You Are Here

Luke 2:7, Philippians 2:7

Here’s a group picture of us all.  Smile!  Fix your hair, we’ll take it again.  Amidst this vast universe of countless galaxies, each of them with trillions of stars like our sun, you are here in this one, the Milky Way.  But this is just a best guess, and not an actual photo.

Here’s a real photographic capture of us from the Voyager spacecraft back in 1990.  That little dot of reflected glare is not Doc’s head…it’s all of us!

Psalm 8:4

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? [sent Him to visit here]

Folks:  You are here.  But you are not alone.  For He is here…Emmanuel…God with us!  As Mary and Joseph peered adoringly into that feeding trough of a manger they must’ve said the same thing:  He is here!

Luke 2:7

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

There’s a whole lot of room in outer space, but not enough room in a little town in the desert.  And of all the places for the God of the universe to be, he is here with mankind, His only creation made in His image … in such a place.  His kingdom isn’t about the upper echelon…it’s built from the bottom up.

Jesus came down.  And when He came down…He came all the way down.  He came to the most comfortless conditions, smelly, filthy. This is the wonder of grace though, isn't it?  He came down, not just to a stinking stable but to become a substitute for stinking sinners and bear the stench of our guilt in His own body.  He came down to the poor and the lowly and the humble and the base and the wicked.  He came down to the common people to bring His glorious salvation.  It was fitting, in a sense then, that He was born in a stinking, smelly stable because what smells far worse to the nostrils of God than the odor of animals is the odor of sinners. 

The cloths wrapped around His little body must have collected the smell.  It would have been the stench of animals and manure, the smell of fires burning to keep people warm, the smell of the humanity that milled around.  How unthinkable an entrance into the world for God's Son, amidst sweat and pain and blood, coldness and straw; but He came all the way down to bear in His own body our sins on the cross.  And this was a picture and metaphor of the condescension of God.  He came all the way down.

"Glory to God in the highest and on earth," that's the lowest. 

John says He was in the world, the world was made by Him, yet the world knew Him not.  He came unto His own, His own received Him not. 

Paul takes us back behind the curtains of eternity and shows us what took place before Jesus was even born.

Philippians 2:6  “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery [His priority to hold onto] to be equal with God:”

Now the word “equal” means to be equal in size, quality and character.

In every way Jesus Christ WAS and IS God.  Jesus Christ was equal with God.  It was His rightful claim. But Jesus did not cling to His equality with God.

(VS 7) “But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:”

(1) when jesus became a man there was no subtraction

Jesus remained God in all of His fullness. 

There was a time when Jesus was God but not man.

But there was never a time when Jesus was man but not God.

(2) when jesus became a man there was no division

Jesus did not give up any of His Godhood to make room for His manhood.

Jesus was not part human and part holy.

His deity was not humanized and His humanity was not deified.

Jesus was fully God and fully man throughout His earthly life.

(3) when jesus became a man there was addition

Jesus took upon Himself human nature which He had never possessed. Jesus added humanity to His deity.

This is the incarnation - Jesus being 100% man yet 100% God.

Incarnation…In Carne (In Flesh)

This is Emmanuel…God with us.

Why did Jesus leave the glory of heaven for the grief of earth?

It was because He was the only one who could come and take the sin of the world because everyone else had the world’s sin in them.

This is precisely why only God could save.

(VS 8) “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

Jesus left heaven and came to earth not only to live among us but to die for us.  He was born to die that we might live!

You see:

   Jesus was in heaven

       That is God for us

   Jesus came to earth to be Emmanuel

       That is God with us

Jesus died on the cross

    That is God AS us

And if we believe

    that is God IN us

Jesus did not become a man so He could live.

Jesus became a man so He could die so we could live!

Jesus experienced the sting of death and the wrath of hell so that we would not have to.

God did not send Jesus because He had to; God sent Jesus because He wanted to, and Jesus wanted to…it was love!

(John 3:16)

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,…”

Jesus did not die out of obligation - Jesus died out of obedience.

(VS 8)  “…he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

Jesus died a sacrificial death, the just for the unjust.

It was as if He had committed my sins.

It was as if I hadn’t.

It was as if He had no righteousness.

It was as if I was righteous.

 (VS 9) “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:”

What is that name that is above every name? It is not the name Jesus. Jesus was a very common name in N.T. times.

Millions of Americans are saying the name above every name here lately.  They say it more than ever during this season.  They say it without even recognizing it each time they say CHRISTmas.

The name above every name?  It is not the name Jesus it is the name Christ.

(VS 11) “…Jesus Christ is Lord,…”

Jesus is the name of humiliation. Lord is the name of exaltation.

christmas reminds us to accept his lordship

(VS 10) “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…”

To bow is a sign of surrender. It is an act of humility.

Paul makes it very plain that every knee will bow whether by choice or by force.

christmas reminds us to acknowledge his lordship

(VS 11) “And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord...”

That word “confess” means to agree with and to openly proclaim.

To proclaim what? To proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord!

christmas reminds us to acclaim his lordship

“to the glory of God the Father”

Christian, the purpose of your life and mine is to bring glory to God the Father and the way that glory is brought to God is when you acclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Jesus:

• The little baby wrapped in swaddling clothes
• lying in a manger
• born in a stable
• was not just Christ the Messiah of the Jews
• nor was He just Jesus the Savior of the world but:

 He is the Lord of the universe!  And yet He is here!