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| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) |
GALATIANS 4:4b
(Readings: 1 Jn.4:7-21; Gal.3:23-4:7)
Perfect Person
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ…
Our text is five words, “God sent forth his Son.”
Only five words.
Five English words with only a few letters in each of them.
And, yet, in the words of John Calvin, “How much is contained in a few words!”
“The Son who was sent, must have existed before.
“From this is proved eternal divinity.
“Christ therefore is the Son of God sent forth from heaven.
In a nutshell, the Reformer conveys the essence of these words.
It is the essence which is two-fold.
So it consists of two parts.
In the first place we note … IT WAS JESUS GOD SENT.
And, then, secondly, we see … IT WAS CHRIST WHO CAME.
These points sound a bit the same, don’t they?
Well, let’s see that they are quite distinct.
And what’s more, let’s see how wonderful they are!
So we come to consider, firstly … IT WAS JESUS GOD SENT.
In the first part of Galatians 4 verse 4 we heard of the perfect timing of when Jesus came.
There in the phrase, “But when the fullness of time had come…” we heard Scripture’s message that all things worked out for exactly the right time.
Whether that time was covenantally, culturally, or chronologically.
Those words tell us that history is God’s instrument.
And it wasn’t about whether or not the time was right for Jesus, but that God had made the time right in which Jesus came.
From that perspective of ‘Perfect Timing’ we look now at the ‘Perfect Person.’
We have seen that it was more than a matter of the time being right for Jesus, but actually that God made the time right for Jesus.
In the same way let’s see that more than being the right man at the right time Jesus was always the One who was right.
He is perfect all the time.
And so that God sent his Son points to the fact that Jesus came from somewhere to here!
If we don’t see that, congregation, we are only seeing the Christmas story like the world around us treats it.
Oh, they love it alright – the glitter, the presents, that feeling of good will and cheer – for a few weeks.
You will find people who are the meanest people at any other time become transformed at this time.
Like that character in Charles Dickens’ book ‘A Christmas Carol’ – Ebenezer Scrooge.
But it’s only for a moment!
Come the day after Christmas, or into the New Year, and it’s gone!
We can so easily have a Jehovah’s Witness type of “Jesus”.
Now you’re wondering!
You know they have a different view of Jesus.
But how would that fit in here?
Well, this cult believes that it was only while on this earth that Jesus was the so-called ‘Son of God.’
Before his time on earth they say he was an angel.
And after his time on earth he has again become only an angel.
This is something the text speaks so clearly against.
Because their view misses altogether the eternity which steps into our text!
You see, God sending his Son means he sent himself.
This is the same as what Paul was to write later to the Philippians.
In chapter 2 verse 8 of that letter he describes Jesus as being “in the form of God.”
So, congregation, the Greek word in our text translated as “sent” is a big word.
It tells us quite a lot.
For a start, it is about something which happened in the past.
But even more than that in the original Greek it also has a continuous sense.
So this is not about the one point in time, the time that Jesus was on earth.
Rather, this is part of an ongoing work of God himself.
Being God’s Son is more than a title.
Instead, being God’s Son is a relationship which is one in essence with God the Father.
In a passage which speaks of all believers being equally sons or children of God, this Son stands apart.
For he is the One through whom, by believing in him, we have ourselves become the adopted children of God.
That’s what we read in the Apostle John’s first letter, chapter 4.
As verse 9 there says, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.”
Did you hear it?
“That we might live through him.”
And he is Jesus!
He is the Saving God, the Redeemer.
These words would have struck those Galatian believers.
God sent his Son!
The Second Person of the Trinity no less!
He who said in Matthew 5, verse 17, “Do not think I have come to abolish the law or prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them.”
God in himself takes away the need for these Old Testament ceremonial laws to be done anymore!
This is what Paul has already talked about in the previous chapter 3 of Galatians.
There he showed that the promise which established the covenant, and which came a long time before the law, is fulfilled.
So the law which was to guide the people until the promise was fulfilled no longer applies.
This leads us on to the next aspect in the text.
Because this means, in the second place … IT WAS CHRIST WHO CAME.
Dear friends, we only need to consider here what the angel of the Lord spoke to those terrified shepherds upon the eve of Christ’s birth.
We read it in Luke 2, the verses 10 and 11.
It’s there we hear the angel say, “Don’t be afraid.
“I bring you glad tidings of great joy that will be for all people.
“Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you: he is Christ the Lord.”
And then a whole huge host from heaven suddenly appears.
They’re praising God, singing out, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.” (Luke 2:14.)
IT WAS CHRIST WHO CAME!
No doubt about it!
This is confirmed again and again through-out the ministry of Jesus.
Two times the voice of the Father from heaven declares this.
The time of Jesus being baptised by John in Matthew 3 verse 17 is one time God proclaims it.
And upon the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17 verse 5 God also broadcasts it.
He says, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
It also shows in the verses 26 till 29 of chapter 3 just before the text.
The name “Christ” appears there five times in the space of four verses.
Congregation, let there be no misunderstanding.
It was the Messiah, the Promised Lord, who came.
For Christ is the Greek name which has the same meaning as the Hebrew name, ‘Messiah.’
It means “the anointed One.”
It was a title Jesus had avoided ascribing to himself.
He had come first of all to serve.
But when men confessed him as such, he acknowledged the truth.
Peter’s confession of him as the Christ in Matthew 16, verse 16, received the Lord’s blessing.
And now, in this New Testament letter, the apostle boldly and openly declares what for a season had been hidden.
During the ministry of Jesus it wasn’t the time for this to be revealed.
But now it was the gospel!
You will find this same theme throughout all the New Testament letters.
They all point back to the doing and dying and rising of the Lord.
The great Gospel event is applied by them to the Lord’s people.
Christ being the Anointed One means being set apart for a special purpose.
The kings of Israel were anointed for their task.
So how much more isn’t the King of kings anointed for his highest of all appointments?
It was he who said in Luke 4 verse 18, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.”
Congregation, the only Man who could have done the job was born and lived and served and died among us.
He had to be the God-man because no one but God himself could make sinful people right with him again.
Paul Rees describes this well.
He says, “The reason why you should be missionary-hearted and missionary-minded isn’t simply because there’s something called the ‘Great Commission.’
“It’s because missions belong to the very character of the Gospel; it lies organically in the Trinity.”
God came to love us because that is what he is in himself.
In the way he is in the relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so he shows in coming down.
A Christmas card a few years ago illustrated this.
On the front of the card was a montage of many kings and dictators who have appeared throughout history.
All mixed up together were Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler, and Joseph Stalin.
The caption on the front of the card said, “History is crowded with men who would be gods.”
Then on the inside there were the words, “But only one God who would be man.”
Congregation, the perfect Person knows how to perfectly love.
Many of us are familiar with the illustration of the quicksand.
This is the quicksand that represents what every one of us is in because of the sin we are all infected with.
We cannot save ourselves.
And nor can any of man’s religions.
Because that is what all those other religions and cults and sects are all about!
Like those dictators, they are only men trying to become gods.
Only someone outside the quicksand of sin could pull those in it out with his hand!
Congregation, he is the One who has the power and grace to do this.
IT WAS CHRIST WHO CAME.
He is the Perfect Person.
How much aren’t we reminded of this in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper?
It was only his sacrifice which could satisfy God’s justice.
Only One who is God can answer God!
Dear friends, let’s pause a moment.
As we reflect on this Saviour through the text, is it only a special time for now?
Have we been driven to come to church this morning because without it you would kind of miss it?
This is a tradition that fills a gap.
But that’s no different to what Christmas means for many.
Because for them it only happens on one day a year.
Of all the days in the year that is a special day.
They would miss it if it wasn’t that way.
Dear friend, may it not be that way for you.
Rather, let’s pray that this is a confirming part of your walk with the Lord every day.
You have got the life that will continue from this temporary, sinful world, into the eternal, perfect world to come.
You have got the faith that rejoices in God’s Son coming every day.
Believe like that, dear friend, and this joy and peace and hope is yours everyday!
Then it is not tied up with what you do this day and in this way.
Instead, then it is anchored to God in his Son!
Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray…
Dearest Lord Jesus,
How much aren’t we blessed in you, our precious Saviour!
From you has come all that we will ever need, through your sacrifice upon the cross.
Please reassure us in this wonderful knowledge.
Comfort us in the love too amazing to express in the mere words of men.
May we go from here, O Lord, having the same sense of being ‘sent’ as you had coming to this earth two thousand years ago.
Because it is you who has so planned and worked in us to bring us to this point.
And so what can we do but live glorifying you through all that we think and say and do?
In your saving Name alone, we pray, Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Sjirk Bajema, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright 2024, Rev. Sjirk Bajema
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