Sundays at 10 AM

10 Dec The Ancient of Days

Posted at 12:44h in Prepare for Worship by

Read: Philippians 2:1-11

Last Sunday Jeremy Chasteen preached on one of the greatest miracles of our Lord, the feeding of the 5,000, and the account of his walking on water in Mark 6:30-52. This Sunday we will transition from Mark to Philippians 2 for our Christmas series: Jesus the Christ. The first of this three part series will focus on the deity of Jesus, as seen in Philippians 2:6. As you prepare your heart for our corporate gathering, let these words from John Piper encourage you and move you to further reflection on the deity of Jesus Christ.

Heart Preparation

“Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” —John 18:37

This is a great Christmas text even though it comes from the end of Jesus’s life on earth, not the beginning.

The uniqueness of his birth is that he did not originate at his birth. He existed before he was born in a manger. The personhood, the character, the personality of Jesus of Nazareth existed before the man Jesus of Nazareth was born.

The theological word to describe this mystery is not creation, but incarnation. The person—not the body, but the essential personhood of Jesus—existed before he was born as man. His birth was not a coming into being of a new person, but a coming into the world of an infinitely old person.

Micah 5:2 puts it like this, 700 years before Jesus was born:

“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”

The mystery of the birth of Jesus is not merely that he was born of a virgin. That miracle was intended by God to witness to an even greater one—namely, that the child born at Christmas was a person who existed “from of old, from ancient days.”

December 21st reading: “The Birth of the Ancient of Days,” in Good News of Great Joy: Daily Readings for Advent, by John Piper.

 

Song List for Sunday

  1. Joy to the World (Unspeakable Joy), by Chris Tomlin
  2. Exult in the Savior’s Birth, by Boswell and Carson, 2013
  3. Silent Night, by Shane and Shane
  4. A Communion Hymn for Christmas
  5. Doxology