THE INCARNATION – HE APPEARED IN A BODY
(I Tim. 3:16b)
OVERVIEW OF I TIMOTHY 1:1 to 3:16
1:1-2 – Overview of Christian Faith based on names for God and the blessings He bestows on His people.
1:3-4a False teaching in Ephesus and how humanistic philosophy effects us today.
1:4b-6 – The goal of the command is love. (Loving God, fellow Christians, the non-Christian world)
1:7-8 – The law is good if used properly. (The law’s deterrent, punitive and educative purposes)
1:8-11 – “Whatever else …” The Gospel Ethic. (Law-Philia University)
1:11 – Our Relationship with “The Blessed God.” (Causing God pain or joy)
1:12-16 Why Paul considered himself the worst of sinners.
1:12-16 Conversion of the apostle Paul.
1:12-16 Paul’s call to ministry.
1:17 Paul’s doxology of praise for his conversion.
1:18-20 How to avoid shipwrecking our faith.
2:1-3 The Christian is to pray for all men.
2:4,6 Comparison of Calvinism & Armenianism.
2:5-6 The man, Christ Jesus, the only mediator.
2:1-7 The vision, the message, the means.
2:8-15 Treatment of women in the ancient world, the early church and the Bible.
2:8-15 Three key hermeneutic principles to follow when studying the Bible.
2:8 Praying Men with Peaceful Hearts
2:9-10 A First-Century Christian Woman’s Dress and Deeds
2:11-12 Does Submission Demand Silence?
2:13-15 Paul’s Logic for Requiring Women to Be Silent in The Ephesian House Churches.
3:1 Why Aspiring to Church Leadership Can Be a Good Thing.
3:2 Spiritual Gifting Required of an Ephesian Elder – Teaching
3:2 Spiritual Gifting Required of an Ephesian Elder – Hospitality
3:4-5 Spiritual Gifting Required of an Ephesian Elder –Leadership
3:2-7 Ethical Demands of the NT and the Ethics Tests for Elders
3:2-7 Ethical Qualities Required of an Ephesian Elder
3:8-13 The Ever Present Danger of Ethical Disconnect in a Christian’s Life
3:8-13 The Ministry of Deacons in the Early Church
3:9 Keeping Hold of the Deep Truths of the Faith
3:11 An Official Deaconesses in the NT Church?
3:14 Results That are Better Than Answered Prayer
3:15 God’s New Community – The Church of the Living God
3:15 God’s New Community – God’s Household
3:15 God’s New Community – The Pillar & Foundation of the Truth
3:16a Introduction to the Hymn in I Tim. 3:15 – The Mystery of Godliness
3:16b The Incarnation – He Appeared in a Body
3:16 The hymn consists of six foundational truths about Christ and thus represent the foundational truths to Christian godliness. Although emotion plays a part in Christian worship Christian faith is built on, among others, these six foundational truths.
3:16b We will never truly appreciate the incarnation until we comprehend the sacrifices Christ made when he came into the world. What really makes the incarnation a stupendous event in the life of Christ?
Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great:
He appeared in a body,
was vindicated by the Spirit,
was seen by angels,
was preached among the nations,
was believed on in the world,
was taken up in glory.
INTRODUCTION:
1. “Incarnation” …. “ in” “carne” (flesh) … “Carnivorous.”
2. Various translations: He (God, Christ, who) appeared (manifested, revealed, menyatakan diri, manifestatum, made visible) in a body (flesh, rupa manusia, carne, human flesh).
3. 1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … 14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (John 1:1,14).
3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering (Romans 8:3).
4But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law (Gal. 4:4).
He laid His glory by,
He wrapped him in our clay.
Unmarked by human eye
The latent Godhead lay
Infant of days he here became
And bore the mild Immanuel’s name. (Charles Wesley)
QUESTION: Do we really know what the incarnation cost God? What sacrifices did He make to enable the incarnation to happen?
I. THE OMNIPOTENT / ALL-POWERFUL BECAME WEAK
A. We only truly appreciate the incarnation when we understand the greatness of God. Christmas is more than a charming, heart-warming story of a baby in a manger. It is a story of the all-powerful creator of the universe becoming a weak baby.
B. The best Bible verse to show this exchange of omnipotence for weakness and powerlessness is Isaiah 9:6:
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
QUESTION: What are some of the stories in the Bible that tell about the almighty power of God?
Creation of the world and of man, death of the first-born in Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, Daniel in the lion’s den, the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace, the resurrection, the destruction of the world at the end of the age etc.
C. Besides creating the universe (He holds all the molecules of the world together (Col. 1:17). In Psalms 18:7 the Psalmist said that the earth shook when God was angry and Rev. 20:11 says that the earth will flee from His presence.
D. The creation of the universe certainly is the ultimate testimony of the omnipotent power of Christ, “…through whom He (God) made the universe (Heb. 1:3).”
“Our sun is one of about 100 billion (100,000,000 000) stars which make up a giant community of stars known as a galaxy. Our galaxy is a member of a small cluster of 19 galaxies. They occupy a region over 3 million light-years in diameter. Nearest in space to our cluster are a few other galaxial clusters. The first large cluster is about 30 million light-years from us, and it contains over 1000 galaxies. On and on out into space in all directions cluster after cluster can be seen, as far out as telescopes can reach. Over a billion galaxies can now he observed. And this gives a total of 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (10^23) stars.”
E. This all-powerful God became a weak, human baby. Is there any mammal weaker for a longer period of time than a baby?
QUESTION: How does the NT describe the human / physical weakness of Jesus?
As a baby he had to be carried. He was thirsty and needed water from the Samaritan woman. He got tired and had to sleep as he did on the boat in the Sea of Galilee. He got hungry and needed food. At the temptation in the wilderness and Gethsemane he was so weak and/or emotionally exhausted that He needed angels to minister to Him. He was not able to carry His own cross. While on the cross He could not save himself or others.
II. THE ETERNAL BECAME TEMPORAL / DIED
A. “Thy life is one unwearing day; / Before its Now Thou hast / No varied future yet unlived, / No lapse of changeless past.
Thy vastness is not young or old / Thy life hath never grown; / No time can measure out Thy days, / No space can make thy throne.” (F. Faber)
QUESTION: What verses in the Bible speak of the eternity of Christ?
B. 2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans (rulers) of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times (from the days of eternity)” (Micah 5:2).
2 Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God (Ps. 90:2)
6He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life (Rev. 21:6).
C. Note “Infant of Days” not “Ancient of Days” in Wesley’s song
He laid His glory by,
He wrapped him in our clay.
Unmarked by human eye
The latent Godhead lay
INFANT OF DAYS he here became
And bore the mild Immanuel’s name. (Charles Wesley)
D. He spent 9 MONTHS in the womb of Mary, there was a MOMENT when He was born (“There is born for you this DAY”). He grew and became strong (a time thing). He was locked into a calendar and knew that he only had so much time for He said, “We must work while it is day.” He knew night from day and had the same time restraints we feel. The Gospels are lined with time references, “a long time before day; the Passover was not yet come; He prayed all night etc” And for him, time ran out and he died on a certain day and was buried at a certain time. We know the approximate date of his birth and the approximate date of His death. And so we celebrate Christmas based on a calendar, not saying that Dec. 25 is the date of his birth, and Easter, more possibly the date of his death.
III. THE OMNIPRESENT BECAME RESTRICTED IN SPACE
A. “Thy vastness is not young or old,
Thy life hath never grown;
No Time can measure out Thy days,
No space can make Thy throne.” (F. Faber)
B. The Scriptures speak plainly of Christ’s omnipresence.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you (Ps. 139:7-12).
3 But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD (Jonah 1:3).
20For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them” (Mt. 18:20).
20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Mt. 28:20).
C. He is now with every Christian worker in the world, in the midst of every two-three believers when they meet together, in the life of every person who believes in him but He could not be at Mary’s and Martha’s home in Judea when Lazarus died for at that time He was in Galilee.
3So the sisters [Mary and Martha] sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love [Lazarus] is sick.” … 6Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. 7Then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”…17On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. … 20When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. 21″Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “If YOU HAD BEEN HERE, my brother would not have died. … 32When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, IF YOU HAD BEEN HERE, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:3,6-7,17,20-21,32)
IV THE CREATOR BECAME POOR
A. The classic verse is II Cor. 8:9
9For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich (II Cor. 8:9).
B. There are various ways to evaluate “being rich.”
QUESTION: What are some ways we use to evaluate if a person is rich or not?
ANSWER: Material wealth; personal relationships; quality of life; inherent qualities or attributes
C. AS TO INHERENT QUALITIES, ATTRIBUTES: He is God, perfect in love, holiness, peace, kindness, goodness. Absolute perfection with no sin whatsoever. But also omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent.
AND YET: He laid aside His omnipresence and omnipotence and maybe omniscience. He wrapped himself in clay and lived within the abilities of the average person.
AS TO PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS: Perfect loving, eternal harmony within the Trinity.
AND YET: He lived among sinful men who argued who would be the greatest, who did not believe Him, who rebuked and betrayed Him, who sold Him for money, who would not pray with him, who gave Him to the crowd to be crucified for the sake of peace, who taunted Him and crucified Him.
AS TO MATERIAL WEALTH: The universe, the heavens and all that ever was and yet he needed nothing for He is self-existent.
AND YET:
No place to be born – And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Lk. 2:7).
What child is this … “Why lies He is such mean estate, / Where ox and ass are feeding?” / Good Christians fear, for sinners here / The silent Word is pleading.”
No bed, home, pillow – Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Mt. 8:20).
No money to pay taxes – [In order to have money to pay taxes,] Jesus said to him. “But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours” (Mt. 17:27).
Women ministered to him – 3Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means (Luke 8:3).
He was born in a borrowed stable, His first bed was a borrowed manger. He borrowed a donkey to ride into Jerusalem, ate His last meal in a borrowed room, was crucified on a borrowed cross and buried in a borrowed grave.
If we saw a person that was born in a homeless shelter, lived as a homeless person all his life, never owned a means of transport – even a bicycle, to have a special meal with his friends needed to borrow a room, slept outside, jailed on trumped up charges and then killed and buried in a borrowed grave plot – would we consider that person poor?
SO WHAT????
1. We should always walk away from Christmas with “astonished reverence” and be careful not to be only touched by the “sweet little Jesus boy.” The sacrifice involved in entering that manager were second only to the sacrifice of being nailed to the cross.
2. Christ’s incarnation, emptying Himself of His divine powers and station will always be the primary model for Christian behavior:
5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!