A body you have prepared for me. I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. A body you have prepared for me. We celebrate Christmas and all the lights and all the comfort and the joy and a cozy little baby and the Christmas programs. Why did God create a body for the second person of the Trinity?

I'll tell you why. So he could be nailed to a cross, and buried, and rise again. We can't lose sight of that, because this whole celebration of Christmas is meaningless if we lose sight of that. What does it say about him and his sacrifice that he humbled himself sacrificially? Isaiah 53, 10, yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and to cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days. And he and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

This is God's will. This is why Jesus said in John 10, Jesus talking about being the Good Shepherd. John 10, verses 11 and 16, I am the Good Shepherd.

I lay my life down for the sheep. Isaiah 53, 10, yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and to cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days. And he and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

This is God's will. This is why Jesus said in John 10, Jesus talking about being the Good Shepherd. John 10, verses 11 and 16, I am the Good Shepherd. I lay my life down for the sheep.

That the sovereign creator of the universe, the second person of the Trinity, emptied himself and came as born in the likeness of men and took the form of a slave. Isn't that humility? And yet Paul feels it necessary to talk about, yet he humbled himself. What's important is that he humbled himself sacrificially.

The person with a submissive mind does not avoid sacrifice. Sacrificially, he humbled himself that he became obedient to the point of death. Hebrews 5-8 says, Son, though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered. He was so committed to his Father that he obeyed as far as death.

And that death was a separation. That's something you and I will never be able to comprehend, because here he is, the second person of the Trinity, eternally pre-existent with the Father as God. And yet, for our redemption, for our reconciliation, there was necessarily a separation between the Son and the Father. That's why he prayed in the garden the night of his betrayal.

Father, if there's any way, let this cut past from me. Hebrews 10, verses 5-7, the Lord is saying it's a prophecy made true of the Lord Jesus, a body you have prepared for me. I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book, a body you have prepared for me.

We celebrate Christmas and all the lights and all the comfort and the joy and a cozy little baby and the Christmas programs. Why did God create a body for the second person of the Trinity? I'll tell you why, so he could be nailed to a cross and buried and rise again.

We can't lose sight of that, because this whole celebration of Christmas is meaningless if we lose sight of that. What does it say about him and his sacrifice that he humbled himself sacrificially? Isaiah 53, 10, yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and to cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days. And he and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

This is God's will. This is why Jesus said in John 10, Jesus talking about being the Good Shepherd. John 10, verses 11 and 16, I am the Good Shepherd, I lay my life down for the sheep.

It's us. He sacrificially humbled himself to a death on a cross, and that meaning is chock full. The cross was a form of execution reserved for non-Romans and slaves and the worst of criminals. And here he is, your Creator, nailed to a cross. Now let's go back to verse 5, let your attitude be that of Jesus Christ. He humbled himself sacrificially. He emptied himself, he took the form of a servant, and he humbled himself sacrificially. So when it says that he humbled self to death, even the death on a cross, there are huge theological implications in that statement that Paul doesn't unpack right here. But his readers knew what he meant. The last point that I want to make today is simply this, that he humbled himself not only sacrificially, but willingly.

This is a key point. Warren Wiersbe says, the test of a submissive mind is not just how much we are willing to take in terms of suffering, but how much we are willing to give in terms of sacrifice. Jesus chose to take upon himself that one thing which, without his consent, had no power against him, death.

Do you remember how he was introduced by John? Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. How does a lamb take away the sin of the world by forfeiting his life? This is a substitutional sacrifice. He humbled himself sacrificially and willingly. And this is a substitutional sacrifice that is a foundational doctrine of biblical Christianity. Without it, our faith is nothing. And this was foreshadowed in all of the sacrifices under the law in the Old Testament. Sacrifice of lambs, goats, and bulls. All of that foreshadowing the reality that would come in Jesus.

And yet, I like what J.A. Mottier says, he's one of my favorite expositors. He says, yet those substitutes of the animals, those substitutes were incomplete for the central citadel of sin. The will was left unrepresented in uncomprehending and unconsenting animal. Only a perfect man could be the perfect substitute, and that at the heart of this perfection lay a will delighted to do the will of God. The central citadel of sin is the will. Christ humbled himself willingly. You've been listening to Delight and Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Visit our church website to see upcoming events or to listen to more messages at www.gbc.org. See winston.com. To discover how to live by grace, tune in on weekdays at 10 a.m.