God & Sinners Reconciled
I have listened to countless sermons about Advent season and the Christmas event. (And, I've delivered a lot of them, too.) In general, I believe that most of them boil down to two questions:
- How did the Son of God come to earth?
- Why did the Son of God come to earth?
Knowing that we'll have a packed service filled with Christmas music, I decided to focus simply on those questions (5% of the message for the first one and the rest for the second) in this weekend's sermon. I want you to get a head start. As you prepare to worship today, please look for the insert in the Worship Folder that asks what you imagine most people here in Southern California would say about why Jesus came to earth. And then ask why you think he came. I believe that answering those questions will help clarify 1) your own understanding of Christmas and 2) your communication to others about the Christ of Christmas.
To stimulate your thinking, look at these lines from today's Bible passage, Colossians 1:19-23:
• God was pleased... through Christ to reconcile to himself all things by making peace through his blood shed on the cross (vv. 19-20).
• Once your were alienated from God and were enemies... but now he has reconciled you... (vv. 21–22a).
• ...to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation (v. 22b).
I'll give you one more piece of assistance. Consider these lines from Luci Shaw's Mary's Song:
Older than eternity, now he
is new. Now native to earth as I am, nailed
to my poor planet, caught that I might be free,
blind in my womb to know my darkness ended,
brought to this birth
for me to be new-born,
and for him to see me mended
I must see him torn.
To God's Glory,
Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor
