Dr. M.J. du Plessis Gereformeerde Kerk Bellville Datum: 30 Maart 2003 (oggenddiens).

REFORMED CHURCH, BELLVILLE: TUESDAY 25 DECEMBER 2001: CHRISTMAS DAY SERVICE

Our help is in the Name of the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
Beloved, grace and peace be to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.
AMEN.

Psalm of praise: 145:1,12.

Prayer

Psalm 149:1,2.

Scripture reading: 1 Corinthians 1

Text: 1 Corinthians 1:9

God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

As Christians, we approach Christmas as a festival in which we commemmorate and celebrate the grace of God over us.

We commemmorate and celebrate the coming of the Son of God to live visibly in our world.
That He revealed Himself to us through His birth, death and resurrection.
That He still continues to reveal Himself to every one of us through the working of the Holy Spirit.

God chose us - even though we fell into sin. For that reason He died for us and again reconciled us with God, and for that reason too the Holy Spirit calls us to faith.

The result of this is that we should now be very active and keen in our life of faith.
That is what is meant in our text where it is written that we are called upon faithfully to invoke the Name of God and live in fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

In this sermon we shall consider together two aspects of the matter:

1.    Our calling
2.    The future together with Jesus Christ.

1.    Our calling

Paul introduced himself as "... called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God." He thus began his epistle by making it quite clear that he had not become an apostle of his own accord.

We all know that that was the one thing he certainly did not wish to be, because the Lord told him on the road to Damascus: "It is hard for you to kick against the goads." (Acts 26:14). Paul was thus obstinately resisting the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul also referred to his calling, because he knew that all the believers would remember that the Lord had intervened in his life in an almost violent manner.

The Holy Spirit did not simply convince Paul and then he became a believer.
The Lord spoke directly to Paul, and all who were with him heard the voice which said: Paul, Paul, why are you persecuting Me?" (Acts 9:4; 22:7; 26:14).
Paul left this encounter blinded.
He recovered only after Ananias visited him, after which he was baptized.

It is with reference to this calling of Paul that he added the words by the will of God.

The will of God includes the entire counsel of God, in other words, the whole divine purpose and actions of Triunal God.

This includes election,
and also the calling of every person,
and also the redemption through Christ,
and also the working of God the Holy Spirit.

By introducing himself in this way, the apostle Paul indicated the perspective within which he wanted the church at Corinth to read and understand the epistle as a whole. This at the same time serves to determine the point of departure from which they should take a look at themselves when reading the epistle. For the implication of verse 2 is that the apostle who was called is writing to others who were themselves also called.

As readers of this epistle, our congregation must therefore also understand from the beginning that we have been called in Christ.
The introduction in the letter, identifying the persons concerned, is important because it immediately describes to us who we ourselves are, because we are also persons who have been called (and also church), exactly like the Corinthians.
We must also understand that our calling was in accordance with the divine purpose of God - and therein it is implied that God now lays specific responsibilities upon us as persons called, and that He has specific expectations of us.

It is written there: "To the church of God which is at Corinth (Bellville)". But that is not all that is written there. There are also other statements describing the people comprising the church more closely:

To those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus
saints by calling
with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Then there is again an emphasis of the fact that the Lord is "their" Lord as well as "ours".

The Lord is therefore present everywhere and all believers in their mutual unity of faith belong to the Lord.
Remember: a church is not a building, it comprises the people who believe in Christ who gather there.

You see that the holiness of the believers is emphasised very strongly.

In both sentences in which the holiness of the believers is mentioned, it is clear that their holiness is not something which proceeded from themselves.
It was something which was bestowed upon them from "outside", and accomplished within them.
Our calling to believe therefore comes from the Lord.

2. The future together with Jesus Christ.

We are sanctified in Christ Jesus.

The reference to all who have been sanctified, naturally refers to the church as a whole - it does not refer only to the church at Corinth.
We confess this in the words "the holy catholic Christian church".
The fact that the entire church is said to be comprised of saints, indicates to us the unity of the church - we are all of one kind: saints.

Just have a look at what exactly the word "holy" means:

To begin with, we can say that it indicates the relationship between a certain group of people and the Lord.
Furthermore, the word "holy" means that you have been separated from sin and all that is wicked.
It also refers to people who have been separated from other people, just as Israel was separated as the people of the covenant from the Gentiles, or heathen: Israel was holy, and the other nations were not.
"Holy" also means that you share in divine holiness.

Consider what holy people are like:

Holy people are not sinless people, but people who have been set aside by God, and are then sanctified by Him.
These people must every day exclude sin from their lives, and they must strive with all their might to live as God requires of them.
We can also say that the word "holy" bears in itself a specific command, namely that people who are holy must live a strictly Christian life.
Holiness only becomes manifest where believers are involved in a continual process of inward change (conversion) and sanctification in Christ.

The Lord reveals very clearly that the holiness of holy people does not come from within themselves, therefore it is written :"...in Christ Jesus". In themselves they do not possess the quality of holiness, but the Lord sanctifies them (makes them holy) through His Son Jesus Christ.

Now the word "holy" receives yet another meaning, namely that it describes the people who, at some time in the future, when the Lord Jesus Christ comes on the clouds, will be in His kingdom. Saints (holy people) are thus people who have a specific expectation of salvation or of redemption in Christ.

That is why Paul in this verse speaks of "Christ Jesus" (the reverse order of His Name) and not "Jesus Christ".

"Christ" means "Anointed", but it is a word used of God in action when He redeems us.
Because the Lord here emphasises His redemptive ministry, the word is placed first.
After that we have the Name "Jesus", which states that God accomplished His redemptive ministry through His Son Jesus.

See what Paul did here:

First he introduced himself as an apostle who was called by the Lord Jesus.
Then he referred to the church (the believers) as being saints called by Jesus.
"Calling" here thus means that both (Paul and the church at Corinth) are what Jesus Christ made them!
In verse 4 it is stated exactly so: "... the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus".
The believers thus share in the gifts acquired by Jesus Christ.

Nor do we receive these gracious gifts (gifts of grace) in minimal measure.

It is written here that we were "enriched" in Christ in all speech and knowledge. These gracious gifts have all been accomplished by the Holy Spirit.
Corinth was a very wealthy city. The believers there understood this to mean that they received spiritual riches, just as there was an abundance of wealth in their city.

Believers have an expectation. They live in the expectation that the Lord will come again.

Now we need to understand that all this was said to the Corinthians, who committed atrocious sins.
The name "Corinthians" there represents all of us. We are all abominable sinners, but we live as redeemed sinners who look forward to the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We may wonder immediately whether it is at all possible for a person to manage this. The answer is: Yes.

God's promise to you is here stated very clearly: God will give you the strength to stand firm. Not just now and again. Every day to the end. He gives you the strength, so that, when the Lord comes one day, you will still believe and expect the Second Coming.
May we doubt this? No! God is faithful. The proof is already in the fact that He called us. In the fact that He then incorporated us in faith by the working of the Holy Spirit, and, above all, in the fact that Jesus Christ died for us.

That is why the Lord in this passage refers to us as saints who have been called.

Thereby He reveals that He has already given us a future in Christ.
This future transcends the limitations of sin. It is a future in which we shall be glorified by Jesus Christ, and in which we will be with the Lord for all eternity.
That is why He calls us "holy".

But, and this is important, God imposes on us certain obligations:

We must maintain fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ.
We must maintain our daily worship with all our powers of heart and mind.
We may not weaken in our church attendance.
We may not weaken in our prayers and Bible reading.
We must experience the presence of God all about us every moment.

God is faithful, and in His faithfulness He called and sanctified us.

In this time we again commemmorate the fact that the Lord accomplished all His promises of redemption when Jesus was born and died.
Let Christmas remind us that we must, as bearers of the image of Jesus Christ, manifest the same faithfulness as has been shown towards us.

AMEN.

Closing prayer.

Closing Psalm 145:10,11,12.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
AMEN.

Rev. Dr. M.J. du Plessis
Reformed Church, Bellville
25 December 2001.
Scripture quoted from NASB.