for wilma

I know a great lady in this little town. I saw her a few weeks ago and promised her a post. So, Wilma, this one's for you.

I thought a small update was in order.

First, I am seriously considering applying for a small pastor's college in Bloomington, IN. (Thanks to Alex for telling me about it.) I visited this last weekend and am nearly positive that I'll be throwing my hat into the pool of applicants. Lord willing, I'll get some much needed discipleship and training.

Second, I'm loving my new church, CCC. So are my parents. It's fantastic. Christ-exalting fellowship is always a good thing.

Third, I'll be back to regular blogging next Monday. I've been slowly working on some posts for the last month, hoping to get enough ready that I won't have to physically think of and write something every day. With that will come, sporadically, the rest of my series on Grounding Election.

And now, on to more excellent matters.

I've been reading and studying Hebrews for years now. I love that book. And, I think it has officially passed Ephesians as my favorite. That's saying a lot. Ephesians held that place for over 6 years.

Here's a taste (from chapter 2):

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Jesus HAD to be made like us. Had to. Think about that. It was a necessary part of the Gospel. God could not save us without this. Jesus had to become a man. He had to have bones and blood. He had to experience pain. Physical and emotional. He had to know what it meant to cry. He had to feel the tempting spirit of Satan. He had to get calluses and skin his knees. He had to grow up from an infant, needing his mother to feed him and change him. He had to.

What else though? Just before that portion we read:

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

It fits that Jesus, FOR whom and BY whom all things exist, should have to do those things. It makes sense that the God of the universe had to humble himself to the point of death, even death on a cross, for his creation. The majestic Word of God that spoke into creation all things and that still holds them together. That God. The one that is eternal. All-powerful. All-wise. All-knowing. All-loving. Perfectly Holy. That Lord.

Meditate on that for awhile today.

How good is our Heavenly Father?

So good that He sent his Son.

Amen.

-joe

the incarnation

The basic outline for my sermon last night at Senior High youth group was this:
The Incarnation: prophecy, its fulfillment and the purpose

I used several birth prophecies of Christ from the Old Testament.
The genealogies of Jesus:
Of Shem Genesis 9:26-27
Of Abraham Genesis 22:18
Of Isaac Genesis 17:21
Of Jacob Genesis 35:10-12
Of Judah Genesis 49:8-12
Of Jesse Isaiah 11:1-5
Of David 2 Samuel 7:12-16; Jeremiah 23:5; Psalm 89:3-4

All fulfilled in the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew 1 and Luke 3

Born of a virgin

Isaiah 7:14 "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign, “Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel."

Fulfilled in Matthew 1:18

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way, when his mother, Mary, had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit…All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: (quote Isaiah 7:14)

Luke 1:34

And Mary said to the angel “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

I stayed for awhile on this point, which is under constant attack from many fronts, because if you toss out that Mary was a virgin you have to toss out Matthew, Mark, and Luke as reliable witnesses. That means that Acts is gone as well. It creates a snowball affect that destroys any attempts to validate the New Testament. Jesus was born of a virgin, a girl who'd never had sex, and conceived in the Holy Spirit.

I also talked about the complicatedness of the following prophecies all having to hit at the same time:
Born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2)
Star to appear (Numbers 24:17)
Gifts from Kings (Psalm 72:10)
Slaughter of children (Jeremiah 31:15)
Flight to Egypt (Hosea 11:1)
Date of birth and death (Daniel 9)
Before Judah loses its right to rule (Genesis 49:10)

Then I talked of the significance of all these being true, that, indeed, Jesus was fully human, but that he also was the son of God (Psalm 2:7...fulfilled throughout the NT but especially Matthew 3:17; Luke 1:35; John 3:16; 1 John 5:20.)

Finally, the purpose of teaching the humanity of Jesus is found in Galatians 4:4 and a portion of Hebrews 2.

The basics of it are these:
To destroy the work of the devil
To deliver us from the fear of death
To be merciful to us when we are tempted
To receive adoption as sons
To become the propitiation of our sins.

Hebrews makes it very clear that it was necessary for Jesus to become like us, flesh and blood, so that his death would mean our guilt removed. If God were to have sacrificed his "eternal" nature (by somehow killing himself in the heavenly realms) then he would cease to exist and therefore our salvation and our world would be lost. Instead, he humbled himself to the point of death on the cross so that he could assume our punishment in bodily form without sacrificing his eternal nature to express his love in our salvation and joy.

It is in all of this that we rest. Jesus had to be human for all these reasons and with John we claim if you "deny that the Christ came in the flesh" then you have no part in salvation. Jesus was fully man. Let us never forget the love and humility it took to garner our salvation.

May our hearts burn within us just like the women in Luke 24.

-joe