Series: The Hope of this Season

Hebrews 1:1-4

1. Christmas evokes memories in us like few other times.

2. if I dig deep enough into my childhood memories I find the piano that sat in the corner of our living room (and that sits in our living room today). Scattered across the top are 8 ½ by 11 family pictures, including a 10,11 year old boy with an fluorescent orange-looking V-neck sweater, tie, glasses, funny smile & slicked back hair.

3. scrunched in & among the pictures is a small, light-weight, glossy painted, mass-produced manager scene…1/2 of the pieces either leaning over falling down. With the little baby Jesus strategically placed in the middle of the stable surrounded by Joseph & Mary, animals & shepherds, & the 3 wise men (astrologers, thanks to Kyle).

4. I liked the baby Jesus most. He had a big smile. I knew he was important. I knew he was the guy they talked about at church all the time. I knew he was the reason for this season. I felt like this baby had some kind of hold over the world.

5. and he did. And he does. And he will.

Revelation
1. our Christmas text for today is Hebrews 1:1-4. The baby Jesus is strategically placed at the center of God’s revelation.

2. it begins like this – in the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways.
3. this is huge. In the past God spoke. The Christian faith is a revealed faith. In the past refers to God’s action in revealing himself to the Jewish people through – creation, history, story, visions, dreams, laws, prophecies, doctrine & ethics.

4. all this is found in the Old Testament Scriptures. They are true but incomplete. 40-plus writers over 1500 years wrote of promise in need of fulfillment.

5. but in these last days God has spoken to us by his Son. The writer to the Hebrews lets us know that fulfillment has come in the baby of Bethlehem. God’s spoken language is not English, German, French, Chinese, Egyptian or Greek BUT Jesus.

6. Jesus is God’s most complete revelation of himself. Not the Bible. But Jesus. A person. A living Presence in our world.

7. and what does God say to us in Jesus? 3 words sum up God’s message to us in Jesus – creation incarnation re-creation.

Creation
Jesus made the universe (2)
1. Jesus is God’s agent in creation. Jesus created time, energy, space, matter. He created the whole universe:
§ our hearts that will beat 800 million times in a normal lifetime
§ our brains with a tiny cubic half-inch section of brain cells that contain all of our memories
§ the sun, large enough to hold 1.2 million earths & 4.3 million moons
§ Alpha Centauri, our next nearest star to the sun, is 5xs larger

2. where did it all come from? The baby of Bethlehem. And think of this. Jesus made the human body that he would inhabit from an infant to an adult.

3. in October Harry & I stopped in Paris on the way home from Africa. We were on the subway trying to get to the Arc de Triomphe but we went too far. The train took us to the end of the line. We came up out of the subway station & found ourselves in the middle of La Défense – the modern high-rise office tower district of Paris. We were awe-struck. We were in a museum of modern architecture. Dwarfed by skyscrapers of all sizes & shapes. We’d never seen anything like it. A tribute to the creativity & engineering feats of humanity.

4. but who created that creativity? Who created the raw materials for building? The laws of engineering? Who gave those architects, engineers & builders their abilities?

5. the baby of Bethlehem who made the world.

Jesus sustains the universe (3)
1. Jesus is both creator & sustainer. Jesus holds creation together:
§ any slowing of the earth’s rotation would create instant destruction
§ the sun’s surface temperature is 12,000 Fahrenheit – if it were any closer to us we would burn up; any farther away & we would freeze
§ if the moon did not retain its exact distance from the earth, ocean tides would inundate the land completely, 2xs a day

2. scientists who discover the so-called ‘laws of nature’ are simply discovering the laws that Jesus designed & uses to control the world. The whole universe hangs upon the sustaining power of Jesus.
Incarnation
Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory & the exact representation of his being (3)
1. these 2 statements contain more revelation about Jesus than we’ll ever be able to comprehend.

2. God became a human being. The baby of Bethlehem. God broke into the world, split space & time in half, in Mary’s womb.

3. he is the radiance of God’s glory. Radiance means ‘to send forth light.’ God sends forth the light of his being into the world through Jesus. Jill Briscoe understands this to mean that Jesus is the sunbeam of God – he shines the rays of God’s glory into the world.

4. he is the exact representation of his being. The word here is imprint – the imprint made by a stamp on a wax seal. The design of the stamp is reproduced on the wax seal. Jesus is the perfect, personal imprint of God in our world.

5. Jesus created the world. Sustains the world. And now enters the world he created & sustains. He enters the world in the body of a baby that he creates.

6. a couple of weeks ago I was at Jessie & Kimberly Kyllo’s Christmas barn. It was full of hand-made crafts for Christmas gifts. The walls were covered with all these beautiful paintings that Jessie’s mother, Ida, painted. Never knew she was a painter. Imagine what it would be like for Ida to paint a landscape scene & then have the ability to jump into it & live in it & fulfill her life purpose in it.

7. the baby of Bethlehem did something “like” this in creating the world & then entering it as a Savior baby.

Re-creation
Jesus is the purifier of sins (3)
1. this is why the baby of Bethlehem entered our world.

2. the world was created as a place where God could pour out his love upon his creatures. A place to live in union with us. A place where we could enjoy God’s creation, live, work & play. Paradise.

3. but in Adam & Eve we rebelled against God’s purposes. We went our own way, forged our own path. We developed an anti-God culture full of violence, hate, selfishness & greed. Bad news…

4. followed by good news…Out of God’s all-encompassing love for all that he had made, God came to earth & became one of us. The baby of Bethlehem. In Jesus – his life death resurrection – God acted to restore the lost union of humanity with himself.

5. the central act of restoration was/is the cross of Jesus Christ. On that cross Jesus took upon himself all the sin & rebellion of the world & bore it before God. Died in our place. Purified us of our sin.

6. God’s mission in Jesus is to restore all creation to himself so that all creation brings glory to God. On the cross Jesus began to reverse the affects of the fall. He began the process of re-creation - returning all that he had originally made to its original intent.

7. last night I was at Whole Foods eating a muffin & drinking tea. Waiting for a family member to finish what they were doing so I could drive them home. Working on this sermon. I overheard this conversation between 2 employees. This guy was sharing his love of cats. He told how his last 2 cats had actually died in his arms. He went on & on about his last cat. How that cat had comforted him while he was sick & stayed by his side. He held it while it died. And then froze it in his refrigerator for 4 months, until he had enough money to have the cat cremated.

8. God created each of us to love & be loved. This guy loved his cat & felt loved by his cat. On a deeper level, those are God yearnings. We are created to be loved by God & love God. this is why the baby of Bethlehem came.

Jesus is finished with his mission (3)
1. after…he sat down. This means that Jesus finished what he came to do. Mission accomplished. His last words on the cross, it is finished.

2. how many of us have unfinished jobs around the house? We start something but don’t finish it. I bought some bricks from Home Depot 3 summers ago to brick in an area behind our fence for our garbage & recycling containers. They are still stacked in a pile at the side of the house.

3. I’m glad the baby of Bethlehem doesn’t work that way. What he started in the incarnation he finished on the cross & sealed with his resurrection from the dead.

Story time
1. you might be thinking to yourself – nice story but so what? You’ve got other things on your mind:
§ you over spent your Christmas budget
§ ugly war raging in Iraq
§ chronic pain in your back
§ how are you going to pay for your kids college edu?
§ 7 vacation days coming & you can hardly wait!
§ hardly wait for Christmas dinner tomorrow at your house for all the family & relatives

2. that’s part of your story. Here’s the ‘so what?’ God wants to pull you into his story. He wants to make you a part of his.

3. and when he does, his story will change your story. You will see life differently, experience life with brand new eyes.

4. with the angels. With the shepherds. With the 3 wise astrologers. With Joseph & Mary. Fall on your knees before Jesus & confess him to be your Creator, Savior, Sustainer, the Purifier of your sins.

Series: The Hope of the Season: “Are You Saved Or Are You Being Saved?”

I Timothy 1:15

1. Robert Webber, one of the evangelical churches best thinkers & theologians over the past 30 years, recently had dinner with 2 young couples. They asked him if he was working on a book & he replied that he was writing on spirituality.

Isabel responded, there has to be something more than the material world. I don’t know what it is – a power, an energy, a mystery. There is something there, something more than meets the eye.

John, I just don’t think you can know (if there is something more than the material world).

Alexandra, I remember when I was a little girl, I saw a sign on a building that said, ‘all paths lead to God.’ I thought to myself, ‘that makes a lot of sense.’ There are many religions & everyone has their own path to God, and that’s okay.

Jack, what I can’t stand is someone who thinks they have truth, that their view is the right one & everyone else is wrong.

This exchange was followed by an extended discussion about the validity of all spiritualities.

Robert Webber, I asked a few questions, but mainly I just listened. Jack finally asked Webber what he believed.

Robert Webber, I’m a committed Christian. As a matter of fact, I’m one of those Christians who believes Jesus is ‘the way, the truth, and the life.’ Jesus declared himself to be the way to God, so I affirm that spirituality is uniquely connected to Jesus.

Jack (agnostic), explain yourself, I’m willing to hear you out.

Robert Webber took most of the next hour to sketch out God’s story. There were lots of laughter, interaction & interfacing. I did not try to prove the faith with historical facts or scientific data or build a presuppositional case. Instead I simply told the story of God: how God created us to be in union with himself, how this unity was broken (through Adam & Eve’s disobedience), and how Jesus, by God’s Spirit, brought us back into union with God by becoming one of us, by living to show us what true humanity looks like, by dying to destroy all that is death in the world & by rising to lift us up into a new life in God.

Webber, consider that Jesus really is the way to God, that he really does disclose the truth about life, and that through Jesus the vision for humanity & all of history is revealed.

The 1st question after Webber finished God’s story, what God did in Jesus, did God do that for everybody? Webber, yes he did.
For Buddhists? Yes
For Hindus? Yes
For Muslims? Yes
For all people? No exceptions. Everybody.

Jack, I got it! I’ve never heard spirituality expressed that way before. That’s incredible.

Isabel with a look of astonishment on her face, that is a good story! What are we to do?

2. during this season of Advent I’m asking the question, why Christmas? Why the birth of Christ? Why God becoming a human? Why all this beautiful music? Why?

3. Robert Webber just told us & his 4 dinner guests.

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). So said an angel to Joseph after he found out that his fiancé Mary was pregnant.

Here is a trustworthy statement that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst. (I Timothy 1:15). So wrote Paul to Timothy, his young protége.

…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. (Philippians 2:12-13). So wrote Paul to the church at Philippi.

4. the “why” of Christmas takes us into a large & spacious theological land. And brings us face-to-face with both bad news & good news. The bad news – there is nothing we can do to restore our union with God. The good news – God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

5. question: how does God do for us what we cannot do for ourselves? Answer: In & through his Son Jesus.

When I go to the Canby pool to swim over the noon hour there is often a car parked out front. This car has a huge sign in its rear window. It reads Jesus saves.

This is an in-your-face sign. You can’t miss it. And as much as I think that in today’s culture signs like this hurt the cause more than help it, I have to agree with it. If I believe anything I believe that Jesus saves.

6. this is illustrated for us by Paul himself in an autobiographical reflection in I Timothy 1:12-17.

I Timothy 1:12-17
1. early on in the 1st chapter, nestled between his comments on false teachers & his instructions on worship, Paul thinks back to the Jesus saves story of his own life. He writes something that totally transcends his personal story.

2. I want you to get inside of it – so that- it can get inside of you.

thanksgiving & praise – 1:12,17
1. this parenthetical statement begins with thanksgiving (12) & ends with praise (17). Paul is a person of God-centered gratitude. Christ has given Paul strength, which has made him faithful, which is followed by Christ calling Paul to be an apostle. And he is quick to praise God.

2. since following Christ Paul has experienced a bunch of “ups” – people saved, churches planted, kingdom advancing, influence expanding. And a long list of ‘downs” – conflict, persecution, character assassination & hard work.

3. but what comes 1st to Paul’s mind? Gratitude & worship. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord & now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. Gratitude & worship.

4. are you living by gratitude? Are you living by praise?

mercy, grace, faith, love
1. before coming to Christ, Paul was a “mean dude” as some would say today. A blasphemer – he slandered God. A persecutor – he led the charge to persecute Christ-followers in the early church, kill them, send them to prison. A violent man – he deliberately mistreated, wronged & hurt innocent followers of Christ. He insulted & humiliated them.

2. he admits he did all this out of ignorance & unbelief. He was acting with wrong information.

3. how did God respond to him? I was shown mercy. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith & love that are in Christ Jesus. Paul was not given what he deserved. Blasphemy, persecution & violence were matched with mercy, grace, faith & love.
(from Christianity Today magazine) The writer Anne Lamott has a Jesus saves story. She came to Jesus just as she was—a foul-mouthed, bulimic, alcoholic drug addict. One week after having an abortion, she surrendered to him in her very own version of the sinner's prayer. You can read her story in her book Traveling Mercies.

Lamott is an out-spoken liberal but has won her many evangelical readers through her fascination with all things Jesusy. She looks up daily Scripture passages in Zondervan's Women of Faith Study Bible. Zondervan puts out "hundreds of books that I love," she says, including If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat by John Ortberg.

A commentator for NPR and a columnist at the freethinking Salon.com, Lamott shops "all the time" at Christian bookstores. She calls herself a "bumper-sticker Christian." One bumper-sticker saying she lives by is: "God loves you just the way you are but he loves you too much to let you stay that way.”


Jesus saves
1. Paul now writes something that is as succinct & accurate a summary of the mission of Christ that I know of.

2. here is a trustworthy saying – this is reliable, you can depend on it, count on it, build you life on it.

3. that deserves full acceptance – this has universal application & meaning. This is for everyone!

4. Christ Jesus came into the world – Jesus was a real person. He lived in our space & time. He walked in history. He had skin, hair, blood. He talked, ate, slept. He needed a bath & had to relieve himself.

5. to save sinners – Jesus is a redeemer, he liberates sinners from their sin. He makes a liberating difference in our lives.

6. of whom I am the worst – Paul personalizes the universal mission of Jesus. I was a “mean dude.” I was headed in the wrong direction. I had it all wrong. Paul had come to grips with his sin. And we must as well.

example
1. now Paul throws out his life as hope & encouragement for us all. If this blasphemer, persecutor, violent, ignorant, “mean dude” sinner was transformed by God’s mercy & grace, then there’s hope for all of us.

2. God in his unlimited patience will wait for his mercy, grace & love to do its work.

praise
1. I’m struck by Paul’s expansive understanding of the God who saved him from his sins in Jesus:
§ King – sovereign over all
§ eternal – beyond time
§ immortal – beyond decay & corruption
§ invisible – beyond the limits of every horizon
§ only God – beyond all rivals
§ honor & glory forever – what God is due by nature of who he is

2. Paul’s worship is God-centered. Paul’s worship is focused on God’s attributes. Paul’s worship is all about God. Does this characterize our worship?

Jesus saves
1. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I want to unpack this according to the time dimension of save. How is salvation related to time?

2. save can mean the beginning point of our Christian life – I have been saved = past. Often this is called justification. We are declared righteous before God based upon Christ’s finished work on the cross on our behalf. Christ “for” us. Justification is immediate & complete at the moment of faith. A finished product.

3. but save can also mean a process occurring throughout our life – I am being saved = present. Often this is called sanctification. We are being made righteous by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Christ “in” us. Sanctification is progressive & incomplete. A process.

4. both are true & biblical. It’s the present dimension I want to close with this morning

I am being saved
1. our “being saved” is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. This is a never-ending process for as long as we are alive. The goal – to be conformed to the likeness of his Son (Romans 8:29). Our part is to participate with the Holy Spirit in making us to be more like Christ.

2. during this Advent-Christmas season, how are you being saved? How is the Holy Spirit changing you, teaching you? Where are you growing? Dying? Being transformed?

3. how am I being saved?

Since coming back from Guinea & Sierra Leone I feel like I am being saved. I don’t think I’ve ever taken a trip that has turned my inside world so upside down as much as this trip.

Harry & I met people in Guinea & Sierra Leone whose faith in God is as pure & muscular as I’ve ever experienced. People with spines of spiritual steel, spines tempered & refined by the fires of persecution, poverty & hardship.

We met African brothers & sisters whose very lives are a prayer. They live by prayer. They pray to live. They depend upon God in prayer for things that we buy at Costco, or receive through medical care, or enjoy without thinking by virtue of living in a country that is free of civil disturbance.

I feel like I came back with my spiritual insides shredded. I feel undone. In comparison my faith seems so shallow, so temperamental. I have to work to stay interested in God. their lives seem to be enveloped by God.

Harry & I sat with Sam Sesay in his house & listened while he described for us what it was like to live through the civil war that nearly destroyed Sierra Leone in the late 90s (Blood Diamond movie currently playing). He barely escaped with his life. His brother was murdered by the rebels. He knows what it’s like to dodge gunfire & walk by dead, rotting bodies on the streets of Freetown.
To all of this Sam would say, “Our God is a good God” and break into a smile. When I grow up I want to have the faith of Sam Sesay. I want Jesus to be in the process of saving me in the here & now like I see him in the process of saving Sam.

4. Jesus saves. This week, get together with a friend, share how Jesus is saving you.

Series: The Hope of the Season

Genesis 3:15

1. why Christmas? Why Jesus? Why did God become a human being? Why this little baby in Mary’s womb?

2. Brian Doyle – I believe that a carpenter’s son named Jesus indeed cracked time in half, entered this world in the guise of a squalling infant, said his piece, was slaughtered for his pains, and cracked time again on his way home.
But why? Why this birth, this event which split not just time but humanity itself in half?

3. in 1858 Charles Spurgeon used these words in his sermon to describe the baby Jesus:
Infinite, and an infant
Eternal, and yet born of a woman
Almighty, and yet hanging on a woman’s breast
Supporting a universe, and yet needing to be carried
in a mother’s arms
King of angels, and yet the reputed son of Joseph
Heir of all things, and yet the carpenter’s despised son
But why, why did “he” happen?

4. to answer the “why” of Christmas we have to go back, way back, to the beginning, the very beginning. The first 3 chapter of Genesis. But even before that. We have to start with God.

Triune God (The Great Dance by C. Baxter Kruger)
1. who is God? God is Father Son & Spirit. The Triune God. 1 God existing in 3 persons. Don’t ask me to explain it because I can’t. If we could wrap our finite minds around God, than God wouldn’t be God.

2. God is a Triune being who exists in a circle of shared life. That life is full, abounding, rich & beautiful NOT lonely, sad or boring.

3. as a Triune being, God is fundamentally a relational being. There has never been a moment in all eternity when God was alone. He has always been Father Son Spirit. God has always existed in relationship. And this is the key to the universe, the key to our lives & the key to the kingdom of God, to the church.

4. why did God create the universe? Why did he create us if he had no needs & was fully self-sufficient within himself?

5. why did he create you, me, our children? Why did he create animals, birds, flowers & music? Why did he create mountains, lakes, rivers, trees, deserts & prairies? Why work, play, relationships, romance & sex? Why laughter, pleasure, rich dark coffee & Pad Thai? Is their a rhyme & reason behind all of this?

6. I can only think of 1 reason. The Father, Son & Spirit created the human race so that what they have together could be shared with us, so that their great dance of life could be extended to us & played out in our lives.

7. 1st there is the Trinity & the Triune life of God, a life of love & joy & community & oneness & glory. 2nd there is creation. God speaks the universe, the earth & humanity & all things into existence.

8. why? To extend the dance to us. The Father Son Spirit created us so that we could participate in their life together – in the knowledge, creativity, love, joy, intimacy, goodness – all played out in us & in our ordinary lives.

Genesis 1-2
1. Genesis 1 & 2 gives us creation. God created the world. He set into place something that did not exist before. He crafts a perfect environment in which, through which he can share his life with us.

2. the very best part of creation is man & woman. They alone, we alone, share his image & likeness. We alone are a reflection of him. We are fashioned for God & for each other.

3. 2:15-17 It struck me again this week that God created us with free will. You are free to eat. We have free choice. We are not pre-programmed to love & obey God. We all of us individually must make this choice.

4. you know what this means? God is a risk-taker, a gambler. He fashioned his creation with the freedom his creation could use to turn against him. This is exactly what happened.

5. as wonderful as love is, potentially love has a downside. Those you choose to love may choose to reject your love. And that hurts. God knows this rejection better than anyone. If you feel like a throw-away kid this morning, or spouse, or friend, or whatever, know this – God understands your feeling of rejection better than you.

Temptation & Fall (thanks to Craig Barnes)
1. things get dicey in Genesis 3. A serpent comes to Eve. Think Satan. He’s crafty, tricky. Still is. He twists the words of God in order to sew seeds of doubt within Eve. Still does.

2. we had help in messing up God’s good world. Satan tricked the man & the woman. But God doesn’t blame the serpent for their choice. They are responsible for choosing to believe a lie.

3. 2:15-17 The tree of the knowledge of good & evil. This is the garden. This is before the fall. This garden & everything God is declared good. BUT in the middle of that perfection is something Adam & Eve are told they cannot have.

4. we live at this tree everyday of our lives. This Adam & Eve story is contemporary, it’s our story. There is always something hanging around our lives that God says is beyond our reach. It is something we can see, but cannot have.

5. what does this tree symbolize in your life? Work, health, a relationship or an achievement you desperately want.

6. picture yourself with Adam & Eve. They are staring at the tree, looking at the fruit. They have to wonder – what is so special about this fruit? Why can’t we have it?

7. every time you confront this thing that is missing from your life you have to decide how you will respond to it. It will either become the altar where you kneel in prayer before the God who alone is whole & complete OR it will drive you crazy as you obsess over how to find what you do not have.

8. the tree of the knowledge of good & evil tells us that God has made us & this world with created limits. The question becomes, what are we going to do with those created limits?

9. the woman exercises her God-given free will & chooses to eat the forbidden fruit. She’s not satisfied. God is not enough. Adam is not enough. The garden is not enough. The other trees are not enough. But this piece of fruit, she thinks, will be enough.

10. do we learn something here about the nature of sin? Does it have something to do with wanting more than what God has given us? Not accepting our God-given created limits?

11. she eats. Her husband eats. And this world has been racked by dysfunction up to this very second. There occurred a rip in the fabric of creation:

§ 3:7 Self-awareness or consciousness was birthed. They now knew nakedness, symbolic of their guilt & shame – so they covered up.

What do we do when we feel guilt or shame? We cover up too. Try to hide things from each other. What are you hiding today?

§ 3:8 Spirituality was shredded. Their relationship with God was broken. They go from walking with him in the garden to hiding from him.

We are no different. We try to hide from God too. One way I hide is by staying busy, working. How do you hide?

§ 3:11-13 The blame game starts. The man blames the woman. The woman blames the serpent. No one wants to take responsibility for their actions.

Most of us are experts are blaming. We refuse to take ownership over our words, actions, attitudes or failures. How are you playing the blame game right now?

Judgment & Salvation
1. when God’s will & ways are violated, God, being who he is, just & righteous, has no choice but to bring judgment to bear. The serpent, the woman, the man are all judged. The serpent & the ground are cursed. And we live with this judgment today.

2. 3:15 This verse is the 1st hint of the gospel in the Bible. The 1st sign of help is given immediately after the 1st sign of trouble. This is a reference to Christ. Help is coming. Genesis 1-2 reveal what God had in mind for us from the beginning. Before sin entered the world and before we started making our choices, God made clear what he choice was for us. And it was paradise.

3. the rest of the story, Genesis 3 on, is essentially the drama of God’s recovery plan after we started making our choices.

4. 3:15 alerts us to the fact that there is going to be a fight between Satan & this woman’s descendant. This woman’s offspring is going to crush the head of Satan. He is going to strike the heel of her descendant.

5. this is talking of Christ, a descendant of Eve. He crushes Satan – evil – death – sin when he dies on the cross. He is struck by Satan, referring to his suffering for us. In Christ God begins to put paradise back together again. He begins to reverse the affects of the fall.

6. this is powerful stuff. God doesn’t give up on us. We spoil his perfect creation. Turn our backs on him. But God doesn’t go away. In fact, he comes closer. He draws near in Jesus.

7. God cannot turn his back on sin. His holy justice demands a response. But his judgment is cut with grace. He sends salvation.

Incarnation
1. now we are ready for Jesus. The Triune life has to be earthed, made human. God & his creation come together in the life of Jesus. The God-man. Fully God & fully human. Don’t ask me to explain because I can’t. The finite can’t fully explain the infinite.

2. Jesus is the reversal of the fall. He gathers up into himself the totality of humanity’s sin without being stained by that sin. And he offers himself as a sacrifice to cover that sin in the eyes of a holy & righteous God.

3. Jesus is the meeting place, the point of union, the connection between the Triune God & fallen humanity. Jesus brings the Triune life of God to us & pulls us into the circle of their love.

4. He came to be the mediator, where the Divine & the human meet & share life. This is what his life, death, resurrection & ascension are all about.

5. what will you do with Jesus?