Showing posts with label Virgin Birth. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Preaching Christmas: How Shall We Package The Gospel This Time?

Suspend your disbelief, pastor. December is about to arrive on your pastoral doorstep. No, I am not “pulling your leg.” Snow will soon be falling. Advent sermons will soon need preparing. Ere long we will stand before the old and young, the believer and skeptic, proclaiming the message that Angels once declared!

So how can we make the most of this opportunity?

1. Be sure the incarnation is thrilling your soul.

The very repetitiveness of Christmas carries with it an obvious danger. Quite frankly, preachers can become bored with the subject matter. I have heard pastors talk of ‘advent sermons’ much as someone might speak of tax returns: a necessary chore that comes round once a year. Some of us may never have said as much, but God knows, we’ve thought it in our hearts.

Yet to groan about preaching the incarnation is to reveal darkened minds and cold hearts! What could be more interesting, fascinating, and exciting than the Word becoming flesh? “God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man” should fill our minds with wonder and our souls with praise! If it doesn’t, we should get on our knees and open our bibles till our cold hearts melt and catch flame with worship.

2. **Do not get original with your content**.

Since there are a limited number texts from which we can preach Christmas, there is a temptation to become ‘creative’ in our expositions. Eisegesis is never more of a temptation than when preaching nativity narratives.

But the Christmas narratives do not need to be “jazzed up.” Even as our hearts burn with wonder, let us keep cool heads and exegete our passage with the same careful precision as we would any other. Let us not be speculative, but exegetical. Let us not be original, but conventional. Let us preach the Word, trusting that the old, old story continues to have fresh force and impact! Continue at Unashamed

Monday, November 26, 2012

The Glory of the Coming Lord

In southern California, where snow may be seen only on the peaks of the distant San Bernardino mountains, Santa Claus rides a sleigh, his illuminated plastic effigy following Rudoph's red nose across the roof tiles of a Spanish hacienda. Santa may also be found in malls and on public property, where political correctness has banned the crèche-unless, of course, the sheep and oxen are joined by Donner, Blitzen, Rudolf, the Lion King, Pocahontas, and Mickey Mouse. Yet in Vanity Fair Mall the faint background music still includes "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and "O Come Let Us Adore Him."

Jesus the Christ, however, is not reduced to background music in our time. He was born in history; he now rules history as the risen Lord. His is not the "virtual reality" of digital entertainment nor the unreality of multicultural myths, but the first and final reality: the personal, living God incarnate. He is the Alpha and the Omega: the creating Word who has the last word, for when he comes again, we face not a jury but the Judge. Human history cannot contain his glory, but we need the depth dimension of Scripture history to reveal it.

On the first Easter morning, when Jesus walked, unrecognized, with Cleopas and a companion, he did not remove their doubts and fears by saying, "Cleopas!" as he had said "Mary!" in the garden. They needed to know more than the fact of the resurrection-they were walking away from the fact of the empty tomb and of the presence of angels reported by the women. They needed to understand its meaning: the glory of Jesus Christ that was gained through his suffering. What they foolishly failed to grasp was the message of Scripture.

Jesus, therefore, beginning with the books of Moses and the prophets, explained from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself (Lk 24:27). He was not willing to show Cleopas that he was somehow alive, since in a chance universe anything can happen. The good news is not that there was once a resurrection. The good news is "that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor 15:3f).

We, too, need to know the fact of the resurrection in the context of its meaning. The teaching of Jesus that burned into the hearts of those two disciples has not been forever lost because Cleopas lacked a tape recorder. We have Christ's resurrection teaching during those forty days in the inspired New Testament. That is why the sure guide to our understanding of the Old Testament is the New Testament. Continue at Edmund P. Clowney

Friday, December 23, 2011

The Virgin Birth and the Immaculate Conception

During Christmas season each year, we read the accounts of Jesus’ birth in the Gospels (Matt 1:18–25; Luke 1:26–38), and we are reminded once more of our Savior’s Virgin Birth. What exactly do we mean by the Virgin Birth of Christ? Maybe that’s obvious, but let’s start with a definition. By the Virgin Birth we understand that Jesus was conceived in the womb of his mother Mary by a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit without a human father.

We must not confuse the Virgin Birth of Christ with the so-called Immaculate Conception. Many Christians incorrectly believe that the Immaculate Conception has reference to Christ. Instead, the Immaculate Conception is the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was herself conceived in her own mother’s womb free from sin. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that Mary was not only free from inherited sin by the Immaculate Conception, but neither did she commit any personal sins in her lifetime. Thus, she was in fact as sinless as her son Jesus. It’s important to remember that this idea of the Immaculate Conception of Mary did not become an official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church until 1854.

But this doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary is in reality nowhere taught in Scripture. Nevertheless, the Roman Catholic Church does point to a verse in Luke they claim teaches it—Luke 1:28: “And coming in, he [Gabriel] said to her, ‘Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you’” (NASB). You may be saying, “I don’t see where this verse teaches that Mary was conceived without sin or lived a sinless life.” And you would be right; it teaches no such thing. Keep Reading >>>

Saturday, December 17, 2011

The Controversy of Christmas

Mention “Christmas” and “controversy” together in the same sentence, and most evangelicals will assume you’re talking about Santa Claus, Christmas trees, or the secularization of the winter holiday season.

But, from a historical perspective, a much more significant controversy surrounded Christmas for the first five centuries of church history; and its effects still linger in some circles today. It centered on the very essence of Jesus’ birth – the doctrine of His incarnation.

There is, of course, an element of mystery in the incarnation. After all, how can one person be both fully God and fully man at the same time? Yet, that is precisely the miraculous truth that the Scriptures affirm regarding the Person of Jesus Christ.

Nonetheless, despite the clarity of biblical revelation, the doctrine of Christ’s incarnation came under attack from the very beginning.

The Ebionites, a legalistic first- and second-century cult, denied the Virgin Birth and the very idea of the incarnation. They accepted the fact that Jesus was a man, but utterly rejected the notion that He was God in human flesh.

In the second and third centuries, the Gnostics likewise denied the incarnation. Not only did they teach that Christ was one of many gods, they also rejected the idea that His humanity was real. In Gnostic teaching, Christ’s humanity was merely an illusion. Thus, the incarnation did not really occur; it was only a mirage.

In the fourth century, the Arians affirmed the humanity of Christ, but denied His full deity. In particular, they denied Christ’s equality with the Father. Thus, while His manhood was upheld, His place as the Second Member of the Trinity was rejected. Keep Reading >>>

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Christmas Resources

The Absence of Immanuel in Islamic Thought: Part 1
The Absence of Immanuel in Islamic Thought: Part2

Jesus Ripped Up Santa's List

Must I Believe in the Virgin Birth?

The Incarnation in Hebrews, Part One
The Incarnation in Hebrews, Part Two

The Santa Claus Question: what do I tell my children about him?