A message summary of December 24, 2017 from Pastor Gus Brown:
Jesus came in human form in His timing, and not ours.
Genesis 3:15
I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.
Man could not redeem himself…we needed a Redeemer.
God’s purpose is to restore His creation to Himself. He is out to restore the relationship with mankind as He originally had with Adam.
Man was given the opportunity to redeem himself. The great powers of the earth could not meet God’s standards.
It is what Scripture says:
Romans 3:10-12
as it is written:
There is no one righteous, not even one.
There is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away;
all alike have become worthless.
There is no one who does what is good,
not even one.
While man is always in a rush, God is never in a hurry.
- When the time had fully come, God acted.
Galatians 4:4-7
When the time came to completion, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
God has always worked in His time. When He is ready to act and not at the time which we desire Him to perform.
The fullness of time is when He is ready to act.
Ephesians 1:9-10
He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ as a plan for the right time—to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him.
God works within your life with one thing at a time. He is doing a magnificent work—one layer at a time.
He is never out of order. Everything is always in His order and according to His purpose.
There is an appointed season and a proper time when and where He does His work.
Titus 1:3
In his own time he has revealed his word in the preaching with which I was entrusted by the command of God our Savior.
1 Timothy 2:5-6
For there is one God and one mediator between God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time.
Acts 7:23-25
“When he was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. When he saw one of them being mistreated, he came to his rescue and avenged the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian. He assumed his people would understand that God would give them deliverance through him, but they did not understand.”
Moses made an assumption here that the people would see that he was there as God’s deliverer. He needed to see God for Himself to understand how it was to be accomplished.
Acts 7:30-34
After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. As he was approaching to look at it, the voice of the Lord came: I am the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look.
“The Lord said to him: Take off the sandals from your feet, because the place where you are standing is holy ground. I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. And now, come, I will send you to Egypt.”
It was all to be accomplished in God’s time and in His timing. God is the One who sends people along and to be His witness. It’s one thing to go out before others (Matthew 28:19-20), but it is another to be sent before others.
- In the fullness of time He sent His Son.
- It shows the pre-existence of Jesus.
- It reveals the intimacy and confidence the sender has in the one being sent (He was sinless).
John 17:18
As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
Jesus describes how He was following the example of His father. He sent His disciples into the world.
The purpose of His coming:
Romans 8:3-4
What the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
He came to take the curse from us and represent the curse for us.
Galatians 3:13
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.
He tasted death for us.
Hebrews 2:9
But we do see Jesus—made lower than the angels for a short time so that by God’s grace he might taste death for everyone—crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death.
He came to destroy the one who held death.
Hebrews 2:14-17
Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through his death he might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. For it is clear that he does not reach out to help angels, but to help Abraham’s offspring. Therefore, he had to be like his brothers and sisters in every way, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in matters pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.
He is our High Priest.
- He was born of a woman.
Romans 1:1-4
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures—concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh and was appointed to be the powerful Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead.
Luke 3:31-32
…son of Melea, son of Menna, son of Mattatha, son of Nathan, son of David, son of Jesse, son of Obed, son of Boaz, son of Salmon, son of Nahshon,
In Luke you see the lineage of Mary. In Matthew, you see Joseph’s lineage. Both are within the line of David.
Mary’s role is very important. Blessed is she would has believed. To be highly favored is to be given a special honor. It is what God had decided for her life.
Luke 1:26-38
In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you.” But she was deeply troubled by this statement, wondering what kind of greeting this could be. Then the angel told her: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.”
Mary asked the angel, “How can this be, since I have not had sexual relations with a man?
The angel replied to her: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. “And consider your relative Elizabeth—even she has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called childless. For nothing will be impossible with God.”
“I am the Lord’s servant,” said Mary. “May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel left her.
Mary knew that Elizabeth, a woman who was barren, was having a child well beyond her child bearing years.
Luke 1:39-45
In those days Mary set out and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judah where she entered Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped inside her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she exclaimed with a loud cry: “Blessed are you among women, and your child will be blessed! How could this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For you see, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped for joy inside me. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill what he has spoken to her!”
God was speaking to Mary and Elizabeth to just believe in Him.
You likely will not understand everything that is happening (Mary didn’t have complete understanding), but Jesus will make it all known to you in his timing.
And you will praise Him for His goodness.
Luke 1:46-55
And Mary said:
My soul praises the greatness of the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
because he has looked with favor
on the humble condition of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations
will call me blessed,
because the Mighty One
has done great things for me,
and his name is holy.
His mercy is from generation to generation
on those who fear him.
He has done a mighty deed with his arm;
he has scattered the proud
because of the thoughts of their hearts;
he has toppled the mighty from their thrones
and exalted the lowly.
He has satisfied the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering his mercy
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he spoke to our ancestors.
When you acknowledge Jesus Christ, you will walk by faith knowing that He will accomplish what He sets out to do.
- He is to be born under the law.
Luke 2:21-24
When the eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus—the name given by the angel before he was conceived. And when the days of their purification according to the law of Moses were finished, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (just as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every firstborn male will be dedicated to the Lord) and to offer a sacrifice (according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons).
His parents were carrying out the law. They were raising their child according to the law, and it is relevant today in that we are to worship and serve the Lord according to your household because it is the proper thing to do.
Luke 2:25-35
There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, looking forward to Israel’s consolation, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, he entered the temple. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him up in his arms, praised God, and said,
Now, Master,
you can dismiss your servant in peace,
as you promised.
For my eyes have seen your salvation.
You have prepared it
in the presence of all peoples—
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and glory to your people Israel.
His father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and told his mother Mary: “Indeed, this child is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed—and a sword will pierce your own soul—that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
Jesus came to fulfill the law.
Matthew 5:17
“Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”
He came to be our Guardian–the Shepherd who watches over our souls.
Galatians 3:23-29
Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed. The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith. But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for through faith you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus.
For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.
He came to do what the law could not do.
Romans 8:1-4
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. What the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 9:15
Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.
John 3:16-17
For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
As we celebrate Christmas, let us remember who Jesus Christ is—the perfect gift for us.
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