WARNING PREACHY – 12/20/2015 (ADVENT 4)

¹³You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. ¹⁴For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

¹⁶So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

¹⁹The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. ²⁶Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

(Galatians 5:13-26)

In verse 16 the Apostle Paul instructs, “…walk by the Sprit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” and then in verse 15; “If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”

There is much in this dangerous world that would be fixed immediately if we humans would understand the spiritual reality of our situations; if each of us would see the Child in the Manger as not just a human baby but a divinely spiritual being whose only purpose was to die on the cross.  If we would understand Matthew’s statement that this child is called Emmanuel (which means God with us) we could see that the Christ baby was not just a physical being but a spiritual one.

Verse 17 points out that our flesh and our spirits are in conflict with one another.  And if we will recognize it, this is true of the Christ as well.  As we observe the babe that became a man, we can see the many physical everyday (and some not so every day) situations that he handled with the eyes of faith through the Holy Spirit who guided him.

As we prepare ourselves to celebrate the birth of the Christ child on Christmas day, let us recognize that the life that was given us is our model.  We who are physical fleshly beings, the offspring of Adam, are spiritually united with Christ at the foot of the Cross.  Jesus who has been put to death in the body has been made alive spiritually (1 Peter 3:18) as the “first of many brethren.”   

The babe in the manger is the hope of all mankind if only mankind will recognize that he sets us free from the death of the flesh and gives us new birth and freedom in the Spirit:  Freedom to love sacrificially which is ironically opposite of many people’s attempts to right the evils of this world.

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.