Incarnation - Part 3

About this sermon

In this study, we have looked so far at the incarnation of Christ from two perspectives - the PHILOSOPHIC as we studied that grand prologue in John’s Gospel, then last week, the HISTORIC as we surveyed the sweeping promise of prophecy, specifically from the writings of Daniel. This week, we will look at the incarnation from a DOCTRINAL perspective. The word doctrine has been so maligned and misappropriated among the English-speaking world that it has come to carry with it an emotional stigma of something, at best, as cold, stale, and dull or, at worse, something that is divisive and hurtful. The word itself simply refers to a set of core teachings and understandings. Presuppositions or definitions that are assumed among a body of people. A.W. Tozer once said, “What comes to mind when you think of God is the single most important thing about you.” But the problem is, in a culture that is largely biblically illiterate, what comes to mind when we think of God is as varied as the people doing the thinking. For example, when I ask you to think of “God,” immediately, the Anterior Temporal Lobe of your brain brings up a body of memories that forms the construct of your understanding of the word “God.” At that point, a complex series of physiological, neurological, and psychological processes engage, producing what we call “emotions” Your emotions are entirely at the mercy of the meaning you have attached to the word “God” as a result of the information you have fed your Anterior Temporal Lobe. That, in effect, is your personal DOCTRINE. Now, I, or any other preacher, may use a litany of words where that process happens in any given sermon. But if we are all working from a different set of core definitions - the sermon is understood in 1,000 different ways. Thus, the same light that melts the wax hardens the clay. When I was a child in the 1980s - if someone said the word “God,” at least in the South, the vast majority of people accessed the same body of information and understood what the preacher meant by God. Even the Atheist, when he or she considers the concept of God, generally assumed that God referred to the Triune, Omniscient, Omnipotent being that is spoke of down at the First Baptist Church. He may not believe in that being, but he accessed the same body of information to form a meaning around the word - you see? Today - After decades of watered-down preaching and subjective theology - each person has constructed a God in their own imagination. Think of it this way, “God made man in His image, and in recent days, man has returned the favor.” We have constructed a God in our image. Thus, when someone speaks of God casting a sinner into Hell, the modern audience immediately objects and says, “Not my God.” Certainly not your God, but the God of scripture does such things. Before we may see a Revival of the Faith, we must first see a revival of DOCTRINAL understanding. When it comes to the stories of Christmas - DOCTRINE has always been of fundamental importance. --- Maximum Life is the Media Ministry of Pastor Zach Terry. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/maximumlifewithzachterry Instagram https://www.instagram.com/zachterry Website http://www.zachterry.org Twitter https://twitter.com/zachterry

Topics

• Jesus Christ