Jesus came to earth to live with us

This is the time of year when everyone goes on a mad spending spree in the UK and embarks on a season of festivities and celebrations which seem to last from just before 25th. December until well into the New Year. The following link will give you a snapshot of the sad situation we find ourselves in here, and my guess is that many European and other nations around the world are in a similar position.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8170637/Lord-Carey-Christianity-being-airbrushed-from-society-as-Christmas-is-rebranded.html

I don't know what it is like in the country where you live, but Christmas is always the time of year which is completely different from any other time in the yearly calendar. Why is this? Has it real significance and how do react to it, celebrate it or think about it?

To me the significance of Christmas is the fact that we are celebrating the Incarnation of Christ, that is, God sending His only son into the world to be born as a man. By God becoming a man in the form of our Lord Jesus, He was able to experience temptation, suffering, strained relationships and all the brokenness of a fallen Creation brought about by the rebellion of man against God, which is called sin or wrongdoing. Paul puts the wonder of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus most succinctly in the following passage in a letter he wrote to the church at Philippi in about 60AD, which was situated in an urban city which was then a colony of the Roman Empire.

Pictures of Philippi today Amphitheatre at Philippi

Many of you reading this probably live and/or work in urban communities and may also worship regularly in an urban church fellowship. Whether or not that is the case these words are as relevant to us today as they were then, being a part of the eternal truth of the Bible.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:5:11 (ESV)

In this passage we note first of all that we are called to have the mind of Christ. We then see that Jesus as a man didn't seek to be equal to God but took the form of a servant. He could have taken the form of a superman type hero, strong man or an angelic appearance, but in Isaiah 53:2 it says "He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should look at Him." I don't believe this means He was ugly looking but if you or I were to walk past Him in the streets of London, New York or Djakarta He would have looked like any ordinary man of His time and location.

However, if He had stopped, smiled and greeted you, He would have known your need and the right words to say to you, He would have sought to meet you at your point of need. Why? Because He was a servant of His Heavenly Father! As followers of Him we are called to have the same mind and attitude in our lives. In our natural human condition this is impossible, but when we come to know Him as our Saviour and Lord, He comes to live within us by His Holy Spirit who gives us the gifts and ripens spiritual fruits within us to enable us to become more and more like Him as we walk day by day with our Lord.

Not only did Jesus humble Himself by leaving the heights of glory in Heaven to come to a world full of conflict, war and sin, but there was no room for Him to be born in. The only place found was the corner of a stable at the back of a hotel for Him to be born. In the same way many people have no place for Jesus in their lives today or just find a small corner in their lives, maybe an hour in church on a Sunday from time to time.

We then read that after three years of serving others, meeting their needs, healing them and teaching them about His Father, and being misunderstood a lot of the time, Jesus the Lord of glory was subjected to a trial (where the judge, Pilate, could find no fault in Him) and extreme torture before being nailed and hung on a cross to die. This willing sacrifice of the servant King, as He is described in a Graham Kendrick song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBd3ThCResI was accepted by His Father as the ransom price for our sins, if we put our faith and trust in Him and His finished or completed work.

While He was on the cross, our Lord Jesus said "It is finished," this was not referring to His own life, which is what some may have thought, who heard Him say it, but it meant that no further animal sacrifices were required for the forgiveness of sin, as practised under the Jewish temple requirements (sometimes known as the Old Covenant). Jesus had covered them by offering Himself as a perfect sacrifice for sin.

We know with hindsight that this was not the end of the story, because three days later Jesus rose from the dead after being placed in a sealed and guarded tomb. He had conquered death, sometimes referred to as the last enemy, as well as sin, the world and Satan.

As a result of His humility and service, which we are called to follow, it says, "Therefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name that is above every name." This occurred after Jesus ascended to Heaven where He is forever interceding for us at the right hand of God. In 1 Peter 5:6 we are urged to "humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you." We are called to humbly serve God; when we serve with one another we are therefore serving with the greatest, humblest and most perfect servant there has ever been.

What a wonderful Lord we have, who put in place a plan to save us and enable us to serve Him despite our own shortcomings, troubled lives, sad upbringings and sufferings. When we look at what He suffered as the perfect example of humility in service to His Heavenly Father, nothing that we can offer can be compared, He has given us everything.

Christmas is the time when we celebrate the birthday of Jesus. We spend a lot of time choosing and giving one another presents and He gives us His presence. What are we going to give Him as a present this Christmas time?