WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.960 Up until 2007, if you lived in DC, you would know that virtually everybody owned a Blackberry. 00:00:11.040 --> 00:00:18.640 Blackberries were nearly ubiquitous. We called them Crackberries because everybody who was 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:25.199 anybody had one, a little smart device with a built-in keyboard with a satisfying click. 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:31.039 And people thought that Blackberries had taken over the world and that they were here to stay. 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:40.079 But in 2007, Steve Jobs stood up on a stage and he made an announcement that would change the world. He 00:00:40.719 --> 00:00:48.879 unveiled for the first time the first generation of the iPhone. And what people realized almost 00:00:48.879 --> 00:00:54.560 immediately is that this wasn't just an updated or upgraded version of a Blackberry. It was an 00:00:54.560 --> 00:01:05.680 entirely new concept, re-engineered from the ground up. And in a moment, the nearly ubiquitous Crackberry 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:14.400 became entirely obsolete. This kind of thing we see throughout history again and again and again, 00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:22.320 especially in the world of technology. You have an old model and then at some point a new model, 00:01:22.319 --> 00:01:31.199 new version comes along, a new concept comes along that changes the game. So think about the printing press 00:01:31.759 --> 00:01:40.479 or the electric light bulb or the automobile, right now AI, revolutionizing entire industries. 00:01:41.679 --> 00:01:43.839 And every time something like this happens, 00:01:43.840 --> 00:01:53.280 it makes everything that came before obsolete. But it also opens up our minds to possibilities that 00:01:53.280 --> 00:02:00.960 we never considered before as we look to the future. Now we can debate whether or not this was a good 00:02:00.960 --> 00:02:09.280 thing or a bad thing for society when this happened back in 2007. But what we want to focus on this 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:18.560 morning is that the story of Christmas in the Bible says that of all of these moments, these kind of 00:02:18.560 --> 00:02:25.280 revolutionary moments, there's actually one moment in history that outshines them all. And that is the 00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:32.000 moment of Christmas morning. From the earliest days of our existence, from the stone age all the way to the 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:42.400 digital age, there's only ever been one model of human. One model, one way to be human. And it's what 00:02:42.400 --> 00:02:50.960 the Bible refers to as people of the old Adam. For all of history, there's only been one kind of human being, 00:02:50.960 --> 00:02:57.520 people of the old Adam, or as we might think of it, humanity 1.0. But on Christmas morning, 00:02:57.520 --> 00:03:06.719 God unveiled an entirely new kind of human being to the world. Jesus was not only a good teacher or a 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:14.560 devoted humanitarian, he represents an entirely new way of being human. And the Apostle Paul and the 00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:21.680 other early Christians clearly recognized this. And that's why Paul refers to Jesus as the new Adam. 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:31.599 If he were alive today, he might say, humanity 2.0. And in this passage that we just heard read from A.J., 00:03:31.599 --> 00:03:39.360 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul is describing the difference between the old version of humanity and 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:46.000 the new version of humanity that we see in Jesus. So that's what I want to focus on this morning. What are 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:51.840 the differences between the old and the new humanity? And then what difference does that make for us? 00:03:53.039 --> 00:03:55.599 So that's where we're going to go over the next few minutes. Let's pray. 00:03:58.080 --> 00:04:06.719 Lord, we thank you for your word. And though our voices may at times be weak, your voice is always 00:04:06.719 --> 00:04:13.360 strong. And you always accomplish all that you set out to accomplish through your word. 00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:19.040 Lord, and it's your voice that we seek to hear this morning. And we pray that as we hear it 00:04:19.040 --> 00:04:26.160 in this Advent season, that we would find an answer to our longings, that we would find satisfaction and 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:32.080 hope. And we pray this not only for our good, but for the good of the whole world and for your glory. 00:04:32.639 --> 00:04:34.720 We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:36.720 Amen. 00:04:37.040 --> 00:04:42.800 So what are some of the differences between the old humanity and the new humanity that we see here in 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:51.520 verses 42 to 44? We see Paul describing the old humanity as being marked by qualities such as perishability, 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:59.840 or dishonor, or weakness. And you know, this speaks to our physical, our moral, and our spiritual limitations. 00:04:59.839 --> 00:05:08.879 Perishability means that everything in this world is slowly breaking down and returning to dust. 00:05:10.159 --> 00:05:16.559 Right? This is the second law of thermodynamics, that everything in creation is expending more energy 00:05:17.039 --> 00:05:25.359 than it can replenish. Everything's winding down. And this isn't just people. Romans chapter 8 is a 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:30.960 place where Paul says that all of creation is in bondage to decay. It's all coming apart. 00:05:32.400 --> 00:05:39.600 Right? So cosmically, socially, psychologically, physically, everything breaks down. 00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:46.480 And we see this. This resonates. Think about governments. Think about our government. It takes 00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:53.040 more energy to have a good government than a bad government. Right? The path of least resistance 00:05:53.040 --> 00:05:59.760 leads either to tyranny or anarchy. It takes more energy to have a good government. It requires the 00:05:59.760 --> 00:06:06.640 investment of citizens. But even the best governments, even the best empires collapse, 00:06:07.280 --> 00:06:15.360 given enough time. It takes more energy to have a good marriage or a good friendship than a bad one. 00:06:15.360 --> 00:06:22.560 The path of least resistance is to grow apart. Right? You have to invest. But over time, 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:29.920 even the best relationships will fade. It takes more energy to be psychologically healthy. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:41.439 Right? The path of least resistance is neurosis, is distorted thinking, giving in to anxiety or despair. 00:06:41.439 --> 00:06:50.480 It takes work to be psychologically healthy. But even the most sound mind in time will give way. 00:06:53.199 --> 00:06:58.639 It takes more energy to be physically healthy than it does to be unhealthy. The path of least resistance... 00:07:02.159 --> 00:07:07.360 Well, I was going to make a joke about myself, but it's to be like me. No, the path of least resistance 00:07:07.360 --> 00:07:14.879 is to be unhealthy. But no matter how much we eat right or to exercise, we're still going to grow old 00:07:14.879 --> 00:07:22.000 and we're still going to die. So this is what perishability means. It's the reality that everything's 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:28.400 breaking down. Dishonor means that we are dead to rights, basically. It means that we've rebelled and 00:07:28.400 --> 00:07:34.480 rejected the God who made us and so we're dead to rights. As one commentator put it, 00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:43.360 we're spiritually dead and a corpse has no rights. Weakness speaks to our moral limitations as much 00:07:43.360 --> 00:07:50.319 as our physical limitations. We know the kind of people that we want to be. I can see the kind of 00:07:50.319 --> 00:07:57.600 man that I want to be. But in our weakness, we cannot ever become that person. There was a renowned 00:07:57.600 --> 00:08:04.320 child psychiatrist named Robert Coles and he told a story in his graduate class at Harvard University. 00:08:04.320 --> 00:08:11.200 He says this, a highly regarded psychiatrist recently told me in despair, I've been doing 00:08:11.200 --> 00:08:19.200 therapy with a man for 15 years and he's as angry, as self-centered, and as mean as he was the first day 00:08:19.199 --> 00:08:25.759 he walked into my office. The only difference is that now he knows why he is so angry and mean. 00:08:27.599 --> 00:08:33.439 You know, Coles went on to say that although the psychiatrist provided his client with insight 00:08:33.439 --> 00:08:40.000 as to how his childhood emotional wounding had affected his adult dysfunction, the man still had not 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:51.039 changed. Coles asked this, could we conclude that what this man needed wasn't just information but 00:08:51.039 --> 00:09:00.240 transformation? And then he asks this to his Harvard class, but is transformation possible for human beings? 00:09:00.240 --> 00:09:12.480 Right? He's contending with our limitations as humanity 1.0. We're profoundly limited in our ability to 00:09:12.480 --> 00:09:19.200 solve the very problems that we create in the world. We can devote ourselves to ending racial discrimination 00:09:19.200 --> 00:09:25.440 and we should give ourselves to that fully, mind, body, and soul, and do as much as we can. 00:09:25.440 --> 00:09:32.320 But human beings are hardwired to prefer people who look like us over people who don't. 00:09:34.080 --> 00:09:35.760 It's just written into our wiring. 00:09:38.320 --> 00:09:43.040 We can devote ourselves to ending poverty. We can devote ourselves to seeking equal rights 00:09:43.040 --> 00:09:50.480 and opportunities for all people. But human beings are hardwired for greed. We're hardwired for covetousness. 00:09:50.480 --> 00:09:54.960 In other words, it's always going to be an uphill battle. 00:09:57.120 --> 00:10:00.800 It's always going to be an uphill battle. We prefer to think of ourselves as Atlas, 00:10:01.360 --> 00:10:06.240 holding the world on our shoulders by sheer determination and will, making it a better place. 00:10:07.039 --> 00:10:12.720 In reality, we're Sisyphus, continually pushing a boulder uphill only to see it roll back 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:20.960 back again and again and again. St. Augustine says this is because we are all curved inward on ourselves. 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:31.120 It's sin has a gravitational pull. Sin has a gravitational pull. And it pulls our love and our devotion away 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:41.200 from God and into and toward ourselves. And the result is not only alienation from God, but the result is the 00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:47.519 fracturing of society. This is what Augustine says leads to all the brokenness and injustice in the world. 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:54.879 This is the reality of humanity 1.0. These are the limitations that we contend with. 00:10:55.840 --> 00:11:01.919 Now look at the way Paul describes the new humanity in Jesus Christ. Imperishable. 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:07.759 Glorious. Powerful. 00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:18.080 Jesus. When he's unveiled to the world through his birth and then subsequently his resurrection, 00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:25.679 he shows us a new kind of human body that is imperishable. Through the death and resurrection 00:11:25.679 --> 00:11:33.360 of Jesus, he emerges with a body that is physical and yet it doesn't age, it doesn't decay, it doesn't 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:39.279 break down, it doesn't die. It's a body that is built to last into eternity. 00:11:42.080 --> 00:11:44.560 And the new humanity is full of glory and power. 00:11:46.879 --> 00:11:48.560 It's no longer curved inward. 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:53.680 It's turned outward and it's turned up to God. 00:11:55.039 --> 00:11:58.399 And that is its nature to turn out and up to God. 00:11:58.399 --> 00:12:02.399 It's full of righteousness and truth. 00:12:04.399 --> 00:12:08.079 Our current existence compared to that existence, 00:12:09.439 --> 00:12:15.759 comparing humanity 1.0 to humanity 2.0, would be like comparing a candle to the sun. 00:12:15.759 --> 00:12:25.439 And here's the most amazing thing about this passage. 00:12:27.120 --> 00:12:30.319 Not only does Paul give us a vision of what human beings could be, 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:34.720 he says that there's actually a way for us to attain this. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:42.399 We can actually attain this for ourselves. But the question is, how? And reflect on that for just a second. 00:12:42.399 --> 00:12:51.039 So what did you come up with? 00:12:55.199 --> 00:12:56.159 How do we attain this? 00:12:58.319 --> 00:13:02.639 A couple of things we see in this passage that point us back to Christmas. 00:13:04.240 --> 00:13:07.919 Number one, we have to recognize that we cannot attain this on our own. 00:13:07.919 --> 00:13:14.719 We cannot attain this on our own. You know, throughout history, human beings have always loved to believe 00:13:15.199 --> 00:13:21.839 that we have the power within ourselves to overcome our limitations, to transcend our creatureliness, 00:13:22.559 --> 00:13:26.479 and to perfect ourselves. All the way back in the fifth century BC, 00:13:26.959 --> 00:13:34.159 Socrates was talking about the constant improvement of our souls through meditation, through fasting, through exercise. 00:13:34.159 --> 00:13:41.759 The enlightenment was built around the unlimited hope we place in human reason and ingenuity, 00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:45.039 to transform ourselves and society for the better. 00:13:46.319 --> 00:13:52.240 In the 1970s, the New Age movement arose and it preached personal transformation and healing by 00:13:52.799 --> 00:13:57.439 accessing our spiritual energy through yoga or tarot cards or astrology. 00:13:57.440 --> 00:14:05.360 These days, Instagram and TikTok are full of self-made, self-proclaimed gurus, 00:14:06.160 --> 00:14:14.320 teaching their followers how to optimize themselves and live their one wild and precious life to the fullest. 00:14:15.920 --> 00:14:21.840 Even someone like Jordan Peterson, who has millions of followers, including many Christians, 00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:30.240 Christians, if you listen closely to what he says, the core message is this, is that each one of us needs to make our bed 00:14:31.120 --> 00:14:39.440 and clean our room and aim at the highest good we can and take responsibility and hoist the world on our shoulders. 00:14:40.240 --> 00:14:46.000 And if enough people do that over enough time, the world will become what it was always meant to be. 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:52.799 And there's a lot of wisdom in that message for sure, but ultimately it's all the same message. 00:14:53.600 --> 00:14:56.480 It's the message of the Tower of Babel. 00:14:57.919 --> 00:15:01.480 It's the message that with enough hard work and with enough determination, 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:08.399 human beings can scaffold our way up to the heavens and forever be changed. 00:15:08.399 --> 00:15:16.959 But this is the great lie that goes all the way back to the fall itself, that we don't actually ultimately need anything from God. 00:15:18.959 --> 00:15:20.480 Paul says in verse 48, 00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:28.600 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are born of the dust. 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:31.840 We are of the dust. 00:15:31.840 --> 00:15:39.280 Our nature is constrained by that and there's nothing that we can do to escape it. 00:15:41.280 --> 00:15:47.759 The only way forward, the only way to attain this is to recognize that we need a new nature. 00:15:50.080 --> 00:15:58.000 As Jesus says to Nicodemus, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:02.159 And then he says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. 00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:05.039 Your nature is of the dust. 00:16:05.039 --> 00:16:06.720 Your humanity, 1.0. 00:16:07.600 --> 00:16:09.519 That which is born of the flesh is flesh. 00:16:09.679 --> 00:16:12.320 That which is born of the spirit is spirit. 00:16:12.320 --> 00:16:14.159 You need a new nature. 00:16:16.159 --> 00:16:17.039 So that's the first thing. 00:16:17.039 --> 00:16:19.120 We have to recognize we can't attain this on our own. 00:16:22.240 --> 00:16:24.559 And then the second point follows after the first. 00:16:24.559 --> 00:16:28.799 First, we have to be willing, therefore, to die. 00:16:30.319 --> 00:16:33.519 Notice the image that Paul repeatedly uses in this passage. 00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:41.239 He compares us again and again to seeds that need to be sown into the ground in order to be transformed into something new. 00:16:43.119 --> 00:16:44.159 The point is this. 00:16:44.199 --> 00:16:48.419 If we want transformation, we have to be willing to die. 00:16:51.399 --> 00:16:53.819 Firstly, we have to be willing to die to ourselves. 00:16:55.519 --> 00:16:59.399 To die to this Babel hope that we cling to. 00:17:01.399 --> 00:17:05.359 We have to be willing to admit that we've rejected God, that we deserve his wrath. 00:17:06.399 --> 00:17:10.179 That we have to be willing to reject this false hope of Babel. 00:17:11.399 --> 00:17:16.700 We have to be willing to admit that we don't have within ourselves the resources we need to become the people that we are created to be. 00:17:16.700 --> 00:17:22.220 We have to admit and recognize why Christmas is necessary. 00:17:23.220 --> 00:17:28.180 That our only hope rests in a God coming into this world to rescue us. 00:17:28.180 --> 00:17:35.120 A God who cares so much about our weakness and perishability that he was willing to become weak and perishable. 00:17:35.119 --> 00:17:39.779 We have to be willing to cry out for mercy. 00:17:39.919 --> 00:17:41.819 We have to be willing to put our faith in Jesus. 00:17:42.039 --> 00:17:42.839 It's the only way. 00:17:42.839 --> 00:17:49.619 But what the Bible says, what the gospel promises, is that when we do that, Jesus responds with grace and mercy. 00:17:50.539 --> 00:17:53.220 And in that moment, we are given a new nature. 00:17:53.399 --> 00:17:54.899 We receive the Holy Spirit. 00:17:55.199 --> 00:17:56.799 We're united with Christ. 00:17:56.799 --> 00:17:59.440 We're born not only of the flesh. 00:17:59.519 --> 00:18:01.159 We are born again of the Spirit. 00:18:02.119 --> 00:18:04.839 And this is, by the way, what baptism represents. 00:18:05.500 --> 00:18:09.339 It represents the death that we die to ourselves and to the old nature. 00:18:10.099 --> 00:18:13.919 And then the resurrection life and the new nature we gain in Jesus Christ. 00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:20.259 And this passage tells us that for those who put their faith in Jesus, 00:18:20.259 --> 00:18:27.740 death itself, physical death, becomes our means of transformation. 00:18:29.079 --> 00:18:32.180 So we not only have to die spiritually, 00:18:32.980 --> 00:18:38.619 but we have to recognize that this changes what it means for us to die physically. 00:18:39.980 --> 00:18:43.400 You know, we live in a society that is terrified of death, 00:18:43.819 --> 00:18:47.079 that lives in perpetual denial of death. 00:18:47.079 --> 00:18:51.419 Ernst Becker was a cultural anthropologist who won a Pulitzer for his book, 00:18:51.519 --> 00:18:52.500 The Denial of the Death. 00:18:52.679 --> 00:18:54.699 And basically, his book says this, 00:18:54.799 --> 00:18:57.500 that all human beings are caught in a kind of paradox, 00:18:57.899 --> 00:19:00.659 that on the one hand, we are self-aware. 00:19:01.240 --> 00:19:02.119 We have a name. 00:19:02.220 --> 00:19:03.059 We have a life history. 00:19:03.399 --> 00:19:06.839 We feel in our bones that we are somehow cosmically significant. 00:19:07.339 --> 00:19:09.699 So on the one hand, we know all of this in our bones, 00:19:09.779 --> 00:19:11.559 that there's got to be more to life than this. 00:19:12.159 --> 00:19:13.119 I've got to have meaning. 00:19:13.199 --> 00:19:14.279 There's a reason that I'm here. 00:19:14.279 --> 00:19:16.000 And on the other hand, we're worm food. 00:19:17.079 --> 00:19:20.899 And we're going to die, and we're going to rot, 00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:21.879 and we're going to be dust. 00:19:22.460 --> 00:19:24.619 And a hundred years from now, nobody's going to know our name. 00:19:26.019 --> 00:19:29.359 And he says we cannot resolve this, and so we live in this denial. 00:19:29.579 --> 00:19:33.619 And he says this is what leads to all kinds of psychological and social ills. 00:19:35.220 --> 00:19:39.139 He says a lot of what motivates us to get up and to do the hard work that we do 00:19:39.140 --> 00:19:43.660 and to gut it out is an attempt to build some kind of legacy that will outlive us. 00:19:47.060 --> 00:19:49.900 This is the sting of death, as Paul calls it. 00:19:50.759 --> 00:19:55.840 But for Christians, death is simply a doorway into new life. 00:19:55.839 --> 00:19:59.919 It is the road into the new humanity that Jesus offers. 00:20:00.359 --> 00:20:08.220 It is the way to be transferred from the domain of the old Adam to the kingdom of the new Adam. 00:20:10.220 --> 00:20:16.199 So Christians are able to embrace the very thing that most people spend their entire lives running from, 00:20:16.759 --> 00:20:17.659 death itself. 00:20:17.660 --> 00:20:19.400 And all of this is because of Christmas. 00:20:20.740 --> 00:20:27.360 It's no wonder that the early Christian artists commonly used the butterfly as a symbol of death and resurrection. 00:20:28.420 --> 00:20:31.080 Because the body, this body, is like the caterpillar. 00:20:32.080 --> 00:20:35.580 But the promise is that through death, the cocoon of death, 00:20:36.040 --> 00:20:38.960 we will be transformed into the butterfly. 00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:45.120 Or as the Anglican priest and poet George Herbert wrote, 00:20:46.660 --> 00:20:49.759 death used to be an executioner, 00:20:50.259 --> 00:20:54.079 but the gospel has made him just a gardener. 00:20:56.279 --> 00:20:59.420 Through death, we are sown like seeds into the ground, 00:20:59.799 --> 00:21:05.180 only to emerge as a new being beyond anything we can possibly imagine. 00:21:05.180 --> 00:21:09.140 So this is the hope that arrives on Christmas morning, 00:21:09.420 --> 00:21:11.860 as Paul says in verse 49. 00:21:13.160 --> 00:21:15.660 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, 00:21:16.220 --> 00:21:21.500 we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. 00:21:22.460 --> 00:21:23.460 And that's the promise. 00:21:24.160 --> 00:21:24.779 Let's pray. 00:21:27.259 --> 00:21:30.140 Lord, we thank you for these words of hope 00:21:30.140 --> 00:21:34.960 that tie Christmas and Easter together 00:21:34.960 --> 00:21:38.140 and that tie these promises to our lives. 00:21:39.080 --> 00:21:41.140 We thank you for the hope that it brings 00:21:41.140 --> 00:21:44.920 and for all here who are struggling under the burden 00:21:44.920 --> 00:21:49.259 of our perishability and our weakness, 00:21:50.180 --> 00:21:51.100 our powerlessness. 00:21:51.099 --> 00:21:58.059 Lord, for all who are lamenting our human condition, 00:21:58.259 --> 00:22:01.379 Lord, we pray that this would offer sound and true hope. 00:22:02.639 --> 00:22:04.859 Lord, that as much as we strive now, 00:22:04.939 --> 00:22:06.419 that one day we will be changed, 00:22:06.559 --> 00:22:07.480 we will be made new. 00:22:08.259 --> 00:22:10.699 We pray that as we celebrate the story 00:22:10.699 --> 00:22:11.699 of the coming of Christ, 00:22:12.539 --> 00:22:15.859 that you would imbue us with this hope, 00:22:16.519 --> 00:22:18.119 plant it deeply in our hearts, 00:22:18.119 --> 00:22:21.359 that it would sustain us through whatever we face. 00:22:22.359 --> 00:22:24.000 We pray this, Lord, for our good 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:25.719 and for your glory in Jesus' name. 00:22:26.039 --> 00:22:26.399 Amen.