Title: The Incarnation and the Cross
Contents
Title: The Incarnation and the Cross
Bible: Matthew 16:21
2007. 3. 4. daytime
On a sunny spring day, in a park in New York, a vagrant was begging with a sign that said 'I am blind' hanging around his neck. People just passed by, and no one took a liking to him. Then a man appeared and changed the sentence on the signpost and left the place.
After some time passed, the bum noticed something strange. “Is it strange? Up until now, no one had given me money, but after that man came and went, suddenly more and more people have given me money.”
That's right. What a pitiful and pitiful existence God has given us, if we cannot see it or realize it. I pray that you will see God's blessings clearly with your spiritual eyes and give glory to God.
If I could describe Christianity in one word, it would be the cross and resurrection. Without the cross there is no resurrection, and without the resurrection the cross is meaningless. So the cross is a blessing and the resurrection is a blessing.
March-April is the month of Holy Week and Easter Week.
Lent has just begun. Lent is the 40 days before Jesus' resurrection. However, the period of Lent does not include Sundays. So 40 days before excluding Sundays. That point is from last Wednesday, February 21st. Today is the second Sunday of Lent. During Lent, when you reverently think of the cross of the Lord, you meditate on the Lord and spend it with the Lord. This year, Holy Week is the first week of April. This period is called Lent. And there will be a glorious resurrection.
So, over the next six weeks, we are going to preach the Cross and Resurrection.
Today, as the first word, we are going to listen to God's words about the incarnation and the cross.
Incarnation = God became man
1. The Son who was in the beginning as the Word
Jesus was the Word in the beginning.
“In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
In Genesis 1:1, we see the beginning. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Which of these two beginnings came first? In terms of time, the beginning of the Gospel of John comes first. In other words, the beginning of the Gospel of John is the time when the Creator created it, and the beginning of the book of Genesis refers to the time when the entire universe was created. Therefore, the existence of the Creator comes first. Jesus is the Creator from the beginning. He is the second person among the three persons of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So the Apostle John continues to express Jesus as the Creator.
“All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made.”
That's right. Jesus is not only the one who created from the beginning. We know that he is the creator of heaven and earth. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, we must know clearly. Without Jesus, nothing in the world was created.
2. Jesus the Word became flesh
Such a Trinity, God the Son, came down to earth in a physical body just like us humans. We call this the incarnation. This cannot be understood by human common sense. How could a Creator come down to the world of creation and be ruled by the created world like a creature? But the Son Jesus did just that.
God cannot be seen or touched. Because God is spirit. Jesus is the one who came in human form so that God could be seen in human flesh. Therefore, those who have seen Jesus have seen God.
“Jesus said to him, Philip, I have been with you for so long, do you not know me? He who has seen me has seen the Father; why do you say, Show the Father?”
3. The reason for the incarnation
Then, for what reason, the Son Jesus, who is God, became like this.
The Bible clearly tells us why.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
“God did not send the Son to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him”
There is one reason. He came to save us and give us eternal life. Hallelujah! Therefore, no one can be saved without believing in the name of Jesus.
“Salvation can be found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
4. Toward the Cross for Salvation
How, then, can humans be saved? Humans have committed sins that are punishable by death.
“You shall not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the day you eat of it you will surely die.”
Therefore, there is no way for man to be saved except through death. Sin always comes with punishment. Sin does not go away without receiving the corresponding punishment for the sin. That is why God made the blood of so many sheep or goats and calves shed in the Old Testament.
“The law