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December 24
In the history of the church, the liturgical season of Advent is a season of humble and repentant expectation and preparation, a season which ends with the season of Christmas, a season itself which is more celebratory, beginning on Christmas Day.
There are two words which we use over and over during this season. The first is the word “advent” which means, simply, “coming.” It refers to the first coming of Jesus, the coming into the world of God the son as Jesus of Nazareth, born to Mary and Joseph.
The second word is the word “incarnation.” This word refers to the “enfleshment” of God as a real person a real human being. God became man. As John says, the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.”
Both of these words point us to the unspeakable condescending love of God toward us.
Advent reminds us that God had a plan from all eternity to come to us, to rescue us, to save us from our sins.
Incarnation reminds us that to do this, God, in the person of Jesus the Son of God, had to empty Himself, empty Himself of the prerogatives of His office as God the Son, and suffer not only the terrible agonies of the cross, but even the indignities and humilities and discomforts of life in a fallen and broken human world.
And he came as all human beings come since Adam and Eve, by growing and developing inside the womb of a mother, his mother Mary.
As the great hymn says, “He emptied Himself of all but love.”
And it is this self emptying love of God that I want us to focus on this Christmas Evening as we come to partake of communion together.
For not only do we see in this self emptying of God right into the heart of God, but we see also right into into the heart of His example for us as to how we are to be toward one another, and toward the world around us.
Listen to how the Apostle Paul puts it in Philippians chapter 2:1-7:
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant,being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross
And so, as we approach the communion table this evening, I would encourage us to have in mind two things.
First, I would have you see in the elements of communion the self emptying love of Jesus, who humbled himself and made Himself nothing; who became flesh and bore the frailties of our common life, and who learned obedience even through suffering – all of this so that he might bear our sin and free us from bondage to sin and death.
O the deep deep love of Jesus
Vast unmeasured boundless free
Rolling as a mighty ocean
in its fullness over me.
Second, I would have you see in the elements of communion the pathway of your own discipleship. The servant is not greater than the master. Just as Jesus came not to be served nut to serve, so it is to be with us.
Look around you. The people around you are wonderful and charming each in his or her own way. But each one is also a sinner. Each one sins, falls short, disappoints. Each one is or can be difficult. Yet each one is a person you are called to love and serve and esteem above yourself.
You are not better than your fellow sinner. Do not for a moment think too highly of yourselves lest you fall. Consider your brother as greater than yourself. Consider your brother’s interests as more important than your own.
Paul says, “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
Why?
Because this is the way of Christ Jesus. At no time is this more clear to us than at Christmas. And in no two words is the truth of this more clear then in “advent” and “incarnation.”
I’ll make it simple.
In the elements of communion, in the bread broken, in the drink poured out, we see the self giving and self emptying love of Jesus symbolized and expressed as clearly as it can be expressed.
As Jesus loved us, so we are to love one another, and so we are to love our neighbor. So even are we to love our enemy.
As Jesus came into our world to save sinners, so are we to go into the world in His great name for the sake both of His great glory and for the good of helpless sinners, sinners like us, sinners, compared to whom, we are no better.
We can forget that. We can forget that we were dead in our transgressions and sins. We can forget that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. We forget the great principle of the reformed biblical understanding, and that is that we were chosen by God without condition, without respect to anything good and deserving in us whatsoever.
In advent, the self emptying love of God in Christ shines forth.
In advent the call of discipleship shines forth as well.
Jesus bids us come. He bids us to humble ourselves under the leveling hand of his free and unconditional and undeserved love and mercy.
In Jesus one man is not above another; we all stand naked before him; we all stand equally needy of his gift. We all come as beggars to the trough.
Jesus bids us come, come and partake of his gift, come and partake of his way of life. He bids us come and die, die to ourselves, die to our self interests, die to our pride, and die to our inflated view of ourselves. He bids us come to walk as he walked, as servants.
At the end of Edward’s song, he will play as an instrumental, “O Come, All Ye Faithful.” Those words as they play through our minds and tug at our hearts will stand as our invitation to communion tonight.
Our table is open to all who would come to Jesus in true faith and repentance. Come, believe in Him; cling to Him by faith. Partake the benefits of his body broken for you. Partake of the benefits of his life giving death. Partake of the benefits of his offer of forgiveness and new life. Eat and drink and be glad. The time of waiting is over. The advent is here. Jesus has come. God has become man.
O come let us adore Him
O come let us adore Him
O come let us adore Him
Christ the Lord.
Joel Gillespie
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