Follow the Crown!
Jim Clements · Tidal Church Moncton · December 25, 2022 · New Traditions series
Jim Clements walks through Philippians 2:5-11 to follow Christ's crown from the cradle to the cross and back to glory. He encourages us to celebrate Christmas and Easter as one story, remembering the whole sacrifice that brings forgiveness, freedom and victory.
More from Jim Clements · The New Traditions series
Topics: Forgiveness, Christmas, Easter
Transcript
[0:00] Well, Merry Christmas. It's, I was standing out back and it just hit me before I came out. I said, I've been in ministry for 26 years. And this is the first Christmas Sunday that I've ever spoken on, and I'm like, that is crazy to think that much time ago by and, but I've always been in support of lead pastors who always take that role. So I consider this really a privilege today to be able to speak with you, and we've been in the New Traditions. But I want to share, a lot of us have Christmas traditions, and one Christmas tradition that I miss the most as a family is, for me, when I was a kid. We moved to Moncton when we left Newfoundland. My grandma was pretty upset that we wouldn't be around for Christmas anymore. And I'll never forget the week before Christmas, the first time this happened, when I saw the postman get out of his truck.
[0:53] That he pulled up, and he went around back and he pulled out this big red sack out of the back of the truck, and it was all knitted clothes and everything addressed to our house, and she had done this and put it together, and the postman was so good. He threw it over. Children walked up to the house, rang the doorbell, and every year for as long as I can remember, then we would take that sack, folded all back up, when we went back in the summer to visit. We'd hand it back to her, and the next year that sack would show up, year after year, filled in. That postman would come every year with that, and what a trooper, right? I don't think you could do that this day and age anymore. They'd probably see that goes not in a box and the back, or it sit somewhere and be sold or something like that. But I love traditions, and today I'm gonna, this is like par for the course. Did you know, it's just slid down slowly while I went out there. So everything that's gonna go wrong today, we'll go wrong. So the greatest gift that we think of, even for this year for us, it always comes with waiting. And so for Gisèle and I, we had this great anticipation this year for Christmas. We had planned months out and we were. So I put this down here because of the anticipation that I would share it today. And so I'm going to share it a different way. And so for the first time this Christmas, Gisèle, myself and our kids would have been together for Christmas for the first time in three years.
[2:21] But WestJet decided to have a different plan. And on the 22nd, as they sat in the airport in Toronto at 2:00 in the morning, their flight got canceled. And so we've been told now to anticipate that we will have them here on the 20, the evening of the 26th. So we're gonna drive to Halifax and they get at one in the morning on the 20th, or the 27th, I guess it'll be. And it says delayed, so Gisèle, I went, Christmas isn't happening. And so our turkey actually is still in the fridge uncooked. There is nothing that's happened. I think we're even having butter chicken with rice for dinner tonight. Like, we're pretending like the 25th hasn't happened yet. And when they arrive on the 27th, then we're gonna celebrate and have Christmas. So it doesn't matter on what day, it matters that family, as we celebrate the love that Christ has given to us, and God is giving through the birth of His Son.
[3:17] Is so much more valuable when we do it together. Today I want to challenge you, because for years we had a family tradition, like everybody does, celebrating the birth of Christ. Nothing wrong with that. Please don't hear that I'm saying anything is wrong with that. But we listened to a few people share about Christmas, and we began to change our tradition. And so we changed our tradition dramatically, and I want to share that with you from this Scripture to give you an idea why we celebrate Christmas a little differently in our household when it comes to Christmas, and what everybody thinks it is on an average basis. Philippians 2:5-11. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who, being in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing, but taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself to become obedient to death, even death on the cross.
[4:27] Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name above all names, above every name that at the name Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. So today I want to break down is that we need to follow the crown. When you think about it. So I'm going to go backwards and go and reread this Scripture again for you. So Philippians 2, let's look at 5-7. In your relationship with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who, being in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He Himself nothing, but taking on the very nature of the servant, being made in human likeness.
[5:23] See, for Jesus at that point in time, He had the crown as a Son of God. He sat in a position of royalty, of kingship. But He humbled Himself to become in human likeness. And so what He ended up doing was He ended up surrendering His crown for a cradle, because He knew that the only way that we could be free is that He came to be with us without the cradle. We don't have God with us without the cradle. We don't have God in human form without the cradle.
[6:13] We don't have a chance at redemption without the cradle. We don't have a second chance. And so Jesus gave up His crown to humble Himself to become human in a baby, to free the world, and it changed everything for humanity. But then, as we continue, oh. Instead of, it keeps sliding. Thank you, Nathan. So then, as we continue, we look down through, we go to the next one and we see Philippians 2:8. And being found in appearance of man, He humbled Himself to become obedient to death.
[7:00] See, a lot of times we celebrate the cradle. There's nothing wrong with celebrating the cradle. Everybody does that, but the thing is, with us, Jesus gave up His cross, His crown to become a human form in the cradle, and in our culture we tend to separate the cradle from the cross. And you can't separate the two. They go together. All right, they go together. And too often at Christmas time, this is what went on in our family, we begin to think we celebrate the birth of a baby at Christmas. But then we separate everything off and wait till Easter to celebrate the cross, when in reality what Jesus did then is, He allowed the crown that He gave up to come to the cradle for a crown of thorns. It was exchanged for not on His behalf, but them, and behalf of people who didn't understand, who ridiculed, a mocked Him.
[8:00] You can't celebrate the cradle without celebrating the crown, the cross, and the exchange of the crown, as you follow the crown, because without the cross there's no chance of forgiveness. There is no chance for us to gain freedom from sin without the cross. The cradle doesn't happen and a cross doesn't happen. They go together. We can't split them up without the cross. There is no defeating of death. There is no defeating of the grave. There is no defeating of the enemy without the cross. And so Christmastime as a family, we begin to look at this and go, "Boy, you can't separate the two." When you celebrate Christmas, you have to celebrate that Jesus gave up His crown to become human like and to be God with us.
[8:54] Because up until that point in time, He hadn't been present with us in physical form since the Garden of Eden. And then you think about, without the cross, when He goes from the cradle to the cross and He's knowing that that He knows the ridicule that will come as a result of it. So we follow the crown from when He gave it up to now being a crown that He's marked with. And then we go to Philippians 2:9-11. It says, "Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, and the glory of God the Father."
[9:45] See, what happened was, at this point in time, His crown became restored. The crown that humans gave Him, that ridiculed, that mocked Him, that pierced the side, that nailed Him to the cross, was removed. And when you follow the crown, we go to the cradle, the cross, the Christ back again, restored by the crown that He originally had, that He willingly gave up. See, if we don't have the crown restored, then we don't have Jesus sitting at the right hand of God, who's intervening for us every day. Because we don't deserve what we get, what God gives us and Jesus, because of the sacrifice that He made when He gave up His crown to become, to the cradle, and then He gave up His life to go to the cross. And then when He rose from the dead, defeating the grave and death, and ascended into heaven, He now sits at the right side of God, intervening on our behalf, going, "You know what? No. No, they deserve to be forgiven. I know what they've done, but I died on the cross for them."
[11:02] So you see, without all of this, there's no chance of intervention on our behalf by Christ. There's no chance at resurrection. And most of all, there's no chance at victory. Because all of these need to be celebrated together. And so for us as a family, when we put our tree up every Christmas, there's one thing that we want to remember the entire story by. There is nothing that goes on our tree first, and Gisèle let me take it off to bring it here this afternoon. We hang the first thing, a six-inch spike, to remember not the cradle, not the cross alone, nor the defeating of death, but to remember the whole process that, knowing coming in, we were going to nail Jesus to a tree, but we were going to gain freedom and victory over it.
[12:07] And so when the tree gets decorated and the gifts are all laid out and brought, and the ornaments look beautiful and the lights all shine, underneath all that celebration is this six- inch spike. Because we don't ever want to forget, it all goes together. As much as we want to separate it and celebrate the cradle at Christmas and a cross at Easter, and I'm not saying that's wrong, don't get me wrong, it all needs to be kept together, because there's no singularity in any part of that that brings victory. It's the entire thing that brings victory and hope for people, the entirety of it. And so in a moment, I'm going to invite some of the pastors to come down, and we're going to serve communion.
[12:55] And as you come down, we're just going to invite you to come. We're not gonna go through the rows. We're going to invite you to come and walk down through, and on each of the tables that are down here that you come to, I have put three-inch replicas of this spike. And I would encourage you that if you want one, you can take one. It may be, I'm not trying to change your family tradition. I'm just asking you if you would be willing to hang one other ornament on your tree each Christmas that says, "I remember the entirety. I remember the entirety of the crown that was given up, that the crown that was exchanged, and then the crown that was restored because of the cradle, the cross, and then Christ in His ascension."
[13:52] Let me read to us from Mark before we take communion. I'll invite the pastors to come, and while I'm doing this, and it says, "While they were eating, Jesus took the bread, gave thanks and broke it, and He gave it to His disciples, saying, 'Take it. This is My body.' Then He took the cup, gave thanks, and offered it to them. They all drank from it. 'This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,' He said to them. 'I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.'" We think about communion, and we think about the story in its entirety.
[14:47] I can't help but think that some of us may doubt, some of us may think that there's more to this than what I just said. It's not. Jesus gave up His position with the crown that God had given Him to be God with us on earth in the form of a baby grew so that He would give His life for hope, freedom, forgiveness for us on a cross. And then have His crown restored, so that He will intervene for us. What we're going to do for communion, I'm going to invite you to come up and you can get it and you just take it on your behalf. And then Marc will continue to lead us in worship towards the end. So we'll stand and prepare as I pray.
[15:47] Father, thank You for Your love I thank You for the... the sacrifice of Your one and only Son, who gave up His crown to come and be with us. Father, the... the change the world forever. But a birth of Jesus in a cradle. And Father, then as His life progressed, He knew where He was being led to. And that death and a grave is defeated because of His willingness to go to the cross for each one of us to have spikes pierce His hands and allow humans to exchange His crown for a thorny crown and lock Him. But He had every one of us in mind when He did it.
[16:35] And Father, then when He defeats death and raises on the third day and ascends to sit at Your right hand, the crown is restored. So Father, as we continue through this Christmas season, maybe we remember that it can't be taken apart. It all goes together. It's one story. It's one life. It's one great sacrifice. So Father, we thank You for that. We thank You for the sacrifice that was made for each of us. And now, as we partake of the communion elements, may we remember that the bread is the broken body of Jesus that's been given for us so that we may have life everlasting.
[17:31] And the juice represents the blood that was spilled out, spilled out for each one of us, so that forgiveness could be ours when we ask Him to be our Savior. We thank You for that today. In Your name we pray. Amen. Please come and receive communion.