Sermon Outline

Witnesses to the Incarnation of Christ

The Incarnation of Christ

Introduction

-Today an explanation of the incarnation of Christ and in the following four weeks witnesses to the incarnation.

What is Incarnation?

-To take on a human form and a human nature

-Jesus was born into this world fully human. He was just like us except he did not inherit a nature bent toward sin, nor was Jesus under the condemnation of God for Adam’s sin, because Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

-Before and after the incarnation of Jesus he was God but in the incarnation Jesus put aside his Glory and privileges as God.

-A glimpse of God through the veil of flesh is found in Matthew 17.1-2

-Jesus continues to have a body in heaven. 1 Corinthians 15

Bible Verses on the Incarnation of Christ

1) Philippians 2.6-8. Existed in the form of God, equality with God, emptied himself, made in the likeness of men, appearance as a man, and obedience to the point of death on a cross.

2) Colossians 2.9. God in a body, both then and now.

3) John 1.1,14. The Word became flesh and dwelt with us.

4) 1 John 1.1-2; 4.9, 14-15. The Son of God became the Son of man and lived with us.

5) Revelation 1.12-18.  Jesus  is  in  heaven  with  a

glorified body. He has the keys of death and hell.

What the Incarnation of Christ Means to Me

-As an unbeliever I need to ask Christ to save me from my sin or I will not get to heaven.

-As a believer 1) Jesus speaks to the Father in my defense. 2) Jesus prays for me. 3) Jesus guarantees that I will get to heaven. 4) Jesus knows my trials and invites me to pray to him for grace. 5) Jesus will take me to be  with him and give me a new body.

Conclusion

-Ask yourself, “Why did Jesus come to earth and die on a cross”? What does that mean to me?

-Celebrate the blessings of the incarnation of Jesus.

Sermon Notes

Witnesses to the Incarnation (1)

-Beginning next Sunday I want to look with you at some of the witnesses to the incarnation of Christ. Today I want to explain what I mean by the incarnation of Christ. This is the season that the world calls “the Christmas season” but for the Church it is to be a time to remember and celebrate the incarnation of Christ. I pray that as we look at the incarnation of Christ today and see the incarnation through the eyes of witnesses over the next four Sundays that the magnitude of what took place over 2,000 years ago will cause us once again to stand in awe of the Grace of God. May God lead us to worship His Majesty as we gather together and learn from His Word.

–What is the Incarnation of Christ? Incarnation means “to take on a human form and a human nature”. Incarnation describes exactly what happened to Jesus. Jesus was born a human baby, with a human nature, and was fully a human person, no different than any of us, except that Jesus was born without the corruption of sin that we were all born with. All of us were born with a nature bent toward sin, and all of us were born under the condemnation of God because of the sin of Adam. But because Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit of God, Jesus was born with no corruption from sin in his human nature, and without the condemnation of God because of Adam’s sin. Jesus had to be born without sin and had to live without sinning so that He could offer Himself to God as the perfect sacrifice for the sin of mankind.

–Before the incarnation of Jesus, before Jesus became a human being like us, he was God. Along with God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit, Jesus was God the Son, in the eternal Trinity of God. When Jesus became a human being he did not stop being God, for God is an eternal being. What Jesus did while living as a human being was to lay aside his Glory, his God powers and his God privileges.

-So during his time of earth Jesus was both a full human being with a human nature and still continued to be God. The humanity and human nature of Jesus shielded from view his Divinity and God nature. We see the veil of humanity drawn aside just for a moment on the Mount of Transfiguration. “And six days later Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his brother, and brought them up to a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as light.” (Matthew 17.1-2) Just for a moment the Glory of the God nature of Jesus shone through the physical body of Christ.

-Jesus continues to have a body in heaven. This body is not the body Jesus was born with but is a resurrected and glorified body, but it is still a body. The body that Jesus now has is the kind of body that we will also be given at the resurrection of the dead. This body is described in 1 Corinthians 15.

-Let me share with you some Bible verses that tell us that Jesus Christ is both fully human and fully God. One of the clearest descriptions of the incarnation of Christ in the Bible is found in Philippians 2.6-8. This is what we read there, “Although Christ Jesus existed in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Notice some of the words in these verses – existed in the form of God, equality with God, emptied himself, made in the likeness of men, appearance as a man, and obedient to the point of death on a cross. Jesus was God and was equal to God the Father as God but was willing to become a man, not giving up his God nature but giving up his God privileges in order to become a man and to die on a cross as a sacrifice for man’s sin. To die on the cross for our sins is the reason why Jesus put aside his heavenly Glory and became a human being.

-Another verse is found in Colossians 2.9, “In Christ all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.” In other words the fullness of God is contained in the human body of Jesus. That could only be possible if Jesus is both God and human at the same time and that is exactly who Jesus is. This verse not only describes Jesus when he was on earth but describes what Jesus is like now in heaven, God in a human body.

-The Gospel of John begins with these words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Then in verse 14 we read, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jesus was God and was with God in the eternal Trinity and became flesh and dwelt among us. Let me tell you this as seriously as I can. God the Creator has visited His creation by becoming one of His creations, with the purpose of sacrificing his life to bring man back into relationship to God, a relationship that was broken because of man’s sin against God. God has come to you, into this world, in Jesus Christ, and died on the cross for your sins, and now invites you to receive his salvation by asking him to save you from the penalty of your sins.

-John’s first letter begins with the statement, “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life – and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.” (1.1-2) The writers of the NT were absolutely convinced that God had come to earth in the person of Jesus Christ. They knew they had heard and seen and touched God in Jesus Christ. They lived and died with that testimony on their lips. They were eyewitnesses to God in human flesh Who had came and died on the cross for their sins.

-In chapter four of this same letter John writes, “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. …And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” (4.9,14-15) Jesus is both the Son of man, and the Son of God, in one body.

-And finally in the last book of the Bible, in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, we have a picture of the resurrected Jesus. [Read Revelation 1.12-18]

-This Jesus is the same Jesus that came to earth and lived as a human being, as one of us, in order to die for our sins on the cross. Jesus is now in heaven and sitting on the throne of the universe.

-Notice that this glorious Jesus in heaven has the keys of death and of Hades in his hands. Would it not be really important to be a friend of Jesus who sits on the throne of heaven, who will judge mankind according to God’s Holy standard, and who has the keys of both death and hell in his hands?

-Jesus came to earth as a human being to make it possible for you to be not only his friend but his brother, a fellow-heir of God, and a child of God. But let me warn you this morning. You will not become a child of God by going to church, and doing your best, and trying to be a good person. If you could be a friend of God by doing all these things then Jesus could have stayed in heaven and not gone to the cross and suffered pain, and shame, and death to pay for your sin. Jesus became a human being for one reason and that was because we could not save ourselves from our sin. You could never pay for your sins and still get to heaven. If you are trying to get to heaven without Jesus you will not get there. Only Jesus can forgive your sins and take you to heaven.

-You may not understand all that I am saying this morning but if you know that only Jesus can save you from sin then cry out in your heart to Jesus “Jesus save me. Jesus save me”, and he will.

-Through his incarnation, death on the cross, and resurrection, Jesus has brought many back into relationship with God as their Father. If you have asked God to save you in Jesus Christ and you know that God has forgiven you, and put His Spirit into you as a seal that you belong to Him, I want to remind you of a few more things about this incarnate Jesus.

1) Jesus speaks to the Father in your defense. 1 John 2.1-2

Jesus is now your Advocate before a Holy God and presents himself to the Father as a satisfaction for your sin. The Christian is not to sin but when the Christian does sin there is no condemnation from God for that sin because Jesus presents himself to God as the one who paid the penalty for that sin. When we belong to Christ all sin is paid for and Jesus is our defense against any judgment from God for our sin. Jesus claims us as his own before the Father and the Father accepts us as His own in Christ. “Father they belong to me because I died for them and paid for their sin.”

2) Jesus now prays for you. Hebrews 7.23-25

Jesus is able to save you completely because he is interceding for you in heaven. Jesus is alive and is exercising his eternal priesthood by praying for your complete salvation.

3) Jesus guarantees that you will get to heaven. If Jesus presents himself and his death on the cross in your defense before the Father and is praying for your complete salvation you can be sure that you will get to heaven if you truly belong to Jesus Christ. We have other assurances in the NT as well that guarantee that in Jesus Christ we will get to heaven. Let me just mention a couple. Jesus said, “I give eternal life to them; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10.28-29) “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that every one who beholds the Son, and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6.39-40)

4) Jesus knows your trials, needs, and sorrows. Hebrews 2.14-18; 4.14-16

Because of the incarnation of Jesus, He knows what you are going through in your life each day. He can sympathize with you and invites you to come and present your needs to him with confidence and find grace to help in time of need.

5) Finally Jesus will come back to earth and take you home to be with him and give you a new body. John 14.1-3; 1 Corinthians 15.20-23

We are going to get new resurrection bodies patterned after the resurrected body of Jesus and we will be in his presence forever.

-Brothers and sisters we have much to celebrate as we remember the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

-If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Savior, if you are not born again, I ask you to think seriously on why Jesus, who is God, came to earth in a body and then gave himself as a sacrifice on the cross. Jesus did not come to earth as one of many options but as the only way for a sinner to get to heaven. Your response to Jesus Christ determines your eternal destiny. People do not automatically go to heaven. The default setting for mankind is not heaven but hell, so seriously consider why Jesus who is God became a human being and came to earth to die on a shameful death on a cross. Jesus did not come to earth because it would be fun but because without his death no one would ever get to heaven.