sunday sermon snippet 07 dec
“And most certainly, the mystery of godliness is great…” — 1 Timothy 3:15-16
This week’s posting of the Sunday Sermon Snippet comes from this past Sunday’s sermon, which, while quoting a number of other Scriptures, focused on the passage above, from the Apostle Paul.
This is the first sermon in our 2025 Christmas series, and the title for both the series and the sermon were the same: “What do you want for Christmas?”
My aim in this sermon was two-fold. First, to set up what we’ll be exploring over the course of December. Second, to explain the means by which God gives us so many gifts; namely, the mystery of the incarnation. See the sermon snippet below where I explore one aspect of that singular event,
And if you’d like to check out the whole sermon, just click here.
The Mystery of the Incarnation
So let’s go to that most famous of Christmas texts — 1 Timothy. Didn’t know there was a Christmas text in this letter from Paul? Well, there is, and it’s nestled into a section where Paul is talking to his protege about what it means to be a fully devoted follower of The Messiah. You see, he wants Timothy — and all of us reading along with, because he knew we’d all be reading along — he wants us to pursue piety. To which you may say, “Say what? What’s that word mean?” Well, piety is an old-fashioned word that means devoutness, holiness, and godliness in the disciple of Jesus. We are to pursue piety, to be pious. But just what is the source of our piety?
Aaahhhh….well, here’s where our Pauline Christmas text comes in. Look at 1 Timothy 3:14-16:
“I am writing these things to you now..so…if I am delayed, you will know how people must conduct themselves in the household of God. This is the church of the living God, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth. Without question, this is the great mystery of godliness:
He was revealed in a human body
and vindicated by the Spirit.
He was seen by angels
and announced to the nations.
He was believed in throughout the world
and taken to heaven in glory.”
I love Paul’s confidence here as he describes the source of Christian piety to his young friend and disciple Timothy, setting an example for us for how we might do the same with those we are discipling (you are discipling someone, yes?).
First, the source of our piety is — without question! — a great mystery of godliness. What follows is great, and it comes to us in waves of wonders to behold. Just what is the great mystery of godliness that is the source of our devoutness, holiness, godliness, and thus, fulness of satisfaction?
“He…”
He, who? He Jesus, that’s who. The first aspect of this mystery of godliness is the great mystery of the incarnation. Here is the great wonder and heart of Christmas — “God has come, God has come, God has come to dwell with us.” Over and above anything else — all our traditions and present-swapping and cookie-making-and-devouring and eggnog chugging and song-singing is the universe-altering claim of Christianity that God himself has come to be with us through the incarnation of Jesus, Son of God; that the Messiah took on flesh inside the flesh of a young virgin named Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit coming over her; that God so loves you he wanted to give himself to you — over and above (or maybe its under and below) this is the foundation of Christmas.
I love how one author delights in this: “How could the eternal Word of the eternal Father take on limits? How can infinitude and finitude marry? The doctrine of the Incarnation proclaims frankly and without embarrassment the most stupendous miracle that can be imagined.”
And while this is stupendous, and a mystery, it is the joy of those who follow Jesus to ponder such miracles, to wrestle with how the Son of God could also be the son of Mary, to marvel that our Savior was and is one person, but that he is a person with two natures — one human, and one divine.
And this Messiah, “he was vindicated by the Spirit.” The word in the original….
If you’d like to check out the whole sermon, just click here.
