Welcome To Our World!

Fourth Sunday of Advent @ Community of Grace, Hamilton, Ontario

Christmas Flesh: Welcome To Our World
Introduction
Today, our fourth look at a Christmas carol. First, Hark, The Herald Angels Sing. Second, God Keep You Happy, Gentlemen! Last week, Joy To The World.
This fourth lyric was penned in the past decade, by Chris Rice. The musical setting is more lullaby than hymn, so it’s not commonly thought to be a carol.
More than most all the carols, though, this song expresses the dramatic essence of the birth of Jesus in human form, simultaneously describing the purpose of his body.

First, Jesus came as an answer from God.
I. We cry out for a word from God.
Tears are falling, hearts are breaking
How we need to hear from God

You've been promised, we've been waiting
Welcome Holy Child
a. Tears are falling/Hearts are breaking.
b. We need to hear from God.
c. You’ve been promised.
d. We’ve been waiting.
e. WELCOME!

Scripture:
Psa. 130:5 ¶ I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope.

Is. 65:24 “It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.

EBC,The greatest of all the blessings they will know, however, will be a relationship with God in which there is complete harmony between their prayer and his will, between his desire to provide and their dependence on him to give (v.24). Verse 25, taken almost entirely from 11:6-9, is a reminder that these blessings come only through the Messiah while the words “dust will be the serpent’s food” (alluding to Gen 3:14) remind us that the overthrow of Satan, the great serpent (Rev 20:2), is the result of the work of the woman’s offspring (Gen 3:15).

Rom. 1:1-4 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,

Implication: The longings of our heart drew God’s response in Jesus; before we asked.

Second, Jesus arrived unexpectedly.
II. We welcome a Stranger we were not prepared to receive.

Hope that you don't mind our manger How I wish we would have known
But long-awaited Holy Stranger Make Yourself at home 
Please make Yourself at home

Rom. 8:26 ¶ In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
Rom. 8:27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

First, Jesus came as an answer from God.
Second, Jesus arrived unexpectedly.
Third, Jesus came as the answer to our deepest need.
III. The Stranger finds us full of violence, hungry for meaning, and awaiting word from heaven.
Bring Your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
Word now breaking Heaven's silence
Welcome to our world
a. Your peace/our violence.
b. Your food/our hungry souls.
c. WORD now breaking heaven’s silence.
i. The prophets had not spoken for 400 years!
ii. Prepare Ye The Way Of The Lord—Isaiah
Is. 40:3 ¶ A voice is calling,
“Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness;
Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.
iii. Jesus was called THE WORD by John.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

First, Jesus came as an answer from God.
Second, Jesus arrived unexpectedly.
Third, Jesus came as the answer to our deepenst need.
Fourth, Jesus came in a vulnerable body.
IV. The Holy Stranger is a fragile child.
a. Fragile finger—
i. tiny, as every baby’s.
ii. Healing, rather than needing another’s strength.
b. Tender skin—
i. Tender—in need of protection.
ii. Prepared to tear—The skin of this baby would be pierced & torn.
iii. Tiny heart whose blood would save us.
1. Scale—a baby’s little heart seems barely strong enough to pump blood to its body.
2. Jesus’ heart is pumping blood enough for us all.

First, Jesus came as an answer from God.
Second, Jesus arrived unexpectedly.
Third, Jesus came as the answer to our deepenst need.
Fourth, Jesus came in a vulnerable body.
Fifth, THE CLIMAX; Jesus came to die.
V. The body of this baby is designed to…
So wrap our injured flesh around You

Breathe our air and walk our sod

Rob our sin and make us holy
Perfect Son of God

Perfect Son of God Welcome to our world!!!!
a. Wrap our injured flesh around you: COVER YOURSELF WITH US/COVER US WITH YOURSELF!!
i. Our injured flesh—symbolic of our suffering & our brokenness.
ii. Around You—vivid description of the Messiah’s burden, our own sin.

…Gregory of Nazianius (329-89 AD.) wrote: ‘If anyone has put his trust in Him as a man without a human mind, he is really bereft of mind, and quite unworthy of salvation. For that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved.

Gregory the Great (540-604), ‘first pope’, bishop of Rome: “…how could a man, himself stained with sin, be an offering for sin? Hence a sinless man must be offered.
But what man descending in the ordinary course would be free from sin? Hence, the Son of God must be born of a virgin, and become man for us. He assumed our nature without our corruption. …a victim without sin, and able both to die by virtue of his humanity, and to cleanse the guilty, upon grounds of justice.”

Is. 53:4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
Is. 53:5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
Is. 53:6 All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.

b. Breathe and walk as we do.
Jesus also breathed our air and walked the land as we do.
c. Take away our sin.
d. Make us holy. Phil. 1:6—Having begun a good work in you, he will carry it on to completion.

Welcome to our world!!!!