Scripture: Philippians 2:5-11
NAZARETH VIDEO
NAZARETH & BETHLEHEM PICS
1
Modern day Nazareth
(Mary and Joseph went from Nazareth
to Bethlehem – Jesus went from HEAVEN to Nazareth to Bethlehem. A much longer
journey. We looked at the struggles of Mary and Joseph – what about the journey
struggle for Jesus – it wasn’t more miles that caused him to have a much longer
journey to Bethlehem – it was where he was leaving and what he was coming to:
Heaven TO Earth!
Philippians 2:5-8 (NIV)
Christ Jesus: being in very nature God, did
not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself
nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he
humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!
Philippians 2:5-8 (THE
MESSAGE)
Christ Jesus had equal status with God but
didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that
status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the
privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having
become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't
claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then
died a selfless, obedient death — and the worst kind of death at that: a
crucifixion.
Imagine the
distance Jesus had to travel. In real time and real places. He left heaven 9
months before being born here and it would be years before he was aware of who
he was. We think faith in Jesus is
difficult – Imagine how hard it must have been for Jesus to accept who he was.
This was not a David Coresh mentally ill ego trip – this was a human being
named Jesus who had to accept he was God in human flesh and that he would have
to sacrifice his life for everyone around him and all who would come after.
When he saw
sin he must have felt the pain of death. When he saw those who believed it must
have strengthened him to accomplish the purpose for which he made this longest
most unique journey the world would ever know.
ILLUSTRATION
OF INCARNAITON: “If only I were a goose”
There
was once a man who didn't believe in God, and he didn't hesitate to let others
know how he felt about religion and religious holidays. His wife, however, did
believe, and she raised their children to also have faith in God and Jesus,
despite his disparaging comments.
One snowy night, his wife was taking
their children to a service in the farm community in which they lived. They
were to talk about Jesus' birth. She asked him to come, but he refused. "That story is nonsense!" he said. "Why would God lower Himself to come to Earth as a man?
That is ridiculous!"
So she and the children left, and he
stayed home. A while later, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a
blizzard. As the man looked out the window, all he saw was a blinding
snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening. Then he heard
a loud thump. Something had hit the window. He looked out, but couldn't see
more than a few feet.
When the snow let up a little, he
ventured outside to see what could have been beating on his window. In the
field near his house he saw a flock of wild geese. Apparently they had been
flying south for the winter when they got caught in the snowstorm and couldn't
go on. They were lost and stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter. They
just flapped their wings and flew around the field in low circles, blindly and
aimlessly. Obviously, a couple of them had flown into his window.
The
man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them. The barn would be a great
place for them to stay, he thought. It's warm and safe; surely they could spend
the night and wait out the storm.
So he walked over to the barn and
opened the doors wide, then watched and waited, hoping they would notice the
open barn and go inside. But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly and
didn't seem to notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them. The man
tried to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them, and they
moved further away. He went into the house and came with some bread, broke it
up, and made a bread crumb trail leading to the barn. They still didn't catch
on.
Now he was getting frustrated. He got
behind them and tried to shoo them toward the barn, but they only got more
scared and scattered in every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did
could get them to go into the barn where they would be warm and safe. "Why don't they follow me?!" he exclaimed.
"Can't they see this is the only place where
they can survive the storm?"
He thought for a moment and realized
that they just wouldn't follow a human. "If
only I were a goose, then I could save them," he said out loud.
Then he had an idea. He went into barn, got one of his own geese, and carried
it in his arms as he circled around behind the flock of wild geese. He then
released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn--and
one-by-one, the other geese followed it to safety.
He
stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier
replayed in his mind: "If only I were a
goose, then I could save them!" Then he thought about what he
had said to his wife earlier. "Why would God
want to be like us? That is ridiculous!" Suddenly it all made
sense. That is what God had done. We were like the geese--blind, lost, perishing.
God had His Son become like us so He could show us the way and save us.
As the winds and blinding snow died
down, his soul became quiet and pondered this wonderful thought. Suddenly he
understood why Christ had come. Years of doubt and disbelief vanished with the
passing storm. He fell to his knees in the snow, and prayed his first prayer:
"Thank You, God, for coming in human form to
get me out of the storm.”
Another place in scripture we clearly see this Unique
Journey of Jesus coming from Heaven to Bethlehem.
John 1:1-5
In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was
with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him
nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the
light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not
understood it. John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling
among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from
the Father, full of grace and truth.
You would
think that seeing the real physical - born of a virgin - Messiah would cause
people to believe – but it isn’t believing in a man (like every religion in the
world) it is believing that God became man and gave His life for us.
John 1:10-13
The
Word/Jesus was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the
world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did
not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his
name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural
descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
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