First Sunday of Advent...Galatians 4:1-7...The When, What, and Why of Christmas

 


Another manger (feeding trough) made for the purpose of assisting the church through the Advent season.  Not made by me but a long time member of WCC who has such a heart for God.  The manger starts out empty and bare but each Sunday it transforms into so much more.  The children come into the sanctuary and check out the manger each Sunday to see what has changed.  It is front and center so I can refer to it often in the sermons of Advent.  

The first sermon of Advent is one I have done before a couple of times.  The passage is Galatians 4:1-7 and we hear the Christmas event in verses 4 and 5, 

"But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons."  

It is great to read from the 1st century writers how they tied salvation to the manger scene.  Really, it is incomplete unless we tell why the "little one" came.

The story of "Old Betty" makes an appearance again at the end of the sermon.  What an image of Christ holding in one hand all our debts (sins) paid in full and in the other hand all the provisions we would need for this life and eternity.  Jesus paid the price, the ransom, and He redeemed us to receive or recover what was lost, our position as part of His family.  We go from the slave child in verse 1 to the heir child in verse 7 because of what God did through the sending forth of His Son in verse 4.  

One last thought away from the sermon was hammered out while attending a local men's bible study this morning.  John 16:33 was the text.  

"These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."

Jesus is speaking to His disciples.  To have peace with God requires that we have a faith relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  Our present human situation is a lot of tribulation, trials, and upheavals.  Jesus' present situation is a completion, an overcoming of the world and its leader, Satan.  The truth is that Jesus has overcome the world and we have to hold this truth by faith while we look at the tribulations, trials, and upheavals around us.  We can hold unto this truth by faith because we have experienced God's love expressed to us through the offering of His Son for our sins.  

It really hit me this morning that we need another word for truth when we are distinguishing between my truth or your truth or God's truth.  Just as God is infinite and we are not, so God's infinite truth demands a different response than the earthly finite truth that is ever changing around us.  God said it, truth, out of His love for us so that we who are in a faith relationship with Him can examine in and apply it against what the world is saying.  While we walk through the tribulations (earthly truth), we hold unto the overcoming the world (heavenly truth) because Jesus spoke His truth to us with His very life of love for us.

If I speak God's truth with love it can be utilized and I follow His example.

If I speak God's truth without love it can be weaponized and I follow Satan's example.

Always learning,

Adam



A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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