What’s So Special About Christmas - 2

 

What’s So Special About Christmas - 2

WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT THE WAY JESUS WAS BORN?

… based on Luke 1:26-38

Within the last week, you should have received a Christmas card from us.  And included in the card was a picture of Kathy & I, & our kids, 

& our grandkids.  It isn’t often that we all get together, 

so this picture is very special to me.  These are the people I love.

Now before the kids were born, & before the grandchildren were born,

I remember wondering what they would look like?  What kind of temperament would they have?  And now, as the years have gone by, 

it’s been fun for me to watch their personalities develop.

Most of them are extremely compassionate.  A couple of them are very sentimental.  A few can get impatient.  All of them are open-minded.  Many have an excellent work ethic.  The ones who have a temper, cool off quickly.  

They are all loyal to family & friends.

I’m guessing that Joseph & Mary must have been curious about their 1st born Son before He arrived.  

Mary especially.  She probably in some ways resembled her Dad & Mom.

Would Jesus have any of her physical characteristics or personality traits?

Imagine the moment when they saw their Baby for the 1st time.  

They knew this Child was like no other.  Angels had announced Him. 

(Luke 2:13-14), & prophecies had foretold Him. (Isaiah 9:6) No baby had ever been conceived in this way before, or since.  God had created Adam without a father or mother. (Genesis2:7) He made Eve from man alone. (Genesis 2:21-22) 

And the rest of us have come by natural means.  

But Jesus’ birth was something completely unique.

We’re going to talk about Jesus’ arrival this morning.  

Within our faith it’s called the “virgin birth.”  And there are those in the Church who believe it … & there are those who don’t.  In fact, up until about a generation or so ago, the virgin birth was the litmus test for orthodoxy or evangelicalism.   If you believed in it, you were an evangelical.  

If you didn’t, you were a liberal when it came to Scripture interpretation.  Let me say right here & now … I believe in the natural birth of Jesus.  

The so-called “virgin birth” of Jesus was nothing unusual whatsoever; 

it was just like every other birth that has ever taken place.

But the virgin conception of Jesus … now that’s a different matter.  

This is a strange, mysterious, Scriptural truth that all orthodox believers are called to accept.  Jesus was born in the ordinary way … but boy; 

He was conceived in the uniquest of ways.  

So, what’s so special about the way Jesus was born?

Listen now to Good News, as recorded by Luke, to us who have gathered here for worship.  Within our hearing comes the Word of the Lord …

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in Galilee named Nazareth.  He had a message for a young woman promised in marriage to a man named Joseph, who was a descendant of King David.  Her name was Mary.  The angel came to her and said, “Peace be with you!  The Lord is with you and has greatly blessed you!”

Mary was deeply troubled by the angel’s message, and she wondered what his words meant.  The angel said to her, “Don’t be afraid, Mary; God has been gracious to you.  You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High God.  The Lord will make him a king, as his ancestor David was, and he will be the king of the descendants of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end!”

Mary said to the angel, “I am a virgin.  How, then, can this be?”

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and God’s power will rest upon you.  For this reason the holy child will be called the Son of God.  Remember your relative Elizabeth.  It is said that she cannot have children, but she herself is now six months pregnant, even though she is very old.  For there is nothing that God cannot do.”

“I am the Lord’s servant,” said Mary; “may it happen to me as you have said.”  And the angel left her. (Luke 1:26-38)

This is the Good News of the Gospel; thanks be to God.

May the Lord grant that we may engage in contemplating the mysteries of His Heavenly wisdom with really increasing devotion, to His glory and to our edification. Amen

What’s so special about the way Jesus was born?  Scripture proclaims 

that Jesus was born of Mary … while she was still a virgin.

Matthew writes … 

“This was how the birth of Jesus Christ took place.  

His mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they were married, she found out that she was going to have a baby by the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 1:18)

Luke reports that an angel told Mary … 

“The Holy Spirit will come on you, & God’s power will rest upon you.”

This morning, I want us to think about why God did that.  Why was Jesus conceived by The Holy Spirit?  Why didn’t He come about the natural way?  God had raised up other men to accomplish His purposes.  He used Abraham & Moses & David.  He would use Peter & Paul.  Why did Jesus need to be born of a virgin?  What’s so special about the way Jesus was born?

When the Gospel writers begin with things like angelic visitors,

& announcements from Heaven, & Holy Spirit conceptions … when they introduce the story of Jesus that way what they mean to signal is, if we want to think rightly about Jesus the man, we’ve got to begin with Jesus the God.  There’s something Heavenly & Divine about Him right from the start. 

John opens His Gospel this way … “In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, & the Word was God.  From the very beginning the Word was with God.” (John 1:1) That’s our starting point in understanding Jesus.  And notice that this is way, way, way, way, 

before His conception & birth.  “In the beginning Christ already existed.”

If we want to think rightly about Jesus the man, we’ve got to start with Jesus the God, 

the Word, who was with God, & was God, from the very beginning.

Now that tells us 2 extremely important things about Jesus’ identity.  

1st of all, Jesus is the Son of God.  And by that we mean that Jesus is made of the same stuff that God is.  He possesses the same nature.

That’s what sonship means in a Scriptural way.

There’s a man in the N.T. named Joseph.

Joseph was such an encourager that he was given the nickname Barnabas, 

which means “son of encouragement.” (The Acts 4:36) “You know, that Joseph is so darn encouraging; he’s just the embodiment of encouragement, 

so let’s just call him ‘son of encouragement’ … Barnabas.”

Jesus had a couple of hot-headed disciples named James & John.  

They were often flying off the handle over things. (Luke 9:54) 

Jesus gave them the nickname, Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder.” (Mark 3:17) They were stormy guys.  They were thunder personified.

When we say that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, we mean that Jesus is deity embodied.  He’s God in the flesh.  He’s God personified.  And that helps us to think correctly about Him, because the 2 primary heresies regarding Jesus are that: (a) He’s not fully God, or (b) He’s not fully man.  

This is where the Mormons run into trouble, & the Jehovah Witnesses.

In fact, almost every cult begins here.  But Scripture leaves no room for us to think that either view can possibly be correct.

There are some that believe that Jesus was simply just a man, who was “adopted” at some point as God’s “chosen one.”  He was just a man, conceived & born in the normal way, & then at His baptism, God introduced Him saying, 

“This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased.” (Matthew 3:17) 

And at that moment God “adopted” Him as His own.  

Well, Scripture doesn’t support that kind of teaching at all.

“In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, 

& the Word was God.”  Jesus existed before He ever came to this earth.  Nor can we think in the opposite direction that Jesus was fully God but, 

He wasn’t really human; He only appeared to be a man.  He “put on” a human body & walked around for a while, but He wasn’t really a man.  

Well, Scripture denies that too.

The Son of God took on a human nature … He just didn’t live in a human body.  Jesus is 100% God & at the same time 100% man.  He was conceived by The Holy Spirit – God – &, born of the Virgin Mary – man.

Jesus had a mixed parentage.  He had a human parent, & He had a Divine Parent.  The rest of us only have human parents, which means that we inherit everything that’s human in this world, including sin nature.  

From the time that Adam & Eve 1st sinned in the Garden, 

they passed on the nature of sin to their offspring. (Romans 5:19)

David’s confessing his sins before God, & he prays …“I have been evil from the day I was born; from the time I was conceived, I have been sinful.”

(The Psalms 51:5)

That’s what it means to be a descendant of Adam.  It means that we are born with a sin nature.  We were conceived with it.  But Jesus didn’t have a human father.  He didn’t inherit Adam’s sin.  His Heavenly Father, 

via The Holy Spirit, poured Him into human flesh.  Heavenly Father …

human mother … 2 natures in 1.  Jesus Christ is the sinless Son of God.

He’s like us in every way … but for sin.

And yet, at the same time, He is one of us.  That’s what John affirms.

“The Word became a human being &, full of grace & truth, lived among us.”

I especially like the way the Message version of the Bible puts it.  

“The Word became flesh & blood & moved into the neighborhood.”  

God became a man & moved in next door.  He’s knowable, meetable, relatable,

personable … that’s who Jesus is.  If we have a neighbor living beside us for 33 years, we’re going to get to know them.  

Jesus moved into the neighborhood … 

so He could get to know us … so that He could save us & rescue us.

He lived among us.  He lived as us. That’s the beauty of the incarnation.

“Since we are people of flesh & blood, Jesus himself became like us & shared our human nature.  He did this so that through his death he might destroy the Devil, who has the power over death & in this way set free those who were slaves all their lives because of their fear of death.  This means that he had to become like us in every way, in order to be our faithful & merciful High Priest in his service to God, so that our sins would be forgiven.” 

(Hebrews 2:14-17)

“Our High Priest is not one who cannot feel sympathy for our weaknesses.  On the contrary, we have a High Priest who was tempted in every way that we are, but did not sin.  Let us have confidence, then, & approach God’s throne, where there is grace.  There we will receive mercy & find grace to help us just when we need it.” (Hebrews 4:15-16)

That’s what so special about the way Jesus was born.  He came to offer His presence, His grace, His truth, His peace, His forgiveness.  

Jesus came to be with us.  And I’m eternally grateful that He did.

Do you know the difference between empathy & sympathy?  When we empathize with a person we try to project ourselves into their situation.  They’re struggling.  They’re going through a hard time, a grief, or a difficulty.  We sensitize ourselves to them & try to show them that we care.

Sympathy doesn’t work like empathy.  Sympathy walks in another person’s shoes.  Sympathy has experienced exactly what they’re dealing with.  In counseling I was taught to be sympathetic; because in reality, true sympathy is impossible for us.  The last thing we want to say when a person 

is struggling is, “I know exactly how you feel.”  

I don’t.  You don’t.  We don’t.  The best we can do is to try to empathize.  

“I can only imagine what you’re going through … & I care.”

But let me tell you, if we’re in desperate straits & feeling really alone, 

or suffering … empathy is good, but sympathy is great.

And true sympathy apart from God is impossible.

I really like what we just read in the book of Hebrews about Jesus.  

Jesus is our High Priest mediator, & He’s able to sympathize with us … because He’s moved into our neighborhood.  He’s come to live among us.  

And as one of us, He went through everything that we’ve experienced, 

save for sin.  So, God can do more than just imagine what we’re going through … He knows what we’re going through.  

He can pour Himself into our shoes & be with us in our feelings.

“The Word became a human being &, full of grace & truth, lived among us.  We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father’s only Son.” 

(John 1:14)

This week as I was imagining God moving into Artist Drive,

I was thinking about Moses, & all the Hebrew people making their way from Egypt to the Promised Land.  They constructed a tent, a tabernacle.  It was the place where God would come & dwell with His people, as closely as He could.  He was, after all, still a holy God, & they were sinful people.  

Moses became the mediator.  He would go into the tent, the tabernacle, 

& Scripture records, “The LORD would speak with Moses face-to-face,

just as someone speaks with a friend.” (Exodus 33:11)

Moses went in, & the people stood some distance away & watched. 

Eventually Moses came out, & his face radiated; it literally shown from being in God’s presence. (Exodus 34:29) It became known as Shekinah, 

“the resident glory,” because where God is, there’s glory.  

Well, Jesus came & moved into the neighborhood, 

& “we’ve seen His glory, which he received as the Father’s only Son.”

So, what did Jesus’ glory consist of?  Did Jesus go about with His face radiating or shining like Moses’?  (I remember as a boy in S.S.  I may have been 5 or 6 … every picture I’d seen of Jesus had a kind of halo over His head.  All my Bible picture books had it.  The stain glass windows of my Church had it.  I thought there was this radiant glow over Jesus’ head all the time.  Well, that’s not what we’re talking about here.)

Nor was His body some kind of impressive thing.  Scripture reports that Jesus just looked like the rest of us, (Isaiah 53:2) which I take to mean, 

among other things, that He was hairy.  

Jesus was somebody we can relate to.  So, what did Jesus’ glory consist of?

“We saw his glory … full of grace & truth.”  

The glory of Jesus is those 2 qualities: graciousness & truthfulness.  

The glory of Jesus, the thing that really radiates from Him … is grace.

Here’s a Man who would touch a leper, who nobody else would even go near. 

(Mark 1:41) Here’s a Man who would take an adulteress, on the verge of being stoned to death, & would raise her up & forgive her sins. (John 8:11) 

Here’s a Man who was making His way to Jerusalem for the Passover,

lots of people all around Him, & He took time for a blind beggar who was calling out from the side of the road to have mercy on him. (Mark 10:48)

That’s the glory of Jesus.

The truth He taught in His sermons hit, & continues to hit, deep in people’s souls.  Grace & truth … that was the glory of Jesus’ presence 

… that’s what really shone.  And we still need that grace & truth today.

And so, Jesus bears the name, Immanuel … “God is with us.” (Matthew 1:23)

The perfect, sympathetic, High Priest & Mediator is Jesus, 

& He has come & moved into our neighborhood.  He is with us.

What’s so special about the way Jesus was born?  I think most people miss it because they seek complex answers to their questions, 

& this one is so utterly simple.  So let me submit a contemporary parable.

This is about a modern man … one of us.  He was not a Scrooge.  

He was a kind, decent, mostly good man; generous to his family, upright in his dealings with other people.  But he did not believe in all that incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim at Christmastime.  It just didn’t make sense, & he was too honest to pretend otherwise.  He just couldn’t swallow the Jesus story … about God coming to earth as a man.

“I’m truly sorry to distress you,” he told his wife, “but I’m not going with you to Church this Christmas Eve.”  He said he’d feel like a hypocrite.  

But that he would wait up for them.  He stayed.  They went.

Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall.  

He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier & heavier, 

then returned to his fireside chair & began to read his newspaper.

Moments later he was startled by a thudding sound … (thump) … 

then another … (thump, thump) … then another … (thump).  At 1st he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window.  But when he went to the front door to investigate, he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow.  They had been caught in the storm, & in a desperate search for shelter had tried to fly through his large landscape window.

Well … he couldn’t let the poor creatures stay there & freeze.  

Then he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony.  

That would provide a warm shelter … if he could direct the birds to it.

He quickly put on a coat & boots & tramped through the deepening snow to the barn.  He opened the doors wide & turned on the light.  

But the birds did not come in.

He figured food would entice them in, so he hurried back to his house, 

fetched some breadcrumbs, & sprinkled them on the snow, 

making a trail to the yellow lighted, wide-open doorway of the barn.  

But to his dismay the birds ignored the breadcrumbs & continued to flop around helplessly in the snow.

He tried catching them.  He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around them & waving his arms. Instead, 

they scattered in every direction … except into the warm, lighted barn.

Then he realized that they were afraid of him.  

“To them,” he reasoned, “I am a strange & terrifying creature.

If only I could think of some way to let them know they can trust me; 

that I’m not trying to hurt them, but to help them.  But how?”  Any move he made tended to frighten them, confuse them.  They just wouldn’t follow … 

they would not be led or shooed because they feared him.

“If only I could be a bird myself,” he thought.  

“If only I could be a bird & mingle with them & speak their language & tell them not to be afraid & show them the way to the safe, warm barn.

But I’d have to be one of them … so they could see … & understand ….”

At that moment the Church bells began to ring.  

The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind.  He stood there … 

listening to the bells … Adeste Fideles … listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas … & he sank to his knees in the snow.

If you need grace & truth from God today, (& who of us doesn’t?), 

there’s only one way to get it.  It’s through the Mediator, the sympathetic High Priest, the God/man, Jesus Christ.  And He’s right here. (Matthew 18:20)

Christmas reminds us that Jesus has moved into our neighborhood, 

& He wants us to get to know Him.

MARANA THA