I'd like to invite you to stand as I read God's word tonight. If you have a Bible, it's 1 Timothy 3, and I'll be looking at just three verses. 1 Timothy 3, we'll be reading verses 14 through 16. The apostle Paul, writing to Timothy, verse 14, 1 Timothy 3 says this, I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long. But in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself, listen to this, in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, which is the pillar and support of the truth. By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness. He who was revealed in the flesh was vindicated in the spirit seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. Let's pray. Again, our God and our Father, we pray that tonight as we prepare our hearts for Christmas to celebrate that greatest of all events in human history, the birth of Christ, that you would help us to think about Christ and his birth and his coming to this world with biblical minds, clear heads, grateful hearts. So we commit ourselves to you tonight, and again, we pray as we often pray that we would not only be challenged tonight, but changed, not just confronted by the truth, but conformed to the image of the one to whom the truth points, Jesus. And we ask these things in Christ's name, amen. You may be seated. Again, the text I just read, 1 Timothy 3, verses 14 through 16, just three verses, was a first century, first century, at the time of Christ, confessional hymn. It was a hymn that was sung by the earliest of believers, I mean the very earliest of believers, even the apostles themselves. And in this confessional hymn, these early Christians, first century, confessed the foundations of what they believed, what made Christianity Christian. This hymn, these verses we just read, was clearly known by the apostle Paul himself, clearly known by Timothy, to whom Paul was writing, and clearly known by all Christians at that time, 2,000 years ago. Here was an early Christian hymn. Verse 16 talks about by common confession. This was a common confession among early believing Christians. But what's so fascinating about this is the introduction to this hymn is worth noting, where he says these, points revealed in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, and taken up into glory constitutes what Paul says in verse 16a, the great mystery of godliness. The great mystery of godliness. And Paul's not talking about our godliness, he's talking about the godliness of God. The godliness of God which is great and which is a mystery. A mystery. Again, by common confession, this is what we believe. And it's not about what or how, it's about who, about a person. And who is this person? He who was revealed in the flesh. He who was vindicated by the Spirit. He who was seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world. He who was taken up into glory. It's clearly Jesus. Jesus is the great mystery of the godliness of God. Great mystery, a great mystery. As we've seen many times at this church, if you've been coming here, the Greek New Testament word appears throughout the New Testament, the word mystery, Greek word is mysterion, and the word is a technical word. It refers to things that weren't clear in the Old Testament that become clear in the New Testament. It was Augustine, Saint Augustine, who said this, quote, that which was latent in the Old Testament became patent in the New Testament. The word latent means it exists, but it's not developed. It's not manifest. It's hidden or concealed. That's what latent means. What was latent in the Old Testament became patent in the New Testament. Where patent means obvious, easily recognizable, self-evident. It was revealed. This mystery in the old becomes clear in the new. I've spoken in the past about this, but by way of reminder, it's been years. One of the interesting things about the revelation of who God is in the Old Testament is that more often than not, the writers of the Old Testament choose or are led to describe God in human terms. Theologians, trust me, they love big words. Here's one of them. They talk about God's anthropomorphisms. Anthropomorphisms. It's a big word, but it's not hard to understand. It means that the Old Testament writers described God with human, that's anthro, physical features, that's pro-morphism. And so they described God with human features. The Bible is clear that God the Father is spirit. He's invisible. He's not human. He's not like us. But yet the Old Testament describes God with human features. For instance, Exodus 7.5, I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand on Egypt. Number 6.24, may the Lord make His face to shine upon you. I say that in the benediction every Sunday. Psalm 33.6, the word of the Lord made the heavens and the breath of His mouth all their host. Psalm 34, 15, 16, the eyes of the Lord are towards the righteous. His ears are open to the cry. The face of the Lord is against evil doers. Eyes, ears, face. Psalm 89, 10, you have scattered your enemies with your mighty arm. Exodus 24, 10, and they saw the God of Israel, and under his feet there appeared to be something like a pavement of sapphire, and he cast their sins behind his back. Exodus 31, 18, two tablets of testimony, that's the Ten Commandments, the stone, were written by the finger of God throughout the Old Testament. Although God is invisible spirit, the Old Testament writers most often described God with anthropomorphisms. God with hands, feet, face, mouth, eyes, ears, arms, hands, fingers, lips, shoulders, hair, a back, and so forth. Amazing, amazing. Not only do theologians love big words, they like lots of big words. There's another one, anthropopraxisms. That refers to God in the Old Testament, the writers talking about God engaged in human activities. We see in the Old Testament, God speaks, God hears, God laughs, God sees, God sits, smells, stands, walks, watches, lifts, writes, holds, stretches, carries, I could go on and on. That's anthropopraxism. And so God is not only described as having hands, but hands that lift. Not only having feet, but feet that walk, feet that stand. Not only having a mouth, but a mouth that speaks, a mouth that laughs, eyes that see, ears that hear, arms that stretch and hold, hands that lift, fingers that write, a nose that smells, shoulders that carry, and I could go on. Here's a third $20 word, anthropopathism. Not only human physical features, not only human actions, but God is described in the Old Testament with human emotions. Joy, Isaiah 65, 19. Grief, Judges 10, 16. Anger, Deuteronomy 1, 37. Hatred even, Psalm 5, 5 and 6. Human emotions like jealousy, Regret, times God is pleased? And of course, what emotion are we most familiar with? John 3.16, for God so loved. Because God is so often described in human terms, the late Dutch scholar Hendrikus Burckhoff says, the appearance of Jesus Christ is no isolated epiphany. It's not like all of a sudden, here comes the New Testament and God becomes man, and it's so unconnected with everything that proceeded in the Old Testament. It's no isolated epiphany. It's all through the scriptures. God with human features, God in human actions, God with human emotions. A Jewish rabbi by the name of Rabbi Jacob Neusner, and by the way, he is not a Christian, he's a Jewish rabbi, says this, on the basis of a large number of these stories along these lines with anthropomorphic descriptions of God, we might well contemplate composing the story of God on earth, a kind of gospel of God, God incarnate, walking among human beings, talking with them, teaching them, acting out among them, and so forth. Again, this is a rabbi, a Jewish Old Testament scholar who says essentially the Old Testament account of God does seem to point to the idea of God becoming incarnate, God becoming man. Another Dutch reform scholar, Herman Bavnik, who is one of the past theological giants of Calvinistic theology, said it this way, if it is improper to speak about God in anthropomorphic language, the only logical alternative is not to speak about God at all. For instance, Bavnik says, without these ideas about God in the Old Testament, it's impossible to speak about God. I would add to that, I think it's impossible to even think about God without these ideas, much less to know God. God is transcendent. What do you know and what do I know about transcendence? You know what we know about transcendence? Nothing. Here's the definition of transcendence. Transcendence is existence or experience beyond the normal or physical level. That means God is transcendent, something we've never seen, never experienced, can't imagine, don't know. That's who God is. I can attempt to apply this idea of transcendence to my idea of who God is, that God is, I can say it, beyond my normal, your normal, physical, experiential realities. I can attempt to identify scriptures in the word verses that speak of God's transcendence. But because I really don't have, and you don't have, any clue about what transcendence is, the truth is I couldn't speak of, think of, or know God apart from the revelation of God in human terms. Couldn't. Couldn't. Job 11, seven through nine. God says this, can you discover the depths of God to Job? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens. What can you do? They are deeper than Sheol. What can you know? Its measure is longer the earth and broader than the seas. It's a rhetorical question. Can you discover God? Job, what's the answer? I love Isaiah 40 where the prophet Isaiah says this, verse 18, to whom will we liken to you God? And what likeness can we compare you to? And then same chapter, verse 26, God asks, repeats those questions to Job and listen to what he says. He says, to whom will you liken me? And who is my equal, says the Holy One? He says to Isaiah, lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, the one who leads forth their hosts by number. He calls them all by name. And because of the greatness of his might and the strength of a power, not one of them, not one of them is missing. And the more we know about astronomy, the more amazing that truth is. Trillions and trillions and trillions of stars and not one of them is missing. You see, in the beginning, if God were only transcendent and all we could look at and know about God was the creation, it'd be enough, but we wouldn't know him. Adam, in the beginning, would have looked at Eve and said to her, Eve, honey, we will never know who God is. You get that? But an amazing verse, Genesis 3.8 says this, and they heard the sound of the Lord God, listen to this, walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Adam and Eve weren't just left with this majestic creation, solar system, looking and saying, God, something like this. No, there were footsteps. I want you to think about that, footsteps. One of the early church fathers named Ephraim of Syria said, it was not only the patience that God exhibited that God wished to help Adam and Eve, he also wished to benefit them by the sound of feet. God endowed his silent footsteps with sound so that Adam and Eve might prepare themselves to meet God. Another church father, John Christendom, 350 AD, what are we saying? God strolls? Are we assigning feet to him? Have we no exalted conception of him? No. God does not stroll. Perish the thought. How could he who is present everywhere, filling everything with his presence, can he for whom heaven is thrown and earth as footstool be confined to a garden? What is the meaning then? To which Christendom says, he wanted to provide them with such an experience as would induce them in such a state of anguish, because they had sinned, which in fact happened. And they had such a striking experience that they tried to hide themselves from his presence. It was the thought of physically facing God, some kind of incarnate God that makes footstep sounds, that caused Adam and Eve to flee for cover. of facing a tangible God. With those footsteps, God became vivid, their sin became vivid, their accountability to God became vivid, so vivid, fear, shame, disgrace. Why? Because the sound of those feet meant beholding God. What's Christmas all about? The whole Old Testament pointed to it, and God became man. John 1.14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. So, anthropopraxism, human features, hands, face, mouth, ears, so forth. Anthropopathisms, human actions, God speaking, hearing, laughing, seeing, so forth. Anthropopathism, human emotions, joy, grief, anger. I'm gonna add a new one, because I am an amateur theologian. I also like big words, and lots of them. I don't know that anybody has ever, I've never read this, so it's all original, and I could be way off, but I don't think so. And I'm gonna say that the Old Testament also speaks of God in anthro and ponglima. Anthroepangloma. One more time. Anthroepangloma. Want to try it? All together. One time. Ready? Anthroepangloma. We can do better than that. Ready? Anthroepangloma. Epangloma is Greek for vocations or stations of life. man vocations, human vocations, human stations of life. What do I mean by that? Well, not only does the Old Testament show God with physical features, God engaged in human actions, God engaged with human emotions, but the Old Testament also describes God engaged in human vocations or stations in life. Here's a few. In the Old Testament, God is depicted as a father. In the Old Testament, God is depicted as a husband, a king, a warrior, a builder, a shepherd, a vine grower, a judge, and I could go on. Anthro epongloma, human vocations or stations of life. And what is amazing is when God became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, Christ would often depict himself in the same human vocations. For instance, Jesus would depict himself as a father. One of the terms he called the disciples was little children. How about a husband? The church, we are his what? Bride. King? Oh yeah, king of kings and lord of lords. Warrior? Revelation says when Jesus Christ returns, he'll have a sharp two-edged sword coming from his mouth, which is his word. What about a builder? To Peter he said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Shepherd? I am the good shepherd. Anthropopraxisms, human features, anthropopathism, human actions, anthropopathisms, human emotions, but also anthropogamy, human vocations. They're all there and they're identical. They're identical. True story. In the same city, a baby girl was born in a hospital and was left in the hospital by her birth mother, and we really don't know why she was left. And in that same city, there was a young couple who longed for a baby, and they did all they knew how to do to adopt one. Christmas came around and that longing couple on Christmas did what they always did. They traveled across town to visit their parents on Christmas. And when they walked into those parents' house that Christmas, to their amazement and joy, that newborn baby girl was underneath the Christmas tree. How? Well, it was a God thing. A relative of that couple actually worked in the hospital. This is years ago. Adoption wasn't like it is today. And that doctor who delivered that baby girl with that relative did all they could do and work together to make sure that baby girl was underneath that Christmas tree. And it's a true story. You wanna know how I know it's true? Because you know the baby girl. It's our organist, Judy Redeker. Great story, isn't it? Yes, in the Old Testament, God was depicted as a father, a husband, a king, a warrior, a builder, shepherd, vine grower, judge, but there is one thing that God was never depicted as, and that's a baby. A baby. And back to where I began, no wonder. 1 Timothy 3.16 says this, by common confession, great, Great is the mystery of godliness. He who is revealed in the flesh. Great mystery, great mystery. I want you to join me as we stand together and pray and then conclude this Christmas Eve service. Our God and our Father, again, we are so amazed that you would come to earth and be born of a virgin, a baby, baby. The very God who created all things would be born. The very God who controls all things would need the help of parents to survive infancy. The very God who rules all things would become vulnerable to this world, a baby. God became a baby to save sinners like us. Lord, tonight we just want to praise you and thank you for who you are and all that you've done. Melt our hardened hearts to the Christ of Christmas, to the miracle of the incarnation, to the birth of the God-man, all God, all man in a baby. We give you praise and honor and glory, amen. ♪ Here we are, here we are, here we are ♪ ♪ And we will reach the sky, we will reach the sky ♪ ♪ And we will reach the sky, we will reach the sky ♪ ♪ But we'll do it for you ♪ ♪ But we'll do it for you ♪ ♪ We'll do it for you ♪ ♪ We'll do it for you ♪ ♪ We'll do it for you ♪ ♪ For ever and ever ♪ ♪ He comes to you, Lord, as Christ is born ♪ ♪ For us, like Christ is born ♪ ♪ For us, as Christ is born ♪ ♪ For us, for us, like Christ is born ♪ He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness and wonders of His love and wonders of His love. and wonders, wonders of His love. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace. Amen. Merry Christmas. Amen.