Last week we began a study called 'Extra-Ordinary Jesus' with the intention of focusing entirely upon Jesus.
And we began at the beginning, with the origin of Jesus. And to sum it up we said this- Every single person on this earth can trace their origin, their beginning back to the day they were born, we could even go back 9 months but that's it! That's our beginning! Our origin! And we can't go back any further!
But Jesus is different! He goes back to before even the world was created; in fact everything was created through Him! We looked through the Old Testament and found quite a few instances where Jesus, in the flesh, before His birth appeared and spoke to and interacted with other people, Abraham, Moses, Daniel's friends and Isaiah were some examples of that.
And it was with Isaiah and the vision He saw of Jesus that we finished last week. And what he saw was the Eternal King, the King of kings, sitting on His throne in all His glory, reigning and ruling and controlling EVERYTHING!
With the holy angels flying around Him singing and proclaiming 'Holy, holy, holy is the hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory'
And in John's Gospel we are told that this King, this Almighty King that Isaiah saw is Jesus! He was with God and He was God! Before His birth He was there, ruling and reigning over all! Today He is there sitting on His throne ruling and reigning over all! And forever He will be sitting on His throne ruling and reigning over all!
But for 33 years He gave all that up, willingly He left His throne, and came to earth not as 'the Angel of the LORD' or as 'the Commander of the Army of God' but as a Man! Beginning, like us at conception, then birth, then childhood, through His teens and into adulthood!
He walked and talked and learned and felt and experienced and laughed and cried and hungered and thirsted and tired and everything else that we go through, He went through!
And not only was He born a man but the lowliest, poorest of men! He wasn't born in a palace, but a stale! He wasn't born to royalty but to peasants! He wasn't born to a king and queen with vast amount of riches and power, but to a poor, teenage, single mother in one of the smallest, most insignificant town in Israel!
Jesus, King of kings, ruling over all things, a Mighty Warrior, unaffected by anything here on earth, worshiped by the angles, the Creator of all things, high and lifted up, left all that, humbled Himself and became flesh, became like us!
Now this has been one of the most difficult things I have ever tried to grasp just what it took for God to become like us like He did. I've been trying to think of things to compare it to, to try and make it easier to comprehend such love, and I came to this:
1). It would be like phoning Microsoft customer services because you are having trouble logging on and Bill Gates personally jumps on a plane and flies over just to push that power on button. Someone with great power going out of his way to humbly do the job of a 1st day temp.
2). Like a Jew knocking on Hitler's door at his most evil and announcing 'I am a Jew and I've come to clean your house and wash your dishes and iron your clothes and cook your food. I've come to serve you.' In effect, that's what He did! He knew what was awaiting Him and yet He came! 'This is the condemnation...'
3). In the 1730s 2 young men, in their early 20s, heard about an island in the West Indies owned by a British Atheist with 3000 slaves who had declared 'No preacher, no clergyman, will ever stay on this island! If he is shipwrecked we'll keep him in a separate house until it's time for him to leave, but he's never going to talk about God to any of us!'
After hearing this and the thought of so many men living and dying without ever hearing of Jesus they sold themselves as slaves to the owner to live with and share Jesus with their fellow slaves! And the last words their family ever heard were these 'May the Lamb that was slain receive the rewards of His suffering'
You know what? Even that doesn't compare to Jesus! There is nothing that can compare with the humility of Jesus! Nothing could ever come close! Creator became created!
God became man! Leaving His throne in glory to being born in a stable! Leaving the presence of the angles who were worshiping and shouting out 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts' leaving a place of perfect peace and justice and unity and coming to a place of sin and injustice to crowds who despised Him and cried out 'Crucify Him! Crucify Him!'
And you know, He did it because He loves us! He forfeited His rites because He loves us! He suffered and died because He loves us! He gave it all because He loves us! Never before and never again will such humility be seen!
