God Engages Extravagantly
Sermon Notes
That God would engage the world (and keep engaging it today) to redeem it (while we were still His enemies) is nothingless than the most extravagant demonstration of love/Christmas imaginable.
1.Light never stops moving out.
He says, “Is it too small a thing that You should be My Servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also make You a light of the nations
So that My salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49.6)
For my eyes have seen Your salvation,
Which You have prepared for all peoples,
A LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES,
And the glory of Your people Israel (Luke 2.30-32).
2.Light never stops engaging.
There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,
who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1.9-13).
3.Light never stops pushing back the darkness.
Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life” (John 8.12).
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,
in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake.
For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light and glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4.3-6).
4.We are the light of the world and God engages the world and pushes back the darkness through us (Matthew 5.16).
We have discovered how God loves, how God invests, how God follows, and how God engages.
Will we do the same?