What we celebrate at Christmas is God becoming flesh.

What would you think would be the best way to communicate with humans if you were God?

The best way for God to tell us what He wants from us, what He is offering us, how to become part of the family, the best way is to become human.

Today we will appreciate what Jesus gave up in order to save us from ourselves.

Colossians 1:15-20 (NIV)

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  ¹⁶ For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.  ¹⁷ He is before all things; and in him all things hold together.  ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.  ¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Paul is saying that Jesus is God.  He is using images and words that are foreign to us.  He is the image of the invisible God, Jesus is the God we can see, the first-born over all creation.

Paul says Jesus is the first-born over all creation.  Everything that is created, He is over.

Everything that was created was created through Him, meaning that anything that had a beginning had it’s beginning in Jesus, so Jesus then could not have had a beginning.

Being the first-born meant you had equal status with the Father.  Everything the Father had was also the first-born son’s.  Jesus then, according to Paul, is equal power, authority, prestige with God the Father, using all the fullness of God who dwells in Him.

Paul says, “All the fullness of the Godhead resides in Jesus.  There is no single attribute of God that isn’t in Jesus.  Jesus is fully God, and God is fully Jesus.  Jesus is clearly fully God.

It is amazing, and unusual, incredible that God becomes flesh, and allowed His creation to kill Him.

The baby in the manger was God.  Holy God.  Almighty God.

Verse 18: “so that in everything he might have the supremacy.”  Supremacy over us.

If we say anything in our lives is out of bounds for God, then that thing, whatever it is, that’s what we’re worshipping rather than the real God.  That thing has become supreme in our lives, rather than God.

We have to be all-in for Jesus.  There is no sitting on the fence with Jesus.  He never gave us that option.  Either He is God, or He is not.  That choice determines the rest of our lives from that point forward.  That means there is no area of our lives that is off limits to God’s shaping us.

God calls us into a life of adventure.  Every adventure story, basically, is a person who is comfortable and safe, who is called out of a safe life into an adventure of danger and trials.  Jesus’ life is the arch-type of the adventure story.

Jesus left the peace and love of God’s presence to come to earth, and He experienced everything we have, but on a deeper level because He was love and perfect and was killed in one of the worst ways to die.  He paid the penalty for us.

If we are impressed or moved by Jesus, the last thing we want is a safe life.

We want our lives to count, to help people know Jesus better and deeper, for folks to come to love Jesus too.  Ministry to people, loving people will never be safe.  But when we love folks because of Jesus, that’s the adventure.

Jesus is that we are invited into His adventure.

To be refreshed in the love of God and the presence of the Spirit.  Our mission is about peace and reconciliation.  We want others to know the peace of Christ, and we should expect that we sacrifice some or more of the comfort in our lives.

Even though following Jesus leads to us reordering our lives and relinquishing our claims on what we thought we wanted, it will also tend to lead to a life of rejoicing.

Hebrews 12:2  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the Cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Mark 10:29  And they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated God with us.

God came and gave us Himself, no greater gift than that.  Isn’t that joyous.

Christmas is the time to thank God for becoming one of us for a bit and thinking about what it means for us to have this God at the center of our lives.

Prepare your heart and minds to meet Jesus in the flesh.  God bless you.