Majesty Stepped Down Into Misery, and It Was Not for a Holiday

Sermon outline

You cannot understand the beauty of the cradle until you have a revelation of the cross: the child in the manger is the Mighty God who came on a rescue mission, so Christians stop trying to be God, live free, and come back like the one leper to say thank you.

1. Move beyond the manger: the baby is the Mighty God

   We must not be trivial or sentimental about the sweet baby in the manger, because His birth was the beginning of our salvation. Jesus did not start existing in Bethlehem; the Word was with God and was God at creation, and He simply arrived in Bethlehem. Isaiah gives Him the government and the names Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace, so there is no peace apart from Him and no victory or authority over the devil apart from Him. We cannot reduce Him to a holiday figure we remember from 15 to 26 December. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers out of them all.

   “You cannot understand the beauty of the cradle until you have the revelation of the cross.”

   • John 1:1-5
   • Isaiah 9:6-7
   • Psalm 34:19

2. Called according to His purpose

   People ask why he decided to run the church. He did not decide; God would not let him go, and his part was to be obedient. God gives you a grace period to be yourself, and when that is over He takes over, even if it brings you to your knees. All things work together for good to those who are called according to His purpose, not your plans and dreams but His. The day itself does not matter, as you can celebrate an anniversary every day, but the birth it marks does. When the unsaved family throw their unsolicited advice on the table, say: as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

   Illustration: He and Pastor Yajhna celebrated their twentieth anniversary while away. She came to faith and within about two years was married into a family of pastors, and he asks what would have happened had she not embraced the call.

   “My duty in the whole thing was to make sure that I was obedient.”

   • Romans 8:28
   • Joshua 24:15

3. The why: a rescue mission, and repentance means you stop trying to be God

   Salvation came to Zacchaeus's house because the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost, not the found. While we were still weak and sinners, Christ died for the ungodly at the right time, and we are justified by His blood and reconciled to God. Nobody in the room is better than the person next to them, and everyone has access to the throne of grace. Majesty stepped down into misery not to give us a holiday but to execute a rescue mission. Repentance is not listing the cigarettes and the whisky; it is getting out of your own way and letting God be God.

   Illustration: A sixteen-year-old who thinks he is the parent tries the wrong key in the door and insists he can do it himself. That is a person trying to be God, and why people say they and the man upstairs are not on the best of terms.

   “Why did majesty step down into misery? It wasn't to give us a holiday. It was to execute a rescue mission.”

   • Luke 19:9-10
   • Romans 5:6-12
   • Luke 5:32

4. The great exchange: true rest, and you are not subject to the darkness

   Christ arrived right on time and did not wait for us to be ready or ask our permission to pay the price, so we are no longer at odds with God, who has no shadow of turning. With Him we do not manufacture joy, rest or love. If you live by the sword you die by the sword: those who live by tagati, hexes and charms are subject to them, but a son or daughter of God living by the Word is not, so get the dream catchers and evil-eye jewellery out of the house. Light and darkness cannot live together. If your joy runs out when the Christmas lights go down, it was not joy but entertainment.

   Illustration: As a teenager he had a recurring dream that someone would come through the kitchen door and kill him, and every time he walked into the kitchen he remembered it. The minute he realised the devil had no authority in his life, the dreams stopped.

   “If your joy runs out when the Christmas lights go down, it wasn't the joy, it was the entertainment.”

   • Romans 5:8
   • James 1:17
   • Matthew 26:52
   • Isaiah 9:7

5. 4. The power of thanksgiving

   Be grateful for everything, big and small, and for the very breath in your lungs. People ask him how his father, a man of God, died, and he says he cannot tell them; if he dwells on being robbed of his father he goes off course, so he chooses to thank God for the time he had and the principles he learned. Thank your wife, your husband, your children and your parents, because they are gifts. Be angry if you must, but fix it the same day. All ten lepers were healed but only one came back to give thanks, and he was the one told his faith had made him whole. God's love loves those who can never repay it, and a seed that leaves your hand keeps giving for generations.

   Illustration: His father would ask a waiter for the biggest tip they had ever received, and then give them double. Some of us have no problem spending at McDonald's, KFC and Nando's but put the minimum in another person's hand.

   “So we cannot be those people. We must come back and say thank you.”

   • Psalm 90:10
   • Ephesians 4:26
   • Luke 17:11-19
   • Proverbs 19:17

In this message