SERIES INTRODUCTION
To say that I have been waiting all year for Christmas would be an understatement.
I love Christmas so much that I would be happy to celebrate it all year long. Why Christmas? What makes this holiday so much more meaningful than any other? Surely the Day of Atonement or Easter warrant the same level of overflowing joy.
While we often fail to fully grasp the full meaning of the Cross and the Resurrection, neither of these would not have been realized without the Incarnation—the beginning. This is what we remember during the warmth of Christmas. It has the power to stop us in our tracks and remind us to live love.
Back home in England, various companies create special television advertisements intended to capture the essence of Christmas. The hope, of course, is to connect the joy of the season with a specific product. But if you can put your natural cynicism regarding marketing to the side for a moment and simply watch these, you’ll notice that they each demonstrate the overflowing power of love. It is incredible what it can do. In December of 2014, Sainsbury’s supermarket retold the famous story of how, on Christmas Eve of 1914, during World War I, the Germans and British soldiers stopped killing each other briefly and instead celebrated the overflow of the incarnation—peace to all humankind. If you have four minutes to spare, watch the advert for yourself.
We end the year 2018 with a Christmas-focused sermon series called Overflow as a celebration of the Incarnation of Jesus. He chose to place Himself among us. He kept His promise and changed the trajectory of the universe so that love may overflow. Over the next five weeks we will experience this joy together, through passages from five different books.
Week 1: Overflow (Luke 6:43-45)
Week 2: All of It (Ephesians 4:1-16)
Week 3: Jesus. All. (Revelation 4:8-11)
Week 4: Thank You (Hebrews 12:28-29)
Week 5: Precursor to Christmas, Incarnation (Philippians 2:5-11)
Japhet J. De Oliveira
Senior Pastor
Boulder Adventist Church
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Desire of Ages by Ellen White
A Matthew Commentary by Frederick Dale Bruner
Bible Amplifier by George R. Knight
Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke by David E. Garland
Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Matthew by Grant R Osborne
Hebrews-James, Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary by Edgar V. McKnight & Christopher Church
Interpretation: Luke by Fred B. Craddock
Luke for Everyone by N. T. Wright
Matthew for Everyone by N. T. Wright
Teach the Text Commentary: Luke by R. T. France
Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters by N. T. Wright
Plain Revelation: A Reader’s Introduction to the Apocalypse by Ranko Stefanovic
Prophecies of Revelation Made Simple by Seth J. Pierce
Reading Revelation Responsibly by Michael J. Gorman
Revelation for Everyone by N. T. Wright
Revelation of Jesus Christ: Commentary on the Book of Revelation by Ranko Stefanovic
Reversed Thunder by Eugene H. Peterson
Secrets of Revelation by Jacques B. Doukhan
Seven Keys: Unlocking the Secrets of Revelation by Jon Paulien
The Message of Ephesians by John R. W. Stott
The Message of Hebrews by Raymond Brown
The Message of Luke by Michael Wilcock
The Message of Philippians by J. A. Motyer