The 3 C’s Of Christ’s Coming

The 3 C’s of Christ’s Coming

Philippians 2:5-11

Now that Christmas is upon us, maybe, just maybe, people will start being a little bit nicer to each other. Yet, unless the reason for the season, Jesus Christ, rules in our hearts, and is alive within us, then this probably won’t happen, and we’ll continue to be as cynical and complaining as we’ve ever been.

And so, the closer we get to Christmas, the sad reality becomes more evident that we’re in fact moving away from what Christmas is all about, rather than closer to its intended meaning.

But before we let Christmas slip by us, I’d like to focus on three signs, or what I’d like to call, “The 3 C’s of Christ’s Coming,” because they will help us better understand who Jesus is, and what He came to do.

But let’s start by taking a look at our text in Philippians, because here the Apostle Paul describes these three C’s for us.

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:5-11 NKJV)

Consider the dichotomy of Jesus and His coming. He is the Lord God, but became a human. He was appointed to be humanity’s Savior, but was crucified by His creation, that is, humans. He is the ultimate judge, yet was led away and died as a felon. He died, was buried, but is still alive. He had no sin, but died with all of our sins laid upon Him. He is the King of the Jews, but His only crown was that of thorns. He was the light of life, but died on Calvary. And while He was the victim of the cross, He was victorious over the grave.

And so, with Paul’s message about the coming of Jesus, and the dichotomies that we just look at when we look at His coming, what are the 3 C’s or these three signs of Jesus’s coming?

The Cradle

“Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.” (Philippians 2:6-7 NKJV)

Actually, this wasn’t a cradle as we associate it with the word. In other words, none of that rock-a-bye baby stuff, that is, if a hyneria is what we are looking for. What it was called is a manger, which in Israel was one big stone hewed out to be a feeding trough for animals. And into this cold stone feeding trough they laid God’s Christmas present to all humanity.

You see, Christmas is the birthday celebration of Jesus Christ, and Jesus is God’s present to us. Christmas is when God came to this earth as Emmanuel, which means, “God with us,” so that He could communicate with us.

A farmer decided to stay home on Christmas Eve while his wife and kids went to church. To him, Christmas was just a big myth. But as he was watching TV, he glanced out the window and noticed that it began to snow, but as he continue to look he saw a flock of birds, with some lying dead in the snow.

He grabbed his jacket and went outside to see what he could do. He opened the barn door and turned on the light and heat, hoping the birds would see the light and fly in. But when that didn’t work, he grabbed a blanket and tried to shoo them in, but this only frightened and scattered them more.

Then he realized that the only way to get the birds to go into the barn would be to find a way to communicate with them. And then he realized that if he could get another bird to fly into the barn to show the rest the way, then they would be saved.

Then came the thought that rocked his world. It’s what his wife had been trying to tell him all along. In order to bring the message of salvation to us, God needed to become one of us, to communicate to us and to show us the way. Finally the impact of the Christmas cradle and God coming as a human baby made sense.