The Cross of Christmas

REFLECTION QUOTES

“The meaning of the word ‘God’ includes not only Jesus but specifically, the crucified Jesus.”

~N.T. Wright, scholar and retired bishop

“The worship of God includes the worship of Jesus, who died as a slave on the Roman cross and now sits on the highest throne as Lord of all creation.”

~G. Walter Hansen, professor and New Testament scholar on Philippians 2

“The primary barrier to displaying the beauty of Jesus in our churches comes from the way we re-insert ourselves into that sacred center that belongs to him alone. Exalting ourselves diminishes his visibility. That is why cultivating a gospel culture requires a profound, moment-by-moment ‘unselfing’ by every one of us. It is personally costly, even painful.”

~Ray Ortlund, pastor and author

“For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be.”

~John Stott (19-2011), Anglican Church leader

“Those who suppose that the doctrine of God’s grace tends to encourage moral laxity are simply showing that, in the most literal sense, they do not know what they are talking about. For love awakens love in return; and love, once awakened, desires to give pleasure.”

~J.I. Packer in his book Knowing God

“Christians never graduate from the gospel.”

~Conrad Mbewe, pastor in Lusaka, Zambia

SERMON PASSAGE

Philippians 2:3-11 (NASB)

3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.