SERMON SUMMARY
The forgotten truth of Christmas is that God incarnated Himself in Jesus so that Jesus would be incarnated in us. The key to living as a follower of Christ is cultivating the moment-by-moment awareness that Jesus lives in me to live His life through me.
SERMON SCREENSHOTS & KEY POINTS
My purpose in this more theologically-oriented message is that from this day forward, whenever you hear the word “incarnation,” you will think of “double incarnation.” At Christmas, God incarnated Himself in Jesus—at Pentecost, Jesus incarnated Himself in all who put their faith and trust in Him for salvation. The two incarnations are related in a very powerful and personal way—God incarnated Himself in Jesus so that Jesus would be incarnated in us.
Let’s look at both sides of the incarnation coin. First, at Christmas, we celebrate the fact that God became human; God became flesh and blood and bone; God became one of us and lived among us in the person of Jesus. Unquestionably, this is truly the most amazing event in human history. As Paul said in 1 Tim 3:16 (NLT)—“Without question, this is the great mystery of our faith: Christ was revealed in a human body.” Part of this story is told in Matthew 1:18-25. In this simple story, we see hints of the magnitude of what happened when Jesus was born—Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, which speaks of Him being fully God and fully human—He would be called Immanuel, meaning “God with us”—His human name was “Jesus,” which means “the one who will save us from our sins,” which is something only God can do.
When we hear that God incarnated Himself in Jesus “to save us from our sins,” we immediately think that He saves us from our sins to take us to heaven when we die. Of course, that’s right, and that’s true, and for that, we’re very grateful. But there’s more to “being saved from our sins” than going to heaven when we die. Paul tells us in Gal1:3-5 that Jesus gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age.” Christmas is also about Jesus saving us from our sins right here, right now. That means Jesus saves us from anxiety, anger, pride, impatience, selfishness, lust—all the things that God knows will destroy us now. And in saving us from the power of sin now, He also saves us from the negative consequences of our sins—the misery, unhappiness, despair, bitterness, and guilt that often festers in our hearts when sin takes us captive.
The question is, how? How does Jesus save us from our sins and the negative consequences of our sins now? To answer that question—we’ve got to look at what I’m calling, “the Forgotten Truth of Christmas,” which is—God incarnated Himself in Jesus so that Jesus would incarnate Himself in us. Paul also calls this a “great mystery” in Colossians 1:27—“And this is the mystery: Christ lives in you.” Peter talks about this as well in 2 Peter 1:4 when he writes that we are “partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” (Notice: “partakers of the divine nature”
refers to the second incarnation, and “escaping the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” speaks to how the second incarnation rescues us from the negative consequences of our sins right here, right now. See how Paul and Peter are on the same page?).
Some call this “incarnational reality,” which is the presence of Christ with us and within us by His indwelling Spirit. Jesus talked about this very thing in John 14:20—“On that day, you will realize that I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” (read that again) “On that day,” (the day of Pentecost), the day I send my very own Spirit to live inside you, you’ll realize how everything I taught you about how “I and the Father are one” and how “if you’ve seen Me you’ve seen the Father”—you’ll realize how it all comes together. And, on that day, you’ll also understand what it means for you to be “in Me” and for Me to be in you.” That’s double incarnation—incarnational reality—the first incarnation made the second incarnation possible. In fact, it was the whole point of the first incarnation. God incarnated Himself in Jesus so Jesus would be incarnated in you. The point is: The Word continues to be made flesh in all who trust Jesus Christ for salvation.
And, this is not simply a point of doctrine to believe—it’s a reality to be lived. A central passage that brings this out-of-head knowledge to life experience is Galatians 2:20—(my paraphrase)—“I have been crucified with Christ, but I’m still alive. It’s no longer I who live, but Christ lives in (and through) me. So I now live in this earthly body by trusting the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
To begin cultivating a conscious awareness of “Christ in me, living His life through me,” consider this question: How would your life be different if Jesus lived His life through you? Or, let’s make that personal, “If Jesus were living His life through me, how would that affect how I respond to people and the events in my life?
*We are a church located in Greenville, South Carolina. Our vision is to see God transform us into a community of grace passionately pursuing life and mission with Jesus.