SERMON SUMMARY
Nick Vujicic was born with neither arms nor legs. His situation seemed hopeless. His parents felt confident that there was no possible future for their child. But whether it was skateboarding as a child, or surfing, swimming, and sky diving as an adult, Nick hasn’t let his disability define him. Today Nick is a best-selling author, public speaker, and evangelist. He loves ministering to hurting children —because he once was one himself. He understands.
Nick is remarkable, but he loves pointing people to the most remarkable baby ever born—the Lord Jesus Christ. Like Nick, Jesus’ life didn’t look like was going to amount to much. He was from a poor family. Apparently his adoptive father, Joseph, died while Jesus was still rather young. When Jesus was Nick’s age—about 30—he too became a traveling evangelist. He spoke to big crowds. He ministered to the hurting.
Of the billions of people who’ve ever walked the face of the earth, Jesus is unique: he had a human mother, but God is his father (Luke 1:35). Jesus is both human and divine.
When the Bible speaks of Jesus, it typically uses the present tense. This is unique for historical figures. We don’t speak about dead people that way. We don’t say, “George Washington is the first president of the United States.” So, as we look at some verses, notice how many of them speak of Jesus in the present tense. In fact, here’s one: “Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of God’s nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.” (Hebrews 1:3).
Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. Do you ever wonder what God is like? Look at Jesus. The resemblance is perfect. This verse also tells what Jesus does: he “upholds all things by his powerful word”. Jesus “upholds” everything simply by telling it what to do. “All” includes galaxies, atoms, whales, and you. We can’t even get our dogs to obey us. But everything obeys Jesus. And he doesn’t even have to raise his voice. is unique.
Here’s another way Jesus is unique: He never sinned (1 Peter 2:22). Not even once! Even Jesus’ enemies admitted that they could find no fault in him. Which raises the question: “If he was so good, why did he even have enemies?” A lot of people loved him. Almost everybody did. Unfortunately, some powerful people didn’t. They hated him and wanted to kill him. Jesus had enemies because he was so good. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were jealous of him. So they killed him.
But even in death, Jesus is unique. On a human level, it looked as if powerful religious leaders killed Jesus. But Jesus said that he gave his life willingly (John 10:18). More than that, he said that it was his Father’s plan for him to die. Jesus also said that he has the right to bring himself back from the grave! He could do that, because he is God! There’s another thing he could do because he is God: he forgives sins (Matthew 9:6).
Jesus is so special that Colossians 1:18 says: Jesus is first in everything. We have a savior who started out life in some disadvantaged, humble circumstances. Others might have thought he wouldn’t amount to much. But as we’ve seen, he’s the king of the universe, the one who died and came back to life, who forgives our sins, who deserves first place in our lives.
APPLICATION / CHALLENGE
Tomorrow, as you celebrate Jesus’ birth, will you think about that? Will you, as a family, take a moment after the excitement and hub-bub of opening gifts—will you take a moment to talk about why Jesus deserves to have first place in your lives? Maybe do it around the dinner table. Just talk a bit about all the reasons why Jesus get’s first place. Will you do that?
TAKE ONE STEP
Each week, write down one doable concrete step of obedience, small or large, that you will put into practice this week. (James 1:22: “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.”)