BORN

ALLEGIANCE & RESISTANCE (Me/We)

[1]WELCOME: If you’re new with us this morning, my name is Nic Cook and I’m one of the pastors at Cornerstone Church in Auburn, IL. Thanks, so much for joining us online. We’d like to encourage you to like our page on facebook and subscribe to our channel on Youtube. That way you can stay in the loop about the things God is doing through our church and find more ways to help you grow in your spiritual journey. And Even though we’re not all together in one room, it’s a beautiful thing to know that the church is not closed but is united by the Holy Spirit as we meet in homes across the nation. SERIES: We’re continuing our teaching series called THE CREED: WHAT WE BELIEVE.

And the creed is like a [2]pledge of allegiance. We believe these things. We devote ourselves to them as a way of life. We will live as if they are true. And it is simultaneously a declaration of resistance. We won’t back down from them. We won’t compromise on these things. This is what we stand for even if the world disagrees. FOR EXAMPLE…

ALLEGIANCE & RESISTANCE: [3]We pledge allegiance to God the Father, Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth. We accept him as the Infinitely Powerful Creator who designed us, gifted us with life, and is to be worshipped and obeyed. We accept him is the intensely Personal Father who loves us, who draws close to us. We resist the view that creation is a cosmic accident, or that all of creation is divine, or that humanity is continually getting better on its own. [4]We Pledge allegiance to Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, Our Lord. He is the King over every heavenly and earthly authority. No angel, demon, empire, nation, or government is above him. He is the unique only Son of God. He is co-eternal with God. He has always existed. There was never a time when he wasn’t. He is co-equal with God. Equal in power, wisdom, essence and being. And we choose him as master over us. He’s our Lord. We surrender everything we are and everything we have to his control and live to love and serve him. We reject & resist any claim that he was simply a good teacher or prophet, or that he was created by God. Do you see how this simple creed is so helpful in helping us love and worship God, but also helps make sure that we are not influenced by lies, distortions, and half-truths? And I’m really excited about the next part of the Creed that we’re going to cover. I believe that it is especially applicable to what we’re going through together in this season. Today we’re going to be looking at what it means when we say that Jesus was…

· [5]CONCEIVED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY So as we prepare to hear from God’s word, would you please pray with me? [6] PRAYER: Holy Spirit, you spoke through Moses, through prophets, through Jesus, through his disciples, I pray that you would speak today through your word. Help birth in us a supernatural understanding and love for Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, our Lord, to the Glory of God the Father. Amen.

(TEACH) WHAT IF GOD WAS ONE OF US? (God)

WHAT IF GOD WAS ONE OF US? [7]Back in 1995 a musician named Joan Osborne had a song called “What if God was one of us?” And she asked the question What if God was one of us, Just a slob like one of us? Just a stranger on the bus, trying to make his way home. And I remember some people taking offense to it, probably because of calling God a slob. [8]But the point of the song was what if we were able to see God up close? What if God became like us? What would he be like? How would we react? What questions would we have? What is both a profound mystery and a beautiful truth is that God did become one of us. He came close. This morning we’re going to open up our bibles to see just how incredibly important it is that God came down and walked among us. Let’s first turn to [Matt 1:18-25] [9-16] The truth is we usually only read this scripture around Christmas time. But especially as we are struggling with frustration, uncertainty, depression, anger, and every other emotion right now, I think we need to run to the truth that…[17]

· GOD IS WITH US: As the angel spoke to Joseph, the man who became Jesus’ adoptive earthly father, he reminded him of a promise that had been made nearly 700 years earlier that a young woman who was sexually pure would have a child. That child would be named Immanuel which means God with us. Let that sink in. Not Be careful, God is watching us. Not, I hope that God is thinking about us. Not God is too busy for us. BUT GOD WITH US. Right next to us. In our midst. Close enough to hug, close enough to eat a meal with. Ever since the first humans rebelled against God and decided they wanted to take his place, we have been unable to be physically close to him. God continued to reveal himself, and to speak, and to act, but he did so from a distance. But it has been God’s desire from the very beginning of humanity to close the gap. To bring sinful people back to him by getting closer and close to them. And suddenly, quietly, and mysteriously he came as a baby. So, an important question to answer is…

o [18]WHY THE VIRGIN BIRTH? Why did the early church think it was so important to make it part of their confession, their pledge of allegiance? One of the beautiful things about Christianity is that for many questions, there are more than one answer. I’d like to offer probably the most obvious answer as to why the virgin birth is so important. because…[19]

§ HUMANITY COULDN’T SAVE ITSELF: There is a mindset that says humanity is inherently good and over time, life will get progressively better if humans can join together to solve problems like poverty, hunger, disease, war and injustice. We don’t need a God to save us, we’re not bad, we can fix this world. You don’t have to be a genius to look around and see that approach hasn’t worked. Generation after generation of humanity has come and gone. And they all had the same problem. They all did exactly what the first humans, Adam and Eve did. They wanted to take God’s place and live as their own rulers. They thought they should be able to decide what is right and what is wrong. They thought they would do a better job running their own lives and running this world. And every generation has had the same problems. Humanity is completely incapable of living the way God intended us to on its own strength. [20]Rebellion, Sin, & death were brought into this world through a human. It had to be rejected, overcome, and conquered by a human. But no ordinary human could do it, so it had to be a different kind of human. One who wasn’t greedy, or selfish. One who loved the Father and worshipped the Father alone. One that was both God and human. Unlike any other religion that says, be good so you can get to God, God says, you’re not good so I’ll come to you. So not only did God come to be WITH US, but…[21]

· GOD BECAME LIKE US: The follower of Jesus named John said it this way. [22][John 1:14] [23] THE WORD BECAME FLESH. The word the church has used to describe this is the [24]INCARNATION. If you love Mexican food, you’ll know the word Carne Asada which means grilled meat. Carne is the Mexican word for meat, but it comes from the Latin word flesh. God in flesh. God with human hands, feet, eyes, ears, nose, mouth. I’ve said this before, but this is mind blowing! It’s like trying to take the ocean and put it in a cup. How do you fit God into a human body? The eternal God stepping into time. The creator God taking on a created body. The immortal God willingly entering a body that would experience death. Quite honestly, we can’t possibly fully understand it. But we can appreciate just why it’s such a big deal. Here’s why, it means that Jesus can…[25]

o EMPHATHIZE WITH US: Let me give you an example of what empathy is. I love wrestling with my son. It’s his love language. And when he was little it never occurred to me that I needed to be careful because he was little. But one day I found out that a little knee plus momentum plus gravity is enough to break a full-grown man’s nose. I heard the snap and felt the pain. Now, when I watch an action movie and someone gets hit in the nose and you hear the snap, I feel it again. I know what that person has gone through and I empathize with them. Jesus can put himself in our shoes and know exactly how we feel. He understands pain. He understands fear, anxiety, hunger, poverty, injustice, and the loss of loved ones. He’s experienced it. If you’ve ever been through something hard and a well-meaning friend who has never experienced what you’re going through comes alongside you and tries to help it’s frustrating. You can’t help me! You don’t know what I’m going through. But God can and does! He was fully human. He can empathize and feel our experience from his own personal experience. That’s why we can turn to him, and trust. But he also…

· [26]SYMPATHIZES WITH US: Sympathy is different because it means you can feel for others without having the same exact experience. I think this is what the writer of the book of Hebrews was saying when he wrote [27][Heb 4:15] It says that Jesus is able to have compassion on us and wants to help us because he experienced our weakness. The difference is that Jesus never sinned. While he lived on this earth he never disobeyed God. He never sought to live outside of the plan of his father. He honored His father with his mind, body, soul, and strength. He surrendered everything he had to worship His Heavenly Father. And because he never sinned, he has the credibility to tell us how to live. You know how frustrating it is to have someone give you advice when you know they don’t follow their own advice. Jesus never told us to do something that he didn’t do himself. [28]HE IS LIKE US IN ALL THE WAYS WE NEED TO BE, AND HE IS UNLIKE US IN ALL THE WAYS WE FAIL TO BE. And because he never sinned, he is able to stand before God and say, Father, I know that they act like they’re God. I know they have stolen this world and pretended like you don’t exist. Father, I know they worship money, and sex, and power, and people. I know they have made a mess of themselves and of this world. And they deserve punishment. But I’ll take their place. I’ll trade my human life for the life of every human that has ever lived or will live. And he died on the cross. A perfect human taking the place of every imperfect human. Finally, a perfect human life had been lived. He had shown us what it looked like to live as we were intended. To fix our flesh, God had to take on flesh. An early church pastor named Athanasius said it this way. HE BECAME WHAT WE ARE THAT WE MIGHT BECOME WHAT HE IS. Or a simpler way to say it is [29]

· HE BECAME LIKE US SO THAT WE COULD BECOME LIKE HIM. Deep down in every human being there is an understanding that our lives aren’t what they should be. That there is a better way to live. There is more joy to be had. More peace to be experienced. More patience and kindness that can burst from us towards others. But we can’t muster up that kind of transformation on our own. We need to become new creations. We need for the divine to enter into our flesh and transform it. THAT’S WHY THE CREED TELLS US THAT JESUS WAS “CONCEIVED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.” [30]THE SAME SPIRIT THAT WAS PRESENT AT THE CONCEPTION OF JESUS, THAT EMPOWERED JESUS TO LIVE A PERFECT LIFE, AND THAT RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD IS CAPABLE OF TRANSFORMING US AND HELPING US LIVE THE SAME KIND OF LIFE AS JESUS!

We’ll talk more about that in a couple weeks. But I want to end with a quote from N.T. Wright before we go into our time of discussion. He says that [31-35]“The strange story of Jesus’s being conceived without a human father is so peculiar, particularly within Judaism, and so obviously open to sneering accusations on the one hand (Jews would have said, sure Mary, we know how babies are born, sure blame God. Who have you been running around with really? Who’s the real father) and the charge that the Christians were aping the pagans on the other (Greeks would have said, oh yea, we have some Gods that slept with human women, we’ve got miraculous births)…NT Wright says “it would be very unlikely for someone to invent it so early in the Christian movement as Matthew and Luke. But there’s more to it than that. The virginal conception speaks powerfully of new creation, something fresh happening within the old world, beyond the reach and dreams of the possibilities we currently know. And if we believe that the God we’re talking about is the creator of the world, who longs to rescue the world from it’s corruption and decay, then an act of real new creation, anticipating in fact the great moment of Easter itself, might just be what we should expect, however tremblingly, if and when this God decides to act to bring this new creation about”

[36]Basically he’s saying, the birth of Jesus is the first sign of a new world being born. A world where FLESH IS FIXED, SIN HAS NOW POWER OVER US, AND DEATH DIES. If Jesus had not come as a human, there is no hope for humanity. But because he has, ALL THINGS CAN BE MADE NEW!

This morning we’re going to close by reading the Apostles Creed. And I want you to understand this can be a next step. If you’ve never chosen to follow Jesus, this can be your first confession. You pledge of Allegiance to Jesus. I believe that Jesus is the Son of the Living God. And as you say it, you are commiting your life to Him. If you do that today, please let us know. Go to auburncstone and tell us that you want to know more about what it means to follow Jesus.

And if you are a committed follower of Jesus, I encourage you to remember that Jesus is God with us, not just then but now and still and forever. he understands our pain, he understands our weakness, and that he is at work within us. Making us like him. That if he has overcome this world, through his spirit within you, so will you.