LN 11: "He Came to Shine" (12.23.07)

[Message MP3 coming soon]

SUMMARY

We were reminded by the children’s Christmas program that Jesus is the Star of Christmas. However, that title can be misleading for us Americans. When we think of stars, we think of movie stars posing for pictures, American Idols grasping for stardom, and rock stars worshipped at concerts. But Jesus is not the “rock star” of Christmas. Rather, He is the One who came as Light. In John 8.12, we read, “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” Light was associated with God. Scripture speaks of the light of God’s face and the light of God’s presence. The references are too numerous to mention. But Psalm 27:1 is a good example. It says, “The LORD is my light and my salvation.” It’s interesting that some Jewish Rabbis believed the Messiah’s name was “Light”. This belief probably finds its origin in passages which speak of the Messiah such as:

* Isaiah 42.6-7, “I … will make you to be … a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”
* Isaiah 49.6, “I will also make you a light for the Nations, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."
* Malachi 4.2, “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.”
* Even Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, sang, “the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

Jesus is the light of God’s self-revelation and His salvation.

Then Jesus added that whoever follows Him will never walk in darkness. To follow is to trust and obey. As William Barclay, puts it, “To be followers of Christ is to give body, soul and spirit into the obedience of the Master.” There is a Jewish proverb that further emphasizes what it means to follow. It states, “Follow a rabbi, drink in his words and be covered with the dust of his feet.” The picture is following your master so closely that you are covered by the dust he kicks up while you walk along the road. Jesus says, “whoever follows me (whoever drinks in my words and walks so close so as to be covered by the dust of my feet) will never walk in darkness.” They’ll never live in darkness.

Darkness is a metaphor for the hopelessness, sin, futility and alienation of life lived apart from God. Darkness is the way of the broken world – the way of those who have turned their backs on God and refuse to be turned around. Darkness is the curse of sin and death that we have inherited from the original sin in the Garden of Eden. But Jesus says that whoever follows Him will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

The light of life is either ‘light which issues from the source of life’ or ‘light which gives life’. Or in this case, it is both. Jesus is the light from heaven who came to dwell with people. He is also the light which gives life. He reveals the way of salvation. He is the Way of salvation. Jesus is the Light of life.

But what exactly does this light do? I believe that the Light of life does three things.

It REVEALS. And it reveals in three ways.
* Light permeates and thus the Light of Christ permeates us. It affects every area of our lives. Following Christ is not a half-hearted venture. We can’t allow Christ into parts of our life and keep Him out of others. Every area of our lives – work, rest, play, politics, marriage, family – all of it must be permeated by the Light of Christ.
* Light uncovers. Because the Light of Christ permeates us, it reaches into areas, revealing things we would rather remain hidden (like lifting up a rock and seeing critters scurry away from the light of day). That can make us uncomfortable. But that is the way of Christ. He receives us as we are, but He loves us too much to leave us that way. He changes not simply our behaviors, but our mindset, attitude, motives and desires – our hearts.
* And light guides. We began this series with two images of light: a lighthouse and a flashlight. A lighthouse is a dependable beacon that guides ships through treacherous places to safety. A flashlight is used by those who go out personally in search of the lost, troubled and dying. And so we can look to Christ (like a lighthouse) to guide us to the safety of salvation. But Jesus doesn’t just stand there. He comes to us. Jesus entered the world’s mess to rescue us from slavery to sin and bondage to death. He comes to us and leads us.

So, light reveals, but it also REPELS. We read at the beginning of John, “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” Some translate this: “the darkness has not overcome it”. That is the nature of light: it dispels darkness. Where light is, darkness cannot be. When you shine a flashlight in a dark place, you remove the darkness from that place. So it is with the light of Christ. The light of His presence removes the darkness – the hopelessness, sin and futility of life lived apart from God. When we are filled with the light of Christ, darkness has no place in us nor power over us.

And finally, Light RENEWS. Without light, life would not exist. Light causes things to grow. All living things need light to grow, blossom and produce fruit. And light heals. Some people are known to have Seasonal Affective Disorder which stems from seasonal change and lack of sunlight. One of the primary treatments is light. In a sense, only light can help. Similarly, every person has or has had Spiritual Affective Disorder. It comes from living apart from God and only the light of Christ can help. For the Light of Christ renews us – it heals us and causes us to grow. It gives us life and life to the full.

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Jesus is our light and our salvation. In Christ who we are, who God is and who we can become is revealed to us. In Christ we are kept safe because His light repels the darkness. And in Christ, we are being renewed into the men and women we were created to be.

Jesus is the star of Christmas because He is the Light of the world. He came to shine so that we could be brought out of darkness and into his wonderful light. Follow Him. Come out of the darkness of trying to make it on your own and follow the Light of the world. Give yourself - body, soul, mind and spirit in obedience to Him. Drink in his words and be covered with the dust of his feet. For He says to you: whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.


POINTS TO REMEMBER
Jesus said, “I am the light.” And He said it in an interesting place. The context is the Feast of Tabernacles in the Temple in Jerusalem. It is said that on each night of the feast, the temple court was lit up by large golden bowels filled with oil. (It was said that there was no court in Jerusalem that was not made bright from the light of the temple.) Then, in the brightness of the lamps, men of piety would dance and sing praise as the Levites played their instruments. And the dancing and praising continued until dawn. It was at the end of this feast, after the people had experienced the light of the Temple, that Jesus declared, “I am the light of the world.”


SCRIPTURE TO CONSIDER
John 1.1-9; John 8.12
Psalm 27.1
Isaiah 42.6-7; Isaiah 49.6; Malachi 4.2; Luke 1.76-79
1 Peter 2.9
Isaiah 60-61

LN 10: "He Came to Serve" (12.09.07)

[Message MP3 coming soon ...]

Summary

In her poem “Maker of the Galaxies”, Madeleine L’Engle writes:
O maker of the galaxies,
Creator of each star,
You rule the mountains & the seas,
And yet – oh here you are!
You ride the fiery cherubim
And sail on comet fall.
You teach the seraphim to hymn,
And yet - you left it all.
You left the realms of fire & ice.
Into a young girl’s womb you came.
O God! This was the sacrifice!
Nothing will ever be the same.

That poem expresses the wonder of the Incarnation: that in Jesus Christ, God came near. It also expresses part of the sacrifice of the Incarnation – that the Son of God left the glory of heaven to enter the sin of earth. He set aside His glory to be a servant.

We learned last week that Jesus came to save. This week, we learn that it is precisely because Jesus came to save that He also came to serve.

In Mark 10.45, Jesus states, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Jesus did not come to be served. Jesus did not come to demand His rightful honor and worship. He came to save us from the wrath of God (which we deserve) by giving His life for us (which we did not deserve). John 3.17 states, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” Jesus came to serve by giving His life as a ransom for many. As the Lord had spoken through the prophet Isaiah, “my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.”

Now, this servant-nature of Jesus is expressed in more depth in Philippians 3.5-9. This passage reveals what theologians often refer to as the two states of Christ: his humiliation (in that He humbled himself, became nothing, taking the nature of a servant) and exaltation (in that “God exalted Him to the highest place”). For our purposes here, we will only focus on the humility. We read: “… Christ Jesus: 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. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!"

We learn from this passage that Jesus was and is “in very nature God”. The word behind this basically implies that which truly and fully expresses and characterizes a given reality. The author of Hebrews expresses it this way, “The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being.” Jesus displayed the image and glory of God. He is, in His very nature, God.

And yet He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. Many see a parallel here with Adam in Genesis, for Jesus came as a Second Adam - to do what Adam and Eve failed to do. Unlike Jesus, Adam saw equality with God as something to be grasped; something to be sought after (the word means ‘something to be seized’ even ‘plunder’). The temptation that led to the Fall was that the serpent promised, “you will be like God.” That pride – that attempt to be like God and thus to be a little god – that subversion of God’s rightful place at the center of our lives – that was the original sin. Jesus came to be faithful and obedient where Adam had failed. Jesus, though He had every right to be acknowledged as God, would not seize those rights. Living as a perfect human being, He resisted the temptation to grasp after divinity.

Jesus laid aside His rights and His glory and made Himself nothing. Literally the text says, ‘he emptied himself’. The word in the original language means “to deprive of power; to lay aside what one possesses; to make empty; take away the status or position of something.” In coming to earth as a real human being, Christ laid aside His glory in order to take on humankind’s shame. Jesus limited His glory in order that he could be born in human likeness. However, the focus of the text is not so much concerned with what Jesus took out of Himself, as it is on the fact that He poured Himself out. Jesus emptied Himself by pouring Himself out; giving Himself up for us. In Isaiah 53.12, speaking of the Suffering Servant, we read, “he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” Jesus poured Himself out so we could be saved. And because He came to save, He came to serve.

And so we read that Jesus took the very nature of a servant. The word there is actually ‘slave’. The One who was in very nature God became in very nature a slave. He who is everything became nothing. Born in obscurity in a sheepfold, living humbly, homeless during His ministry, dying as a criminal and buried in someone else’s tomb, Jesus came on the level of a slave – without advantages, rights or privileges. And He came as the Servant of the Lord, to suffer and bear the guilt of our rebellion.

Being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, Jesus humbled Himself. Jesus was truly God and truly man. This truth is vital to the Incarnation, because, as mentioned before, Jesus came to succeed where Adam failed and to pay the penalty for that failure. The two main fall-outs of the Fall are sin and death. The Fall made sin and death inevitable for human beings. Therefore, in order for Christ to reverse the Fall, He had to deal with sin and death and to do that He had to be both God and man.
- Only a human being could pay the debt of human sin. Only a human being could represent other humans before God. But only God is without sin and only God can carry the weight of the world. So, to deal with sin, Christ had to be both God and man.
- Only a human being could experience death, but only God could conquer death. So again, Christ had to be both God and man. As John Calvin wrote, “since neither as God alone could he feel death, nor as a man alone could he overcome it, he coupled human nature with divine that to atone for sin he might submit the weakness of the one to death; and that, wrestling with death by the power of the other nature, he might win victory for us”.
- Only as a human could Jesus bear our sin, but only as God could He be without sin. Only as a human could He die in our place, but only as God could He rise again and now “hold the keys to death and Hades.”

To accomplish that, Jesus humbled Himself. And this humility was to the point of death. Jesus humbled Himself as a slave. And as a slave, He was obedient – obedient to His purpose of giving His life as a ransom for many. Jesus didn’t have to die, but he did so out of obedience – obedience to the plan of God to save human beings. Jesus said, “I lay down my life - only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.”

Jesus came to serve. This passage from Philippians explains that Servant-nature of Christ. Additionally, our passage from John, presents what that Servant-nature looks like. Jesus gave His disciples, both then and now, a picture of what it means to be a servant. In John 13:1-5, we read: "It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him."

Proper etiquette of that time required that guests, upon entering a home should have their feet washed by a servant. Foot washing was a menial task – so low that it was listed among tasks that an Israelite servant should not have to do. And yet as Jesus’ last Passover supper with the disciples commenced and no one had their feet washed (and evidently no one was willing to wash the feet of their peers), Jesus got up took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. Jesus, (interestingly, knowing His position and power) in an incredible act of humility, thus identified Himself as a slave.

And He did this, we are told, to show “the full extent of his love.” Jesus loved His disciples to the very end. Even as Jesus washed their feet, Satan was approaching. His betrayer was sitting in front of Him. His trial and abuse and crucifixion would take place within hours. And yet, Jesus took the opportunity to show His love. And His actions expressed and foreshadowed the extent of His love. This foot washing illustrated Jesus’ entire ministry and mission. He came to serve. He came to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. And it foreshadowed what would soon take place: Jesus would be poured out as a sacrifice so that all who believe would be saved. He made Himself a servant and washed their physical feet, but soon He would, through His death on the cross, wash their sins away. As the hymn states, “Here is love, vast as the ocean, loving kindness as the flood when the Prince of Life our ransom shed for us His precious blood.”

And so, it is precisely because Jesus came to save that He also came to serve; for He came to give his life as a ransom for many. He made Himself nothing, humbling Himself to the point of death. He came to show us the extent of God’s love – what love is – who God is.

But it’s Christmastime, not Good Friday. It’s time for lights and angels, animals and shepherds and a little baby. I understand that sentiment, but we miss the point of Christmas when we fail to see that the cross is why the baby came. Jesus came to die. He took on human flesh in order to show us the extent of God’s love. He identified with us in life so that we could be identified with Him in His death, as He took our place. He lived among us so we could have life: that is the message of Christmas. And He lived among us so that we would know how to live: that is our mission as Christians.

The Philippians passage begins with these words: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus …” We are to have the attitude or better yet mindset of Christ Jesus. Jesus did nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit. In humility He considered others and looked to the interests of others. He poured Himself out for others in obedience to the Father. He fulfilled the two greatest commandments: to love the lord with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. And we are to have the mind of Christ.

The passage from John’s Gospel states, “When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them." Jesus gave us an example of humble service to follow – actually, of love. As we follow Christ, we must love one another not simply with words or in sentiment, but with actions and in truth. That is the message of Christmas and the model of mission.

Jesus came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Therefore, we are to live, not to be served but to serve and give our lives for the sake of others. In other words, we are to love others as we have been loved.

And as we have seen, to love is to give yourself away.

*******

SCRIPTURE TO CONSIDER

(linked to the English Standard Version on Bible Gateway)

He came to serve - Mark 10.45

The nature of a Servant - Philippians 2.3-11

Poured out - Isaiah 53.12; Psalm 22

He gave His life - John 10:14-18

An example to follow - John 13:1-17

LN9: "He Came to Save" (12.02.07)

[To listen to the Message, click here]

[photo from www.thenativitystory.com]

SUMMARY

In her poem “First Coming”, Madeleine L’Engle writes:

He did not wait till the world was ready
till men and nations were at peace.
He came when the Heavens were unsteady,
and prisoners cried out for release.
He did not wait for the perfect time.
He came when the need was deep and great.
He dined with sinners in all their grime,
turned water into wine. He did not wait
till hearts were pure. In joy he came
to heal its tangles, shield its scorn.
In the mystery of the Word made Flesh
the Maker of the stars was born.
We cannot wait till the world is sane
to raise our songs with joyful voice,
for to share our grief, to touch our pain,
He came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice!
- Madeleine L’Engle, Wintersong, Vancouver: Regent College Publishing, 2004

That poem expresses the wonder of the Incarnation: that in Jesus Christ, God came near - to share our grief, to touch our pain, He came with Love.

The Incarnation is the focus of Christmas, but it is also crucial to the mission of the Church. The fact that the Word, Jesus Christ, took on human flesh (while retaining His divinity), lived like us and with us, interacted personally with us and gave His life for us, is both the essence of Christmas and of mission.

So what is the INCARNATION? I want us to consider the meaning, motivation and purpose of the Incarnation.

What is the MEANING of the Incarnation? Incarnation means the “act of being made flesh” and refers to the second Person of the Trinity taking on human nature. The apostle John describes it in John 1.14: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” But the Incarnation is not merely the birth of Christ, it involves the life, death and resurrection of Christ. It is the entire earthly ministry of Jesus. One of the early church fathers, Irenaeus, once wrote, “Jesus Christ, in His infinite love, has become what we are, in order that He may make us entirely what He is.”

What is the MOTIVATION behind the Incarnation? The motivation is love. Emil Brunner, when writing about the Incarnation, uses the idea of movement. He says that the Bible is basically the proclamation of the self-movement of God. In other religions and philosophies God does not move, for that would be considered a sign of imperfection. However, as Brunner states, “The God of the Christian faith, the Three in One, the Living God, is Himself motion, because in His very nature He is love.” Love requires movement, because love is always directed toward an object. God is love and therefore, in a sense, God is the motion of love – love within Himself and yet directed toward us. Again, Brunner writes, “The Bible is the book in which the ever-recurring theme is this strange assertion: that the God who has created the world and who fills all things, who holds all things within his hands, the Omnipresent and Almighty – comes.” “In the Son, as the Son, God is the self-moved, the God who Himself descends into the world.” (The Mediator, 286). What wondrous love is this!

What is the PURPOSE of the Incarnation? The purpose is found in the fact that God’s love is saving love. Jesus said that He “came to seek and to save what was lost”. He came to save. We see this in our passage: Luke 4.14-21. This passage expresses what that salvation looks like.

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me.” The presence of the Spirit in Jesus’ ministry is a recurring theme in Luke. In 4:14 we read, “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit;” in 4:1, “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit returned form the Jordan;” and in 3:22, “The Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.” And so, the presence of the Spirit marked Jesus not only as a prophet, but as the Messiah. For the title Messiah means “Anointed One”.

“to preach good news to the poor.” To preach Good News is to proclaim the Gospel (Gospel literally means “Good News”). And He would share this Good News with the poor. Now, this did not mean that Jesus only spoke to those in a certain income bracket. Jesus had plenty to say about money and the difficulty that wealthy people have in coming into the Kingdom, but “the poor” in Scripture are not simply an economic category. The poor were not just people without cash, they were people of diminished status or disadvantaged conditions, those in the margins of society, even outsiders. The poor were also “poor in spirit” – those who were humble; those who were afflicted and unable to save themselves and therefore looked to God for help; those who had a humble dependence upon God. Jesus had compassion on the impoverished and calls His followers to care for the needs of the poor, but we must recognize that ultimately we are all poor - spiritually bankrupt apart from God’s grace. And so the Good News is for us. It is received by all who recognize their broken condition and need for a Savior.

“He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners.” Who are the prisoners and what are they held captive to? 2 Timothy 2.26 describes those attempting to live outside of Christ as being caught in “trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.” Scripture also refers to every human as being a slave to sin. Apart from the life-transforming power of Christ, we are in slavery to sin. We are the prisoners and sin is what holds us captive. But Jesus came to “proclaim freedom”. Now, the word behind that refers specifically to the forgiveness of sin. And so, Jesus clearly had the fallen human condition in mind. Jesus came to proclaim the forgiveness of sins. But we may say, “What’s the big deal about simply proclaiming freedom? You can proclaim anything.” That’s true. But the difference lies in who’s proclaiming. In the beginning, God spoke and the universe came into existence. When God speaks, things happen. So when Jesus, who substituted Himself for us, proclaims the forgiveness of sins, they are forgiven. If Jesus declares that we are free, there is nothing in the cosmos that can hold us captive. We read in Scripture, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

“and recovery of sight for the blind”. Who are the blind? Anyone who has ever sung “Amazing Grace” knows the answer to that: “I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.” Jesus literally healed the blind. However, throughout the Bible, blindness is used as a metaphor for the effects of human disobedience against God. God is light and therefore trying to live apart from God is the equivalent of living in darkness - in blindness. But Jesus was sent, according to Scripture, “to be a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.” But how does He do that? I think C.S. Lewis says it best. He once said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it. But because by it I see everything else.” Jesus opens our eyes so that we can see ourselves for what we are, the world for what it is and God for who He is. Jesus is called the Dayspring, the Rising Sun. In Him we can see everything else. In Him we see what is true and good and beautiful and enduring. In Him we see God and His eternal plan and everything else is eclipsed by that vision.

“to release the oppressed.” The root of the word translated ‘oppressed’ means to be broken in pieces. The picture is of pottery broken on the ground or a spirit broken by oppression. As human beings, we know brokenness. We know psychological brokenness, emotional brokenness, physical brokenness, sexual brokenness, moral brokenness, spiritual brokenness. We look around and see the broken pieces of humanity scattered all about. We see the hurt, the pain, the disillusionment, the despair – broken marriages, broken families, broken children, broken lives. And these broken pieces cry out. Jesus came to heal our brokenness. He came to pick us up and, piece by piece, put us back together. Once again the word release, meaning forgiveness, is used, revealing that though we are broken by sin, shattered by our guilt, crushed by our shame, Jesus grants forgiveness bringing relief and release from the burden of sin and guilt and shame. And Jesus releases us not only from the oppression, but also from the oppressor. Satan does not want you to be forgiven or feel forgiven. Satan is the accuser who wants to shackle you to your past so that you can have no future. He wants you to be weighed down with a sense of failure and futility, so you can’t move. Satan delights in your despair. But if the Son has set you free, then you are free indeed. If Jesus sets us free, there is nothing in the universe that can bind us. And so let Jesus break your chains and throw off your burden. For He came to release the oppressed.

“to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” Jesus declared that the Kingdom of God had arrived – that salvation was at hand. The image is of the year of Jubilee in the OT Law. Every fiftieth year was to be a Jubilee year. During that year, slaves were set free, debts were forgiven and property could be redeemed by its original owner. Jesus has, in a sense, brought about the year of Jubilee. He has set us free. He has forgiven us. He has redeemed us. In Christ, we experience the year of Jubilee. For the apostle Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 6.2, “I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.”

Jesus came to save. That is the basis of Christmas, the hope of our lives and the core of Christian mission. He did not wait until the world was ready. He came when the need was deep and great. Jesus did not wait until we were ready or our hearts were pure or our lives were in order. While we were still sinners, Jesus died for us. He came into our unsteadiness and our prison, our need and our grime. He shared our grief and touched our pain. He came with love.

And He comes even now with love. He comes even now to save. He is ready to set you free and give you life. And the life He gives us involves a calling – a calling not only to receive His love, but also to share His love. We are saved from the brokenness of the world so that we will, as Christ’s ambassadors, re-enter that world and, like Christ, share its grief and touch its pain. Because we are so loved, we go with love – the love of Christ. That is our mission. That is our hope.

He came with Love. He came to save: receive the Good News and rejoice!

POINTS TO REMEMBER
“The coming God is the loving God, and only the coming God is the One who truly loves. For He only is the One who Himself goes forth to seek; the One who Himself moves in search of the beloved … This “coming down” of God, this condescension, this coming of God to men, is the proof of His unfathomable Love … It is the Love which gives its very self, the Love which pours itself out for the sake of the beloved. It is the Love which is all the greater the less claim the beloved has upon It, the less it is worthy of such love. Hence the coming of God as Love can only be fully known where it is the coming of God to sinful man, the seeking of those who have fallen away, of those who have been unfaithful. Here alone does the divine Love unveil its whole incomprehensible wealth and richness: in the Atonement - where God gives Himself to the sinful creature, in order that He may once more and indeed fully restore the fellowship which had been broken between man and God.”
- Emil Brunner (The Mediator, Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1947 p. 287)

“He who is reduced to nothing in himself, and relies on the mercy of God, is poor in spirit.”
- John Calvin

“To be poor in spirit is to acknowledge our spiritual poverty, indeed spiritual bankruptcy, before God.”
- John Stott

SCRIPTURE TO CONSIDER
Incarnation – John 1.1-14; 1 John 1.1-4
He came to save - Luke 4.14-21
Life apart from/in Christ - 2 Timothy 2.26; Romans 6
Our sin and Savior - Isaiah 59
Jesus the Servant of the Lord - Isaiah 42.1-8
Now is the day of salvation - 2 Corinthians 6.2