AN ATTITUDE OF WONDER (LUKE 2:15-20)

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

SERIES: THE ATTITUDES DISCIPLES REVEAL, PART 3

GCEFC: DECEMBER 14, 2008

INTRODUCTION

1. Over the course of my 56 years, there have been a few times that I would call “times of wonder.” Moments when I was overtaken with the wonder in what I saw.

2. One of the first ones I remember occurred when I was probably around 8 years old.

3. My family was taking in the sights of Washington, D.C., something we did often as we only lived 8 miles from the city.

4. But this time was special as it was the very first time I experienced looking out from the top of the Washington Monument. To this day it remains the second tallest stone building in the world and it was a wonder to experience it the first time.

5. Later while still in Elementary school, my family visited Niagara Falls. Well, if you’ve ever been, you know the feeling when you first come upon the falls. It nearly takes your breath away.

6. I’ve always had a fascination with the night sky from a very young age. But it wasn’t until I was in rural Alabama, on a moonless night, far from city lights that I experienced the night sky in all its glory.

7. There is no dark like rural Alabama and the first time I saw the night sky as it was meant to be seen was an experience of wonder I’ll never forget.

8. Then, some 15 years later I had the experience of seeing something that I had wanted to see nearly my entire life—the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. Now I was prepared for something spectacular—but even my greatest expectations were exceeded when I saw it.

9. The size was nearly impossible to grasp. I have a photo in my office of me standing on one of the stones if you want some perspective. That was 22 years ago, before they arrested you and threw you into an Egyptian dungeon for standing on the pyramid.

10. And there was certainly the sense of wonder as I watched both of my children being born.

11. But as recently as this past fall, I had another one of those moments of wonder as I gazed upon the Grand Tetons of northwestern Wyoming.

12. Such grandeur and majesty must be experienced to be fully appreciated. It was another one of those moments of wonder.

13. As we approach yet another Christmas, I suspect there’s a tendency for us to lose the wonder of it all.

14. I don’t mean the celebration of Christmas. We’ve got that one down. I’m talking about Christmas itself—the wonder of what it really is and what it really means.

15. It’s something we should never get tired of or get over. It should always remain a source of wonder and amazement. Even for us grownups.

16. So for the final two weeks of Advent, I want to focus on the next attitude that disciples should have—an attitude of WONDER.

17. This is the third attitude we’ve looked at together in this series. The first being an attitude of humility. Then on the Sunday before Thanksgiving the attitude of thankfulness.

18. So today and next Sunday I want to consider the attitude of wonder. An attitude that a disciple should have not only at Christmas time—but all the time.

A. THE FACT OF THE INCARNATION

1. Let’s begin with the central theme of Christmas—the wonder of Incarnation. Christmas is about the Incarnation. A word we don’t hear much from January to November.

2. It’s from the Latin meaning “to make flesh,” or “in flesh.” It’s a reference to the fact that on that first Christmas, God became human. He took on flesh. Jesus became Emmanuel—God with us.

3. Now the incarnation is not even generally understood, much less generally comprehended. So let’s take a moment and explore it.

a. If you go back in time—and I mean way back, to the point before time even began. Which isn’t easy to grasp because we’ve always lived within the confines of time.

b. We can’t imagine a universe without time as a component of it. But time is a creation of God. Before God created time, it didn’t exist.

c. When I was a child, I got a small reel-to-reel tape recorder one Christmas. It was about this big and had 2 little plastic reels that held magnetic recording tape.

d. I had endless hours of fun with this device. I recorded television commercials, songs from the radio, conversations—you name it.

e. But if you’d told me that within my lifetime we’d be recording sound onto a plastic disc like a shrunken record—it wouldn’t have seemed possible.

f. Well before time was even invented, before it was even created, we’re told in the Bible that God existed. It’s a stretch for our finite minds to grasp.

g. But not only did God exist—the Son of God existed too. JN 1:1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Not just at the beginning of time—in the beginning—period.

h. The term beginning means before anything else. Before anything had been created. Before time had even been created. Before there was anything else—there was God.

i. We read in the 14^th verse of the same chapter: 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.

j. So we know from the declaration of God’s Word that before time began, before anything else began—God existed as 2 distinct, self-existent and eternal beings. We learn later there were 3 eternal beings—but that’s not the writer’s point right now.

k. He wants us to understand that in eternity past, God the Son dwelt with God the Father. One God—yet 2 distinct eternal beings.

l. Not separate Gods. Only one God. Not one being. Distinct beings. But in essential and eternal nature—only one God.

4. At the Incarnation, God the Son took on the form of a human being. He didn’t surrender his God nature—he added a human nature to it—without confusion or contradiction.

5. When I was 33 years old, I became a father. I was already a son, and I was already a husband. I didn’t cease being either of those 2 things. I added being a father to them.

6. Jesus didn’t cease being God when he became a human being. He added a human nature to his God nature. He didn’t become half human and half God. He became 100% human and remained 100% God.

7. That’s the Incarnation. It’s not just hard to fully comprehend—it’s impossible to fully comprehend.

8. But it’s not necessary to fully comprehend it—it’s only necessary to fully believe it.

9. Not because it’s easy to believe. Not because it’s simple to believe. Not because it’s logical to believe. But because the Bible declares that we are to believe it.

B. THE WONDER OF THE INCARNATION

1. So there we have the FACT of the incarnation. That’s profound enough. But there’s also a WONDER to the Incarnation.

2. Suppose I told you that I could become a god. Now aside from being heresy and ridiculous—what if I really could?

3. What if I could by some process become omniscient, knowing everything? What if I could become omnipotent, being all powerful? And what if I could become omnipresent, able to be everywhere simultaneously?

4. Notice I didn’t say eternal? That’s because I’ve missed the chance to be eternal. To be eternal I must have always existed.

5. But if this was possible, you’d have to admit it would be pretty amazing. A mortal like myself, just a man, just a physical being with a lot of limitations.

6. If I could become a god—that would be extraordinary. But you know something even more extraordinary than a man becoming a god? It would be God becoming a man.

7. It would actually be easier for God to become a man than for a man to become a god. What’s extraordinary is that it would be so unexpected!

8. Why in the world would God choose to become a human being? Why would God give up so much to become something so little? But that’s why it’s a thing of WONDER!

9. The fact that a perfect God, who is complete within himself. Who lacks nothing and has no need of anything. Who had nothing to prove and nothing to gain.

10. Who was worshiped by the angels and exalted forever in heaven. Who would have been fully justified in condemning every sinful human being forever.

11. Yet, God CHOSE to become one of us. He chose to humble himself to the level of humanity. He chose the ridicule, rejection, betrayal, suffering, and death.

12. None of which he had to endure. But all of which he chose to endure. It’s not a story anyone would have thought up. It’s a scenario only God could have envisioned.

13. That a perfect God would do such a thing for sinful human beings is beyond comprehension. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians we read in 8:9: For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

14. In Christ, God assumed our spiritual debt, and through his sacrificial death paid it off in full. The Bible says that God did this because he loved us.

15. But we must understand that God loved us not because we were lovable—but because it’s his nature to love. He loved us in spite of the fact that none of us were lovable.

16. Another reason for Jesus’ sacrifice is given in HEB 12: Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

17. Our salvation is possible because Jesus was willing to endure the suffering that provided it. For a season Jesus renounced his glory, so that some day we might share in some of it.

C. THE WONDER OF HIS HUMILITY

1. But not only is there wonder in the Incarnation in and of itself, there’s wonder in the humility of the Incarnation.

2. Though humility was required for Jesus to become a man—it was not required that he humble himself to such a degree.

3. Becoming a human being would have been humble enough for God. Submitting to a human-orchestrated death would have been humble enough for God.

4. Temporarily suspending the voluntary use of his divine prerogatives as God would have been humble enough for God.

5. But God took humility to an almost inconceivable level. To the extent that he was born into a humble family in a humble country at a humble time in a humble way.

6. He could have been born as an earthly king and still died for our sins. He could have been born into wealth and privilege and still died for our sins.

7. Poverty and humility were not required for his sacrificial payment for our sins. But he did it anyway. Why?

8. I think he did it to show us what humility and self-sacrifice look like. Otherwise we might not know for sure.

9. Trinity College in Cambridge, England has a long tradition of sending their students to the slums of South London to do community service.

10. By day they serve in the parish of Camberwell, doing necessary repairs and cleaning in the homes of the poor. At night they sleep in the parish hall.

11. Some years ago, one such student was cleaning the drains of a bed-ridden elderly woman. As the student worked, she asked, “Has anyone ever told you that you look a lot like Prince Charles?”

12. Since no one had ever said such a thing to him before, the young man replied, “No.” “Well,” said the woman, “I’m surprised, because you’re the spitting image of him.”

13. Little did the woman know that it really WAS Prince Charles, and probably never did know. She had no idea that the heir to the throne of England had served her in such a humble way.

14. It’s not that royalty was unrecognized. After all, the woman did recognize the Prince. But it never even occurred to her that she was being visited by royalty.

15. In fact, it has not occurred to most that we as human beings have been visited by royalty. Royalty infinitely higher than any earthly prince or king.

16. We have been visited by God Himself. We’ve been visited by the Creator of the Universe. We’ve been visited by the one who has existed from before time began.

17. And not only have we been visited, but the one who visited has secured our forgiveness and salvation through his death in our place. This is not only an extraordinary thing—it’s a thing of wonder. A wonder we should never get over.