Diving Deep into the Incarnation and Divine Nature of Jesus Christ

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder.

And his name, this is the name of Jesus.

Wonderful, amen?

Counselor, how about the third one?

Say it out loud.

Mighty God.

Who is Jesus?

Mighty God.

The Son of God?

Yes.

Is He God also?

Yes.

Welcome to the City Light Church podcast.

Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us.

If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com

that citylightnyc.com.

Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds.

As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God,

that you are surrounded by His grace, and that He has a real hope and a future for you.

Welcome to City Light Church.

Those of you joining us online, so glad that you're with us.

Hallelujah.

And that's a real dose to the Christmas spirit.

Rockets, Radio City, Rockefeller, whatever.

That's...

I'm walking out here, feeling extra-Christmasy.

And I love Christmas.

What an overwhelming response to that.

I love it.

I remember...

When I first immigrated here, because back in former Yugoslavia, we didn't have Christmas.

The term, but really, was all about the New Year.

The New Year was the big celebration.

And then I come to American Christmas.

It's such a big deal.

Then I get saved, and I really get the meaning of Christmas when I was 16.

And Christmas is extra-special.

And then shortly after, the Christian Grinches came.

And other Grinches.

They were a mean one.

And they started telling me how Christmas was pagan.

Have you guys, you know, the whole Christmas is pagan thing?

If you don't want to celebrate the Lord's birthday,

because you're digging deep and finding some pagan roots,

I mean, you can do that with anything.

What's today? What day is it today?

Not the date, but the day.

Sunday.

That's the sun worshipers day.

The Sunday, followed by Monday, or Monday.

What is it in Spanish?

Don't howl at the moon when you say that.

Lunas.

I took French. I didn't take Spanish.

In French, it's Lundy.

Wednesday's, Woden's Day.

You guys, it's actually not a character in the Marvel Universe.

It was a former God that people worshiped.

Odin, or Woden.

Odin's Day, followed by Thursday, which is Thursday,

followed by Friday, from the German goddess of fertility,

Freyart.

And so, you can dig and find pagan roots in anything.

You know, birthday cake is pagan.

Bringing flowers to a funeral or leaving them at the cemetery.

That's pagan.

I mean, we can't do anything, right?

And so, my point is this, how many people have you seen

going to the first church of Thor, or the Thor temple,

or Woden, or actually worshiping the sun?

I'm going to Jones Beach and get in a nice tan.

I mean, actually worshiping.

Because God, as he promised in the Psalms,

has made these other gods his footstool.

And they are nowhere around.

And they have been trotting down.

And we have built a top of it.

Amen.

And so, you can be a Grinch and talk about pagan roots

and find some obscure verse in Jeremiah

that talks about cutting down an evergreen tree.

And go, ooh, my evergreen tree isn't to some other God.

It's for Christmas.

And I'm celebrating the incarnation of Jesus.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Thank you, Lord.

A wonderful thing.

Was he born on December 25th?

Probably not.

But it's as good a day as any, I'd say,

to celebrate the incarnation of God Almighty.

Amen.

You know, because the shepherds were out.

When he was born, there were shepherds in the field.

And in December, the shepherds wouldn't have been

field and that region of the earth

would have been probably late spring or summer.

No one knows the day he was actually born.

I hope I'm not blowing some of you away.

No one knows the actual day.

But if I was to pick a day, December 25th,

it seems like a good day, amen.

To actually stop our lives and re-center and focus on God

being made flesh.

Hallelujah.

So I just wanted to alleviate if you've

been online a lot and the Grinches are coming.

And now you fancy yourself a historian on all things paganism.

Ask yourself, where are these gods today?

And where are their worshipers?

I think it's a beautiful thing that the altars have

been torn down from all the high places

and where there's now just ash.

We have built such a beautiful, beautiful holiday

that really provokes some people to so much jealousy.

Really, it's jealousy that they had to change it

to happy holidays.

If you remember when that whole ship was happening,

it's been now like 30 years.

Because the word was, it's offensive.

What's offensive?

How beautiful it is, how majestic, how glorious.

Well, there's a lot of people that celebrate a lot

of other hell holidays in December.

No, there aren't.

It's my microphone on.

No, there aren't.

One was the last time you actually

knew someone who celebrated Kwanzaa.

Chris, you know anyone who celebrates Kwanzaa?

One person.

Hanaka, all right.

2% of the population, by the way, Hanaka

is a minor, minor holiday.

It wasn't even really, you can look at the graph

of when it actually started in mass being celebrated,

it started in the 50s, where it was like all menorahs everywhere,

but it was 2% of the population of minor holiday.

So who's it offending?

Atheists, be offended.

Be thou offended, that we have something so majestic,

so beautiful, so glorious, that the God of the universe

would take on human form and come and dwell among us.

Be born of a virgin, supernaturally.

Live a perfectly sinless life, be innocent.

Go to the cross in our place.

Hallelujah.

I'm the Grinch Buster this Sunday morning.

And we're celebrating Advent here.

Because of how I was saved and where I was saved,

Advent eluded me for many, many years.

I really didn't know what it was about.

And I mean, I celebrated Christmas.

And you know, when you're a real Christian,

really Christmas in Easter every single day, right?

Just we take an extra mile out of time

and really focus in on it.

So I kind of let Advent go over my head really, even as a pastor,

until my wife, after we had Victor,

went to the first church of Trader Joe's.

You know where I'm going with this, huh?

The Advent calendar.

The Trader Joe's chocolate Advent calendar.

And she got it.

And of course, Vivian hadn't come along.

And Victor got very excited every morning leading up to Christmas

was, daddy, let's celebrate Advent.

Let me get to my chocolate.

You know, and I would, I'm like, let me look into Advent

like it's original roots and what it's supposed to be.

And it's supposed to be a time.

And once again, we're in the middle of Advent right now

from the beginning of December, culminating

on December the 25th.

It's supposed to be a time where we focus in on specifically

the incarnation.

The incarnation from the Latin to be made flesh

of God having come as a man as a human, a person, which

you didn't have to do.

I mean, he had to do it if he was going to redeem mankind,

but he didn't have to redeem mankind.

He could have said, look, you've rebelled in the garden.

And ever since then, every time I've reached out to you,

you've turned your back on me and you've rebelled and you've rebelled

and you've rebelled.

And he could have just washed his hand of the whole ordeal.

But while we were still sinners, Christ loved us.

And Christ died for the ungodly.

And so he did what he had to do, which

is come in the person of a man, come as what the Bible calls

the last Adam in a sinless body, perfect spirit,

sinless soul.

And pick up where Adam left off and where he messed up,

Jesus wouldn't.

And on top of that, go to the cross as a sacrifice

to take away all of our sins.

So that's what I want to talk to you about this morning,

the incarnation.

And let's get ready for Advent.

And we've got another week.

Next Sunday will be Christmas Eve.

We'll be here celebrating once again.

Let's celebrate what Jesus did, shall we?

Isaiah, let's go to Isaiah 9.6.

The word incarnation means the act of being made flesh.

And it comes from the Latin version of John 114, which

in English reads the word became flesh.

The word was incarnated and made his dwelling among us.

So let's talk about the person of Jesus.

And for too long, it's been a mystery.

Who was he?

Not what he did, but what was he?

God, man.

And that term, son of God, actually

seems to confuse a lot of people today,

because it had a different meaning in the Hebrew.

Especially if you come from a Catholic background,

it's confusing.

Yes, it is.

I talk to a lot of Catholics.

My kids go to Catholic school.

And I'll go to Catholics.

I'll say, tell me about Jesus.

Who is he?

He's the son of God.

OK, is he God also?

Well, and you see the head go on tilt.

They don't quite know, because there's a Mary figure

that's been introduced.

And so now it's almost like did God have a wife?

Therefore, he could have a son.

That's not the doctrine, but it produces this confusion.

Whereas son of God to the Hebrews,

I'll show you that a little bit, men, and something

entirely different than how I would say I have a son.

Here's an ancient prophecy from Isaiah.

For unto us a child is born.

Unto us a son is given.

And the government will be upon his shoulder.

And his name, this is the name of Jesus.

Wonderful, amen?

Counselor, how about the third one?

Say it out loud.

Mighty God.

Who is Jesus?

Mighty God.

The son of God, yes.

Is he God also?

Yes.

Mighty God.

What about the next one?

This will really bake your noodle.

Everlasting Father.

Jesus said, when you see me, you see the Father.

I and the Father are one.

Wonderful.

Counselor, mighty God.

Everlasting Father.

Prince of peace.

So is he the son of God?

Is he God?

Yes.

Is he mighty God?

Everlasting Father?

Yes.

But is he also, is he a king?

Is he also a prince?

Yes.

Hallelujah.

John, chapter 8, verse 56, going to 58.

John 8:56

I just want to bask in the glory of the Lord

and focus on his beauty, his magnificence.

And let's begin by first acknowledging

that Jesus always was.

He wasn't created on December 24th.

And he wasn't, he's not a creation that came right before

Mary got pregnant with him, supernaturally.

He always was.

Your Father, why is he so strong on his verse?

I think because it's so loaded and so dense with truth.

I mean, I'm having beautiful Jesus.

God and the flesh surrounded by cynics.

You know, Jesus didn't mind skeptics.

Even today, he doesn't mind skeptics.

But cynics, there's a difference.

If you're skeptical, he'll work with you.

I came to Christ, very, very skeptical, not knowing

what I believed, but I wasn't cynical.

Here, he's surrounded by cynics.

And he says, your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my day.

And he saw it and was glad.

Then the Jews said to him, you are not yet 50 years old

and have you seen Abraham?

And Jesus said to them, most assuredly,

I saved you before Abraham was, I am, I am.

Have no beginning, have no end, have coexisted

with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit

since the beginning, before Abraham was, I am.

And this is how God revealed himself

on the Old Testament as the great I am.

This, by the way, in the gospels, not all of them,

but I believe one of them, at least one,

where the soldiers coming into arrest him, right,

before that sham of a trial in the middle of the night

that broke countless Jewish laws.

The soldier said, is that the one?

Are you the one?

And he said, I am he.

And 50 soldiers fell to the floor.

Bible says they fell, prostrate.

It's something they never show you

in any of the Jesus movies, not the 70s ones

with the surfer Jesus and not the modern ones.

None of them.

I want to see that scene, where he says I am

and they hit the deck, falling under the power of God.

Hallelujah.

Let's look at Matthew 118 talking about the birth of Jesus.

Thank you, Lord, for coming.

Thank you, Lord, you are always a person,

but you were made a man.

When you were on earth, you were 100% God

and 100% man at the same time.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows.

After his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph

before they came together,

she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.

I thought the father was Jesus's father.

I thought Jesus was the child of the father.

Here it says she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.

Which one is it?

Yes.

Yes.

What I'm trying to get you to see and get you

to dive in and enjoy is the reality of God

taking his asusia, his essence, his substance, his spirit

and putting it inside the womb of the Virgin Mary.

She gave birth to God in the flesh.

All three involved in the incarnation,

the father, the Holy Spirit and the Word who is Jesus.

She was found with child of the Holy Spirit.

Let's go to Luke to just get a little bit

of a better glimpse of how this actually happened.

Now in the six month the angel Gabriel was sent by God

to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,

to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph

of the house of David.

The virgin's name was Mary.

And having come in, the angel said to her,

rejoice, highly favored one.

The Lord is with you, blessed are you among women.

But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying

and considered what manner of greeting this was.

The angel said to her, do not be afraid Mary

for you have found favor with God.

And behold, you will conceive in your womb.

How will that conception take place?

You will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son

and shall call his name Jesus.

He will be great and will be called the son of the highest

and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David.

And he will reign.

Thank you, Lord.

Over the house of Jacob forever.

And of his kingdom there will be no end.

And Mary asks a fair question.

How can this be since I'm a virgin,

since I do not know a man?

And the angel said to her,

the Holy Spirit will come upon you.

Can you imagine the full volume,

anointing blast that came upon her,

covering her, surrounding her,

going inside of her,

the Holy Spirit, God's Spirit,

Yahweh's Rua.

The creator, God,

the one who made the heavens and the earth,

the Genesis says he formed the stars also.

Have you ever caught in Genesis how it says that God just,

it says, it goes into the detail of the earthly creation

and it just says, and he formed the stars also,

almost like it's an afterthought.

He was so focused on the earth and he formed the stars also,

kind of just set them up.

Billions of them in the cosmos.

He's going to overshadow you.

It will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you.

Therefore also that holy one who is to be born

will be called the Son of God.

Hallelujah.

Merry Christmas, everybody.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

He did that for you.

He did that for me.

My son the other day was asking me,

who killed Jesus?

You know what I said?

I said, I did.

And you did.

You got to get to look a horror first before you can hit.

I did.

You did.

We killed him because he came for our sin.

If we didn't have sin, he wouldn't have died.

He was born to die.

In fact, if you look at a picture of majors from that era,

you'll see they were made of stone.

Google Middle Eastern major, first century.

And you're going to see it hue and out of stone.

You know what it looks like, a tomb.

I say that because in the hallmark cards,

and the way majors always presented like

in the little setups in front of churches,

it's kind of like two wooden slats with some hay in it.

It's not what the majors were like.

They were made out of stone.

Held the water or held hay.

Could you imagine baby Jesus lying in a sarcophagus in a tomb?

That's what that major was.

It was a prophetic foreshadowing of it.

He was born to die.

He came to take away our sins.

Hallelujah.

Revelation 3.14.

Thank you, Lord.

And the angel of the church,

excuse me, and to the angel of the church of the Leodiceans,

right, these things says the amen,

the faithful and true witness,

the beginning of the creation of God,

who is Jesus, the beginning of the creation of God.

Now this can throw someone off because it almost sounds like,

almost sounds like he was the first thing that God created,

the beginning of the creation of God.

That's not what it's saying.

It's saying that he's the origin of the creation of God.

He is the source of the creation of God.

God spoke, released the word, and creation happened.

Jesus was right there at creation from the beginning.

The Bible says all things were made by Him,

and without Him was not anything made that was made.

Everything is held together.

This is Scripture by the Word of His power.

In Him we live and move and have our being.

And then all things are held together.

The molecules in our bodies,

held together, the universe,

and the universe of universe is held together

by the Word of His power.

Thank you, Lord.

Hebrews 10.5.

So we have God,

putting Himself in the womb of the Virgin Mary,

who was called Blessed Among Women.

And I'll just leave it at that.

That's all the Scripture's call there.

Blessed Among Women.

Not to be worshipped among women.

Not to be prey to among women.

But Blessed Among Women.

And to this day we bless her.

And acknowledge the contribution.

But He bypassed, God bypassed,

this world system, and bypassed the natural order of things

because He had to be made flesh.

He had to become in human form.

And so Mary was a vessel filled with the Holy Spirit.

And God was made flesh incarnated through her.

A special body was prepared for Him.

And He was different.

He was a hundred percent God.

He was a hundred percent man.

But He was different than any other human.

Because He didn't have a thin, spotted soul.

Let me try that again.

Another way.

Jesus didn't perform any miracles until He was anointed

at His baptism.

The Bible says He had emptied Himself out.

He had laid aside some of His divine attributes

when He was on earth.

And this is a great paradox.

Because then the Bible says when He was anointed,

He was anointed with the Holy Spirit without measure.

So on the one side He laid aside His divine attributes.

On the other side He received the anointing.

We all get it with a certain measure.

But Jesus received it without measure.

But He never did any miracles.

When I was in Ethiopia,

there was this old church, an old mosaic,

and they showed like an eight and nine-year-old Jesus

picking up pieces of clay.

And it was a mural that went on, kind of like a comic strip.

Picking up pieces of clay,

and then turning it into doves that flew away.

Pretty mural, completely unscriptural.

He didn't do that.

He couldn't have done that.

There's no recorded miracle of Jesus

until He was anointed by the Holy Spirit.

That's when the power of God came upon Him,

although before that He was still fully God and fully man.

But there's this interesting passage in Scripture

where when He was 12 years old,

He got lost.

Must have been a very large caravan.

Because His parents didn't even notice for three days.

What kind of neglect is that?

They must have thought He was in the back coach on His iPad

or something.

So, boys, it will be boys.

Three days, He took Him to realize,

oh, where's Jesus?

I mean, remember the scene in home alone?

Where's Kevin?

They're rushing back.

I mean, even they didn't even take them three days.

Took Mary and Joseph three days.

And they come back and they see Jesus in the temple in Jerusalem,

surrounded by the doctors of the law.

And it says He was both asking them questions

and teaching them, asking inquisitive.

And that they were all confounded.

Who is this kid?

This is so profound.

Until I studied it further, I used to think,

oh, of course, He's the person who wrote the whole Bible.

And He's God.

And so, He was just able to refer to them in that way

and confound them.

But it wasn't Him operating as God.

It was Him operating as a man.

But a different kind of man,

because His mind, His soul,

was unspotted and untainted from sin.

R's is, by the way, you know.

Spotted with sin.

And our minds can be renewed.

Tell me somebody, how do you renew your mind?

The word.

Picture the word as a giant bar of soap

that renews your mind every single day.

Our soul, our psyche, our mind, will and emotions

are being constantly renewed

whenever we're in the Word of God.

But Jesus came with a totally perfect soul.

Came with a totally sinless body.

And of course, a sinless spirit.

Therefore, when He came into the world,

He said, sacrifice and offering.

You did not desire but a body.

I'm hammering this because it's important.

The entire letter of John,

first John, is written to Nostics

who didn't believe that Jesus had a physical body.

They believed anything physical was evil.

Therefore, Jesus must have just been a spirit gliding around.

But there's a power when you confess biblical truth

that Jesus came in a body.

That He was man.

He often referred to Himself as Son of Man.

And yet, fully God, at the same time.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

I want to just answer this question

because they hear it often

to those who are brave enough to ask.

Because I find a lot of people have this question,

but they don't ask.

But you can ask.

And you should ask some important questions,

such as, if Jesus is God,

why is He called God Son?

Isn't that a fair question? Talk to me, church.

Right, doesn't that get a little confusing?

Am I the only one that asks questions of others?

No, you should ask your friends, even your Christian friends,

ask them, what do you believe about the makeup of Jesus?

What do you believe about the identity of Jesus?

Do you believe He's got Son? Yes.

Well, how could He then be God?

And then watch the...

You should have an answer to that.

Amen.

And it gets even more confusing today in America

because Son only means one thing.

Like, I have a Son.

But He's a separate person than me.

It has His own unique identity.

Here's what Son meant in the Hebrew.

Equal in likeness to identical to.

And you know the Jews understood this.

Go to John 518.

Equal in likeness to identical to.

So when you say, Jesus is God's Son,

you're saying He's equal in likeness to He's identical to God.

In fact, Jesus said, I came forth from Him

and I will return back to Him.

Hallelujah.

Therefore, the Jews sought all the more to kill Him

because He not only broke the Sabbath,

but also said that God was His Father

making Himself equal with God.

That's why they wanted Him dead.

For a lot of reasons, they were very jealous.

He threatened their whole system,

but He also allowed people to recognize Him

as the Son of God, which they immediately knew

if you're saying you're the Son of God,

you're making yourself equal to God.

Hallelujah.

And there's a power also in saying,

Yahweh God of the Old Testament

is Jesus Christ of the New Testament.

Hallelujah.

I think it's healthy, right?

That we talk about these things.

Since we spend our lives worshiping Jesus,

who He is and where He stands in the Godhead, Amen?

So that when we begin praying,

we don't sound confused and confuse others.

And just throwing every name there,

Father God in the name of Jesus, Holy Ghost,

Lord Jesus Christ, Father, Daddy, God, Holy Spirit.

Just like, let me name them all three several times,

so I hit each one.

I don't know who's going to answer me today.

They're one.

Amen.

The Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of Christ.

It's God's Spirit.

They're separate though.

Yes, they're also one.

Hallelujah.

Let me read from Philippians.

Philippians talking about how Jesus emptied Himself.

Philippians chapter 2 verses 6 through 8 worship team, come on up.

Philippians 2:6–8

Who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God

something to be used to His own advantage.

Rather, He made Himself nothing,

or He made Himself of no reputation.

That's what He did when He left heaven and the glory of heaven.

And once again, He didn't have to, but He did it because He loved us.

I don't know what that was like for Him,

but I imagine pretty different.

I mean, the glories of heaven, where everything is perfect,

coming down here.

I don't want to sound sacrilege.

My first thought is, oh, the smell.

He goes, I'm trying to give you permission to let your mind wander.

Everybody, just fluff your tush a little bit right now.

Would you do that for me on this beautiful Advent season?

Just rotate it around a little bit in your seat.

May your sphinxter be loose.

There is a power when you gaze upon Him.

There's a power when you look at Him.

And if you don't ever give yourself an opportunity to just go into your sanctified imagination

and think about what happened during Christmas.

And what was that like?

God Himself, the creator of the universe, came and dwelt among us, incarnated, was made flesh.

Hallelujah.

What was that like?

Ask Him.

Pray about it.

Sing to Him.

Make a song on the spot of spontaneous spiritual song.

Sing to Him about it.

He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant.

That's what it was like for God Almighty to come and just be born in human form.

The nature of a servant, and being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself

by becoming obedient to death, even death, on a cross.

Another question.

Why did God come to earth as a man?

Why did He have to?

Why was it important that He come as a human?

We actually just read this, but let's do it again in Galatians.

During our series on Galatians, we touched on this.

Galatians four, four through five.

Hallelujah.

You know what I think of when I hear that He was a man?

That is that He knows, and He gets me.

He understands.

He understands.

The Bible says He was tempted in all points like as we are, but without sin.

Sometimes you think of Jesus just in His resurrected form.

You think, does He get it?

Yeah, He gets it.

I love reading in Revelation to the seven churches.

He always starts off with, I know.

I know your works.

I know your deeds.

I know.

You just keep reading in Jesus as I know.

I know.

I know.

And He just hit me one day that He's saying, whatever your thing is, I know.

I know.

I love you.

Lord, you know?

Yes.

And I still love you.

And I'm for you.

I'm not against you.

I'm with you.

I hold you in the palm of my hand.

I know.

But when the fullness of a time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, He had to be born of a woman.

He had to come down to earth.

He had to be the last Adam.

Born under the law, He had to be born under the law.

Because He fulfilled the law perfectly.

Jesus never ever sent.

To redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

I'll close with this, John chapter 3 and verse 14.

John 3 · chapter mention

I'm just encouraging you right now as it's a week before Christmas.

Especially with other people to talk about Jesus, with your families, with your children, with your roommates, with your friends.

Talk about the nature of Jesus, the person of Jesus.

Behold Him.

Look at Him.

Jesus talks about the importance of this here in John 3.14 when He says,

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

Now, to really understand this and get the benefit of it, you have to know what happened here when Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.

Thousands of spipers were attacking the children of Israel.

It was actually a judgment. It was a curse against them.

And they were dropping like flies. It was complete pandemonium.

You ever see snakes on a plane?

Imagine that, times a thousand.

I actually haven't seen it, but I saw the trailer.

I just imagine thousands of spipers, a one bite.

They're going in a catatonic state.

This wasn't like I got four days to make it. They were literally dying.

And Moses rushes to God and says,

God, He begins to intercede for the Hebrews.

And God said, make a bronze serpent, put it on a pole, and whoever looks at the bronze serpent on the pole will be healed.

And as the children of Israel began looking and gazing and setting their eyes on this bronze serpent on a pole,

they got to get healed and the curse was lifted.

And Jesus says, even as Moses was lifted up,

excuse me, as Moses was lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,

even so must the son of man be lifted up,

because that serpent on a pole was prophetic and was foreshadowing what Jesus would do.

Jesus was lifted up on a cross.

And Jesus became like a serpent on a pole.

How is that? Because he who knew no sin was made into sin.

Like this satanic serpent-like creature, he became sin.

Beautiful Jesus. Glorious Jesus.

Didn't just take on sin. He was made sin.

And that when you set your eyes and set your gaze on him, you're healed.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

So we're going to take a moment here and set our eyes on Jesus.

One final verse, Hebrews 12, 2.

Fixing our eyes on Jesus.

And I'm going to invite you during this next song to fix your eyes on Jesus.

The pioneer and perfector of faith.

The author and the finisher of our faith.

For the joy set before him, he endured the cross,

scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Father, we're so grateful for the incarnation.

We're grateful that you were made flesh, that you were made man,

born under the law, fulfilling the law perfectly,

ultimately paying the price for our sins, being raised again on the third day.

Will you look to him right now? Look to the serpent on the pole.

Look to Jesus. Fix your eyes on him.

Merry Christmas, everybody.

This is the City Light Church podcast.

If you've missed any part of today's message,

or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jansik in City Light Church,

visit us at citylightnyc.com. That's citylightnyc.com.

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We pray that you have been encouraged today,

that you have been reminded how much God loves you,

and that you are surrounded by grace.

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