The God Who Appeared: His Identity

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,