He Came Down to Earth from Heaven

This sermon started with me standing 7 steps up a ladder, descending one rung with each point and finishing at the bottom.

 

This sermon, like any proper sermon, has three points.

- Don’t try this at home

- Don’t tell whoever’s in charge of Health and Safety here about this

- This sermon is sponsored by Direct Line Insurance

Well, you may ask, what am I doing up here? I am beginning to wonder myself actually but I hope will become clear in the next few minutes.

The keen eyed among you might have noticed that I’m starting on the seventh step. It’s a long way down from here. And I start here, because seven rhymes with heaven. From all eternity, it was always a long way down for Jesus. 

He created and looked down on vast galaxies, bright shining stars, multifaceted spinning planets and strange moons. He smiled at super massive black holes and mysterious dark matter.

In the beginning was the Word – that’s Jesus. And the Word was with God. And the word in fact was God, the Bible says.

From all eternity, beyond time and space, eons and light years, Jesus is God himself, awesome in power, great in majesty. 

But the miracle of Christmas is that our amazing, wonderful, utterly glorious God lowers himself to come to earth and make his home with people like us. 

Jesus went from heaven to earth so that one day you could go from earth to heaven.

Step down

But not only did he go from heaven to earth... 

When I say he came to earth, don’t think that means he was still impressive and fearsome like the angels who came to earth to visit the shepherds. When the shepherds saw them, they shook with panic. The angels had to say “Don’t be afraid!” 

But Jesus wasn’t shining all around. He had no wings, no halo, no scary appearance, no robe like lightning. 

Hebrews 2.9 in the Bible says, “Jesus was made a little lower than the angels.” He was 100% human. 

Step down

But only did Jesus became a normal human being, just like you, just like me… 

Sure, Jesus had fingers and toes, a brain. a liver, two lungs, feelings and emotions, he was flesh and blood. 

But did he come into the world as a strong man, a fully-grown adult? And of course, we know the answer is “no!” 

He entered the world as a new-born baby, just like we all did.  He needed feeding and rocking to sleep, and his nappy changing. He had to learn to walk and dress himself and spell his name, which is the name above all names. 

God became a child so you could become a child of God. 

Step down

But not only did he come into the world as a baby… 

Was he privileged? Was he born into a rich family with a posh mansion and servants? 

Did he grow up in comfort and ease with a silver spoon in his mouth? Did he have caviar and truffles and foie gras and champagne at every meal?

No! He had a very ordinary family, with brothers and sisters who squabbled just like any other family. His dad was an unknown manual labourer, his mum was an unassuming housewife and they lived in a nothing town called Nazareth. 

He became a nobody so that you could become a somebody; someone special with dignity and honour. 

Step down

But not only was Jesus from an ordinary, modest background… 

When was born at Christmas, he didn't even have the simple comforts of home. 

No bedroom, no bathroom, no kitchen, no toys. He was born surrounded by farm animals. They had nothing to dress him with so had to use old bandages. And his first cot was a feeding trough out of which a goat, a sheep or an ox had just lately been drooling over its hay and straw.

His whole life was a bit like that. No cosy home, no nice holidays, no designer clothes… Pretty well everything he had was borrowed. 

The Bible says, “Our Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”

Step down

Not only was he poor, when he was a baby Herod wanted him killed.

When he grew up the Pharisees wanted to kill him then as well.

He spent all his life in danger. For the first few years of his life, Jesus was a homeless asylum seeker in a foreign land, constantly in peril. 

For the last few years of his life he didn’t really have a home either.

He said, “I have nowhere to lay my head,” meaning he wandered around from place to place; he slept rough sometimes. 

God became homeless and in danger so that you can have a safe home in heaven forever.

Step down

And in the end, Jesus was killed in the worst way possible - crucifixion - one of the most painful ways to die ever invented. 

God was rejected so that you would be accepted. God was hated to show that you are so loved. Jesus was lonely and broken so that you can be a friend of God made whole. He was afflicted so that you can be healed. He died so you can have life. 

Step down

Why did Jesus do this? Why didn’t he stay in heaven? So much nicer up there. Pure paradise!

The Bible tells us why: God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

How much he must love you to have made that journey!

How much he must love you to have become one of us so completely.

Prayer…

Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 24 December 2023