Senior Pastor, Robert Dennison, preached this message on December 21, 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Audio Transcript
We’re continuing our series on Bible doctrine today.
Every third Sunday when we have communion, we’re going over one of the statements and what we believe. Why is doctrine important? Doctrine is a set of core beliefs that defines Christian faith, what we believe, and Christian practice, how we are supposed to live. Its purpose is to provide clarity, and it protects believers from misunderstandings and error. In other words, if you know doctrine, when you hear something that doesn’t sound right, you can ascertain there’s something here that doesn’t fit.
It also unites believers in shared truth, and it promotes spiritual growth and faithful living. We have one source as the authority for our matters of belief and conduct, and that is God’s Word. It is our primary source. The statement of faith that we have is just an abbreviated summary of our core beliefs. And we also depend upon our elders who are elected by the congregation.
If there’s ever anything that we need to have a final interpretation about, that doesn’t mean that they have the final word necessarily. The final word comes from you as a congregation, because it’s up to you to know Scripture, to study the Word and elect men to this position that you will know, uphold that. We talked about God. We’ve talked about the Bible Hunter presented last month about the human condition. And today, as Christmas is quickly approaching, it’s very appropriate that we think about our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, doctrine can become just a list of facts. Doctrine can become just an intellectual exercise. It can be something that we just learn. But all of those things fall short of what doctrine actually should be. When we think about doctrine, it needs to go beyond facts and intellectual discussion.
It’s supposed to go from our brain to our heart. It’s supposed to delight our mind. But more importantly, it should stir our hearts to a greater love and appreciation for God. And when it does that, it’s supposed to bring about change in us. It’s supposed to bring about a change in the way we think, in our mind, how we feel with our emotions, what our desires are in our will, and ultimately, how we live and act should be changed by doctrine.
You know, it’s like the Bible. When we read the Bible, the first thing is just to understand what it says, to comprehend the basic words, but then to think back through what does it actually mean. And thirdly, when we read Scripture, we’re supposed to ask ourselves, what is this passage telling me today to show me how to conform myself more to the will of God? It has to go beyond our head to our heart, and then act out in our life James gave us a warning in chapter one, verse 24. He said, don’t be like the man who looks in the mirror, who gazes at himself and then goes away and immediately forgets what kind of person he was.
He’s talking about reading scripture, that when you read it, don’t just read it and then walk away and forget it. There needs to be a change that happens there. I want us to start out today by imagining that there is an island that is soon to sink into the ocean. Is that too hard for anybody to imagine? There’s an island somewhere out there in the middle of the Pacific or the Atlantic.
You decide which ocean. The second thing is I want you to imagine that you are a geologist who specializes in seismic and volcanic measurement and prediction. I don’t know if those are accurate words, but it sounded good. Okay, but you get the idea what your job is. And you are certain that this island is going to disappear within the next two years from all your learning and knowledge.
You got the island in your mind. Forgive me.
Now, I want you to imagine that your children and your grandchildren live on that island. And with your knowledge about what’s going to happen within the next two years, what are you going to do? You’re going to save them. No, she did the right thing. Everybody tell me, what are you going to do?
You’re going to save them. You’re going to do whatever you have to. Now, I want you to imagine that same island, but your family doesn’t live on it anymore. It’s just your friends. What are you going to do?
You’re going to save your friends. Well, that’s good. Okay.
Now, I want you to imagine that same island, but you don’t have any family there. You don’t have any children, no grandchildren, no boyfriends or girlfriends. You know, nobody that you even know. But there is a group of indigenous savages that live there. They’re known for killing anyone who approaches the island.
They speak a language that you don’t know. How many of you are going to go to save them?
I want you to imagine one more thing. Imagine that same island. No family, no children, no grandchildren, no friends, no boyfriends, no girlfriends, no spouses. There are not even indigenous savages that live there. The only life forms on that island are ants and a few other small insects.
How many of you are going to go and save them?
All right. You are a very loving person.
You know, in the first two examples, we can fathom going there to rescue our family and our friends. And then the third example, it’s not incomprehensible that someone would care enough to go and warn the inhabitants, even if it means risking his life. But in the fourth example, at least to me, it’s incomprehensible that someone would go and and save the ants and the other insects.
Today, when we think about theology and we think about who Jesus really is and how he came to earth as a baby to save us, we need to contemplate the enormity of what he did and why he did it. In case you didn’t get it in that analogy, what are we? We’re the ants on the island. But you know, in comparison, the difference between me and an ant and the difference between Jesus and me is infinitely beyond any thought that any of us can entertain.
What Jesus came to save was evil. It was rebellious. I want you to take your Bibles. It’s not going to be on the screen, but turn to Romans chapter 5 and let’s just look at verses 6 through 10 to see how miserable we were, how unloving and how unappreciative and how unrelated we were. But Jesus came into this world at Christmas time.
Romans 5. I read in verse 6, and I’m going to ask you to fill in the blanks. May be a little different depending on your translation. But we read in verse 6. For while we were still, what’s the word there?
Helpless at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Nobody was good for rarely will someone die for a just person, Though for a good person, perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves His own love for us in this. That while we were still what? Sinners.
Completely against Him. Helpless, ungodly sinners. Christ came and he died for us. Praise the Lord. Verse 9 says how much more then since we have now been justified his blood, we will be saved through him from wrath.
For if, while we were what enemies? None of us were for Jesus, none of us were for God. We were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. That then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life? Jesus came when we were helpless.
He came when we were ungodly. He came when we were sinners, and he came when we were enemies. We were less than and worse than ants. In some ways maybe the ants are better than we were. In all of the vast universe that we know of, we’re just a speck.
We’re smaller than ants. But Jesus is God. He is creator, ruler, sustainer. And he gave all of that up temporarily. He came and he lived on Dirty streets.
He suffered ridicule all his life, being called an illegitimate child. He had no home as an adult man, he was poor, falsely accused, beaten, spat upon, mocked, murdered on a cross. And he did all of this so that some, not even all of us, but some of us ants could live with him eternally. You know, he could have given a warning, at least in our day, by radio or by TV or text or blog or Facebook. He could have dropped flyers from an airplane.
He could have sent somebody else to do it for us. He could have even just made a short stop on a tour to warn us. But instead of all these things, he did what he came and he lived among us, to be one of us.
If you understand what I’m trying to relay today, Christmas should be a time of deep, heartfelt, somber, humbling, and yet joyful and glorious appreciation of Jesus, who He is, what he gave up to live among us, and to provide salvation through his suffering and death. There is no greater gift than this eternal gift that Jesus purchased for us on the cross and gave to us freely. Now, as we look at the doctrinal statement, that’s what I want you to look for. How great and awesome Jesus is and what he did to come and live among us. May we have a word of prayer first before we go on.
Father, give us a deeper appreciation of your son. Help us here at Christmas time to reflect on the great cost that he gave that we might have eternal salvation. Let us reflect upon his gift so in the midst of the hustle and the bustle and the fun and the joy that we take some time to somberly reflect on the greatest gift of all and to give you thanksgiving as we celebrate his birth and his arrival. In your Son’s name we pray. Amen.
I want you to read the doctrinal statement with me. We have it up there on the screen. Jesus Christ. Read out loud, please. We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man.
One person in two natures. Jesus, Israel’s promised Messiah, was conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father. As our high priest and advocate. Let’s look at the first phrase.
We believe Jesus Christ. Say it with me. Is God incarnate? In the beginning was the Word. John was talking about Jesus there and.
And he says, and the Word talking about Jesus there was with God in the beginning. But even More importantly, say it with me. The Word was God. And then near the end of the chapter, in verse 18, he re emphasizes that no one has ever seen God, the one and only Son. And he clarifies it, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side.
He has revealed Him. We really take this into account. We understand that we belong to Jesus. We owe him our worship and our allegiance. He is sustaining everything in this world.
And if he just removed his sustaining word, everything that we know in the universe will no longer exist. Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. We read in Hebrews 2. He had to be like his brothers and sisters, as it say, in some ways or partial ways. No, in every way.
He had to be like us.
And he had to do this so that he could become a merciful and high faithful high priest in matters pertaining to God, so He could make atonement for the sins of the people. For since He Himself has suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted. Jesus had to be 100% man so that he could understand everything about our life. He probably burped as a baby. He probably had messy swaddling clothes.
We call them diapers today. He had to go through puberty. He faced temptations. He had people ridiculing him. And as a grown man, he.
He never married. He didn’t have a home. I’m sure people looked at him like, what? What’s going on? Jesus is just not normal.
But he went through all of that so that he understands every single thing that we go through. And because he was fully man, he was able to physically die on the cross because God, being a spirit, would not be able to die. But we have to also keep in mind that he was fully God, 100% God and 100% man. If we tried to say that he was 50% God and 50% man, well, can you take God and divide him in half? No.
He is complete and 100%. Just like physically, you can’t divide a person in half this way or this way, or separate their spirit or their will from their body. If you separate it in any way, you’re no longer fully a person alive. And so Jesus was 100% God, 100% man. And because of that, he was able to die, but he was also able to withstand the wrath of God.
If you think about a diamond, the only thing that can scratch a diamond is what, maybe another diamond? And so it is that God’s wrath was poured out upon sin, because sin has to be dealt with but Jesus, because he was God, was able to withstand that wrath and become our Savior. The next thing we read is that he was one person in two natures. We have to talk about false teaching or heresy in the past. And some people would still believe this today.
They say that Jesus Christ is really two persons. And some of them would explain that there was a child that was born in Bethlehem to natural parents, and at his birth, the Spirit of God came down inside of him. So you had a human man and now God is inside of him as if he was possessed. Two different people, two persons in one body. But Scripture doesn’t tell us that he was just one person, but he still had the two natures.
He was all God and he was all man. You know, God is utterly different than us, and there are many things about him that cannot be adequately explained. So if you’re like Pastor Robert, I don’t understand this. I can just say I don’t understand it either. We have to accept by faith that this is what Scripture teaches about our Lord and Savior.
We also read that Jesus was Israel’s promised Messiah. I went to the Jews for Jesus website. These are messianic Jews who tell us what their people were looking for in the Messiah. And this is the list that they give us. They were looking for a Messiah who would be from the tribe of Judah.
And Jesus was. They were looking for a Messiah who would be a descendant of King David. And Jesus was. They were looking for a Messiah who was to be born in Bethlehem. And as we all know from the Christmas carols, he was.
They also were looking for a Messiah who would arrive before the destruction of the second temple. And he did. He would be a Messiah who would present himself by riding on a donkey. That he did. But they also were looking for a Messiah who would be tortured to death.
This just didn’t seem to fit someone who was supposed to be a king and was supposed to come and save them. Yet Scripture tells us, even though it couldn’t be understood that he was going to be tortured to death, and instead of living as a king in this world, he would match a particular description that included suffering, silence at his arrest and trial, death and burial in a rich man’s tomb, and resurrection. All of these things are true because Jesus is the Messiah that the Jews were looking for, that God had promised them. Our statement goes on to say that Jesus was conceived through the Holy Spirit. In other words, he had no human father to pass on to him a sin nature because he was perfect in every way.
And Mary Asked the angel, how is this going to happen? And the angel said, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the Holy One to be born will be called not the Son of Joseph, but the Son of whom? The Son of God. He was born of the virgin Mary.
Joseph had concerns about his fiance that was pregnant, not knowing how it had happened. And an angel appeared to him and said, because of that, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him and he married her. But he did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to a son and he named him Jesus. This was so that there would be no doubt that Jesus was the Son of God, that his conception was completely miraculous. And it’s talking about the marriage of May.
That’s not another wife. I left out the R. The marriage of Mary and Joseph was never consummated until after the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The next statement says that he lived a sinless life. Jesus had to be perfect so that he could be the perfect sacrifice for our sin. But he was also perfect as an example for us that if we truly trust on God Almighty and we let his Spirit rule in our lives, that we can abstain from sin, that it is possible for us not to give in to what Satan is asking us to do. We go back to Hebrews, chapter 4. We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are.
Yet without sin, there isn’t any temptation that you go through that if you ask Jesus to help you, he’s going to say, well, I don’t understand how you’re feeling. I don’t understand how you’re thinking, because I never went through that. That is not the case. Perfect sacrifice, perfect example for us because he lived a sinless life. Next thing in our doctrine statement, it mentions that he was crucified under Pontius Pilate.
What we get from this is the historicity of Jesus is documented, accepted even by non believers, other religions in the world, whether they accept him as God or not. Most people, even people that are atheists and agnostics, will say, yeah, Jesus lived. It’s documented. He was a good person, but he certainly wasn’t the Messiah. There wasn’t anything special about him being the Son of God.
But we do acknowledge that he did live. His life is documented. It then tells us that he arose bodily from the dead. He was buried. He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he didn’t just go away.
It says that he appeared to Cephas, then he appeared to the 12. Then he appeared to over 500 brothers and sisters at one time. And at the time of this writing, Paul said most of them were still alive. They were all able to testify, yes, Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. As if that wasn’t enough, then he appeared to James.
He came back to all the apostles. And last of all, Paul said that he appeared to one born at the wrong time. He also appeared to me. Paul. It was documented there were people that were willing to give up their lives to say, yes, we saw him in the flesh.
He arose from the dead, but Jesus didn’t stay in this world. It says that he ascended into heaven. In Acts 1 we read after he said this, he was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while he was going, they were gazing into the heavens. And suddenly two men in white clothes stood by them.
And they said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? The same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come in the same way that you have seen him going into heaven. But that wasn’t the end of the story. As we read next that now Jesus sits at the right hand of God the Father. He sits there because his work in salvation is through.
That doesn’t mean he’s not doing anything. But it’s this picture that he had completed, what the Father had asked him to do. And not only is he sitting in the corner of heaven, or is he sitting in the main room? Where does it say he is? At the honored position, at the right hand of God the Father.
Why is this? Hebrews 1 says, the Son is the radiance of God’s glory, the exact expression of his nature. He’s sustaining all things by his powerful word. Not only did he create everything, but everything continues to flow, function, and to run because of him. And after making purification for sin, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
The next statement says, he is our high priest and he is our advocate. And it says that we have a high priest who can sympathize with every weakness that we have. And yet, though he was tempted as we are, he did it without sin. And as our high priest, he represents us before God the Father. And it says that because of that, we don’t have to be afraid to go into God’s presence in prayer and to say, God, I’m here.
I want to talk to you today. He’s willing to hear you because Jesus is there pleading on your behalf, and he’s doing two things for you. When we come into his presence, we receive mercy. And we also find grace to help us whenever we are in need. And when we talk about mercy and grace, Grace is what God gives us that we don’t deserve.
It’s what he gives us that we can’t pay for, that we can’t work for. It’s just this continual offering of everything that we have that’s good. Whereas mercy on the other side says, yeah, that person’s a sinner, but we’re not going to punish him because Jesus Christ has died for his sins. Mercy says, I don’t give you what you really deserve. Did your children ever do anything wrong?
And you said, I’m not going to punish you this time. I mean, sometimes we do that. That’s mercy. Okay?
Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, we celebrate him here at Christmas. We need to reflect on who he is and remember what he gave up to come and live among us as if we were less than ants in this world. His enemies, but he loved us. Let’s end by reading the statement again together. Jesus Christ.
We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man. One person in two natures. Jesus, Israel’s promised Messiah, was conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father as our high priest and advocate. The worship team is going to be coming up to lead us in a song today.
We’re going to be standing and we have some people that are on a prayer team. They’re going to have a name badge here. It says prayer team. They’re going to be standing at the back. If you just want to get a word of encouragement, if you want someone just to have a word of prayer with you or share some scripture while we’re singing, please walk to the back and find one of these people.
They can also share with you more about what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ so that you might truly be able to celebrate Christmas this year in appreciation of Him. Will you stand as the worship team comes? If you need to talk to someone, just make your way out. As we’re singing to the back of the auditorium.