In Charge Right From The Start

IN CHARGE RIGHT FROM THE START

John 1.14

S: Incarnation

C: Christmas

Pr: HUMBLY EMBRACE JESUS!

?: Who? Who is He?

KW: Description

TS: In our study, we will discover who Jesus is and why we should embrace Him.

Type: Propositional

The ____ description of Jesus is He is an/the…

I. INTRUDER

II. SAVIOR

III. RULER

PA: How is the change to be observed?

• Recognize His presence – He is not going away, he still intrudes, atheism may want to discredit him but they can’t, he will endure

• Recognize Your desperate need of salvation – sin, purposelessness, something greater in store for you

• Submit to his loving leadership – does not Lord, but he knows best; direct our paths, not a killjoy

Version: ESV

RMBC 02 December 07 AM

INTRODUCTION:

1. What do you do like to do with babies?

I remember the precious moments that I had in holding my children for the first time.

Probably holding JJ was the most memorable because as I looked into his eyes, I realized I had just become a dad.

I also did the normal thing that a lot of dads do.

They like to hold their babies high in the air.

The problem with babies, though, is that if you jiggle them too much, they tend to spit up, and it ends up on your face (remember always to keep your mouth shut when that happens).

I also liked toss my children high in the air.

I remember that I once was tossing JJ, and I kept going a little higher and higher.

He was laughing and laughing.

But then I tossed him a little too high and I kept waiting for him to come down.

It’s a good thing CPS wasn’t about as I certainly would have been charged with child abuse.

But you know what my favorite thing to do with each of my infant children?

It was just to hold them close.

It was just to embrace them.

Is that true of you as well?

The story of Jesus begins with Him as a baby.

And I want to encourage you to do the same thing with Jesus.

Embrace Him!

But even more…

2. HUMBLY EMBRACE JESUS!

As I mentioned last week, we live in a culture today that has forgotten the true meaning of Christmas.

The gulf has become so great that some think we are interrupting their holiday with all this religious stuff.

In recent years, our culture has been arrogantly pushing out Jesus.

So much so, it has become politically incorrect to say “Merry Christmas!”

But no matter how hard that is tried, it just can’t be done.

Christmas will always have its foundation in Christ.

We must not…we cannot…we will not forget about Jesus.

For…

3. Jesus’ birth is a defining moment in history (John 1.14).

Have you had defining moments in your life?

Like when you got the starting role on the team or in the play…

Or when you graduated from high school or college…

Or when you asked her to marry you and she said yes.

Your life was forever changed.

There is a time when our world was forever changed.

John describes it like this:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Word became flesh.

The Word, Jesus, became human.

He who had lived eternally, was now coming to live with us.

In theological terms, we call this the incarnation.

There have been many Christmas hymns that speak of this great mystery.

We want to make note of one carol in particular today.

For…

4. The beauty of the incarnation is captured well in Silent Night, Holy Night.

ILL Christmas (S)

In 1818, a roving band of actors was performing in towns throughout the Austrian Alps. On December 23 they arrived at Oberndorf, a village near Salzburg. There they were scheduled to perform the story of Christ’s birth in the Church of St. Nicholas.

Unfortunately, the St. Nicholas’ church organ wasn’t working and would not be repaired before Christmas. (Note: some versions of the story point to mice as the problem; others say rust was the culprit) Because the church organ was out of commission, the actors presented their Christmas drama in a private home. That Christmas presentation put assistant pastor Josef Mohr in a meditative mood. So, instead of walking straight to his house, Mohr took a longer way home. The longer path took him up over a hill overlooking the village.

From that hilltop, Mohr looked down on the peaceful snow-covered village. Reveling in the wintry night’s majestic silence, he gazed down at the glowing scene. His thoughts about the Christmas play caused him to remember a poem he had written a couple of years earlier. That poem was about the night when angels announced the birth of the long-awaited Messiah to shepherds on a hillside.