WARNING: PREACHY - 12/13/2015 (ADVENT 3)

Why do Christians anticipate the celebration of Christmas, the birth of Jesus, during Advent?  Because in Jesus is the culmination of both man and God; both flesh and spirit.  Jesus is the salvation of our souls.  And while the Advent season is focused on Jesus as the babe in the manger the real thrust of his being is culminated on the Cross of his suffering.

In First Peter 3:18 Peter writes in just one verse a real mouthful.

¹⁸ For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. (1 Peter 3:18)

1.      Jesus suffered once for sins

2.      Jesus was the righteous for the unrighteous

3.      Jesus did this to bring us to God

4.      Jesus was killed physically and was made alive spiritually

Don’t miss the fact that Jesus suffered ONCE.  Too often we people act like Jesus is to die again and again, over and over, (as Cyndi Lauper sang) “Time After Time” as though with every new sin in our lives Jesus must hang on the cross to suffer again.  While this sort of preaching might guilt some people into behaving properly on a regular basis, it defies the concept of suffering once.  Rather, the blood of Jesus is sufficient to cover our sins (past, present, and future) despite every attempt of guilt. (See Romans 5:15 – 6:22)

Peter states that Jesus was righteous and he suffered for those of us who are not righteous.  In other words, Jesus died for us sinners.  Too often we don’t like to admit that we are sinners.  We tend to think that we are "a good person".  The most common response that I get when talking to people is “I’m a pretty good person; it’s not as if I have ever killed anyone.”  The problem with this sort of reasoning is that the person making this statement is comparing him/herself to another human when the true comparison is between the person and Jesus Christ.  When Jesus is the object of comparison it is easy to see that we fail in that comparison.

Jesus suffered and died to restore relationship between God and sinners.  This relationship is not religious in nature.  This is why just showing up to church each week, getting dunked or sprinkled, and consuming the wafer, bread, and Juice really does nothing.  Church attendance, baptism, communion, and Eucharist only have value inside of a real day-to-day relationship with the living Jesus.

I have been pointing out the nature of the flesh and the spirit in the birth of the child Jesus this Advent season, Peter points out the reality of flesh and spirit of Jesus even after his physical death on the Cross.  Even though his flesh was crucified and killed dead, the Holy Spirit raised him back to life again.  He was resurrected from the grave which is the reason for our faith. (See 1 Corinthians 15:12-22)

This Advent season we anticipate the birth of the baby Jesus, not because he was miraculously brought about (which he indeed was) but because he is the culmination of both the flesh of Adam and the Holy Spirit of God.