SERMON OUTLINE:
He changed his abode.
He changed his possessions
He changed his glory
He changed his form
SERMON BODY:
ill:
• Some people here this morning have changed their identity.
• They were born with one name but now proudly live by another.
• Now they are not lawbreakers, it’s all legal.
• When it comes to marriage (and often adoption),
• A person will normally. legally change their name.
• Those two reasons are positive
• It is the start of a new union, becoming a new family.
Most name changes happen for negative reasons:
• Many people feel forced to change their names;
• A few of the common reasons why people change their identity are,
• Forced to go into a witness protection program,
• Escaping an awful and abusive relationship,
• Escaping Gang Life,
• Escaping Debt,
Ill:
• And some people just do not like the identity, the name their parents chose for them.
• We have a friend called Sarah,
• But one day we met her mother, who let slip that her real name was Jane,
• One day as a child she decided she did not like the name Jane,
• And so, renamed herself Sarah.
• TRANSITION: Often people change their identity for negative reasons,
• But some do for positive reasons.
• When Jesus chose to enter our world;
• He changed his identity forever.
• He changed it in at least four ways.
• I want to use these verses just as a springboard this morning;
• This evening we will look at them in verse order,
• But this morning I want us to spring off them and at times elsewhere in the Bible.
• So, when Jesus chose to enter our world;
• He changed his identity forever.
• He changed it in at least five ways.
(1). He changed his Location.
Quote: John chapter 1 verse 14:
• N.I.V.: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”
• J.B.P.: “So the word of God became a human being and lived among us.”
Ill:
• When we sing the Carol: ‘Once in royal David’s city’.
• We sing the words; “He came down to earth from heaven”
• A reminder that the conception of Jesus in the womb of the virgin Mary,
• Was not the start of his existence.
• He is the eternal one!
• The word eternal means "everlasting, having no beginning and no end."
• From duration stretching backward without limit;
• To duration stretching forward without limit, from eternal ages to eternal ages,
Ill:
• In heaven Jesus had no mother, for he was never born.
• He was the second member of the trinity “God of God, light of light”.
• On earth he had no father, “Born of the virgin Mary”
• Joseph of course was his stepfather,
• Jesus was a miracle child “the Holy Spirit came upon Mary”.
Quote Jesus himself who said:
• He said to a crowd of Jewish people (John chapter 6 verse 51)
• “I am the living bread that came down from heaven”
• He said to some Pharisees (John chapter 8 verse 23):
• “You are from below but I am from above”
• Then later in the same chapter he said: (John chapter 8 verse 42):
• “I have come from God”
Ill:
• Location, Location, Location is a reality-TV |series with;
• Property experts Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer,
• Who show house hunters properties for sale that might fit their requirements?
• And as the title of the show suggests – location is everything!
• Can you imagine an episode of the programme that stats with;
“Today, we have a couple from Windsor, Phil & Liz, who are looking to down-size!”
They are going to sell their 775-room detached property,
Which is Located in the City of Westminster, London,
And are looking to rent a council flat in Birmingham.”
• TRANSITION: Now that would be an episode of the show I would watch!
• But of course, that is never gonna happen.
• And yet Christmas is a reminder that something far greater than that did happen.
• When the Son of God left the glory of heaven to be born on planet earth.
Quote: ‘Once in royal David’s city’,
“He came down to earth from heaven,
Who is God and Lord of all,
And His shelter was a stable,
And His cradle was a stall:
With the poor, and mean, and lowly,
Lived on earth our Saviour holy.”
(2). He changed his Possessions.
Ill:
• Joseph Heller, was the author of the book, ‘Catch-22’,
• (His bestselling novel is a hilarious and tragic satire on military madness,)
• One-time Joseph Heller was at a party when a man walked over to him,
• The man then pointed out to Joseph;
• A young, 25-year-old man who worked for a big hedge fund.
• And said to Heller;
“You see that guy over there? He made more money last year
then you will ever make with all of your books combined.”
• Joseph Heller said, “Maybe so. But I have one thing that man will never have.”
• The man was sceptical and asked him. “Oh yeah, what?”
• Heller replied, “Enough.”
• TRANSITION: Great answer and wise words.
• Jesus the Son of God, the second member of the trinity,
• Had all the possessions he ever wanted,
• And he had the right attitude to go with them!
• But Christmas is a reminder that at the incarnation;
• He gave them up!
• Quote: We sang together the Carol:
• “Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour all for loves sake becamest poor”
• The verse of the Bible that the Carol is based upon; (2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 9),
• Is written in the context of money, financial wealth.
• In heaven Jesus was rich, he had everything!
• But Christmas is a reminder that at the incarnation;
• He gave it all up!
• He changed his possessions!
Ill:
• In the Old Testament we read about an interesting incident;
• (Genesis chapter 14 verse 18)
• Abraham meets a strange character called, ‘Melchizedek king of Salem’.
• This man blessed Abram (Abraham)
• And in his blessing, he uses a great name to describe God.
• N.I.V.: “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth.”
• Many other translations translate it better e.g. Young's Literal Translation:
• “'Blessed is Abram to God Most High, POSSESSING heaven and earth”
• So, the Bible says of God and therefore Jesus,
• That he is; “the possessor of heaven and earth.”
Ill:
• Elsewhere in the Old Testament (Psalm 50 verse 12),
• Which is a psalm written by a man called Asaph.
• And God says to him with great irony:
• “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,”
• Now, obviously God does not get hungry, but if the impossible happened and he did
• He says to Asaph, “I would not look to you for help.”
• And the second part of the verse tells us why, God says that:
• “For the world is mine, and all that is in it.”
• In other words, I don’t need your help;
• Because I have more than you can ever imagine or think of!
Earlier on in our service:
• We sang together in the Carol: “From the squalor of a borrowed stable”
• A reminder that Jesus gave up his possessions, he left then all behind all behind!
• Jesus was never a scrounger, a freeloader,
• But he did borrow things!
Ill:
• He borrowed a stable, so that he would not born in the open fields.
• He borrowed a manger, so that he had a bed.
• In his ministry,
• He borrowed a boy’s lunch (fish & bread) to do a miracle and feed 5,000+ people
• He borrowed a fishing boat to sit in and teach the people on the land.
• He borrowed a coin for an illustration about money and God.
• He borrowed a room so that his disciples could have a last supper together.
• He borrowed a cross from Barabus, so that Barabus could walk free.
• He borrowed a tomb from Joseph of Arimathea, so that he could be buried.
• And don’t take this the wrong way (for it’s only a play on words),
• He borrowed our sin, to save a lost world,
• He had to take our sin, for he had no sin of his own!
• TRANSITION: Jesus borrowed lots of things.
• Now, he was never a scrounger, but he did borrow things.
Ill:
• John Wesley the English cleric, theologian and evangelist of the 17th century;
• Who travelled 250,000 miles on horseback to preach the gospel to people.
• It is said that when he died, he left behind a few things;
• Two silver spoons, the clothes on his back – and… oh yes, the Methodist Church!
• TRANSITION: When Jesus left planet earth,
• He had even less than Wesley.
• All he had to promise his disciples in the upper room (John chapters 13 to 17);
• Before he returned back to heaven was the gift of:
• “My joy” and “My peace” and “My love” – that’s all,
• Nothing material at all!
• He could not even leave his clothes;
• Because to fulfil prophecy (Psalm 22 verse 18),
• The Roman soldiers at the cross would gamble for them!
(3). He changed his Glory.
Ill:
• One night a father heard his young daughter speaking,
• Although she was alone in her room.
• The door was open just enough;
• That he could see that she was kneeling beside her bed in prayer.
• Interested to find out what subjects a child would bring before God,
• He paused outside her door and listened.
• After tuning in to her speech he was puzzled to hear her reciting the alphabet:
• "A, B, C, D, E, F, G …" She just kept repeating it.
• He didn’t want to interrupt her,
• But soon curiosity got the best of him and he broke into prayer,
• "Honey," he asked, "what are you doing?"
• "I’m praying, Daddy," she replied.
• "Well, why are you praying the alphabet?" he asked.
• She explained,
"I started my prayers, but I wasn’t sure what to pray.
So, I decided to just say all the letters of the alphabet and let God put them together however he thinks best."
• TRANSITION: Jesus prayed on many occasions;
• We all know what is called, ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ (Matthew chapter 6),
• But that really is the disciple prayer, they said; “Teach US to pray”
• The Lord’s prayer is really the one found in John chapter 17;
• And in verse 5 we read these words:
“And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”
• Notice: that Jesus asked to be "glorified" by the Father;
• He did not want glory from men,
• He was not on an ego trip; he was not interested in being honoured by the world.
When Jesus came into this world, he did something with his glory:
• Now Christians struggle to verbalise what that means
• Some Christians have even fallen out over it!
ill:
• Charles Wesley wrote a great hymn entitled; “And can it be?”
• Sadly, some Christians won’t sing it because of verse 3,
• They say it is wrong, even heretical!
“He left his Father's throne above —
so free, so infinite his grace —
emptied himself of all but love,
and bled for Adam's helpless race.
'Tis mercy all, immense and free;
for, O my God, it found out me!”
• Well, the offending line is the third one:
• “Emptied himself of all but love,”
• Critics forget, Wesley is using poetry, this is not a theological lecture,
• And we must understand the sentiment of what he is saying.
• He is trying to simply put into words what happened at the incarnation.
• And that is a very hard task to do.
Ill:
• Charles Wesley did write another Christmas hymn called,
• “Glory Be to God on High.”
• It is a superb insight on the incarnation of Christ
• The second verse says:
“Him the angels all adored,
Their Maker and their King;
Tidings of their humbled Lord
They now to mortals bring;
Emptied of His majesty,
Of His dazzling glories shorn,
Being’s Source begins to be,
And God Himself is born!”
Ill:
• Think about a powerful lamp, the type you get in a theatre,
• To look straight into its bright light would hurt or even your eyes,
• But these lights have a dimmer switch on them,
• And the light can be turned down so that it almost looks like it is off,
• And the faintest of light is there.
• TRANSITION: When Jesus came to earth as a man,
• His outward glory was not visible.
• It is as if it was turned down low.
Ill:
• Just once while Jesus was on earth did that glory shine through,
• It happened in Matthew chapter 17 at the transfiguration.
• And only Peter, James and John were allowed to see it.
• Matthew says (chapter 17 verse 2):
• “His face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as light”.
• Mark says (chapter 9 verse 3):
• “His clothes became dazzling white”.
• Luke says (chapter 9 verse 29):
• “The appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning”.
Jesus never had a halo on his head;
• He never had a divine glow surrounding him,
• In fact, he looked just like any other Jewish man at the time.
Ill:
• Twice when people needed to identify Jesus,
• We are told, John the Baptist could not identify him,
• It was only because the Holy Spirit like a dove came and rested on him.
• And when judas betrayed him, he had to point him out to the guards,
• By kissing Jesus on the cheek, otherwise they would not know who he was.
(4). He changed his Form (His state).
• N.I.V.: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us”
• N.J.B.: “And Christ became a human being and lived here on earth”
• Or even: “The Word Became Flesh and Tabernacled among Us.”
• This verse is one of the most profound sentences ever written.
• Because it expresses and puts into words;
• One of the most profound mysteries that has ever occurred in human history:
• That the eternal Son of God, through whom all things were created,
• At a certain point in time he actually became part of his own creation!
Quote: ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’
“Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel”
• We call this event, ‘The incarnation,’ now that word does not occur in the Bible.
• The term comes from the Latin translation of John chapter 1 verse 14.
• The Latin Vulgate was the Bible used in the church through the Middle Ages,
• So, this Latin term became standard.
• ‘Incarnation’, is derived from the Latin ‘in’ and ‘caro’ (flesh),
• Meaning, ‘clothed in flesh’, the act of assuming flesh.
• Before His Incarnation Jesus Christ had no physical body;
• The Bible teaches that; ‘God is Spirit’ (John chapter 4 verse 24)
• As part of the Godhead/Trinity Jesus was a spiritual being.
• By that I mean he had no physical, human body.
Quote: J.I. Packer:
“Here are two mysteries for the price of one — the plurality of persons within the unity of God, and the union of Godhead and manhood in the person of Jesus. . .. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the Incarnation.”
• Jesus when he chose to enter our world;
• Was literally "incarnated" – "enfleshed".
• That doesn't just mean that he took on a human body, as if he were just a passenger.
• It means that he was joined to a human nature.
• Remember that the incarnation is an act of addition, not subtraction.
• Jesus has added to himself a second nature, that is a human nature,
• As a result, the individual Jesus is one person—the Son;
• Who now subsists in two natures, and thus is fully God and fully man.
Quote: C. S. Lewis:
• “Lying at your feet is your dog.
• Imagine, for the moment, that your dog and every dog is in deep distress.
• Some of us love dogs very much.
• If it would help all the dogs in the world to become like men,
• Would you be willing to become a dog?
• Would you put down your human nature,
• Leave your loved ones, your job, hobbies, your art and literature and music,
• And choose instead of the intimate communion with your beloved,
• The poor substitute of looking into the beloved’s face and wagging your tail,
• Unable to smile or speak?”
• What we would not do and could not do for an animal;
• God was both willing and able to do for us!
Note: The other three changes that took place at the incarnation have been reversed,
FIRST:
• He changed his location – from heaven to earth;
• But now he is back in heaven!
SECOND:
• He changed his possessions – he gave up is wealth and lived a simple life on earth;
• He said in Mathew chapter 8 verse 20:
“Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”
• But now he is back in heaven!
• He once again can enjoy the luxuries of what heaven contains.
THIRD:
• He changed his glory,
• He was like a light that had been turned down low;
• But now that light has been turned on full, his glory has been restored!
FOURTH:
• But regarding his form, his state, his incarnation,
• That has not and could not be reversed!
• When “The word became flesh, a human being”
• He became flesh, a human being for the whole of eternity!
• Quote: the hymn writer Josiah Conder; “The Lord is King”
• “And he is at the Father's side, the Man of love, the Crucified.”
Ill:
• If you went up to heaven tonight,
• Do you know who you will see?
• Well, let me help you, you will not see God the Father he is a Spirit!
• He is he invisible God.
• You will not see God the Holy Spirit, because as his name suggest he is a Spirit!
• He is he invisible.
• But you will see God the Son - Jesus in his resurrected glorified body.
• The ‘old timers’ preachers in the past used to say; “There is a man in glory!”
• And that was the cost of the incarnation!
• He never ceased to be what he had always been,
• But he became what he had never been before.
Ill:
• That is why it was a true sacrifice.
• If Jesus was just a man for 33 years and either side of that;
• Everything returns to as it was before,
• Then it was a great act (don’t misunderstand me);
• But 33 years out of eternity past and eternity future does not seem a lot!
• But Jesus coming and dying, and forever being changed,
• Wow! that is a sacrifice like none other.
• He never ceased to be what he had always been,
• But he became what he had never been before.
Quote: Poem by Willie Mullan.
Ill:
• God manifest in flesh, oh wonder to behold!
• Creative power within the breast that felt the blast of cold.
• God in our likeness made, oh may we understand
• The One who made the wondering worlds appear as lowly man!
• He stood within the realm He fashioned with a thought;
• His creatures gazed upon Him; alas they knew Him not,
• They cried out for His blood, His claims cast down as dross,
• They spat upon His princely face, then nailed Him to a cross.
• BUT He made the tree for that cross of wood,
• He made the hill on which it stood,
• And in some hidden vein of land
• He made the steel that pierced each hand;
• He made the sun which hid its face;
• He made the fathers of that race
• Who, in their hatred knew Him not.
• He made the fiends with which He fought,
• And there, in death, He made a way
• Back to Himself………eternally.
SERMON AUDIO:
https://surf.pxwave.com/wl/?id=hFVHnwKhrynqhMW69jZKDJChHJToigtK
