The final sermon of 2010 at GPCC was preached by Dave from John 1:1-14 (for those of you with good memories, I’m fairly certain that the first sermon of 2010 was also preached by Dave, but more of that anon!), looking back at Christmas and lingering over what the coming of Christ into the world means to us.
The game ‘Chinese Whispers’ shows how easily it is for messages to get distorted: during the war, the message ‘send reinforcemets; we are going to advance’ apparently ended up as ‘send 3 and 4 pence; we are going to a dance.’ Perhaps because God’s message to mankind had got distorted over time, definitely because there was no other way in God’s eyes to bring about the salvation of the world, ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.’
Jesus was, in the words of the carol, ‘very God, begotten, not created’, but He was also fully man. The Incarnation not only means we understand God better because He has revealed Himself, but it also means that we realise God understands us as well because He became one of us.
(1) Jesus felt what we feel.
Hebrews 5:7-8 tells us that Jesus learned obedience from what He suffered. He learned things the hard way – He knows what it is to be hungry and tired, lonely and rejected, unappreciated, misunderstood, beaten and ridiculed; He knows what it is like to face death and to stand at the graveside of a friend. He understands the everyday occurrences of life and what it is like to face the big things of life.
(2)He knows where we are going
Our Lord has lived the life we have lived. But He has also faced what we have not: He actually died so He knows what is on the other side of the grave. Because Jesus died, He faced the wrath of God on our behalf and endured the punishment we deserve, so that our deaths will yield life, not wrath.
(3) Jesus knows what we are really like and still loves us
Jesus ‘knew what was in a man.’ He understood our duplicity and there is no way we can hide from God what we are really like. That frees us enormously: there is no point in pretending or hiding, but we can be honest with God, for He loves the real us.
(4) Jesus knows what we need and provides it
* to the one who is lonely, He gives His presence
* to the one who has experienced moral failure, He gives His forgiveness
* to the one encountering depression, He seeks to give perspective and joy
* to the one who feels separated from God or others, He leads us to reconciliation
* to the one enduring great sorrow, He gives hope
* to the one facing major decisions, He gives wisdom
* to the one needing resources, He provides for their needs
(5) Jesus knows the temptations we meet and how to defeat them
No temptation will ever come upon us except what is common to man and God is faithful, providing a way out (1 Cor 10:13). God always provides a way out of temptation. Jesus will show us that way out.
(6) Jesus has faced our greatest fear and gained victory over it
Death is no longer the great ‘unknown’ to the believer. Death is a transition. It has lost its sting because the element of surprise and fear is gone.
Christ’s coming into the world shows us that God has experienced what we experience, without the taint of sin, and that He can speak the truth to us in a language and in a form we can understand. Nonetheless, John 1 reminds us that ‘He came unto His own… and His own did not receive Him’. It’s not a foregone conclusion that His coming makes any difference at all to people. The difference comes when we believe: “to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12)
As we view Christmas in the rear-view mirror, so to speak, and as the gifts we’ve received wear out, lose their value or diminish in their attraction, may we cherish the gift that only gets better each day of every year.
Postscript
I checked with Dave about his first sermon of the year… That was from John 20:19-31, looking at the difference the power of the Holy Spirit made to the disciples after the resurrection of Jesus. He ended the sermon with the words, “Whether we actually get St Mark’s or whether we don’t is entirely up to God, and, in the fullness of time, He will complete His plans for us. Whatever the outcome, we will give thanks to Him. And in this year of 2010 we will continue to serve God, not only with our programmes and plans, but most importantly with and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Because it is all of Him and all for Him and all through Him.”
Hindsight is such a wonderful thing, but I am more grateful for the faith with which Dave preached that opening sermon of the year. I am so thankful that we can see how God has worked all things together for good this year in the life of the church and that we have a Saviour who knows what we go through, can provide for all our needs and who gives us the Holy Spirit to equip us for all we have to face.