Rev. David Holwick CHRISTMAS EVE 1992
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
Christmas Eve, 1992
Philippians 2:5-11
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I. Uncommon Christmas text.
A. No shepherds. No wise men. Not even Mary and Joseph.
B. Gives background of Christmas from God's perspective.
II. What Jesus was.
A. He was "in very nature God." 2:6
1) The New Testament claims Jesus was the agent of Creation.
a) Some feel "angel of Lord" who wrestled with Jacob and
passed by Moses would be Jesus.
b) He has always existed, and reigned in heaven.
2) The New Testament claims Jesus is divine - God the Son.
a) Jesus cannot be limited to a nice man or even a stirring
prophet.
b) He claimed to be God, and he did things that only God was
supposed to do, like forgive sins.
c) Jesus claimed he was the ONLY way to the Father.
d) If he is not God, then he is a liar or a lunatic.
B. Yet Jesus did not consider divinity "something to be grasped."
1) Two possible meanings:
a) Something to be stolen - he would take his throne NOW.
b) *Something to be clung to - I'm not heaven for earth.
2) Jesus gave up the privileges and rights of God to become
one of us.
III. What Jesus became.
A. He made himself nothing; literally, he "emptied himself."
1) Traditional images of Christmas - a baby who doesn't
cry, who glows in the dark, who wears a crown as people
worship him. (old icons, paintings)
2) Reality was that Jesus gave all this up when he became
human. He knew tears, darkness and humiliation.
B. How far did the "emptying" go?
1) Give up divinity to become merely human?
a) Philosophy behind movie "The Last Temptation of Christ."
b) Jesus did give up some knowledge (of Second Coming) and
glory (cf. Transfiguration) but not deity.
2) "Nature of a servant" follows, and defines meaning. 2:7
a) Jesus could have ruled the world, but chose to serve.
b) Literally, he became a house-slave.
C. The real Jesus would not have been very appealing to us.
1) Nothing to make us want him - Isaiah 53:1-5.
2) He would have done poorly in the polls.
3) Only people with faith recognized Jesus, others ignored him.
IV. Why he did it.
A. Jesus emptied himself to become one of us.
It is said that Henry David Thoreau once spent a whole day in
Walden Pond up to his neck in the water.
His idea was to see and experience the world as a frog sees it!
He shared the experience, but not the reality.
Thoreau did not become a frog!
"Sesame Street" is closer to the Christmas story.
They had a skit one time of the old fairy tale of the princess and
the frog.
In the Sesame Street version the princess kissed the frog, and
then turned into a frog herself.
(Sort of like Diana and Charles...)
That is closer to what we celebrate at Christmas.
God did not swoop down and survey the human situation from a
safe distance.
He emptied Himself.
He lay aside His celestial robes to put on the simple clothes
of a man.
Divinity clothed itself with dust.
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B. Jesus emptied himself to deal with our sins. Isaiah 53:5
V. What it means for us.
A. Jesus is God, and we need to obey him.
Kenneth Kantzer:
Many Christians only pay lip service to the truth of Christmas.
To accept the idea that the Bethlehem babe really is the
incarnate God is to alter every truth with which we
comfortably live.
To say that Jesus Christ really is the incarnation of the
living God is to say that his testimony is unalterably true.
When I go against his teachings, I am not merely
asserting my own judgment, but that I am fundamentally in
error.
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B. Jesus humbly served; we should serve in the same way.
1) Christmas is supposed to be GIVING more than GETTING.
2) Our world is still crying with many needs.
Vietnamese family Paul Thigpen's family was sponsoring had
sick child on Christmas Eve.
They called him in desperation.
He resented it, but went anyway.
Vietnamese mother was grateful, celebration went off OK anyway.
He realized Christ was crying out to him in that little child.
Jesus is present in the needs of people we serve.
The Vietnamese people later gave them a joyous banquet.
"Someone has wisely said that the place where God calls us
is that place where our great gladness
and the world's great need come together."
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