Transcript
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Welcome to Gospel and life. Christianity isn't just a spiritual practice or set of moral teachings. At its heart, it's the person of Jesus actively pursuing us. In today's teaching, Tim Keller unpacks how Jesus actively seeks us, reveals truth to us, and calls us to himself.
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The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 1, verses 20 to 23. But after Joseph had considered, this angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. And all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet. The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son. And they will give. They will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. This is God's word. If there's one word that sums up Christmas, it comes up all the time in the scripture readings and in the carols, at all the services. It's the word Emmanuel. Emmanuel. It means God with us. And it's only got, in English, eight letters. And yet, I tell you, it is. It is heavier than the heavens and the earth. I would like to open it up for a moment this morning, and I would propose to you that in that one word, Emmanuel, you have the most offensive and the most comforting, the most repulsive and the most attractive message that the world has ever heard. It's the most repulsive and the most attractive. It's the most repulsive because it says Jesus Christ is God. And it's the most attractive because it says Jesus Christ is God with us. Look, first of all, it tells us that Jesus Christ is God. It's ironic that of all the Christian holidays, this is the one that's most broadly accepted and so popular. It's ironic because of all the Christian holidays, this particular holiday celebrates the one Christian doctrine which is the most offensive, the most in your face, and seemingly, I said seemingly, the most exclusive. You see, Easter says our founder, Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. What's offensive about that? That's great. Great. He rose from the dead. He triumphed over death. Even Lent in Good Friday says that our founder, Jesus Christ died for our sins. And even that. What's offensive about that? Sacrifice is great. To die for your friends. It's noble. But Christmas, at Christmas, we say our founder Jesus Christ is not just a human teacher, the way the Western scientific skeptics would say, and not just a Manifestation of divine principle, a manifestation of divine consciousness. Like the Eastern philosophers and mystics would say. Christmas tells us that Jesus Christ is the creator God himself, the transcendent God himself, who uniquely, once and for all became a human being. This sets Christianity utterly apart from everyone else. This sets Christianity on a collision course with what every other philosophy or religion says about the nature of God. Because over here in the west, you have both Jews and Muslims that say God could never become human. But then over in the east, you've got the Hindus and the Buddhists that are saying God continually becomes human. And Christianity won't have anything to do with either. Because Christianity says that what happened at Christmas was that the transcendent creator God once and for all took upon himself human nature. See, Eastern religion believes that God is constantly manifesting, is constantly manifest in human beings. Krishna is constantly being reborn. But the doctrine of reincarnation is not at all the doctrine of incarnation, which is what Christmas is, is about in which Christ, Christians believe. And the Bible proclaims that Christianity, that Jesus Christ became once and for all human, who was the transcendent creator God. Now, that's very offensive to people. And that brings about what Christians, I guess you could call only wayness. You know, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me, he says in John 14. That's there. It is only wayness, let's call it. And many people are so offended and so irritated by it, and they say I could accept classic Christianity. I love everything about classic Christianity except for that only wayness that I can't stand. It's too exclusive, they say. Now let's say a couple things about that quickly. First of all, the only wayness of Jesus Christ, the only wayness of Christianity is not an intolerant attitude. Ah, people say that's the problem. If only Christians could get rid of that intolerance, if they could only get rid of that exclusive attitude, then I could handle it a lot better. But don't you see? The only wayness of Christianity is not an attitude. It's not a psychological thing. It's intrinsic to. It's part and parcel of what Christmas actually proclaims. Put it this way, it has nothing to do with attitude. If you want to get rid of the only wayness of Christianity, you can't ask Christians just sort of loosen up their attitude. You have to destroy Christmas. You have to take it away forever. Imagine there's a man who's very rich and before he dies he buries an incredible treasure. And he says it's somewhere in Wyoming, Montana or Ohio. And then he dies. And of course a lot of people want to find it, but it's hopeless. Who in the world could ever find a treasure buried somewhere in, in such a vast track? Then all of a sudden, a small group of people come up and they publicly proclaim that they have found from the hand of the man who had buried the treasure, the treasure map. The map that tells right where it is. And they say, we have the map. Now, how would the discussion go? On the one hand, there'd be some people who say they have the map and therefore they know the way to the treasure. And on the other hand there'd be people who say they don't have the map and therefore they don't have the way to the treasure. But there would be nobody who would rationally say what gives you the right to think you have the map? Because you see, it's not a matter of tolerance. It's a matter of whether that's the map or not. Nobody would say what gives you the right? How dare anyone think that they know the way to the treasure. That's silly. And in the same way, when Jesus says I'm the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the father but through me. You can't say, why don't you just loosen up Jesus? Why don't you just loosen up Christians? Why don't you just have a more tolerant attitude? It's not an issue of tolerance. Is he the map? We have the only religion, the only founder of any religion who claims to be God. Is he the map or not? Either he is and he's the way, because no other founder of any other religion claimed to be such a personage. Or he's not the map and he's not away. But how dare anybody say, how dare you even think that you would have the right to have the map? Don't you see? And therefore the only way to get rid of the only wayness of Christianity is to destroy Christmas. Because that's the premise on which it's based.