PREVIOUS SERMON  (sorted accordingly,starting from recent )

Over sometime we have been driven to the conclusion that the only way for God to fully reveal Himself was for the Word to become flesh. So the Scripture reads, ‘And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us; and we [actually] saw His glory (His honor, His majesty), such glory as an only begotten son receives from his father, full of grace (favor, loving-kindness) and truth.’ (John 1:14). Let us consider for a moment the words ‘tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us’. This revelation of God was not like the momentary disclosures of the Old Testament, when God unfolded some facet of His character through a divine title or name. This was no sudden rift in the clouds that surrounded the Deity –a swift insight into what God is like, a fleeting vision. No. He made His dwelling among us or Tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us! Some people wonder why it is that Lord Jesus lived on the earth for the short span of thirty-three years only. Well, it was long enough for Him to reveal God’s character in operation in the surroundings where your character and mine are developed. I love the verse that says, ‘68 Blessed (praised and extolled and thanked) be the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has come and brought deliverance and redemption to His people!’ (Luke 1:68). The only way God could redeem His people was to come to them and used His own way of living to teach mankind how life should be lived on earth because He said, learn of Me. Did He choose to save us by sitting on a cloud and uttering commands from there or by picking us up and transferring us to heaven in the grip of celestial tongs, thus not soiling His fingers with the messy business of human living? No. Lord Jesus made His dwelling among us or tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us –amid our poverty, our misery, our temptations, our problems, our choices, our opposition, our disappointments, He experienced them all and yet lived a victorious sinless life and thus has taught us to learn from Him how to live life on earth and be successful. He lived among us, wore our flesh, felt our pains, and showed us by a sustained, day -by –day revelation what God is really like and how God want us live our life.

Some years ago a theologian claimed that the revelation of God in Lord Jesus Christ is partial and incomplete. He said, ‘Lord Jesus presented God a Father but not as a Mother –therefore His unfolding of the Deity lacks universality.’ What nonsense! When we examine the different characteristics of fatherly love and motherly love, we see that the two are blended together perfectly in Lord Jesus Christ. That is to say that Lord Jesus displayed both fatherly and motherly love characteristics very well for everybody to see and behold, He did not demonstrate one and leave the other, No! So there should not be any misunderstanding in this regard. The nature of fatherly love is that it makes demands, establishes clear rules or laws, and takes a firm grip on the one it loves. Motherly love is somewhat different, at its highest level it is unconditional, nurturing, all –protective, and all-enveloping. Our text tells us that in Christ both of these are to be found. He is ‘grace’ and He is ‘truth’. Grace is the motherly characteristic and truth is the fatherly characteristic. In Lord Jesus, the Son, the motherly quality of grace and the fatherly quality of truth come together and are one. When He said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, murdering the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a mother fowl gathers her brood under her wings, and you refused!(Matt 23:37), that was the motherly side of God being demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ. He continued, ‘Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate (abandoned and left destitute of God’s help)’ (Matt 23:37-38), that was the fatherly side of God also being demonstrated at the same time. Love and law meet and combine perfectly in Christ for all love is law and all law is love. Our Lord is at one and the same time both tender and terrible, strict and saving, demanding and delivering. A careful examination of the nature of our Lord Jesus leads us to the firm conclusion that in the incarnate Son of God Christ we see both the Fatherhood and the Motherhood of God being carefully demonstrated all through His ministry on earth, it only take carefulness to be able to figure them out as our Lord Jesus Christ ministered along. This same characteristics is meant to be reflected also by all true sons and daughters of God.

For a further day we meditate on the reason why the divine Word (Christ) had to become flesh and dwell among us. Suppose God had decided against an incarnation and instead had given us a book similar to the Bible as His highest revelation –what would be the result? We would attempt to read into those words our highest interpretation or meaning but nevertheless we would be greatly limited if not out of context. Take, for example, the word ‘purity’. If I read into that word my highest experience of purity, which, because of sin and human failure, must be partial and incomplete, I would still emerge with an impoverished understanding of the word. But what if I can see that word exemplified in a divine illustration? Now the word ‘purity’ is elucidated (make (something) clear; explain) by a Person who shares my temptations, minus my failures, and the word takes on a new and precise meaning. The same would happen with other words. Take the word ‘God’. Were it not for the incarnation I would interpret the word in the light of my imagination saying that God is just what you imagine, but now, because Christ has come and lived with men and they touched and ate with Him you can no longer say that God is an imagination, rather I look up through Lord Jesus, the Son of God, and I know without any shadow of doubt what God is like because Lord Jesus said anyone that has seen Me has seen the Father. The apostle Paul reminds us Who Lord Jesus is ‘[Now] He is the [a]exact likeness of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible]; He is the Firstborn of all creation.’ (Col. I:15) ‘Lord Jesus, said a little boy, ‘is the best photograph God ever took.’ He is. A lecturer in the Bible College I attended used to say something which startled me every time I heard it, until I pondered it and came to see that it was true. He said, ‘If God isn’t like Lord Jesus I am interested in Him.’ But we need not worry –God is like Lord Jesus. Our Savior has confirmed it. “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say then, Show us the Father?” (John 14:9)

Once again we come to Christmas –a day when we joyfully celebrate the coming of our promised Savior Lord Jesus Christ to this earth. The message of Christmas is this: there is only one way that God can be found and worshiped and that way is through Lord Jesus Christ, the Babe of Bethlehem. Some try to find God through nature –the nature worshippers. Some attempt to find Him within themselves –the ‘ego’ worshippers. Still others attempt to find Him through teachers and gurus –the men worshippers. But if you want to find God –to really find Him –then you must come face to face with His Son, Lord Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus is God approachable, God available, God lovable. A little boy, when asked what he was doing, answered, I’m drawing a picture of God.’ ‘But no one knows what God is like,’ responded his mother. ‘They will when I’m finished,’ said the boy with an air of finality. All attempts to draw or tell what God is like are childish. Except one –the revelation made by Lord Jesus. As we saw some time ago, “No man has ever seen God at any time; the only [a]unique Son, or [b]the only begotten God, Who is in the bosom [in the intimate presence] of the Father, He has declared Him [He has revealed Him and brought Him out where He can be seen; He has interpreted Him and He has made Him known].” (John 1:18). A woman I knew in Wales even in some other parts of the world who had gone from one psychiatric unit to another, and had experienced several bouts of severe depression, stood one Christmas morning in a hospital ward and looked at the Nativity scene which had been created by the nurses. As she gazed at it the Holy Spirit spoke directly to her heart and brought home to her the real meaning of Christmas. Later she testified saying, with my heart, ‘I looked into the face of Lord Jesus and I found a joy that cannot be put into words.’ Today she is a radiant Christian and has led many others to know her Savior. If you have never found God in similar ways then you can do so today. With your heart in faith look into the face of Lord Jesus and live.

There’s a War On! Exodus 17:1-7: “So Moses cried to the Lord, What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” (v4)