Randall Caselman
Bella Vista Church of Christ
1-11-98 am
The Blessings Of His Coming
Reading — Matthew 1.18-24
We hear some strange words during Christmas season. Words like advent, incarnation and Immanuel. Two of these words are not found in Scripture, one is. While advent and incarnation are not found in the Bible, their concepts are.
Advent is a Latin word meaning:
- Come,
- To come
- Or His coming.
Advent, His coming, is what the entire Bible is about isn’t it? The Old Testament is about the promise of His coming. The Old Testament makes ready His coming. The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are about His coming, His arrival, His incarnation:
- God coming in the flesh,
- God with skin on,
- God in human form.
The concept of the incarnation is found throughout the New Testament.
- John explains it this way in the first few verses of his gospel. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Verse 14 tells us, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory.
- Jesus said, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father, because the Father and I are one.
- Colossians 2.9 says, for in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.
- Paul explains the concept this way in Philippians 2, Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross!
- Our reading this morning tells us that His coming, His incarnation is IMMANUEL, God with us.
Acts and the rest of the New Testament is about making preparations for His second advent, His second coming. You see, our salvation depends upon our believing in Advent and incarnation. Both the first and second coming of Jesus are crucial to Christianity. What kind of people and person we are is dependant upon what we believe about these two words, these two comings... How we respond to the first and how we prepare for the second... Right?
Let me point out that Scripture teaches us that His coming, the incarnation, was no accident and that His second coming won’t be either. Both are planned events. Planned by God the Father. Paul tells us in Galatians 4 that, at just the right time, at the appointed time, God sent His Son...Born of woman... Born under the Law, to redeems us an make us sons.
Here is the sad part about advent and incarnation. The religious world has made them a once a year event, a once a year celebration. This is not Biblical is it? This is what is wrong with our world; we celebrate His coming, His incarnation once a year instead of every day. Advent and incarnation should be celebrated daily. Listen again to Paul from Philippians 2, Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. You see, genuine Christianity is celebrating His coming daily in the way we live, in the way we act and react to His coming.
As an encouragement for us to celebrate advent, His incarnation daily, let’s notice some of the blessings of His coming.
FIRST, HIS COMING DEALS WITH OUR PAST, IT FORGIVES US ALL OUR SINS.
Jesus came to be a sacrifice for our sins. He come to redeems us, to atone for our wrongs. Jesus came to pay the price for our mistakes. You see, where He died, we should have died. Jesus came to purchase our pardon.
- Twice in First Corinthians Paul says, We are not our own, we have been bought with a price.
- Peter says, We were not bought with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.
You recall, that under the Law of Moses sins could be rolled forward one year at a time. But at the end of that year their sins had to be remembered again, dealt with again by another sacrifice. They were rolling their sins forward
- Until the time of Advent,
- Until the incarnation.
That time when God would come into the world, in Jesus, and die as an atonement for the sins of all the world. You see, His blood flowed from the cross to Adam and from the cross to us and to all those who will live until the end of time. What a concept! God coming into this world and dying for His creation.
We are redeemed, reconciled and forgiven:
- By His coming,
- By His death,
- By His blood.
Listen to Ephesians 1.7, In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace. No wonder Paul spoke of His coming as God’s unspeakable gift, His indescribable gift. Let my ask you this morning, are you enjoying this blessing of His coming?
SECONDLY, HIS COMING DEALS WITH OUR PRESENT BY MAKING SONSHIP POSSIBLE.
Without Jesus, we would have no hope. We are Gentiles, we are twice removed, twice separated from God.
(1) Separated, removed from God because of our sin.
(2) separated by lineage, we are not children of Israel... We are not Abraham’s seed.
You talk about double jeopardy, that’s us.
Listen as I read from Ephesians 2, Remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)--remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
Peter says almost the same thing in 1 Peter 2.9 and 10, Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Now the real question is how sonship with God is determined? How can we become sons of God? That’s what we all want isn’t it?
- To be children of God.
- To enjoy the hope Jesus came to give us?
I believe Galatians 3.26-29 gives us the answer, You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, have been clothed with Christ. In Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Are you a child of God through faith? Are you in Christ as a result of New Testament baptism, by immersion in water for the forgiveness of your sins?
- Not baptism as a child, as a baby.
- Not baptism because you are already saved,
- Not baptism as a ritual for church membership,
But genuine New Testament baptism for the remission of sins.
- Baptism that places us in Christ...
- Makes us children of God,
- That saves us,
- Forgives us of all our sins,
- And gives us the presence of God’s Spirit within.
All this made possible by His coming.
Audience, listen to me, the Bible teaches that there is no hope for those outside of Christ today. There is no other name given among men under heaven whereby we can be saved.
Celebrate His coming, Celebrate His incarnation by becoming a child of God through FAITH and New Testament BAPTISM.
JESUS CAME TO SHOW US HOW TO LIVE TODAY
John 10.10 says, I have come that you may have life, and have it more abundantly... I came that you might have life to the fullest, life at it’s best. The Greek is per-is-sos. The word is used 10 times in the Greek New Testament. It’s translated by the KJ translators as
- More,
- Beyond measure,
- More abundantly,
• Exceedingly.
Question: Does this promise interest you? Does this sound like a life you would be interested in?
I wish I could get our brotherhood to see that Christianity is more than a pie-in-the-sky hope. It’s the best life God has to offer in the here and now... TODAY! Want to know how to live the life above common, above the ordinary? I believe Jesus tells us how to live this abundant life in the Sermon On The Mount. Jesus says, happiness comes, not from the circumstances we find ourselves in; but the circumstances within.
Listen to Him:
Happy are the poor in spirit.
Happy are those who mourn.
Happy are the meek.
Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Happy are the those who show mercy.
Happy are the pure in heart.
Happy are the peacemakers.
Happy are those who are persecuted because of righteousness
Jesus goes on to say that HAPPINESS IS:
- Living morally straight,
- Loving versus hating,
- Controlling our life, loving our enemies,
- Not being hypocritical,
- By putting God and His kingdom, His people first.
- By not judging others,
- By building life on the solid rock of truth.
You see, we will never know the joy of the genuine good life until we allow Jesus to show us how to live. That’s what he came for. Church, the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus telling us how to live life at its best.
Are we listening?... Are we listening?
JESUS CAME TO BRING US PEACE THROUGH A NEW BEGINNINGS.
- The prophets Isaiah spoke of a Messiah who, when He came, would be known as the Prince of Peace, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
- Ephesians 2.14 tells us that He is our peace.
- Jesus said, Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, this is not the world’s peace, but God’s peace.
Jesus didn’t come to make us:
- Rich,
- Comfortable,
- Or give us social status,
But to give us peace.
The question is, how is this peace found? In a new beginning. By being born again. Faith, repentance, confession, baptism brings us to a new beginning, gives us a fresh start. The old man of sin is buried and a new man is raised.
- Sins are forgiven.
- The past is forever forgotten.
And here is the best part, after we become a child of God, acknowledgment of our sins and prayer brings about a new start anytime. There is no limit to God’s forgiveness. God is not keeping score. Listen to these two verses from First John,
- If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
- But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
There are those here today, both in and out of the church who are living under the burden of sin, and you know it. Why not come walk in the light and know;
- The joy,
- The forgiveness,
- And the peace,
Jesus came to give you.
JESUS COME TO DEAL WITH OUR FUTURE, HE CAME TO TAKE US HOME.
The greatest gift Jesus came to give can’t be seen except through the eye of faith.
- Paul says, Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those that love Him.
- Listen to the promise of Jesus about what is ours at His second advent, at His second coming, In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Revelation describes this home as, the New Jerusalem, a place were there will be:
- No more pain,
- No more mourning,
- No more tears,
- No more death and separation.
A place where all things will be made new.
This world is not our home.
- We are strangers here.
- We are aliens in this world.
- We belong to another world.
Church, Jesus came to make heaven possible for each of us. Jesus came to take us home forever.
If Jesus came give us all these blessings, why aren’t people everywhere coming to Jesus, accepting him as their Savior. I believe I can answer this quickly and plainly.
FIRST, JESUS’ COMING IS REJECTED BECAUSE HE EMPHASIZES THE SPIRITUAL ABOVE THE MATERIAL.
God calls us to be spiritualists not materialists. People reject Jesus because they love THIS WORLD more that God. The Jews rejected His first coming because they were looking for a worldly kingdom. He is rejected for the same reason today. Folk, His kingdom is not of this world. And when we become so fascinated with this world and its material THINGS, then we reject Jesus and His world.
SECONDLY, JESUS IS REJECTED BECAUSE HE CALLS US TO LEAVE RELIGIOUS TRADITION AND RITUAL.
Christ came teaching the pure word of God... Not tradition... Not ritual. The Jews rejected His teachings in favor of their traditions. He is rejected today for the same reason. We must place a premium on truth, Biblical truth. You see His truth must come before:
- Mom and Dad’s faith,
- Before family religious tradition,
- Before our own religious preferences.
- His truth must come before church creed.
- His truth before denominational doctrines.
Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
NUMBER THREE, I BELIEVE JESUS IS REJECTED BECAUSE HIS TEACHINGS ARE TOO SIMPLE.
The Sermon on the Mount is a prime example of Christ’s simplicity. But God’s commands have always been simple, haven’t they?
- Do not eat of the tree in the middle of the Garden.
- Prepare an Ark
- Thou shalt have no other Gods before me
- March around those walls 13 times
- Dip seven times in the River Jordan
- He that believes and is baptized shall be saved
- If we sin we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Praise God for the simplicity of His gospel. So simple that a ten year old child could understand it. But that simplicity causes some men to reject Him in favor of more intelligent ideas of their own.
Praise God:
- For advent, His coming.
- For His incarnation, God becoming flesh and dying for us.
- For His being Immanuel... His dwelling with us.
What are we going to do with Jesus, and the blessing of his coming? Will we celebrate these concepts once year at Christmas or will we enjoy these blessing daily?
Don’t reject His coming; worship and serve Him each day of your life.
