Arius, an influential preacher in the bustling Egyptian city of Alexandria, had trouble understanding Christ. He had learned about Christ from Lucian the presbyter of Antioch, the Apostle Paul’s hometown. Arius struggled with the incarnation, Christ coming to earth. Would God truly descend and become a man? Is that even possible? Wouldn’t the deity of God totally overwhelm a man? Wouldn’t just the flesh of humanity prone to weakness and temptation destroy the perfection of God? Was Jesus just a man? Was he just God? Was he something else?
Arius wrestled with this until he came up with a solution, Jesus was the first creation before all creations. He wasn’t quite God, he wasn’t quite man he was somewhere in between. Arius wrote a lot of hymns and he celebrates this in a hymn which proclaims,
“The uncreated God has made the Son, a beginning of things created, and by adoption has God made the Son, Into an advancement of himself. Yet the Son’s substance is, removed from the substance of the Father: the Son is not equal to the Father, Nor does he share the same substance. God is the all-wise Father, and the Son is the teacher of his mysteries.”[i]
This was understandable to Arius. God was infinite and eternal, Jesus was God’s first creation and there was a time when Christ was not. Jesus was perfect – almost like an archangel. Being a little lower than God he could talk with us better, being higher than us he could be in the presence of God more readily. This same doctrine is prevalent today, thriving today in some churches. There still is a remnant of the Arian Church with a few branches here in America, The Jehovah’s Witness as well are truly Arian.
In 325 AD over 300 bishops from all over the known world gathered to fight against this heresy. Less than three hundred years after Christ a major attack comes to the church and it centers on Christ himself. Nicene Council, formulated the Nicene Creed which defined the orthodox view of Christ that stands to this day.
What Arius tried to do was preserve the integrity of God the Father. What he ended up doing was diminishing Christ’s deity and in the process trampled on Christ’s humanity as well. Arianism was probably the greatest threat that the church ever met. No heresy was more widespread and challenged the core of our faith greater than did Arius’ teaching.
Three men rose to prominence in the defense of orthodoxy against Arius. They’re known collectively as the Cappodocian Fathers. Individually Basil The Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus they continued the work of Athanasius an architect of the Nicene Creed.
For some, finding Jesus is a difficult task.
- This is a quest from history, the first were the Gnostics they essentially believed in docetism – Jesus as hologram.
- Believe it or not this is the conclusion of many modern “Neo-Orthodox” thinkers who still influence preachers today. They say that the history of the gospel matters little. What matters is the story and how we respond to it today.
- Understanding Jesus, believing that God stepped down into history, donned humanity is mind boggling. Arius just couldn’t understand it, so he settled for an understandable explanation.
- The problem is that when we make God that understandable, we end up making a God in our own image and scripture calls that idolatry.
- It seems that those who are scientifically minded and analytical have a harder time just accepting the mystery that is inherent in our faith. While those who are more artistic can embrace and celebrate faith being comfortable with the loose ends.
There are three challenges that are common to a faithful understanding of Jesus. Challenges to his: historicity, humanity, and deity.
Christmas guides us towards orthodox Christology, testifying to Christ’s…
- It proclaims to us that Christ descended from on high and became human. Just as the angels did in Luke 2:8-20.
- Humanity – The babe lying in strips of cloth, the Child of mary.
- Deity – “A Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”
- Christmas has it all, if only we’ll look. The little town of Bethlehem a real place, a real time, a real man, a real God, that made a real difference. The next two weeks we will examine both the full humanity and deity of Christ and why it matters that we get it right.
Christmas celebrates the Jesus of history who is the Jesus of faith.
- Luke celebrates the history in chapter two where he places Christ right in the context of human history. Notice the proclamation of the angels when they say, “Born this day in the City of David.”
- What day was it? Luke wants us to know writing this as history he gives us great details about this event. Look at the historical facts we have here in Luke 2:1-5. We see the name of the Emperor, the name of the governor, the names of the regional rulers, the names of the high priests. Luke wants us to know this really happened!
- The scriptures are reliable and we have seen them stand the test of time and historical evidence. Outside sources like historians Josephus and Philo along with advances in archaeology continually show the veracity of the scriptural account.
- Why does Luke dedicate a good part of chapter to a genealogy? Because the history of Jesus existence was real! (Luke 3:23-38)
- History has always mattered to our faith. It is our historical past that gives hope for our actual future. Our faith is built on the history of it! The fact that the “Little Town Of Bethlehem” shown forth the light of Christ when Quirinius was governor of Syria gives us hope! Why? Micah 5:2 tells us to watch the little town of Bethlehem for the deliverance of God’s people.
- It is the actual historical event of God becoming man that is necessary for our souls and unbelievable to our minds. It is this historical event that changes us which, Arius and so many other have challenged!
Why we need Christmas, a historical example…
- Arius is defeated, the Nicene Council ruled Arius’ Christology as heretical. They set the church in motion against him, although there would be more problems from his teaching and more in the future from others. Orthodoxy had won the day.
- When Arius is defeated the orthodox leadership seeks to root out all bishops and priests who taught Arianism. One seat is particularly important and that’s Constantinople, the chief seat today of the Greek Orthodox Church. This seat had fallen to Arianism, through combined efforts of Arian bishops and an emperor hostile to orthodoxy. This changed when Theodosius I rose to power and installed one of the Cappodocian Fathers as bishop over the See of Constantinople. Gregory of Nazianzus came to power and one of his first orders of business I believe he used to guard the orthodoxy of the church was to establish the celebration of Christmas as a holiday.
- Whenever the Christ of history meets someone today a whole new Incarnational experience happens and Christ comes to be with us. This was the promise of the angels in their proclamation when they said, “Born this day…a Savior, who is the Messiah the Lord.” (Luke 2:11)
[i] From Mark Noll’s Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity
pp53.
Next week the Christmas Lights series will be finished by our Youth and Children’s Minister Jared Graves and I will not be posting any notes.
The light of love is the brightest light of the Christmas season. Here in Luke 15 we see three distinct and beautiful characteristics of God’s love.
1. God’s Love Is Reckless (Luke 15:1-7)
- Shepherd who leaves his sheep, not good shepherding advice. 99 in the pen is better than one in the field. We see here that God’s love is reckless, knowing no rational thought when it comes to saving his children. This is illustrated most clearly in Matthew 21:33-41, where the father sends his son to the most violent people. The wicked tenants do to the son what they had done to the previous servants – they killed him. This is the love of God – reckless and madly in love with us.
- We are challenged to be as reckless in our love in Philippians 2:5-8 – Jesus abandoned all he had in heaven recklessly coming to save us.
2. God’s Love Is Complete (Luke 15:8-10)
- Notice the coin does nothing to be found…the onus is on God.
- We place more emphasis on repentance than grace – as though we saved ourselves. Christ descended to earth, was crucified and defeated death. He has done the work; we only need to accept it.
- God has employed believers in his search and rescue operation, we must help. We will not be able to ask God, “Why are there so many who are lost? Why did you let this happen?” He will ask us, “Where were you for them? Why did you let this happen?”
- The lost can not find God alone this is shown very clearly by the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8). He had searched for God his life, but when Philip asked him on the desert road, “Do you understand?” His reply was, “How can I understand if no one explains it to me?”
- Romans 10:14 asks, “How are they to call on one in whom they have not believe? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?” (NASB – “a preacher”) They don’t believe because they simply pick up a Bible, heaven forbid they find genocide in Joshua! They believe because of the messenger.
- God understood this, he did not wait for us to figure it out and then to come to him. Rather Romans 5:8 tells us that, “But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”
3. God’s Love Is Amazing (Luke 15:11-24)
- Notice in each parable the value of what is lost increases. From 1 of 100 sheep to 1 of 10 coins now to 1 of 2 sons.
- Also notice, that in all parables what is lost is essentially dead – at least to the owner. The sheep is no good, has no hope without supervision and care. The coin is dead stuck in a floorboard. The son is good as dead, living a life of apostasy and starvation.
- Notice also the responsibility. We have to the first two parables to ensure that we understand God is responsible for the saving – not us. The son after all is rehearsing a speech, not of repentance but a sales pitch to be restored as a slave.
- See finally what brings about the saving for the son is his realization that he’s dead. He can not be resurrected (so he thinks) as a son – he must be a slave.
- The shepherd however resurrects the sheep to the fold and a celebration ensues. The coin to the purse and a celebration ensues. The son to the father and a celebration ensues.
- It is the resurrection power of God, not our own work, not even our sorry speech that merits life and salvation. It is the love of God
4. Can we accept it?
- The parables are the same, something is lost, someone finds and then they party. Except for the lost son. This parable has a bookend in it.
- Notice what starts this parable, the Pharisees grumbling that he eats with sinners. Finally in the last parable the Pharisees show up as a character in Jesus’ story.
- The elder son comes in, we might as well call him, “Common Sense.” Because he says what we think and acts the way we feel.
- The elder brother is offended at the father’s generosity and feels that the price of righteousness is too high. He complains he’s received no fatted calf. He complains that his brother has been restored.
- What he misses is that his brother was dead and now is alive!
- The father reveals it’s not a debt cancellation, but a funeral cancellation that has caused this party. There’s no injustice – it’s a miracle.
- What is the party celebrating? Not the brother’s sob speech but the resurrection power of the father!
- The elder son forgot that he was dead too! He also was sustained by the father’s generosity. Lamentations 3:22…
I am deeply indebted to Robert Farrar Capon’s commentary on this parable which gave me a fresh and new understanding of this very familiar parable. You can view his work Kingdom, Grace and Judgment on Amazon by clicking here.
The light of joy is needed in this difficult week. We’ve lost several friends of the church while others are struggling in the hospital. I wrestled with writing a sermon on joy in the midst of these struggles. How do you apply 1 Thessalonians 5:16 which says, “Rejoice always!” Or “Be joyful always!”?
1. Defining Joy
- What is joy? Webster’s definition, “the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune.” The problem is that I don’t always have well-being, I’m not always successful and my fortune is not always good.
- A survey of joy in scripture gives us a diverse picture, in some locations it seems to indicate happiness while others hint at something deeper. As I refined my search I came across six verses that have this phrase, “complete joy” or “joy complete.” Five of those six show up in John’s writings and three of those five show up right before Jesus is to be crucified.
- How do you have joy, much less complete joy right before a crucifixion? I wondered that and I’ve wrestled with that and I’ve prayed through that and I want to share what I think it is that gives us true, complete, lasting, eternal joy.
- The truth is that joy is learned, joy matures. I’m more joyful now than I was a year ago, I’m more joyful now than I was three years ago. Things have added to my joy – my family, my wife, my children. But it seems that the gifts I’ve given leave me with a more lasting joy than do the gifts I’ve received.
- As children we derived much joy from receiving, but it was a lesson – it should have taught us about the joy of giving. The problem is that too many people get stuck in the receiving. Incomplete joy relies on circumstances and collections. We live with a broken joy.
2. Complete Joy – Found Only In Christ
- There’s a progression in the Joy Complete passages in John.
- We learn in John 15:9-13 that as we love one another our joy is complete.
- We learn in John 16:20-24 that as we seek God’s blessing through Christ our joy is complete.
- We see what the blessings are for in John 17:13-18 which teaches that as we go into the world – loving the world Christ’s joy is completed in us.
- Viewed in their totality we see that the ability to give – is joy. We can be joyful so long as we have the ability to give.
- We all have something to give, we have a spring of eternal life welling up inside of us! We have every reason to be joyful, because we have something to give to everyone who is thirsty, everyone who is searching, everyone who is unloved, if you draw breath you can use it to bless.
- Acts 20:35 is right when it quotes Jesus as saying, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Furthermore, it’s the quality of our giving that determines the quality of our joy.
- Sustained joy. Joy is not like a battery that it can be stored up, it’s a well, a deep well and the deeper we dig, the closer we get to the source, the more joy we have. The more we give the better we get at giving.
One last verse for those of you who are broken and can’t seem to find joy, 2 Corinthians 4:8-18. When we’re broken we have the most to be joyful for – Christ in us.
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For about 45 years between 1945 and 1991 the world experienced great peace. WWII had ended and global military conflict was at a lull. There were a few regional outbreaks of violence and military conquest, but nothing comparable to WWII. Yet, it’s this period of time that we call the Cold War.
The absence of war is nice, but it’s not our true standard of peace. Then anything that wasn’t blatantly violent could be considered peaceable. Absence of strife is also incomplete, how often have you not had a fight with your spouse but had a cold war brewing in your heart? The Jewish idea of peace involved so much more than not-fighting. It incorporated a harmony of relationships, wholeness, fulfillment, blessing, heavenly blessing and eventually looked to the eschatological horizon for true lasting, eternal peace. They had a word for this peace it was shalom and it meant blessing, wholeness, peace – it was their greeting, it was a blessing.
This true shalom, or true peace is manifested in three ways…
1. Peace Without
- Peace without is a good thing – it means we’re not fighting, at least publicly. This peace without Paul describes in Ephesians 2:11-14.
- Today there are many warring factions in the world, but how is this peace achieved:
- Is it common interests and values? “McDonald’s sells burgers in around 120 countries and is a more recognized brand than Coca-Cola. The Economist magazine uses what it calls the Big Mac index – the price of the burger around the globe – to see if currencies are at their “correct” exchange rate. Columnist Thomas Friedman has slyly suggested that no two countries with McDonald’s franchises have gone to war with each other.” -Nichols Fox, “Feeding frenzy,” The Washington Post, January 28, 2001, BW3.
- Is it simply a glossing over of the offenses that bring peace? Marriage counselors and divorce lawyers nationwide say more distressed couples are putting off divorce because the cost of splitting up is prohibitive in a time of stagnant salaries, plummeting home values and rising unemployment. “Anything of this magnitude that’s going to affect millions of people does not bode well for all sorts of families,” she said. “It could keep unhappy couples together.” That’s what happened to a client of Robi S. Ludwig, a psychotherapist in New York. “I had a woman say to me: ‘My God, I can’t stand my husband. Every day I just want to leave him, but I can’t afford it,’” said Ludwig, co-author of “Till Death Do Us Part,” an examination of severely dysfunctional marriages. “So they are deciding to stay together.” (This quote is from MSNBC and is available by clicking here.)
- I think Jesus had a little bit more in mind when he said in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” This sounds a little bit deeper than the Big Mac gospel or the entrapment of a financially strapped couple. Peace without is incomplete unless it is accompanied by something deeper.
2. Peace Within
- Peace without is a sign that there is peace within. Peace without can only last for a limited time unless peace within is there to support it.
- Let’s take a test…How at peace are you this holiday season? How many drivers have you wanted to drop an atomic bomb on during your holiday driving? How many people have you silently cursed under your breath? How often do you bottle all this up until the clerk asks you paper or plastic and you say, “No I will not put up with your parents or go shopping for you anymore…only to realize who you’re talking to?”
- You may not be fighting but internally you are at war with yourself, with others, with the world. Jesus’ standard of peace was pretty high – Matthew 5:21-22.
- Paul goes on in Ephesians 2:15-16 to describe the internal work happening: abolished the law, created a new humanity, and put to death hostility. This is a new work inside of us that takes place to bring about peace.
- Maybe it’s not hatred that’s crowded out peace – maybe it’s busy-ness, the busy-ness that we wear as a badge of significance that keeps us from being at peace inside. We can not be at peace when are souls are crowded out and consumed by too many demands. We can not be at peace so long as we strive to be at peace with only ourselves, because there’s more to this world than us.
3. Peace With God
- Notice that as we become at peace within ourselves we are becoming at peace with God, Ephesians 2:17-22. This works to the glory of God, God desires peace. God finds his home in hearts of peace! This is the deep well and starting place of all peace.
- Zechariah said of John the Baptist, “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Luke 1:78-79.
- God desires us to know and expand peace. This is why Jesus tells us in the beatitudes that peacemakers are known as children of God. (Matthew 5:9)
- War, violence, hate and strife is darkness – peace is the light we need. But we are so far from that in our busy worlds which lack peace. Yet we desperately crave peace, just look at the people in the mall shelling out $10 for a shiatsu chair massage or 5 minute oxygen bar stint.
- True peace costs more than $10 dollars, true peace required the life of Christ. He lived as a man of peace, went peacefully to his death and will bring about eternal peace on the last day.
- This is the season of peace but we’ve forgotten that, I think this is no more clearly illustrated than in the death of the Walmart employee in Long Island. [Note: The article I closed with was written by Pat McDonough and is available on Newsday's website by clicking here.]
