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God comes to us at the time we need him the most. He comes to us, to rescue us from the dark. Isaiah 50:10 says that whoever walks in the darkness, and has no light – can trust and rely upon God. Christmas is a celebration of light, filled with wonderfully illuminated homes, storefronts, and candle-lit carols. All of this is to remind us that Jesus is God’s marvelous light. In him there is no shadow of change. Mighty God comes to us midwinter.
Welcome to Redemption Church in Plano, TX. I pray that this Christmas season is merry & bright. My name is Chris Fluitt and I greet you all. “Praise the Lord” to everyone worshipping with us in person. And a “Praise the Lord” to everyone worshipping with us online.
We are in the 2nd week of our Sermon Series – Midwinter.
Midwinter
We are using winter as a metaphor for the condition of the world at that first Christmas.
Winter is… dark, cold, lifeless, difficult, and lonely. Christ came to a world that was in midwinter.
The Christmas story reveals how God responds to a world midwinter.
The Christmas story reveals how God will respond to us midwinter.
Isaiah 9:6(NIV) 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.
Last week, in the first week of this series we talked about how the world at that first Christmas was lacking wonder and help. God responds to this dark struggling world by sending us someone wonderful and who would be a counselor.
In your bleak midwinter God will send wonder and help to you through Jesus Christ.
400 years of silence
We told you last week about the 400 years of silence that preceded the first Christmas.
For 400 years God was silent, Heaven seemed closed, there was no prophet or revelation, and there were no supernatural demonstrations of God’s power.
What is going on here? Why is God silent for 400 years?
Let’s see if you notice a pattern…
God creates the world and walks with Adam & Eve… When Adam & Eve sin they are removed from God’s presence and expelled from the garden.
The world continues to grow evil, so God sends instruction for salvation to a man named Noah. Only 8 people receive God’s Word, and the rest of humanity is separated outside of the ark, while 8 are saved within.
Israel has 12 sons, but in their jealousy the sons sell their brother Joseph into slavery. This evil act sown; generations later reap slavery for every son of Israel. For 400 years in Egypt God is silent and seems distant and separate.
God uses Moses to deliver the slaves. God gives His law to the people, but they do not keep it and instead the people worshipped other Gods. They willfully sinned against God’s commands, and for the rest of the Old Testament there is a pendulum pattern of Israel separating, reuniting, separating, reuniting, and separating with God, again.
The God who formed man with his own hands, and intimately breathed his Spirit into us and brought us to life; this God who is so near, can become distant.
Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
Is it possible to be separated from God?
Your iniquities… your evil, your perversity & depravity, your evil actions & thoughts… have separated you from your God.
Your sins… your unclean works and command breaking…. Have hidden God’s face from you, so that He will not hear.
Does this sound like the condition of the World at that first Christmas?
400 years of silence
God was separate.
God was hidden.
God was not hearing.
…for 400 years.
It is possible for you to be in this same condition.
You can be separated from God.
God can be hidden from your eyes.
Your prayers can go unheard.
This is life midwinter.
Are you living midwinter?
Are you in the same condition that the earth was in that first Christmas?
When was the last time you heard from God?
When was the last time you saw God at work in your life?
When was the last time you knew that your prayer was heard?
Are you separated from God?
Are you separated from His will?
Separated from His calling for your life?
Are you distant from His Word?
Are there iniquities and sins separating you from God?
If this is you midwinter, I have great news for you. Christmas teaches us how God responds to us midwinter.
Isaiah 9:6(NIV) 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.
The Mighty God comes Midwinter
How many Gods are there? To be really specific… How many true Gods are there? There are countless false gods.
How many mighty Gods are there? The mighty God is the 1 true God.
Because there is only 1 true God, all other gods are false… all other gods are weak… are all other gods powerless.
Deuteronomy 6:4(NIV) Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Exodus 20:3(NIV) “You shall have no other gods before[a] me.
1 Kings 8:60(NIV) so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other.
Isaiah 46:9(NIV) Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.
Ephesians 4:6(NIV) one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
James 2:19(NIV) You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
There is one God! This is an essential truth of God’s Word. How essential? Jesus says “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one…” is the most important of all the commandments (Mark 12:28-)
There is one God. …but then who is Jesus?
Isaiah prophecies that Jesus is the child born and the son given. This same child and son will be called the Mighty God.
Jesus is the Mighty God.
Jesus is not a 2nd God. There is only 1 God.
Jesus is not a demi-god… a half-god invention.
Jesus is not an angel.
Jesus is the Mighty God.
1 John 5:20(NIV)We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
That son given is how we know the true God. Because that son, Jesus Christ is the “true God and eternal life.”
The next verse is telling also…
1 John 5:21(NIV) 21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
Jesus is the true God… Jesus is not a false god idol. There is nothing false about Jesus.
John 1:1(NIV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14(NIV) The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Colossians 1:15(NIV) The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
Colossians 1:19(NIV) For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
Jesus is the Mighty God, the Son of God, and Mary’s son
Jesus is the Mighty God. He is that same Mighty God that spoke let there be light. Jesus is not an add on deity… he is not a 2nd God. Jesus is that one God we read about.
Jesus is not only God… which seems strange to say right? “Not only God?” How could you add anything to being God?
I don’t mean to break any brains, but Jesus is both God and the Son of God. Scripture says that God’s Spirit overshadowed Mary and she conceived. (Luke 1:35) So understand this…
The child born and the son given is the Mighty God, and the father of this son is also God. Jesus’ biological father is not a human, but God. Because of this we can claim Jesus as God and the Son of God. In this way God sacrifices Himself on the cross and also gives His only son to die on the cross.
Jesus is the Mighty God, the Son of God, and also Mary’s son. Being Mary’s son is an equally important fact, because this is how God steps into the Human existence – God incarnates inside a human birth. “And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” (John 1:14)
If He weren’t the Mighty God… He would be a 2nd rate false God.
If He weren’t the son of God… He would just be another man.
If He weren’t Mary’s son… He wouldn’t be a man at all and would not be able to substitute Himself for mankind.
The child born, the son given, is Jesus Christ the Mighty God.
The Tabernacle – John 1:14
Imagine we are Hebrews in the middle of the wilderness encampment. Imagine I walk up to you and ask, “Where is God? Can you point me to God? I want to know where God is?”
A Hebrew would point to the Tabernacle and say God is right there. A Hebrew would point to the tent in the middle of the camp and say, “God’s right there.”
Scripture teaches us that God can’t be seen. (Col 1:15, John 1:18, Exodus 33:20) God is Spirit (John 4:24) and Spirits don’t have flesh and blood. (Luke 24:39)
Yet the Hebrew would point to the tabernacle and say God is right there…? How do we explain this?
Inside that physical, tangible, touchable tabernacle tent dwells the invisible Spirit of the Mighty God. You are not incorrect to point at this tabernacle and say, “There is God.”
With that understanding, let’s go to John 1.
*John 1:14(NIV) The Word became flesh and made his dwelling (tabernacled) among us.
John literally writes that God, the Word, became flesh and tabernacled among us…
Christians, when someone asks you where God is… you point to the tabernacle named Jesus. Jesus is that tabernacle, He is that tent with the invisible Spirit of God within.
God in Christ is what the temple/tabernacle was always meant to teach us.
Do you know what the temple in Heaven looks like? Do you know what the final, most perfect installment of God’s temple will be like?
Revelation 21:22(NIV) I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
The temple in heaven will not be a tent or a stone building… The temple in Heaven will be the lamb, the physical man, the child born, and son given – the All-Mighty God within Him.
For all eternity when anyone asks where God is… you will point to the Mighty God Jesus Christ.
This is powerful doctrine.
This is important truth.
This is ‘God honoring’ and ‘Jesus honoring’ Gospel Truth.
But it must be more than scriptures we can quote or a statement of faith we can point to on our website. The Truth of God is more than a belief system, it must be a Truth that is applied to our life and lived out in our day to day.
Here is how we apply this Truth that Jesus is the Mighty God.
The Mighty God comes Midwinter
That first Christmas teaches us how God responds to us midwinter.
The Mighty God came to a world that had been rebellious and sinful.
The Mighty God came to a world that had rejected His commands.
The Mighty God came to a world that had chosen to worship other gods.
Have you been rebellious and sinful? ME TOO! Thank You Mighty God that you still come to us.
Have you failed to keep God’s commands? ME TOO! Thank You Mighty God that you still come to us.
Have you run after other false gods? (Money, fame, pleasure, power)? ME TOO! Thank You Mighty God that you still came to us.
He came to us when we did not deserve it.
He DID NOT come because we deserved it.
STOP TRYING TO DESERVE IT!
I want you to get ready to talk to this Mighty God of ours, this Jesus Christ whom we share.
The very same Mighty God is here right now… not because we deserve it, but because He loves us.
He can do a miracle for you… not because you deserve it.
He can save you…
He can forgive all your sin…
The Mighty God had every reason to turn His back on us, but instead He came to us midwinter.
Will you receive Him right now? Not receiving Him now would be the same as turning your back on Him… come receive Him, come worship Him, Come crown Jesus, your own MIGHTY GOD.
Where is God today? Point to the child born and son given and declare Jesus, Mighty God.