The Truth We Exalt

Man, good morning! Are you guys ready for a big feast this week? You might be fasting to get ready for the feasts.

While you're standing, would you open your Bibles to First Timothy, chapter 3? If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one. We are in the book of First Timothy, which is right near the end of your Bible. Open to the very last book, turn to the left, and you'll find First and Second Thessalonians, and then First and Second Timothy.

We are in First Timothy, chapter 3, and we're going to pick it up at verse 16. The Apostle Paul writes, "And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory."

Father, as we open the Scriptures today, I pray that you would open our hearts by the work of your Spirit and your grace here in this place, Lord. As we just sang that song, there is a sense in which singing that song sometimes creates a kind of cognitive dissonance. With our lips, we can be saying, "I surrender all," while in our hearts and minds, we realize that there are parts of our lives at this moment that are kept back from you, not surrendered to you.

I pray, God, that you would continue that work of transforming in me and my brothers and sisters here. Bring us to the place where we would willingly lay down all those things that might distract our attention from you—those sins that so easily ensnare and trap us. God, help us to lay those things down before you.

Not just sin, but also cares, Lord, that we need to cast upon you, knowing that you care for us. There are people here standing right at this moment, I'm sure, who have things weighing upon their conscience—concerns, fears, anxieties. I pray, God, that you would move us to lay those things at your feet as we discover more of who you are through your word today. So speak to us, teach us, we pray this in Jesus' name.

Name and all those that agreed, you can be seated. I have to say that over the last few weeks, I've had a difficult time wrestling with this passage of Scripture, just trying to wrap my mind around how exactly to approach it. As we are moving through First Timothy together and coming to the end of chapter 3, this last verse has been kind of like a speed bump or a stop sign for me. Every time I come to it in my reading, as I'm preparing to move on to the next passage, I find that chapter 3, verse 16, kind of hangs me up. I was tempted to just pass over it and move into chapter 4, where there are some real weighty teachings and good truths for us to discover together.

However, verse 16 kept stopping me and keeping me hung up. In reality, First Timothy chapter 3, verse 16, was more than likely an early church hymn or a doxology. There is a very good chance that the Christians in the early church, 2,000 years ago, many of them knew these words that Paul writes down here as a statement they would either say or sing together when the church gathered corporately. That hymn or benediction would include these words: "Great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh."

This whole section of Scripture seems to fit with that concept of being a well-known hymn. It addresses an issue right here at the beginning of this sixth line song or doxology. This issue is a central focus for Christians and a significant part of what we are getting ready to come into in this season of the year. Of course, next month, we will be celebrating Christmas, commemorating the advent of Jesus, or what we sometimes refer to as the Nativity or the Incarnation—when God became a man. This passage addresses that truth, where we read that God was manifest in the flesh. This was a truth that early Christians held on to and regarded as a central part of their faith, even at the very beginning of the church, 2,000 years ago, just 35 to 40 years after Jesus.

Jesus died on the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended to heaven. The early church was already making the statement that the coming of Jesus was the incarnation of God becoming a man. For the last 2,000 years, the church has proclaimed and believed this central tenet of Christianity. This belief did not only start at the time of the church in the first century; it predates the birth of the church.

About 700 years before Jesus came, the prophet Isaiah, inspired by the Lord, was already prophetically announcing the coming of God in human flesh. One of the very famous verses from the book of Isaiah, which you will probably see on a Christmas card this holiday season, is Isaiah 7:14. It says, "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call His name Immanuel." The Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and His name shall be called Immanuel, which we are told in the New Testament is translated "God with us" or "God in our midst." This means we can see Him and interact with Him.

Isaiah 7:14 is shortly followed by another well-known Christmas verse in Isaiah 9:6, where we read, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulder. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." For hundreds of years, there was an anticipation among the people of Israel as the prophets spoke these words. There was an expectation of the coming of Emmanuel, God with us, and that when He would come, He would be the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace—the one who would bring forth peace.

You can imagine that they were looking forward with great anticipation and expectation for the coming of this one who was going to bring peace, joy, and all the things associated with that. As we are about to enter the season of Advent in just a couple of weeks, we will be celebrating the Incarnation, the Nativity, and the coming of Jesus at Christmas. This passage in 1 Timothy 3:16 speaks to the doctrine of the Incarnation: He was manifest in the flesh.

We're actually going to be stepping out of the book of First Timothy for about nine weeks, starting next week. We will take a detour as we come into Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year. So, we won't be in First Timothy for a little while, but we will come back. Because we are stepping out of it, it just didn't make sense to jump into chapter 4 and then put a big "to be continued" at the end of it.

I believe God wants to speak to us and has a word for us here in this short verse, First Timothy chapter 3, verse 16. However, I will say that as I was going through this, I found it to be a challenge. I don't say that to get any sympathy; it's just stating what it is. There is a lot of truth—really weighty truth—in these short words of First Timothy chapter 3, verse 16. Trying to figure out how to pull it all together in the short time that we have, I was really seeking the Lord all week long to help me pull this together.

Before we really look at what First Timothy 3:16 says, we need to pull back just a little bit and get some context. If you would, look at First Timothy 3, verse 14. We've been looking at this quite a bit over the last few weeks, if you've been with us, because this gives the context for this whole section of Scripture we've been studying through.

Look at what Paul says in First Timothy 3:14: "These things I write to you, Timothy," the recipient of the letter. "These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly. But if I am delayed, I write to you so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the Church of the Living God, the pillar and ground of truth."

Paul is writing to Timothy, the pastor of the church in Ephesus at that time, and he is saying, "I want you to know personally how you should conduct yourself, how you should live and walk in the house of God, and then how to instruct other people to do the same." This is the context of what we are going to see in chapter 3, verse 16.

At the end of verse 15, there are three very interesting propositions that Paul gives as he launches into verse 16. These three propositions are the house of God, the Church of the Living God, and the pillar and ground of truth. First, let's take just a moment to think about the house of God. If you've ever read through the Bible, especially the Old Testament, you know that the Bible is divided into two sections. The first 39 books, or the first two-thirds of the Bible, is called the Old Testament or the Old Covenant. It largely focuses on the children of Abraham, or the children of Israel, the Jewish people.

All the things that God did through them and was planning to bring to the world through them are found in the first 39 books of the Bible. The second section, which is the New Testament, contains the last 27 books and deals with the New Covenant.

In the Old Testament period, the concept of the house of God shows up constantly. It is all over the place, especially in books like Leviticus, Exodus, Chronicles, and on into Ezra and Nehemiah. There are actually 82 references in those 39 books to the house of God. I went through and read every single one of those this last week, and all but one of them—eighty-one of them—speak about the same exact thing. When it mentions the house of God, the house of God for the Jewish mind under the Old Covenant was the temple or the tabernacle.

The children of Israel ended up as slaves in Egypt. If you've ever seen "The Prince of Egypt" or "The Ten Commandments," or that movie that came out a few years ago with Christian Bale, then you understand that story. The children of Israel were in Egypt as slaves, and God said to Moses, "Go talk to Pharaoh and say, 'Let my people go.'" So, Moses goes to Pharaoh and says, "Let my people go." There is a battle back and forth, and God shows up and brings plagues. Ultimately, the children of Israel leave Egypt about 3,400 years ago.

They go into the wilderness and meet before God at a mountain called Mount Sinai. There, God gives them the law, but He also says, "I want you to be my people, and my people are going to come to meet before me." They are to meet with Him at a place called the tabernacle. They would build this tent, and that is where they would go to offer their offerings and sacrifices to God.

The amazing thing is that when God set this up in the book of Exodus, He said that the entire nation of the people of Israel was camping at that time for 40 years. They camped around the tabernacle, and the central focus of their life was what took place at the tabernacle, the house of God.

When they ultimately entered the Promised Land about 40 years later and God gave them rest, they moved from having a tabernacle to having a temple. Under King Solomon, the temple was built, and the people had that place as their focal point. In fact, three times a year, a faithful Jewish person would make a pilgrimage to the temple.

A Jewish man would take his family up to Jerusalem to go to the house of God to celebrate the three major feasts: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. At the end of the year, they would gather together at the temple, the house of God. You can read in the Psalms, especially, that there is much about going up to the house of God.

Imagine being among those people going up to the house of God; you would be preparing yourself. You would prepare your heart, your emotions, and even your physical self. When you came to Jerusalem, you would wash in a ceremonial cleansing bath to be prepared to come to the house of God. The idea of going to the house of God was a really big deal, and you wanted to make sure that your life was in order and that you were conducting yourself properly while there.

For 1,500 years, this was the central focus of the Jewish people. However, it just kind of disappears. The major reason for this disappearance was the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD, just about five or six years after Paul wrote this letter. The temple would no longer be the center of focus for the Jewish people because it was gone.

The amazing thing is that for the last 1,900 years, many faithful Jewish individuals have still longed for the temple. They view the ground where the temple was built, the Temple Mount, as a place of holy reverence. When you go there, you approach it reverently. They do not even go on the Temple Mount; they only go to the Wailing Wall, which is the supporting wall on the western side. They approach it with great reverence because they see it as the place of the house of God.

However, the concept of the house of God all but disappears when Jesus, our Messiah, comes. For 1,400 to 1,500 years, the house of God was prominent to the people of God, but after the coming of Jesus, it is basically gone. It is referenced 81 times in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, it is only referenced six times. Three of those references are direct quotes from the Old Testament, discussing the Old Covenant and the temple. The other three completely change the concept of the idea of the house of God for the people of God.

We see this shift in 1 Timothy chapter 3. In verse 15, Paul writes to Christians, saying he wants them to know how to conduct themselves as followers.

How do you conduct yourselves when you go to the house of God? When you're in the house of God, where is that? What exactly is the house of God? We know that under the Old Covenant, there was a temple or a tabernacle. But now, under the New Covenant, what do you mean when you say, "When you are in the house of God, this is how you should conduct yourself"?

Well, where is it? It's not a place. Notice what he says: the house of God is the Church of the Living God. Point number one on your outline, which should be in your bulletin: the house of God is no longer a place; it's a people. The house of God is no longer a place; it's people.

If you are a Christian today, if you're a follower of God, then you are a part of the people of the Living God. You're a part of the Church. The word "church" just means a gathering of people. So, if you're a follower of Jesus, you're a part of the gathering of the people of the Living God. You are the Church, and you are, corporately and individually, the house of God.

This is why Paul, twice in his letter to the church at Corinth in First Corinthians, would say, "You, the church, are the temple of the Holy Spirit." Then he would say, "You, the Christian individual, are the dwelling place, the temple of the Holy Spirit." We don't have a physical location, a place that we go to, to encounter God in His house. Because if you're a Christian, then individually and corporately, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus told His disciples in John's Gospel, chapter 16, "The Holy Spirit is with you, and He shall be in you." Then, at the end of the Gospel of John, He breathes on His disciples and says, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit." They became the dwelling place of the Spirit of God. So, you, Christian, are the house of God.

Now, whether you realize it or not, this concept is absolutely amazing, and it has very weighty implications. Why is it amazing, and why does it have such heavy implications? Well, I don't know if you've noticed, but human beings, for some reason, like to have holy places and holy spaces. There's something about our nature and our makeup that makes us long for an actual location that is holy and set aside.

That is kind of reverent and spiritual, whether you're a Christian or not. There is this desire in us for those holy places. They are all over the world, in every different religion. You have temples, mosques, synagogues, basilicas, cathedrals, and great churches. There is a sense in us that seems to draw us to these places that are holy.

Even for a lot of Christians who understand doctrine in the Bible, sometimes we wrongly fall into the mindset of calling this building right here at 1675 Sevenoaks Road the house of God. Even though doctrinally that’s not really true, because you, the people of God, are the house of God. This is just a place where we meet. Wherever you go, that is the house of God.

The fact is, we would rather have a location that is the holy place. If we had a location that was the holy place, and we went to that holy place, then that would make our life a little bit easier. Why? Because just once a week, or maybe once a month, or maybe just once a year, we would have to get ourselves set up and work up the ability to try and be holy for a really short period of time to go to that place.

If we only had to conduct ourselves in holy righteousness when we came to this place, that would be a lot easier, wouldn’t it? For 75 minutes out of Sunday, that’s the only time we would have to do it all week long. We would like that in our flesh—to just go to a holy place.

But we’re not given that option by God, because He says it’s not about a location any longer. It’s not a place; it’s a people. So what’s the implication of that? It means that if you’re a Christian today, wherever you go, you’re representing the house of God.

Whether you are at home, in your neighborhood, on a construction site, in an office building, on a school campus, or at the gas station, wherever you are as a Christian, you are representing the house of God. That’s a phenomenal thing to consider. We all understand going to a holy place and conducting ourselves in a reverential and spiritual way when we’re there. But do we realize that if we’re Christians, we’ve been so transformed by God that now, wherever we go, we need to conduct ourselves in a way that is honoring?

Glorifying to Him is phenomenally challenging, but why should we have to do this? Why should we Christians seek to alter our conduct wherever we are? The reason is given to us in the very last proposition of verse 15. Look back at 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 15: "You should know how to conduct yourself in the house of God, the Church of the Living God, which is the pillar and ground of truth."

Why must we Christians, why must we, the church, conduct ourselves rightly wherever we go and not just when we come to this place? Because we Christians, the church, are the grounding foundation of the truth.

Point number two on your outline: the church possesses and proclaims the truth. I am emphasizing the words "the truth," not "a truth." The truth that the body of Christ, the house of God, the Christians, have, hold, and share, is lifted up for all others to see.

Now, at that point, there may be some who think, "Man, that's a pretty audacious claim that the church has a corner market on the truth." That's a pretty heavy statement. Some might wonder, "Does that mean that everything outside the church or outside the Bible is not true? That everything outside the church and outside the Bible is false? That it's a lie?" No, that's not exactly what I'm saying.

What I am saying is that the Bible, while it does not contain all true things that could ever be known, does contain what I would call the antecedent truth. There is nothing that precedes it. The Bible and the church have what is the fundamental truth—the fundamental truth that creates the construct of reality that all other truths will have to align with or accord with.

You see, the idea or the concept of truth is that which aligns with reality. Anything that aligns...

With reality, it is said to be true, but what is the foundational, fundamental antecedent truth that sets reality and establishes what is real and what is right? Well, as we see here, it's the Scriptures. The Scriptures and the Church possess the very fundamental truth upon which every other truth claim is judged. Every other truth claim has to align with what the Scriptures have to say. In other words, if you get the fundamental truth wrong, then every other deduction that you come up with will be false. If you start with a false premise, then every deduction that comes from that false premise will be wrong.

Let me illustrate it like this: if I were able, over weeks and weeks, to convince you that this is the color red, and every week I worked to convince you that this is the color red, at first you would say, "No, that's not the color red; that's the color black." But after a while, maybe I finally convinced all of you to say, "That's the color red." That would alter your observation of everything else in the world. As you would go around and be with people who don't go to this church and don't agree that this is the color red, you might say, "Oh yeah, look at that red dog over there." Your neighbor, your friend, or your family would respond, "It's not a red dog." You would then check out that really cool red car, and they would say, "That's not a red car." What he's talking about would alter your entire understanding and observation of the world.

That fundamental premise or statement would change how you see the world and the conclusions that you come to. This is a really important concept. It was illustrated perfectly for me just a couple of weeks ago when I stumbled upon a video online. Maybe some of you have seen TED Talks before; I watch those from time to time. There was one that caught my eye titled "The History of the Universe in Eighteen Minutes." I thought that could be interesting, so I could learn about the history of the universe in eighteen minutes. I'll take it! I even watched it at one-and-a-half speed, so it was less time. It was awesome.

As I was watching this video, the guy who was presenting, I believe his name was David Christian, started incredibly well. He drew in all the people watching; there were thousands of people in this auditorium at a TED conference. They all paid ten grand to go to that conference—ten thousand dollars! They're watching him, and you can watch it for free.

Online, I mean, that's just the dumbest investment ever. I'm telling you, they're all there, and he starts this thing. He just grips the audience so well right off the bat because he shows a video to start his message. It's a video of an egg being mixed, or an egg being whipped up. As you're watching it, you realize that it's actually going in reverse. That egg is reconstituting and recompiling back into a yolk, separating from the white, and then sucking back up into the eggshell. The eggshell gets uncracked and set aside.

Every person watching that video goes, "No, that's wrong." The presenter says, "You're all kind of having an issue with watching that because you know that what you just saw with your eyes does not align with reality. It doesn't fit with what you know to be true or real." What you saw in that video is going against one of the fundamental principles of physics called the second law of thermodynamics, the law of entropy. The law of entropy simply says that everything goes from a state of order to disorder, from order to chaos. It's like your kid's room goes from a state of order to chaos, and we know intuitively that this is true.

He starts off this talk, and he's doing such a good job of drawing people into that acknowledgment that what I just saw with my eyes does not accord with reality because things go from a state of order to chaos and not in reverse. Then he says this: "But that's not always the case in the universe." Sometimes, for some reason, the universe goes from a state of chaos to order.

For the next 18 minutes, he explains this in an amazing way that sounds really good. In fact, it sounds like this guy is so smart, and he could be so right on and so true. However, the reason he comes to the conclusions that he does is because he has a foundational principle, a fundamental truth: there is no God. That's his fundamental starting point. He holds to the premise that there is no God. Then, if there is no God, how do I explain everything that I see that is so perfectly ordered in a world that physics says goes from order to chaos? I have to explain it somehow. I have to say that sometimes I don't understand the conditions, but sometimes the universe...

Just goes opposite the second law of thermodynamics. Can you see why having the initial fundamental truth is so essential? Knowing what the founding principle is so important. What then is the fundamental antecedent truth that the Church possesses and proclaims? Paul says that we Christians are the pillar and ground of truth, with a foundational support for the truth. He expresses this in the form of a hymn, a doxology in 1 Timothy, chapter 3, verse 16.

It only took me 20 minutes to get back there. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. Let's stop there. He says, beyond a shadow of a doubt, without a doubt, what I'm going to tell you is a great mystery. Now, some people have a hard time with mystery—things that are hard to grasp, hard to understand, or cannot be understood without revelation.

You realize that those who are in the scientific community, who are researchers, do not have a problem with mystery. The things that they are studying are trying to unlock things that they don't quite understand. They are trying to figure out the mysteries of the universe. Mystery is not a major problem for them because they acknowledge that there is a lot of mystery in the world. They don't know what the fabric, the glue, that holds everything together is. They don't understand exactly how gravity works. They don't fully understand antimatter or dark matter. These are mysteries, but they are looking to try and figure those unsolved mysteries out.

Here, Paul says, "Listen, I want to tell you something that is a great mystery." Without a doubt, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. Great is the mystery of who God is, how God interacts with us, and how we can become godly to interact with Him. That is a mysterious thing.

He identifies this concept, the idea of a biblical mystery. You see, the Bible talks quite a bit about mystery, and a biblical mystery is a concept or an idea that cannot be known apart from revelation. Here’s the awesome thing about God: you cannot know who God is, what He’s like, and what He wants apart from Him revealing it to us. It’s a mystery that has to be revealed. Now, that’s not to say that we can’t learn certain things about God by...

Looking at the universe, we see this finely tuned and intricately designed creation. The invisible attributes of God are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, so that we are without excuse, as stated in Romans chapter 1. When we examine the structure of DNA and the design of the eye, we realize that there are more than 200 finely tuned, important elements in our universe that are set just right for life to be sustained here on this planet. The cosmos and creation point to the existence of God, but He remains a mystery to us. What is He like? What does He want? For that, it has to be revealed; it is a mystery that He must unveil to us.

A perfect illustration of the idea of a biblical mystery is something that many of you will engage in just a few weeks from now when you exchange Christmas gifts. A Christmas gift serves as a perfect metaphor for a biblical mystery. Perhaps you have a loved one for whom you buy a tangible object, placing it into a box. You close that box, wrap it, and put a bow on it. Maybe, like in my family, you place it under a tree for an appointed day for it to be revealed. However, what is inside the box remains unknown to the recipients; it is a mystery.

Some people find this anticipation maddening. My wife is one of those people; it drives her crazy. I confess, I thrive on torturing her with Christmas presents. Just last night, I told her I had her Christmas present all done. I know that just by saying that, I trigger a month of her wondering, "What is it? Come on, give me a clue! Is it something I already started last night? Is it something that I told you I wanted? What is it?" She cannot contain herself.

All the way up until Christmas, she will ask, "Can I open it early, please?" I respond, "No, no, no." Even at 11:59 on Christmas Eve, I will say, "Sorry, you have to wait until tomorrow morning." It drives her nuts. That which is wrapped, that which is hidden, must be revealed to be known. This is the essence of the mystery of godliness. It cannot be known unless it is revealed. Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. Thank God for the next line: God was manifest in the flesh.

Was manifest in the flesh. Point number three on your outline: Jesus brought to light the glory and majesty of God. God cannot be found in a test tube, in a telescope, or through a microscope. He is independent of His creation and stands outside of it. We would not know what He is like or what He wants if Jesus did not step into our world. If He was not manifest in the flesh, we would be left in the dark.

God was manifest in the flesh. Jesus brings to light the glory and majesty of God. In 1 Timothy 6:16, it says that no man has seen or can see God, who dwells in unapproachable light. God is separate from us, outside of our creation. For us to know Him and understand what He is like and what He wants, He has to reveal it. That is exactly what Jesus did.

Turn just a few pages to the right to 2 Timothy chapter 1. Look at what Jesus brings to light at His coming when God was manifest in the flesh. In 2 Timothy 1:8, we read, "Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings of the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us." God has saved us and has called us according to a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and His grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.

Here’s a mystery: God, before He ever said, "Let there be light," before He ever created, already knew how He was going to give His grace to sinful, fallen human beings. Before time began, He knew what He was going to do through His grace.

But now, look at verse 10. In 2 Timothy 1:10, it says, "But now has been revealed, manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought to light life and immortality through the gospel." What is Paul saying here in 2 Timothy chapter 1?

When Jesus steps onto the scene of humanity, He brings into the light for us to see life and immortality through the gospel. This is awesome and good because inside every human being—there are 7.5 billion of us on this planet right now—there is a desire to live and to live forever. We all have it; I have it. We all share this desire, this yearning. Humanity has been seeking it for a long time.

If you go back and read the myths of ancient times, you see the search for life forever, the quest for a well or fountain of youth. This theme is prevalent throughout mythology and stories. Why? Because there is this desire, this yearning inside of us to live forever.

Do you realize that right now, at this moment in Silicon Valley, there are huge venture capitalists putting hundreds of millions of dollars into startup companies that are trying to find the cure for death? They are attempting to eliminate death. Just last week, it was reported in the news that Chinese surgeons have successfully performed a head transplant on a cadaver, moving from one cadaver to another. They are saying that within the next year to 18 months, they should reach the point where they can take a mentally brain-dead individual whose body is functioning well and transplant a fully live head onto that body of someone who is dying from some sort of internal disease.

This is a head transplant that could extend life. That's freaky! I mean, read "Frankenstein"; it can't lead to good things. But that's what we are doing. Why? Because there is a desire in us to live forever.

What did Jesus do when God was manifest in the flesh? He brought to light life and immortality. He showed us the way to immortality, and where does it come from? Through the gospel, through the good news of who Jesus is and what Jesus did.

I understand that when I share this with someone, and I say, "Listen, God, who created everything seen and unseen, stepped down into this world. There is a God, and Jesus is God. He came to give us immortality," people often respond, "That's far out." It is a mystery, a great mystery. They hear it and respond just like Nicodemus in John chapter 3, this religious man who asked, "How can these things be?"

How can these things be? It's almost incredible what you're telling me. I want to believe it, but it's unbelievable that God became a man to give us immortality. How is that even possible?

Well, it's not merely because the Bible says so. For a long time, Christians have answered tough questions by saying, "Well, the Bible tells me so." That's not sufficient. We need to ask how we know that this is the fundamental truth upon which all other truths are tested. There is a God, Jesus is God, and He came to give life for eternity.

We can know this because of the second line of this little song: "God was manifest in the flesh." The next line states He was "justified in the spirit." Another English translation says "vindicated in the spirit." What does that mean? I think it means the same thing that Paul said in Romans chapter 1, verse 4, when he stated that Jesus was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.

Jesus was vindicated, justified, and proven to be God in human flesh by many signs and wonders. Most notably, Jesus rose from the dead. We cognitively and intuitively know that people who die don't come back to life; they aren't raised from the dead. Yet, 2,000 years ago, there was a man crucified on a cross outside of Jerusalem, buried in a tomb, dead. Three days later, He rose again. There were over 500 eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and many of those witnesses died as martyrs, being tortured and killed. They all professed, "I have seen the risen Jesus."

Jesus is God in human flesh, vindicated and proven to be God by the resurrection from the dead. The hymn goes on to say He was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, and seen by angels. Now, of the six lines of this doxology, this hymn, this is the one that seems most odd and out of place. There’s a sense when you read it that Jesus, God, was seen by angels.

Well, of course, he was seen by angels. God is with the angels in heaven or wherever God is outside of this cosmos. The angels have been with Him since their creation; of course, they have seen God. Yet, that assumption on our part is actually not supported by the Scriptures.

You see, Jesus in the Gospel of John, chapter 8, says, "No one has seen God at any time." I believe that "no one" includes the angels. You may wonder how that could possibly be. How could they be in the presence of God and not see Him? This is revealed to us by the prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 6, we read, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple."

Above His throne stood angels, Seraphim, and each one had six wings. With two, they covered their faces; with two, they flew; and with two, they covered their feet. Do you realize the Scriptures seem to tell us that the angels, in the presence of God, because they are in such awe of His glory, cover their faces and have never looked upon God in eternity? They are so humbled by His holiness.

When God became a man, they were looking into these things, desiring to look into these things because they had never beheld the glory of God before. For the first time, all of creation was able to behold the glory of God in the babe of Bethlehem. They intently looked into these things; they wanted to see these things. The glorious God was manifest in the flesh, incarnate. He was proven to be God, vindicated as God by the evidence of the Holy Spirit. He was seen by angels.

Therefore, the fourth line of the song states that He was preached among the Gentiles. Point number four on your outline: Christ came to be proclaimed. Yes, at His coming, at His Advent, He came to a little backwater town just outside of Jerusalem called Bethlehem. He was born, probably in a cave where animals were kept, and laid in a manger in obscurity. But He came to be proclaimed, and on the day He was born...

Angels proclaimed His birth, and ever since that time, we who have come to know Him have been proclaiming Him to all the world. He is preached among the nations, preached among the Gentiles. This proclaiming of the coming of Christ didn't start at His birth; it started before that. Prophets for centuries were foretelling that He was going to come, that He was going to come from the tribe of Judah, that He was going to be a descendant of David, that He was going to come to the city of Bethlehem, and that He would be born to a virgin. All of these things were said for centuries: He is coming.

God is one of those gift givers who likes to give hints about His gift. The entire time, He has been giving us hints about who He is and what He is going to do. The coming of the Messiah is proclaimed among the Gentiles for a purpose. Look at the fifth line of the song: "believed on in the world." We preach Christ for the purpose of people coming to faith in Him. We proclaim who Jesus is and what Jesus has done so that others will put their trust in Him—not just a mental acknowledgment of who He might have been, not just a verbal acclamation of what He did, but an absolute wholesale trust in Him.

Why do we call people to trust in Him? Because of what Paul says in Romans chapter 10: "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." The Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be ashamed." We preach Christ among the nations so that He will be believed upon in this world for the salvation of the lost.

One final line in the song states, "He was received up in glory." He was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory. What does this mean? The tomb is empty. Whether you think the tomb that Jesus was born in is the tomb at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, or if you think it was the tomb outside of Jerusalem in a place called Gordon's Calvary, or if it's some other tomb, wherever it may be...

The tomb is empty on the day that Jesus rose from the dead. There were followers of Jesus who went to the tomb to anoint His body for burial. When they arrived, they found angels who announced to them, "He is not here; He is risen."

You can go to Medina in Saudi Arabia and visit the remains of Muhammad. You can go to the temples in Asia where the remains of Buddha have been scattered, the cremated remains. However, you cannot find the remains of Jesus because He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. He was received into glory, and one day, the Scriptures foretell, He will come again.

Point number five on your outline: we preach the Living Christ and not a dead prophet. This is one of the reasons that you can confidently invite people to come here, because you will know that they will always hear the preaching of the risen Living Christ. God is Jesus; Jesus is God. Jesus came to bring to light life and immortality through the good news that is to be preached throughout the world, to be believed by all people for the salvation of the lost, so that they also will be received up to be with Him in glory for eternity. That is good news!

Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? Father, thank You for Your Word. It is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It is, Lord, that which brings understanding and light. When we understand this important fundamental truth, it changes everything about what is going on in this world. It helps us to understand reality in a better way.

There are so many truths being thrown around as potential fundamental truths, and all of those change our understanding and worldview as we try to figure out what this chaotic world is all about. But You, Jesus, come and say, "This is the reality." God is You; Jesus, our God, came to give life for eternity. It changes everything.

God, I pray that we would hold this truth so close in our hearts.

Would become our passion, and we would not be able to hold it back. We praise You, Jesus.

It may be that as we're standing here today, you have not received the salvation of Christ. You have not put your trust in Him for salvation. I want to give you a chance this morning to do that if you never have. Simply ask in prayer for God's forgiving grace and for His Holy Spirit to come into your life to transform you and your future.

If that's you and you want to receive His forgiving grace today, would you just lift up your hands high so I can see it? Is there anyone here today? I see you there in the middle of the back. God bless you. Is there anyone else?

You can receive that forgiving grace of Jesus to release you of His salvation. Jesus came to give life forever. If that's you, would you just pray with me out loud where you're at? Prayer is just simply talking to God.

Dear Jesus, I know that I need You. Would You come into my life, forgive me of my sin, help me to follow You by faith, and to glorify You in this world? Thank You for Your salvation. In Jesus' name, amen.

Praise the Lord!