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11th December 2005    AM

 GOD SENT HIS SON!          Pastor Colin Meadows

Bible Readings : Galatians 3:26 - 4:7, Isaiah 9:6-7

Ø Appointments these days:

When we ring up the doctor’s surgery, we are given an appointment time. Then when we turn up a few minutes before the set time, we then wait 40 minutes! After catching up on your reading of copies of Time magazine from 2003, you finally get to go in to see the doctor. That is not the case here.

Ø God acted at the right time:

Gal 4:4 “But when the time had fully come…”

This lit. means ‘at the end of the appointed period’. God the father had set a specific time at the end of which he would send his son. Jesus did not come too soon or too late. He came at the appointed time, the right time.

The events of world history were all in the right position. At the right time, a common language, Greek, spoken and understood throughout the region. The OT in Greek and available to the people. At the right time, the Pax Romana, the peace of Rome since 63AD in place so that people could move freely about without fear of violence and war. But most importantly, at the right time, the people desperate for God to intervene, hungry for spiritual reality, thirsty for salvation. At the right time.

I sense today that many are desperate for God to intervene in their lives and in our world. Are we like that, hungry for true spiritual reality? Thirsty for the Spirit of God to be poured into our dry hearts? That was the situation at the time of Jesus’ first coming. At the right time…, God intervened by sending his son…

Ø God sent the right person:

Gal 4:4 “…God sent his son…”

At the right time, God did not send an office boy. He didn’t send a great prophet who would challenge and inspire. He sent his son. You see, he had sent others in the past but now at this right time, was the time for his son.

Heb 1:1 “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he had spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.”

Jesus was not an accident of history, someone caught up in events outside his control. He was the son of God, sent by the Father. But this son is truly amazing. He is Immanuel, God amongst us in the flesh, who came to live on earth. He was the one appointed heir of all things and through whom the whole world was created. Such a person can only be God himself. Amazing!

As we contemplate such things, let us stop trying to get our head around just how God could become man and live amongst us. In many ways, this is mystery beyond our comprehension. Sometimes we say things we don’t know what we are talking about. Karl Barth, the Swiss Theologian commented about such things when he said “One cannot speak about God simply by speaking about man in a loud voice. Let us admit that we are totally out of our depth.

Rather, in fear and trembling, with all humility, let us acknowledge our finiteness in all things, our sinfulness in each part of our being and get on our knees before such a God! That is the only appropriate respond to such truth. Sent by God himself. But Jesus was more than the holy other God. He was human just like us.

Ø Jesus came in the way we could understand:

Gal 4:4 “…born of a woman…”

Christ didn’t come as an angel or a ghost. He didn’t come as an invincible superman. Christ came as a helpless babe that Christmas morning. While he was conceived miraculously by the Holy Spirit, his birth was just like any other human birth. There would have been the uncertainty; the pain and then the joy of a new life come into the world. God in Christ accepted the limitations and restrictions that being human would place on him. Christ identified with us in all things.

Heb 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet without sin.” Jesus was like us in every way, except that he didn’t sin. He thus has an incredible empathy for our human condition. He came in the way that we could understand.

Ø He came to set us free:

Gal 4:4,5 “…born under law, to redeem those under law…”

The word ‘redeem’ is the language of the slave market. It speaks of paying the price to set a slave free. That is what Jesus came to do. To set people free.

John 8:31-2 ‘To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”’

Are you tired of tied! Jesus came to set us free.

Ø He came so that we could become like him:

Gal 4:5 “…that we might receive the full rights of sons.”

The amazing outcome of Christ’s death for us on the cross. As we respond in repentance and faith, so we become sons and daughters of the living God. That we might grow to be all that God wants us to be. Not slaves of the past but sons and daughters of the present and the future.

People made it he image and likeness of God now set free to be all that God intended us to be. He came so that we could become like him.

Our amazing inheritance, but some of us are unaware. The late Vernon McGee tells a true story about an unclaimed inheritance in the local Chicago paper. It read ‘The flophouses and saloons of Chicago ’s Skid Row were searched today for one Stanley William McKenna Walker, 50, an Oxford graduate and heir to half of an $8,000,000 English estate. The missing persons detail hoped that somewhere among the down-and-outers who line the curbs and sleep off wine binges in the cheap hotels they would find Walker, son of a wealthy British shipbuilder.’

McGee went on to write that he found out a few months later that the heir had, indeed, been found. He was found dead in a doorway on a cold night. McGee commented that this story affected him profoundly and led him to reflect, "How tragic to die like that man died." He went on to say, "Many Christians live and die like that, and yet they are, in the words of Ephesians, ‘blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ.’"

Yes, Jesus came that we might inherit and become like him.

Ø What is our response to the coming of Jesus?

God has acted in Christ. At the right time, God sent his son, Jesus, who was just like us, the Son who could set us free, the Son who could make us become just like him. What do you intend to do in response to these amazing truths? As you prepare for Christmas, do you also intend to prepare for Christ? Are you willing for Jesus to take control of your life, for Him to empower you through his Holy Spirit to bring your will into line with God’s will for your life? Are you going to respond to all which God has done for you in Christ? Or are you going to leave this incredible gift from God unopened under the tree this Christmas.

Story of the family who rushed one Christmas morning to open their presents. Dad acted as Father Christmas as the children struggled to control their impatience. Slowly the gifts were distributed, wrapping paper ripped off presents and thrown in all directions as the gifts were unwrapped. After 30 minutes of chaos, the noise level had dropped somewhat as people examined a little closer their individual gifts.

As the cleanup began, suddenly Mum found another gift tucked away under the tree. It had no card attached and had been poorly wrapped. Mum picked it up and asked in surprise who had put it there. No one replied so she slowly opened it up. It was an old shoe box, inside which was a small statue of the baby Jesus from the family’s nativity scene.

Again mum asked who had put it there, but this time her voice was much more subdued. It was then the youngest child replied “I put the present there as a gift for us all. At school our teacher said that Christmas was all about Jesus. I thought we should remember that for our family too.’ Sometimes it takes a child to remind us what Christmas is really all about.

At the right time, God sent the right person, in the right way, to set us free so that we could become like him. What an amazing gift we can receive this Christmas! What is your respond? Is Jesus the focus of this Christmas time or have we allowed other things to creep in? Why not this Christmas open the wonderful present that God has sent to us, his own son, Jesus.

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