The Incarnation of Jesus - 2
Welcome to Faith Community Bible Church's Christmas Community Celebration. We are so excited that you have joined us this evening and carved out this time in what tends to be a very busy holiday season. So, um, if you are in the foyer and you can hear me at this time, if you would like to make your way into the sanctuary, we are going to begin our evening. And just to give you a little road map of where we're going tonight, um we have some carols that we're going to be singing together. Many of these you should know they're oldfashioned carols. We have some sweet kids that we're are going to be reading out of Luke chapter 2 for us. And then we'll have a short teaching by Pastor Travis. Um we'll end with a carol and then you are all invited for cookies and hot chocolate um in the foyer and then we'll also have some fire pits outside that you can warm yourselves up. and please feel free to stay for as long as possible and just fellowship, get to know somebody um in the congregation or any new faces. So, please be friendly FCBC people here, make meet some new friends tonight. So, with that, we're going to get started with our carols.
All right, if you guys can go ahead and stand. These are like Christmas carols. You're going to belt them out. So, you need lots of lung room, lots of space. Yeah.
The herald angels sing glory to the newborn king. Peace on earth and mercy my God and sinners.
Joyful all ye nations rise. Join the triumph of the skies. And the angels proclaim Christ is born in
the herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king.
The heaven prince of peace. H the son of righteousness
and light to all he brings with heing in his dreams. While he lays his glory by more than the glor
to raise the son of born to give birth.
Glory to the newborn king.
Christ
the everlasting Lord.
Behold him
of the virgin.
Heaven in flesh the darkness see
Jesus
angels sing glory to the newborn king.
Oh,
joyful and trib.
Come and behold him. for the king of angels. Oh come let us adore him. Oh come let us adore him. Oh come adore
Christ.
Sing my exes.
Sing exaltation.
He s
glory to God. Glory in the highest. Oh come let us adore. Oh come let us adore him. Oh come let us adore
Christ
Jesus to
Word of the Father now in fleshing.
Oh come let us adore him. Oh come let us adore him. Oh come let usore
Christ
the Lord.
Oh, holy night. The stars are brightly shining.
It is the night of our dear Savior's birth.
Long lay the world in sin ever
till he appeared. And the soul felt it.
The thrill of the wey world rejoicees for yonder grael.
Heat. Heat.
When Christ was born,
Oh,
all night.
Truly he taught us to love one another.
His love is love and his goel is peace.
Change shall he break. For the slave is our brother and in his name all oppress shall cease.
H of joy in grateful.
We let all
us praise his holy name. Christ
is the Lord.
Heat. Heat. Heat.
Glory.
And for the band that played in the foyer, that was amazing. Thank you guys. Thank you very much. All right, you guys. I don't know if you can hear yourselves in the room, but we can hear you up here. We don't have inear monitors tonight, and it's so amazing. So, um, please go ahead and grab a seat. And Peter Malibuo and Addison Mills, my brother, they're going to read the passage for us tonight. Who's first? You are.
In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. This was the first census that took place while cryionus was governor was governor of Siberia. And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazare Nazareth in Galilee to Judea to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went to register with Mary who had pledged to be a married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born and she gave birth to her firstborn of a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there's no guest room available for for them. Thank you, sir.
And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, and there will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased." Thank you. Thank you. Let's give him a hand.
Well, that was fantastic. You know how much courage that takes for little peeps to get up, stand in front of all of you people? Well, hey, good to see you guys. Uh, I'm going to try to keep this short. 20 minutes or so, maybe we're gonna Yeah, Paul's clapping. Um, have you ever slowed down and considered the words that you just read? what was actually said in that scene with the angels and the shepherds. Now, think about it because the the shepherds are out in their field doing their nightly thing. They're probably settling down for the night, just taking care of the sheep just like every other night. And all of a sudden,
these angels show up. I mean, talk about the most startling thing. And we're told the glory of the Lord all of a sudden shown around them and they're scared. And the angels, they're not scared. They're super excited. I mean, they just got the best gig any angel has ever had in its life. I mean, think about when Gabriel shows up on the scene that day. They're in the the workroom taking a little break. And Gabriel says, "I got the best gig for you guys of all time. You're going to get to announce the most wonderful news." And these guys show up and they say, the angels say, 'I bring you good news. Now notice it's not good advice. I bring you good news of great joy. Well, what's the news? What are they saying that's taken place with the birth of this boy, this one human? What are they saying that's taking place with the birth of this boy? And why are the angels so excited? And why is it considered such good news? Well, they tell us three things that God's doing in the birth of Jesus. And all of them are mindblowing realities. So, what's God doing in the birth of Jesus? The first thing they say that God's doing is he's going to rescue and restore his creation, not simply judge it. The angel comes and says, "Among you is born this day in the city of David a savior." A savior. That's a rescuer. That's what the word could mean. It can mean a rescuer. And then in verse 14, the host of angels say, "Glory to go. That's exactly right, preach.
The other angels say, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace." And we just sang about it. All oppression shall cease. So the first thing the angels say that God's going to do is he's going to rescue and restore the world. Not simply judge it. And let's be honest, that's interesting because what you'll find typically among Christians or better put among groups of Christians is they'll either emphasize the judgment of God and that's typically the conservative fundamental churches or they'll emphasize the restorative healing work of God in the world and on the world particularly in the creation. uh they'll emphasize the healing restorative work of God and they'll deemphasize the judgment and that's usually what we would say are liberal type churches. But note here it's both. Both of these things are going to happen. The judgment has to happen because if the judgment doesn't happen then real love cannot be poured forth. God can't pour forth his ultimate love that he's always existed in and that he intends to fill his entire creation with until the evil in the world is judged and defeated.
And I shouldn't have to tell you that there's real evil in the world, especially after everything we've seen in the past many months, everything that our world has experienced in the past several months. Um, there's just so much evil. But there is real tangible evil in our world. And if you were raised in our culture, you may not have a category for it. But the Bible does. The Bible says it's all the fallout and the effects of sin. And in order for God's love to be fully poured out, which will restore humanity and the cosmos back to God, the evil has to be avenge. Now, it's not our job to avenge it. It's his job. He says, "Vengeance is mine, and I will repay it." But the evil has to be avenge. And my hunch is if you've ever had real evil committed against you, then you know that evil has to be avenged. And even if you haven't had real evil uh committed against you, you sense that evil has to be avenged. It's the reason why movies, they tap into that emotion. It's the reason why in westerns, which is what dudes will watch when they're sick of work, they'll go home and they'll watch a western because evil's been done. And at the end of it, the evil is going to be avenged. And when it's avenged, men will let out grunts and they're like, "Yeah, that's that's right. That should have happened." And it makes you feel good because you know it has to be avenged. Everything inside of you wants it to be avenged. And we actually rejoice when it happens. Why? Because you sense intuitively you sense that evil is real and it must be dealt with. So the judgment theme is critical and evil must be dealt with. Well, how God how is God going to judge it? And how is he going to avenge the evil? That's a good question. I'm glad you asked it. Hold on to that question for a moment because we'll see in a moment. So, the judgment, like I said, the judgment theme is crucial. But on the other hand, the purpose of the judgment isn't simply judgment. And listen, a lot of times some Christians miss this. They're very angry with the world and they're really quite happy about the judgment aspect. And while it's a crucial theme, it's not all that God's doing because his ultimate purpose is to bring is to bring peace on earth. Remember the angel says, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace." And that word peace, I've told you this before. It's the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word shalom. And shalom isn't just the end of hostility. It's a it's this full orbed sense of peace. It's peace with God and it's peace with man. It's peace with the creation and peace with self. It's human flourishing in all dimensions.
That's the idea of shalom. physical health, emotional health, relational health, spiritual health to the max. Now, think about that for a second because you haven't had one second in your entire life. You haven't had that for one second in your entire life. You've never had every relationship in perfect peace. You've never been completely at peace with yourself, either physically or emotionally. And we've never been at peace with the creation. But this is God's intention. And that's what we're missing from this age. And it's what we all crave and it's what we try to generate at Christmas every single year. It you ever wonder why all of the Christmas cards and the Christmas movies, even the terrible Hallmark ones, are idllic. They're all idllic looking. Um, and they all look so peaceful. It's why people who don't even worship Jesus and they don't really even celebrate his birth, a great many of them celebrate Christmas because they're hoping, just hoping that there's going to be a little bit of shalom and they're buying and they're wrapping gifts and they're decorating their houses and they're drinking enough eggnog until they're really lubricated. The reason they're doing this is because they crave peace. We crave they're trying to manufacture this peace because this age doesn't have any lasting peace. We get small tastes of it. Sure we do. And we think to ourselves, "Oh, this is," if you're a Christian, you think this is what the kingdom is going to be like. But for the most part, our world doesn't have peace. But the angels say, "This is what this child is bringing." And this is why the angels are so excited. They know with the birth of this child, it's the beginning of the end for evil and death in this age. with the birth of this child, this one, it's the beginning of the end for evil and death. Now, as a sidebar, not a part of the main deal,
here's what I do want you to see. The gospel is the only message that deals with the seriousness of evil in the world at a human and a structural level and promises to heal it. The gospel is the only one that does that. The gospel's the only message that promises that. And if you don't believe the gospel, you don't really have any basis for any hope that any of this is going to get any better. Only in the gospel is there real hope that the creation will be healed. Both humanity and the material world. So why are the angels so excited? Well, because God's going to rescue and restore his creation, starting with the souls in it and then expanding to the creation itself.
Now, I told you this is mindblowing realities, but this is what the angels are saying. Let that sink in because what it means for you individually is if you is that if you're in Christ, you will be healed of everything. Your best days, I tell people this all the time. No matter your age, your best days are always ahead of you because in the next age, you're going to be healed of everything. You'll be restored to wholeness and health completely. That's marvelous news. So, why are the angels excited? Well, and why is this good news of great joy? Because God's going to rescue and restore the world, not simply judge it. Well, here's the question. How's he going to do that? And that's the second thing to know. He's going to rescue and restore not by religion and not through philosophy, which is the way humanity would try to do it. It's not going to come about through religion. It's not going to come about through philosophy. He's going to do it through a person. This child, do you guys have your Bibles? Look at verse 11. Listen. Well, I'll just read it to you. You don't even have to look at your Bible.
The angels come and say, "For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." So God's doing this through a person, not this child, not through religion, not through philosophy. And you got to know the difference because religion is where people find out what God wants and they try their best to do it. That's religion. People find out that that they're wrong and that there's a God or there's a plurality of God and they do their best to try to appease God. It's God telling them they're wrong and what you need to do to fix it and you got to do this and you got to do that and you got to obey these rules and you got to follow this practice and do these traditions. You got to make this holy trick, these rituals. You got to do all these things. That's religion and that is not this. This is unto you a savior is born. Now listen, that's a completely different paradigm. That's a completely different paradigm. So he's not doing it through religion. He's also not doing it through philosophy. And philosophy is wonderful and much of it is incredibly profound and interesting. But have you noticed it hasn't solved the evil in the world? In fact, like religion, it's actually contributed to it. And here's the thing, humanistic philosophy has tried to solve the problem of evil. It has. It's tried. Humanity has tried everything to to solve the problem of evil. We've tried exhortation. We've tried legislation. We've tried education. We've tried regulation. And of course, we've tried medication.
We've tried everything.
What the gospel tells you is none of that works. What humanity actually needs is regeneration. They need to be born again by coming to faith in Jesus Christ. That's what they actually need. The gospel tells us that evil and sin are so pervasive that ideas and efforts can't save us. God himself in the person of Jesus has to save us. So the gospel is not religion. It's not philosophy. The gospel is God through Christ is going to fix us. Humanity screwed it all up. We know this. We've been in the book the book of Genesis in the Garden of Eden. humanity was in a perfect shalomlike condition. Peace with God, peace with uh peace with the creation, peace with our fellow man, and peace with oursel. And then when sin was introduced in the into the world uh and and Adam and Eve parttook of it, parttook of the the tree, sin was introduced into the world and with it evil and it just spread like a virus to all of humanity. And God says the only way to fix it is if I personally enter into my creation to rescue it. So he's going to rescue and restore his creation not through philosophy, not through religion, but through a person who will be born materially, live perfectly, die unjustly, be raised physically so that you can be saved completely. The Lord says there's only one way for this to be remedied is if I come if if I come in the person of Christ, the Messiah, the King and God's kingdom, and if I'm a willing victim to the evil of the world, thereby absorbing it, draining it, draining it of its power, and completely defeating it. And that's what this child will do. And that's why we celebrate Christmas. This child who's placed in this rough cradle will 30 years later hang on a cross to absor absorb the judgment of God for all of the evil and all of the sin we've ever committed. And when you trust him, you can be restored to God a right relationship with God. Not through your effort, not through your religious obedience, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So God's going to rescue and restore uh the creation itself. Again, not through religion or philosophy, but through a person. this child born to Joseph and Mary and presented to these lowly shepherds who were the social outcasts of the day. Now, here's the other thing the angels say, and it's the key. The angels say he's only doing this to those with whom he's well pleased. Did you note that the angels say, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he's well pleased. which means he's not pleased with everybody. And that's shocking to our senses because we tend to think of God as the great Bob Barker in the sky who he's just going to call everybody up. But that's not what the scripture actually says. He's He's not pleased with everybody. And think about it. You're not even pleased with everybody, right? You're not you're not pleased with everybody. But there is one person with whom God is pleased. This child at his baptism, God said, "Behold, this is my son with whom I'm well pleased." So, there's one person with whom God's pleased. One person in all of humanity who has pleased God, who has loved the Lord his God with all his heart, soul, strength, and mind, and loved his neighbor as himself. One person in all of history. Well, how is that good news for you? And how is that good news for me? Well, let me read to you out of Colossians chapter 1. Listen to what Paul says about Christ. He says, "He's the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the first firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, this is us, and you who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. Do you see what Paul's saying? How how can you how can you be well pleasing to God? Only if you've been reconciled by Christ. Only if you come to Christ. He takes the blame. He bears the burden for the evil that you personally committed. And you when you trust him, you receive the credit and bear the honor for all that he has done. And you're clothed in in his righteousness and enlivened by his Holy Spirit. Do you do you see why the angel said this is good news of great joy? meaning all sorts of people meaning you and me who have committed real evil. We can trust him and by trusting him in faith and by being forgiven of our sins and receiving new life in his name, we can know know experientially that we're pleasing to God the Father. That is marvelous news. So let me ask you Christmas time, are you one with whom he's well pleased? Have you trusted the Lord? Have you put him put aside the sentimentality of Christmas and taken in taken in Christmas seriously and saying this child that was born is the one who's the rescuer. He's my savior and more than that my Lord and I can know God personally by coming to Christ. That's what Christmas is all about. And again, it is great news. It's good news of great joy. And it fills us with joy when we meditate upon these realities. So, I'm going to pray and then the team's going to come up and we're going to sing.
Father, these are realities that we don't spend enough time thinking about. that you're the king in God's kingdom is also our great savior who has left heaven above and has journeyed down with the express purpose of dying for the very people who have rejected him and in so doing making a way for them to be forgiven and given new life in your name. And so, Father, let these realities fill us with joy until it causes us to burst out with singing and worship and praise of you. We trust you for this in Jesus name. Amen. Travis, thank you. If you can please stand with us. We're going to close by singing Joy to the World.
Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat.
Joy to the sing
the sounding joy. Repeat the sounding joy. Repeat the sounding joy.
Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat. Heat.
All right. Now, the part of the evening that the kids have been waiting for. Yes. Yes. Some are excited. Okay. So, first, if I could do this, if you helped bake cookies or helped set up or helped make hot chocolate and coffee, we thank you very much. So, thank you. Thank you. Or if you brought or if you brought fire pits for us, too. Thank you for that. So, now's the time. We're going to hang out into the lobby. We'll have cookies and some hot beverages. There is a table if you are glutenfree. There's a separate table for that, so you don't have to look through and read the cards to find out which cookies you can eat and which cookies will kill you. So, uh, thank you guys. You do not need to rush out. There'll be fire pits out on the patio and let's just enjoy some time fellowshipping and celebrating. Thank you guys for coming.