Glory
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The document discusses the concept of glory through various biblical passages and quotes. It begins with definitions of Yiddish and Seinfeld-related terms. The bulk of the document then focuses on quotes and summaries related to the glory of God/Jesus as seen at Jesus' birth, in his self-awareness, works, and sacrifice on the cross. It explores how God uses humble things to display his glory.
![[re]gifted
Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t
Trade for Anything](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/glory-141206172527-conversion-gate01/85/Glory-1-320.jpg)
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Glory
- 1. [re]gifted Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 2. Yiddish Glossary • A mensch is an upright man. • Meshugge is crazy • Schlep is a verb that means to haul something around. • A pisher is a nobody or an inexperienced person. • A nudnik is a pain in the neck person.
- 3. Seinfeld Glossary • Close-talker • Low-talker • High-talker • Yada…yada…yada • Double-dipper • Man-hands • In the vault • Jimmy Legs
- 4. [re]gifted Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 5. Series Outline December 7: Glory: Luke 2:13-17 December 14: Wonder: Luke 2:18-21 December 21: Hope: Luke 2:22-38 December 24: Joy: Luke 2:1-12 Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 6. Luke 2 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 7. Luke 2 15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 8. Luke 2 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 9. John 1 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 10. Jesus’ Self-awareness •John 8:23: “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.” •John 8:58: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 11. Hebrews 1:3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 12. Max Lucado on Jesus’ Birth “She touches the face of the infant-God. How long was your journey!” Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 13. Leon Morris “As a class shepherds had a bad reputation…More regrettable was their habit of confusing ‘mine’ with ‘thine’ as they moved about the country. Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 14. Leon Morris They were considered unreliable and were not allowed to give testimony in the law courts.” Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 15. 1 Corinthians 1 (NLT) 26Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 16. 1 Corinthians 1 (NLT) 27Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 17. 1 Corinthians 1 (NLT) 28God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. 29As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God. Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 18. Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 19. C. S. Lewis on Glory “A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.” Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 20. Max Lucado on Glory “God will use whatever He wants to display His glory. Heavens and stars. History and nations. People and problems.” Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 21. Philippians 2 (NLT) 6Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 22. John 17:5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 23. Euripides “Hippolytus” Of all those of them who respect my power, I, respect them, also. But those of them who treat me with disrespect, them, I crush and destroy! It’s part of being a god. We, gods, all of us, enjoy being revered by the mortals. (Aphrodite) Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 24. [re]gifted Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 25. John 17:22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 26. 2 Corinthians 3:18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 27. [re]gifted Recycled Gifts You Wouldn’t Trade for Anything
- 29. Galatians 6:14 (RSV) But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Editor's Notes
- I need to begin this sermon series with a real confession. I’m a Seinfeld fan. I know that the show pushes the envelope, but it cracks me up. Some of you are scratching your head right now thinking, I’ve watched that show and I just don’t get it. I understand that. But for me, growing up in the New York City area in a community that was 40% Jewish, I get all the jokes. Jewish humor should come with a Yiddish glossary. Perhaps you haven’t heard of Yiddish. It is a language that was spoken by Jews in Germany. It is written using the Hebrew Alphabet, but is actually grammatically more like German than Hebrew. As Jewish people fled Germany during the Holocaust, they brought the Yiddish language to places like America, especially the New York City region. Let me give a sample of some words you may have heard:
- A mensch is an upright man. Meshugge is crazy Schlep is a verb that means to haul something around. A pisher is a nobody or an inexperienced person. A nudnik is a pain in the neck person. All of these words and dozens of others have crept into the English language. They are part of Jerry Seinfeld’s everyday speech, and that of most urban New Yorkers. The genius of Seinfeld was not the Yiddish terms used by the characters. The real genius was the terms that creator Larry David made up.
- Someone who violates your personal space is called a “close-talker.” Someone you can barely hear is a low-talker and someone with a man with an alto voice is a high-talker. Instead of shortening a boring list with et cetera, we now say yada…yada…yada… a Seinfeldism. Have you ever told a friend not to double dip their chips? Double-dipper originated on Seinfeld. A dainty woman with disproportionately large hands has “man-hands.” We used to promise to keep a secret. But now, thanks to Kramer on Seinfeld, “It’s in the vault.” However, of all the Seinfeldisms, this one is the most often used and the inspirations of this sermon series.
- Video Clip REGIFTER
- As you can see, calling someone a “re-gifter” is not a compliment. A “re-gifter” is someone who recycles gifts they’ve received from someone else. If pressed, they may admit to their gift being “pre-owned” but it is what it is…USED! As I was pondering a Christmas series for this December, something crazy struck me. Jesus is a re-gifter. During this Christmas season we are going to look at four gifts that Jesus gives us… the gift of Glory, the gift of Wonder, the gift of Hope and the gift of Joy. But they are actually his own gifts. Jesus shares with us His Glory, His Wonder, His Hope and His Joy. The very gifts which the Father gave to His Son, Jesus gives those gifts to us. They are re-gifts, but they are not just that. They are recycled gifts you wouldn’t trade for anything. This morning we are going to look at Jesus re-gift of Glory. This series is set up with a flashback on Christmas. We are going to start in Luke 12:13, go through the rest of the chapter over the next few weeks, but then, on Christmas Eve, we are going to go back and focus on the first 12 verses. Let’s turn together to verses 13-17 of Luke 2:
- 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
- 15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.
- 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. Our text begins immediately following Jesus’ birth. We begin with the heralding of that birth… the angelic announcement to the shepherds. However, this is not the beginning of the story, nor are the events described in the verses and chapter preceding. The story begins in Heaven long before Bethlehem’s manger became a crib. John’s gospel begins at the real beginning.
- . In John 1:2-3 we read: 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. This passage makes it clear that God’s Son was intimately involved in the work of Creation. We tend to think of the Father as Creating and the Son and Spirit waiting around for the New Testament to start. However, we see that God’s Son was a partner in the work of Creation. Even the Spirit is involved, hovering over the waters of creation in Genesis 1:2. Jesus was self-aware concerning His pre-existence.
- . In John 8:23 he Jesus says to His Jewish detractors: “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. And later in the same chapter he makes a remarkable assertion, “Before Abraham was, I am.” Although Jesus was born 2000 years after Abraham, he clearly asserts to have preceded Abraham. Not only was God’s Son active in Creation and aware of His pre-existence. We also see that He enjoyed a position of great glory in Heaven.
- The author of Hebrews gives us this description of God’s Son in Hebrews 1:3: He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. As we consider these verses and a number of others, it becomes crystal clear, as God’s Son wraps Himself in human flesh, he walks away from the privileged position of Heaven’s Prince. We don’t often think about this. We sing about it and we read about it, but we rarely ponder the true majesty and mystery of this moment.
- . Nobody captures this moment better than Max Lucado in the book, when God came near: Majesty in the midst of the mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager in the presence of a carpenter. She touches the face of the infant-God. How long was your journey! This baby overlooked the universe. These rags keeping him warm were the robes of eternity. His golden throne room had been abandoned in favor of a dirty sheep pen. And worshipping angels had been replaced with kind but bewildered shepherds. To use our modern urban slang, Jesus was slumming it. The glorious appearance of the angels give a glimpse of the greater glory God’s Son exuded. However, these angels stand in stark contrast to the shepherds. You see, the shepherds were actually a big part of that surrendered glory. When I think of shepherds I think of diligent men who were hard-working by day and courageous defenders of their flocks by night, enjoying hours of tranquility punctuated by brief seasons of terror as the predators sought their prey. However, as is so often the case, our pre-conceived notions prove inaccurate. In truth we find that these ancient shepherds were a scurrilous bunch.
- Listen to this description by commentator Leon Morris: “As a class shepherds had a bad reputation…More regrettable was their habit of confusing ‘mine’ with ‘thine’ as they moved about the country.
- They were considered unreliable and were not allowed to give testimony in the law courts.” This provides an interesting backdrop to our manger scene. Mary is vulnerable. The baby is seemingly defenseless. Joseph is outnumbered. As the shepherds enter the stable nearby the inn with no vacancies, Joseph and Mary must have had a pit in their stomachs. But this was just another woven strand in God’s tapestry of redemption. The shepherds were now God’s messengers. The words of the true and living God were being communicated by unreliable witnesses. Think about how little God’s strategy has changed in the past 2000 years. He still chooses to use the untrustworthy and unreliable in order to bear testimony to him.
- The Apostle Paul said it this way: 26Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you.
- 27Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.
- 28God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. 29As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God. It’s an odd strategy to use the flawed in order to communicate flawless truths. Yet God makes his reason clear. He chooses the flawed because they are not as crippled with pride. Nothing obscures the good news of God more than unrestrained ego. There is a lesson we can learn from astronomy.
- The sun is 400 times larger than the moon. So how is it that something as comparatively small as the moon can eclipse our view of the sun? There is an amazing God-designed reason. The sun is 400 times further away from earth than the moon! For that reason, they can appear the same size. The moon can obscure our view of the sun. Our ego is like that. We are infinitesimally smaller than God. But our nearness to one another enables us to hinder one another from seeing God. Our ego casts a large shadow. And that is why so many of the most learned refuse to acknowledge the existence and glory of God.
- C.S. Lewis said it so well: “A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.” So God chooses to use small and unimpressive things that lack delusions of grandeur. This odd strategy started with the Father’s choice of the shepherds as heralds. They were outcasts with no glory of their own. It continues with Jesus’ choice of followers… the defective, the immoral, the unclean and the unsophisticated. He too chose that lacking earthly glory to bear the glorious message of the kingdom of God. And it culminates in God’s choice of you and me as bearers of Christ’s gospel…. The poor in spirit entrusted with the treasures of God’s Word.
- I love how Max Lucado expresses this: “God will use whatever He wants to display His glory. Heavens and stars. History and nations. People and problems.” Nowhere do we see this more clearly than in the circumstances leading up to Jesus’ birth. A Roman census brings Joseph and Mary into the city of King David… the prophesied place of the Messiah’s birth. A conjunction of stars come together to lead wise men from the east on their westward trek to worship the newborn king. A paranoid King Herod expands the Temple from which the babe will be dedicated and the grown Jesus will later teach and preach. And in his attempt to snuff out that life, by slaughtering the innocents, Herod fulfills the prophecy of Rachel weeping for her children. The birth of Jesus is a lesson on God’s sovereignty. Nothing throws God’s redemptive plan off track. Evil men cannot derail God’s purposes. But it is also a lesson on God’s restraint. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the Son of God chose not to exercise the full privilege of His deity and power. I am not saying that Jesus surrendered any aspect of His divinity. But he chose to accept, for a brief time, certain limitations. The omnipresent and eternal Son of God chose to limit himself, being born as an infant, thereby assuming a place in time and space. The Creator became a part of His own creation. The omniscient, or “all-knowing” Son of God chose not to know the exact moment of His return. It’s not that he couldn’t know it… he just chose not to. The ominipotent one chose to rely upon a young Jewish girl for nourishment and a young Jewish man for protection.
- Paul said it this way to the Philippians: 6Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. (Philippians 2 NLT) One of those privileges that he gave up was His glory. The Son of God, worshipped by legions of angels, was now marginalized, trivialized, traumatized and brutalized. Near the end of His earthly journey from the glory of heaven to the gory sufferings of the cross, Jesus prayed to His Father:
- And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. (John 17:5) Wearied by disrespect and dreading the degradation of Calvary, Jesus longed to return to His glorious place at the Father’s right hand.
- In many religious myths, this is a familiar tale, like Euripides story of Hippolytus, where the goddess Aphrodite says to the King of Athens: of all those of them who respect my power, I, respect them, also. But those of them who treat me with disrespect, them, I crush and destroy! It’s part of being a god. We, gods, all of us, enjoy being revered by the mortals. But herein lies the grand difference between the myths of man and the mysteries of God’s good news. Jesus doesn’t simply visit earth, take on human form and then return to heaven and rain brimstone upon the earth. In between the mockery and the ascension lies the cross. No god of myth and legend ever dies for those who spit upon him.
- Jesus doesn’t just empty himself of his glory and privilege. He empties Himself of life itself. He gives that which no one was mighty enough to take… His spirit. He commits His spirit to God and with the final word “tetelestai” he says, it is finished… the debt is paid. Redemption is secured. Three days later, at the tomb of Jesus, the story of Bethlehem comes full circle. The angels are back. The blinding light of God’s glory radiates once more. Mary cannot recognize her Lord, for He possesses a measure of glory she had never seen. Mortality is swallowed up by immortality. Death is swallowed up by life. He is risen and He will never die again. He is glorified, and he will never surrender his glory again. If the gospel ended here it would exceed all the myths and legends. But the story of what the baby Jesus came to do is much grander than this moment in the garden. Jesus’ work of redemption is fuller than we typically ponder. Salvation is just the first of many gifts that God has for those who trust in His son.
- One of the most precious gifts received in Heaven is described by Jesus in His High Priestly prayer in John 17: 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, Jesus speaks of a gift of glory – a gift of His glory. The great re-gifter intends that we might reflect and share in his glory in heaven. Moses saw God’s glory. And for a time His face literally reflected God’s glory. It was so blinding that the Israelites pleaded with Moses to wear a veil – to shield them from that piercing light. However in 2 Corinthians 3:13, the Apostle Paul reveals something that we do not learn in Genesis. Not only did the people want Moses to wear that veil. He was, himself glad to wear it as well. For he could see that the glory was fading. It was a temporary gift, not an enduring one. We understand Moses’ predicament all too well. Many of us have had those spiritual mountaintop experiences. An amazing retreat. A prayer meeting in which God’s presence is almost overwhelming. A quiet time with God that is so intimate that your living room becomes holy ground. But those experiences fade. Our closeness with God has an ebb and flow to it, just like Moses’ reflective and veiled glory. But God’s ultimate gift is not just a gift of glory, but a gift of enduring glory.
- Listen to Paul’s description of the believer in heaven: And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18 I love this phrase from one degree of glory to another. This is glory taken to a whole ‘nother level! The veil is gone. The glory is not a reflective light, like the moon which merely reflects the sun’s light. Nor is it like the light of the sun, which burns brightly until someday when its fuel is consumed. We are transformed in such a way that God’s glory shines in us!
- So this year, as you drive through Geneseo and take in the beauty of the lit trees on State Street, and the houses lit with icicle lights and the trees adorned in multi-colors, stop and think about a recycled gift that you will get to open soon – the gift of eternal glory.