The Weary World Rejoices: Part 2

The Weary World Rejoices: Part 2

Isaiah 7, Matthew 1:22-23

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I'm excited for today. Today is going to be fun. We're doing our Christmas Sweater Sunday. It's just for the fun of it and we have some enjoyment with each other. I want to continue in our Christmas series today. We've been in now week two of the series called The Weary World Rejoices. Say that 12 times fast, right? I'm excited because this is a little bit of a different take on Christmas maybe than what you might be used to or what you might seem as a regular Advent series. But we wanted to take a moment and to really focus in on and look through the four aspects of what Jesus fulfills when he came as a baby all those years ago. And Pastor Andre started us off last week and we began to walk through of understanding who the fulfillment of Jesus is. And I love this because sometimes we think about Christmas and it's just one aspect. We just see like baby Jesus in the manger, right? And we think, "Oh, that's so cute. That's so sweet." But there's so much more that came with Jesus' arrival.

And so I got a question for you this morning and that is have you ever found yourself in a place where you needed to be rescued? Maybe it was a situation, maybe it was a tragic moment. Maybe it was an accident, a car accident or something. Maybe it was more of a situation that was financial. Maybe it was an illness or a health crisis that you walked through. Maybe it was a relationship, maybe your marriage. Maybe you lost your job or you were trying to find a job. Maybe it was a family hardship or a depression or an addiction. And sometimes, especially when we think about and being in a place of that tragedy, Christmas and the holidays are an even greater weight. But what if I told you that what you might see as a burden in the holidays in the midst of your situation or whatever you're going through is actually exactly what you needed to be rescued? In this season that we call Advent, it's a quiet buildup to Christmas where we read specific scriptures, we celebrate special moments, we sing songs that we only sing during this season about a baby who changed absolutely everything. But I want to cut through the tinsel a little bit and Christmas isn't the story about a big guy in a red suit. Sorry to bust the news there for you, but it's about a savior showing up for the very first time to rescue the mess that we're in.

And from the very first pages of the Bible, Genesis in the beginning, we see about this humanity that's been crying out to be saved or ignoring the cry within their souls. And the reality of the deliverance needed from sin, death, and the chaos that the world finds themselves in. And yet either we hide from it or we try to fight it. We bury our head in the sand or we think that we've got this. This is where today's message starts, talking about Jesus as our savior. If you would with me, let's pray before we continue moving on. Jesus, we recognize who you are. You are our savior. And God, we celebrate the fact that that very first Christmas you showed up in a super unconventional way on this earth to walk a humble path, to live a life as a servant, and to show us that Jesus, what it ultimately means to love one another. So God, this morning I pray that our hearts would be open, we'd be recognizing of who you are and you with the title of savior in our lives, Jesus. Open our eyes, show us the need that we need to be rescued. In Jesus' name, amen. There's a myth in this world that's been around since the garden. And that myth is that we can provide ourself salvation, that we can take care of it, that we can be the one that's got it all under control. Picture this, ain't nobody but a sharp guy, takes big risks and bam, he makes it. He built his career from scratch, no handouts, just hustle, all him. We love those stories, right? How many Hollywood stories and movies have we seen of that being the case? A theatrical storytelling of somebody who came from nothing to everything, right? And yet though in the middle of that, the lone ranger who pulls himself up or the one who conquers the dragon solo, it's the dream that we chase, it's the real that we scroll until one day, cracks begin to show, sleepless nights come, they begin to snap at the ones that they love, wondering why this quote, self-made life feels so empty. But the gospel tells a different story. It says that no one is the hero in this fight. Not you, not me, only one person.

And it all began when it went sideways in the garden back in Genesis chapter three. And he says this starting in verse six, "When a woman saw the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it. And the eyes of both of them were open and they realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." One choice, one moment, paradise broken. They grab for wisdom, for control, thinking that they could save themselves from whatever better looked like. And yet, it left them feeling exposed, hiding from God, stitching up shame with leaves that wouldn't hold together. It's this myth that we inherit. We'll just cover it up. We'll figure it out. I'll be fine. Fake it till I make it, right? That's the world tells us. That's what they say. Just fake it till you make it, you'll be all right. But that's not true. An advent flips this on its head and it's God's rescue mission launched into our broken world. Think about it. The prophets were told, the stars announced, and the teenage couple treads to a stable because of it. Jesus didn't just come to applaud our bootstraps. He came to carry our load. So here's a question I have for you to think about for a little bit. What do you really need saving from? You probably all have something in our mind right now, right? Of something that we need to be rescued from. Maybe it's a grudge, you're nursing. Maybe it's that anxiety that wakes you up at 3 a.m. Maybe it's the sin that sneaks in and steals your joy during the holidays. Think about that for a moment. Because I think if we're honest, we don't want to face it, right? We don't like what it shows deep down inside of us. But too often, we just skip it and we chase something else completely different. We go after something that helps us forget what's truly going on inside.

And I call this the me syndrome. It's what we want instead. It's our perverse deep desire down inside of us that we can't just overlook rescue. We want to rewrite the script. Maybe we say, "I can be my own savior." It's that inner voice whispering to us, "Just try harder. Just plan better. Just work your way out." But remember Adam and Eve? That fruit grab was the original DIY kit, the do-it-yourself kit, where they thought they knew better. They thought they could figure it out better than God had set up paradise to be. And it echoes within us to this day. As it says, Paul, he writes in Romans 3:23, he says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Or maybe we think of it like this. I'll be somebody else's savior, the hero complex. We pour ourselves into maybe fixing our spouse or our kids or our friends. It's noble, sure, yeah, but it dodges our own mirror deep down inside. The mom running herself ragged playing hero at home, but inside shame eats her alive. She fixes everyone else's lunch but forgets her own hunger for grace. Or maybe you're the, "I'll decide how God will save me." We pray for the promotion. You think about it, "If I could just have this, everything will be good. God, I need fill in the blank." We have our own timeline, our own schedule. We're the director of our own life movie. Isaiah, it throws cold water on that when it says the world is waiting for a flashy sign, a big, strong, manly warrior of a king, but God gives a quiet promise of a child. It's not our script. It's His story. Or maybe you're the, "I don't need saving. I'm all right. I'm fine." This is pride's cruelest lie to us. We scroll past the news and we're convinced that our perfect, tidy little life just proves that we're fine. But deep down inside, we know that's not true. These desires that twist us up because it's not freedom. They're actual chains that hold us down. And as Roman puts it, "We all fall short of the glory." There's no exceptions. Think of it this way. You're caught in a riptide out in the water. The waves are crashing around you. You're doing everything you can to keep your head above water. Your lungs are burning. You need to be rescued. And Jesus comes up in a tiny, little tired, weathered rowboat. And He says, "Hop in." But we're so focused on how we think we're gonna be rescued. It's gonna be a helicopter. It's gonna be the SEAL Team 6 coming in hot. It's gonna be everything, this flashy, big boom of a moment of how we're gonna be lifted out of the water and rescued. But Jesus is right there offering rescue. But it's not the way that we planned. It's just too basic. It's too not enough. So we wave off Jesus and we sit there and continue to struggle. So here's the thing about God's rescue plan. It arrives on His terms, not ours.

And my friends, that's where the trouble lies, is that we will forever be lost until we see our true need. And what we actually need is God's provision. What we're starving for isn't control or applause, but it's truly a rescue from evil, sin, and death. It's the three that kicked off in Genesis when it all broke. See, sin just isn't like this oops moment in our life from time to time, but it's a root poisoning everything within us, turning neighbors into enemies, hearts and horrendous pits of selfishness. We need deliverance from chaos and this inner turmoil that spins us like laundry in a dryer over and over and over and over again. Life's just not these random breakdowns. It's a world groaning under fracture and our souls that feel it first, right? We're restless, we're divided, and we chase peace in all the wrong places. The world gives us these promises of if you just had this, right? Every commercial on TV right now is trying to sell you on the next best thing that will give you peace, it will give you happiness, it'll fulfill your life, it'll give you everything that you need if you just buy blank. We make wish lists out of it. We ask for gifts from friends and family and parents because we think if we could just have that, everything will be right. And yet, next Christmas, we think if I just had that, and we do it over and over and over. There's guilt and there's shame or these like silent chains and they whisper to us that we're too far gone, that we're too broken to fix. And we lug them around in our backpacks full of weights, slowing every single one of our steps. I love what David says, King David, he writes this in Psalm 51. He says, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions, wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from sin, for I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me." If we were to get real in here, we all have a raw egg deep down inside of us, similar to King David here. That just because he was one of the big three kings of the Old Testament, that he was still a person. He was still a human. He was still someone like you and me struggling in life, crying out for cleansing. And this true salvation that David longed for, the kind that actually sticks, is nothing that we can manufacture. No amount of good deeds or therapy sessions can touch what it actually is. It's got to come from outside of us. It's only from the one who knit us together in our mother's womb.

In this Advent, we see this in Mary and Joseph, who for fleeting rumors and dodging Herod and birthing hope outside in a stall made for livestock, God's provision shows up in the ordinary way, providing he knows our mess better than we do. And it's not these temporary fixes that we hope for, but it is a true, full freedom if we'll receive it. And so who steps into this? Jesus. Jesus steps in as our Savior, our perfect rescue. Plain and simple. There was a Savior figure or character from the Old Testament that kind of foreshadowed Jesus coming himself, but there was a guy by the name of Joseph. And his life plays like a movie. He was one of 12 sons. He was the great-grandson of Father Abraham. And he was betrayed by his family. Maybe some of you have had that happen to you. He was thrown into a pit. He was sold into slavery. He was accused falsely. He was forgotten in jail. And yet he rises to save Egypt and the region from a famine. And years later, after Joseph had been sold, he gets an opportunity to show up in Pharaoh's court and he gives an interpretation of a dream from God of what is to come and how they are to prepare for the famine that will be a long time. And so Joseph oversees a collection of food, of storage, of backups to have when this famine hits. And the famine comes and Egypt is good. They don't have any problems. They've got plenty of food. They've got it stored up. They've got reserves. They're set. But who doesn't have reserves? Joseph's family. And so they hear about Egypt and this guy over there who's got food. And so they travel all the way to Egypt and they show up before Joseph, not knowing it's Joseph Joseph, thinking that their brother is long gone, dead, forgotten, somewhere else, maybe six feet under the ground. And they humbly approach and ask to have food to feed their family. And Joseph recognizes them. And he helps his brother. He saves his family by providing rescue through food. And amazed and humbled, his brothers bow down before him to honor and to show their gratitude. And Joseph weeping, tears running down his face, he says, "Brothers, it's me, Joseph. What you meant for evil, God meant for good." Does that sound familiar? Jesus sold for silver, nailed to a wooden cross, dies for our sins, rises from death, comes out of the grave, saves us from our eternal famine and destruction, the starvation of our soul without God.

Fast forward from that story in Joseph to Isaiah, we hear the prophet proclaim that therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. The virgin will conceive and give birth to his son and they will call him Emmanuel. Matthew, all of this took place for what the Lord had said through the prophet, the virgin will conceive and give birth to his son, they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. This isn't a vague hope or a patchwork to just be a temporary. This is flesh and blood rescue from heaven. God crashing down into our lives and our chaos as Emmanuel. God is with us in the dirt, in our doubt, in our darkness. I'm reminded of the life of John Newton. He was a rough dude. He was a slave ship captain and he was hardened by the trade. One night, 1748, he's out at sea and a storm comes along and begins to tear apart his ship. They can see Ireland in the horizon but they know that they can't make it there. The crew's panicking, the ship begins to fail and death is staring them down. Newton himself, he's no saint, he's no Jesus follower, he's no Christian. But he cries out to God anyway and he says, "Lord, have mercy." And the storm begins to let up and the ship limps into port and he starts reading the Bible and he starts wrestling with this life that he's living and the life that he's seeing Jesus calling him to in scripture. And years later, he writes this song that is sung in churches all over the world for generations. It's a song called "Amazing Grace." There's a line in there that says, "For I once was lost but now I'm found." From a chaotic life to a rescued musician. Newton's rowboat in the middle of the night, a plea to God in the midst of winded waves. And Jesus met him there, not in a throne room but in the midst of his rack. That's salvation's reach. It finds us in the middle of life's storm.

Jesus writes, "My command is this, love one another as I have loved you. Your love has no one than this, to lay down one life for one's friends. You are my friends and if you do what I command, I no longer call you servants because a servant doesn't know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends for everything that I learned from my father I have made known to you." Jesus doesn't whisper advice from afar. He swims the riptide with us. And he's betrayed, he's beaten, he's buried, but he comes out from the grave. Isaiah further writes, "Surely he," being Jesus, "took up our pain and bore our suffering. Yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that was brought us peace was on him. And by his wounds we are healed. We all sheep have gone astray. Each of us have turned our own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." From the lowly manger to the humble cross to the heavenly throne, Jesus is that thread that redeems all of humanity as the Savior. So Jesus paddles up, the boat's ready, but do we climb in? Do we drop our act? Do we first acknowledge the reality of our life and the sin that so entangles us? Not sugarcoating anything. It's real. It's life. It's like the prodigal son hitting rock bottom. But that's where grace floods into our lives. Ephesians says, "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith and it is not from yourselves. It is a gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast." It's not us. It's a gift. It's faith that says, "I can't, but Jesus, you can.”

Maybe you need to stop minimizing the chaos in your life. Maybe you just need to receive Jesus today. Knowing that you're not going to fix whatever you're walking through. Knowing that you can't figure it out, you don't need another self-help book, you don't need another podcast, you don't need another YouTube training series. What you need is Jesus. This Christmas, Jesus comes like he does every single year and shows up and says, "I'm here for you. I want to save you. I want to rescue you. I have a better plan for you than the one that you've been trying to write for your life." David Paul Tripp writes this. He says, "Because we minimize our sin, seeing ourselves as righteous, we don't cry out for the rescuing grace that is ours in Christ." We can't save ourselves. Not even halfway, not even a little bit, not at all. Jesus came that very first Christmas to save completely, start to finish, top to bottom. It may look different than what we had planned, but it is the salvation and the Savior that we all need. So this Christmas, may you pray, "Jesus, Savior, I need you. Pull me close. I say yes to you today. Let me tell you, you'll watch the waves and the wind of your life part, just like Jesus did for the Israelites in the Red Sea. He'll part the waters for you.”

This morning, we're going to be taking communion together to kind of wrap up this reminder of Jesus as our Savior. But maybe for some of us, we've never had that opportunity to accept Jesus as our Savior. And so we're going to put a salvation prayer on the screen, and maybe this morning, as you were thinking, as I was talking, and you go, "Chris, I need rescue. I got turmoil in my life. I got things that aren't right. I got depression. I got anxiety. I got all of these things that are coming at me. Life's hit me hard, and you're talking about a rescue for me. I need that." And there's a lot of us in this room that at some point before, we have accepted Christ into our lives, and it's changed us. And so I want to encourage you this morning, maybe you would want to say, "I need this Jesus, Chris. I want to pray a prayer. I want to invite Him in. I want to climb into His rowboat. I'm drowning." And so I want to read the prayer on screen, and if that is you, would you pray that in your heart? And after that, if that was you and you have accepted that, we celebrate that with you, and we want you to join us in having communed together as a church family. But first, I want to pray. Jesus, we thank you for today. God, we thank you for you who are our Savior. You are our redemption. You are our salvation. And so God, this morning, I pray for someone maybe in this room who would say, "I don't have that Savior Jesus in my life. And I want to accept Him. I want to climb into the rowboat. I want to accept His rescue in my life." And so if that would be you, then I would, as I read this prayer, follow along, pray this in your heart to Jesus. He's there to rescue you.

Pray along. Pray, "Father in heaven, I know that I have lived for myself instead of you. I have sinned against you, but I believe that Jesus died for my sin. So I confess my sin and ask you to forgive me. I bow to you as Lord and leader of my life. Help me to live for you from this day forward. In Jesus' name." God, we thank you for your salvation and your rescue. And God, as the elements come forward and we continue in this posture of prayer, God, I pray that you would be with these elements, God, that as they're passed out, as we accept them and receive them, Jesus, that we would be reminded of the sacrifice on the cross for you as our Savior. Jesus, we thank you for another incredible, amazing Sunday to gather together to worship. Jesus, we continue to worship through communion today. And so as the ushers pass out the elements, I want us to be reminded of Jesus, our Savior. Jesus who came that very first Christmas as a gift, a salvation for our lives. And so as they pass out the elements, take a moment and have a little bit of a conversation with God. We give to him what you need rescue from today. Take a moment, ponder in your heart the rescue that Jesus provides for us. We'll be back in a moment to take the elements together. Thanks for listening. And if you would, please take a moment to subscribe and leave an encouraging review to help others find our podcasts on whatever platform you are listening on. We hope you have a wonderful day. We'll catch you next week. week.

The Weary World Rejoices: Part 1

The Weary World Rejoices: Part 1

Isaiah 9:1-6

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are very excited for our Advent Series that we're starting this week. I want to give you just a hint of what is to come. In this series we're going to take a deeper look at how the birth of Jesus surpassed all expectations for those who were waiting for His arrival, and how the frameworks for which they thought He would fit into paled in comparison to who He truly was and is. Through Scriptures we'll see how Jesus addresses humanity's desire for stability, rescue, reconciliation, and truth, and each week we're going to look at how humanity's attempts to address these on their own power always falls short. That's why we called our series "The Weary World Rejoices," because of all of our efforts to attain stability, rescue, reconciliation, and truth all on our own. To find those in the world always leaves us tired and weary. The series is all about how Jesus is the fulfillment for what humanity longs for. In Jesus' birth so many answers were provided, so many promises were fulfilled. It's what Advent is all about, remembering. While we wait to celebrate the day of His birth, we remember what Jesus brought to this earth. In the biblical story, preparation for Jesus is synonymous with bringing our hearts and daily lives into alignment with His kingdom. Waiting helps us slow down and become aware of what we're waiting for and just as importantly how we are waiting for it. That's our goal in this series, that you are reminded each week of who you are waiting for, who you're waiting to celebrate, and as we slow down in the waiting that God would work in us. Throughout our series we're going to look at how Jesus is the perfect prophet, priest, king, and savior. And these frameworks that Israel was expecting Him to fulfill did come to pass, but they weren't able to comprehend just how perfect He was in embodying all of these things.

So today we're going to look at Jesus as the perfect king. I want to start by asking, what are we looking for? Advent is often a season where our attention is drawn towards our desires, our needs, our wants. We want a new appliance for the house. Our kids want, and the list can go on and on and on, a new toy, a new Barbie set, new Legos, new Xbox, the Switch 2, there's already a second one I think. Maybe you have some time off work or extra family time so you want to go somewhere, you want, you need, you desire, maybe it's a trip to the mountains or a trip to Disneyland, both of those sound amazing by the way. We constantly have conversations, what do I want? What do I need? Around this time of year. And there's nothing wrong with that, but I think it's also a perfect time to be reminded of what are we searching for in our hearts. Deep down everyone desires one or more of the following in their lives, and these are what motivate us and drive us our deepest desires, and those are security, we want to know that we are safe, we want peace, we want harmony in life, we want provision, we want to know that our needs are going to be met, and we want some kind of order, we don't like the chaos, we want to know that life is going to be structured to some degree, but we all seek these things, we all want and desire these things. And whether we seek these out from someone or something else or we try to create and provide these ourselves, we want these to be true, we want to have them. And when we pursue security, peace, provision, and order in our lives, we often do that by looking for and pursuing success, control, and influence. We think if we have success, then I'll be able to provide for myself. If we have control, then there will be order in my life, if I can control everything. And if I have influence over my environment, then I'll have the security I look for and the peace that I want. But the pursuit of success and control and influence and even acquiring these things, more often than not, just leaves us more restless and empty. So if we know that we can't provide what we truly desire, then we are left to think of someone else providing that for us. And we're looking for someone to bring us peace, security, provision, and order in life.

Almost since the beginning of time, humanity has lived in a world where there is a leader over a people, whether it's a king, a ruler, some sort, and that ruler and king have been responsible to provide these things for their people. The king has to provide the peace and the security and the provision and the order of life. Unfortunately, that has not always gone well. The execution of that plan for earthly leaders to provide those things often falters. It's looked like some benefiting at the expense of others. More often than not, slavery or corruption and greed have played a role in how a ruler has ruled over their people. Every once in a while, a good leader comes along and stands in stark contrast to the rest, but they too ultimately have their shortcomings. The reality for us is that we continue to search for someone who will rule and reign in perfect love and justice and righteousness. So who can rule over us and give us what we truly desire? The other reality that we have to acknowledge is that we don't always want what's best. Our desires can look like the fact that we want a king, but we want a king that serves our agenda. We want control, but we'll disguise it as surrender. I'm giving up, but really, I still want it to go my way. I want control over this situation. Or we want power, but we don't want to submit. We are selfish people. Our desires can be skewed towards what we think is right, what we think is best, but you know the problem with that, right? We are sinners too. We lack perspective. We can't see everything from everyone's perspective, and sometimes what's best for some may end up hurting others. We lack wisdom. We don't always know how to solve every problem that comes up in the best way possible. We don't know how to love well in every situation or speak truth in every situation. We lack empathy. There are limits to our compassion, our love, our kindness. We lack what it takes.

Every human, as hard as they try and as well-suited as they may seem for the job of leading other people, there is no perfect human leader. Again, we are all sinful, and we live in a sinful world. So what do we actually need? Well, we need true, a righteous leader who reigns with perfect justice and love, who defends and protects everyone from the chaos, whether the chaos that the world brings or the chaos that we cause ourselves. We need someone who will provide provision and flourishing, divine opportunities and environments where we don't just exist, but where we truly grow and thrive. And we need provision. We need someone to take care of us, to look after us, to give us what we need to live to the fullest extent. And we need wisdom and peace, someone who will give us that wisdom and peace that we can't provide for ourselves. We need someone who knows all, who sees all, who can speak truth in all situations and bring peace and wisdom to every circumstance. So who can provide all this? Who can do this all the time, perfectly? If you have that Sunday school answer in your head, you'd be correct. But this question is not a new question, it's a very old one and it's one that Israel had for themselves. And they were asking and wondering this, who is going to lead and rule perfectly? They had human rulers that God had helped put in place, the judges, prophets, kings, but these rulers always left them wanting more. And they were waiting and waiting for a true king. And in their waiting, they received many messages of hope from God.

And one of them is found in our passage this morning. So we're going to be in Isaiah 9. You can turn there in your Bibles if you want, it'll be on the screen as well. But this is a message from God as Israel is waiting and they've received message after message of hope, of a future hope, of someone who would bring all these things that they were wanting, that they were desiring. As in verse, starting in verse one, "Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past, he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future, he will honor Galilee of the nations by way of the sea beyond the Jordan. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy. They rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior's boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. For to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called a wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness. From that time on and forever, the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”

Isaiah was a prophet and sent to speak truth, to encourage and to bring hope, to steer God's people back to him, to keep their focus on him and to have them anticipate the culmination of his rescue plan involving a king. Isaiah speaks of this future king in Israel hearing this. They wanted one of their former kings, King David. You see, King David represented the best king in Israel's mind. David defeated his enemies, so in a way he brought peace. David brought provision and enabled the people to flourish in the land. David brought a certain amount of order to the chaos that Israel had been accustomed to. And so, in their minds, David was it. David was the best king that you could get. But it was short-lived. David made plenty of mistakes as well. But still, that's all the people had to go off. So of course, they just wanted another King David. And because they had heard God's promise, great things for David and from David's family, they had this picture that was starting to build of when the Savior would come, when the Messiah would come, it would look like David. There's a verse in 2 Samuel 7:16, it says, "God speaking to David," and he says, "Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me. Your throne will be established forever." So even David's reign was built up by God to say, "This is special. This is different." And the people also hearing that elevated David's reign above all the other kings. And so you imagine hearing this if you're an Israelite, knowing that the king, this future king, is going to come from David's family, from David's descendants. And it starts to frame the image of a king in a certain light. God promised them a king that would lead Israel towards faithfulness and rule over nations forever and ever. But David was not that king, nor was his son Solomon or any of the kings after as it just got worse and worse. And there was a few good ones in there, but Israel kept waiting and waiting. And when we open our Bibles to Isaiah, we're in the part of their history where they are anticipating this promised king from the line of David, who will fulfill all the promises that God made to their forefathers.

And that's the key theme of the book of Isaiah is a future hope in the anticipated king. And so we read our passage today, "For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and he will be called a wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace." And you might be tempted to think just as Israel was thinking, "All right, David 2.0, a little fewer mistakes, but bring back this David figure and we'll have another great leader. So usher in another great time for the people of Israel." But they didn't get it. They didn't get that just imagining David 2.0 was so short and just a glimpse of who Jesus actually was as king. It's like, it'd be like this, it'd be like settling for sparkling water when you can have a drink of real fruit juice. Do you guys know these flavors of sparkling water and how like lights they are? They're so grapefruit, mango, orange, blackberry, cucumber, whatever your favorite is. And you've probably heard the jokes that maybe this can of water was canned in a room that had fruit in it. It's just like the lightest hint or that it was a hint of a hint of fruit that's in the can of sparkling water. I Googled some of these, by the way. People have joked that someone just drops a single skittle in every can and that's what you get is just like a little fruit flavoring or someone put a scratch and sniff sticker on the bottom of the can, scratched it and just left it there and that's what you drink. My favorite is these drinks are just like tasting the memory of fruit. It's just water but you read the label and you're like, "Yes, that is somewhat what grapefruit tastes like.”

That's what these Old Testament kings were. They were just a glimpse. They were the best available taste of what a king could be. They didn't have anything else to go off of. But Israel didn't know that there was a better option to come. Imagine having a sparkling water of lemon or lime, those are my favorites, without ever having tasted a real lemon or lime. And you just take the can and you're like, "Great, this is what lemon or lime must taste like, this very faint, barely tastable thing. Love it. This is fantastic." But then you hear that there's actually lemonade or limeade that will be coming soon, this future drink that you're like, "Okay, that's cool. Don't know what that is, but it must be like my sparkling water 2.0, just a little bit more." You can't know what lemonade will taste like fully. You just have to base it off your sparkling water. And you just imagine it just a little bit more. So imagine how blown away you would be if you had a lifetime of sparkling water and one day you get a cold glass of lemonade. You would flip your lid. That would be amazing. Your taste buds would explode. It'd be incredible. And this is, I'd share all that, that very long metaphor, to say that's what Israel was like with Jesus. And they kind of missed it, but that's who Jesus was. They could not imagine the king that Jesus would be. Whatever flavor you can imagine, those were the kings of Israel's past, some of them good, some of them bad. Even the greatest king of all time, King David, was just a hint, a glimpse, a shadow of the king that Jesus would be. And so what our passage this morning is telling Israel and is also telling us is that Jesus is the real deal. This is the real fruit juice, not just sparkling water. Jesus as king is better than any king that has ever existed. Even the best one that you can imagine, he's better. He is worth waiting for. Jesus is the true king and he's the heavenly king that the world needs. And the prophets try to help people understand over and over again, there is more to come. There is better ahead. Do not settle for what you have right now. It says in verse two of our passage, "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of deep darkness. A light has dawned." Speaking of the hope that will be in Christ, the prophet is saying, "This is the one that you'll have been searching for. This is the one.”

And in verse six, it says, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah is describing a ruler, a king who will provide counsel, order and direction, who will provide peace, who will provide, who will give provision and security like a father for his family does. Isaiah is trying to paint the picture. God is giving words to help Israel understand and connect the dots. That Jesus as king does more, is more, will reign and will not have shortcomings. His reign will not come to an end. Verse seven says, "Of the greatness of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness." Remember from 2 Samuel 7, Jesus will be the fulfillment of that prophecy from the line of David. And he will reign forever and ever, upholding his kingdom with justice and righteousness. Jesus will be the perfect king, ruling and reigning like no human could. Jesus will not only provide all this in his heavenly kingdom, as he teaches over and over again in his ministry, but he does this for us individually even now. He rules and brings order to our inner chaos. He brings peace to our divided hearts. Under him and through him, we can have provision and we can flourish. We can be who God intended us to be. And in him is found the truest and deepest wisdom and peace. And he also brings one more thing that I didn't mention at the beginning, but I know that we all desire this. On top of security, peace, provision and order, we all desire to be loved. And Jesus came to love us. A kingly love, a royal love where we are seen and known. There's an Advent meditation out there from Practicing the Way and it says this, "For some of us, it's easier to believe that God is coming to establish his rule and restore creation than it is to believe that he is coming to be near to us. But it's true. God is after more than behavior change or earnest activity for his kingdom. His name is Emmanuel, God with us. And so it may be that the most important thing we can do in preparing for the king is to open our hearts to him with vulnerability and trust. The king comes with unexpected kindness, healing and affection and we are invited to submit to this love. The way of this king, the way of Jesus is unlike any other king. And his name, Emmanuel, God with us, speaks so much to his purpose that he wants to come live with us. Not just reign over us and be from afar, but he wants to walk every day with us. What kind of king do you know that would do that? And with all of us individually, take the time and the intention to say, "I want to be in your life." Through his personal presence in our lives, he wants to then also bring the peace and the provision and security and the order. But he wants us ultimately to know that we are loved by him. Jesus as our king is the answer to what we truly desire. And it comes by submitting to him and surrendering to him. Not out of fear, not out of some nationalistic loyalty, not out of selfish greed for what we stand to gain, but out of love and adoration for the king of kings. This is the king that we need. And this is the king our hearts should be fixed on this Advent season.

So I want to take some time to ask some questions of us as we reflect on Jesus being king over our lives. And so that question, what are you desiring this Advent season? And to help us acknowledge that we truly need Jesus as king, I want to first reflect on Jesus as our kingly provider. I want to ask this question of you. If you have an answer, great, don't say it out loud. But if you need this week, I would say think on this. What is a gift that Jesus has provided for you? What's something good that God has given you? And you've seen, you've experienced his kingly provision in your life. I would even encourage you to spend time talking about this question with community, whether it's your family around the dinner table or a group of friends. And simply ponder a gift from God, however big or maybe however small it was. But share that with someone this week. This is a gift that God had given me recently in the past, big, small, and spend time together thanking God for that gift. But it's important this Christmas season to see that Jesus is our kingly provider.

Next I want to reflect on Jesus as our kingly peacemaker. How has Jesus brought you peace in your life? Same similar question, whether now, recently, or in the past. But think of a moment that you were in chaos, that life was hectic, the busyness, the stress, anxiety, brokenness, and Jesus brought peace. You may also be in a place where you need the peace of Jesus right now. And I would ask you to think of this. Think of if you are leaning heavily on forms of peace, however good they may be, that actually fall short of the peace of Christ. When I say forms of peace, maybe that's coping with something, and you have a coping mechanism that maybe it's good. Maybe you go for walks, and maybe you have quiet time, but it's not with God. And so it falls short from the peace that God truly provides. But what are you doing? You are in need of peace right now. Are you getting that peace from Jesus? And then I'd ask, where might the Spirit be inviting you to surrender the self-directed strategies for peace and say, "I need to stop doing this. This is how I'm trying to give myself peace. This is how I'm trying to do it. But God, I need to give this up, and I need to rely on you." This Advent season can be full of joy, but can also be full of things that rob us of that joy and peace. So how can Jesus be the source of peace this Advent season for you?

And then lastly, I want to ask, I want us to reflect on Jesus as our kingly protector and counselor. How can you seek Jesus for wisdom and security? And I would encourage you this week, again, to take some extended time of quiet with God and offer yourself in surrender. Find a distraction-free place and just wait in God's presence and ask, "Father, what do I need to do to surrender to you?" And write down whatever comes to mind, whatever the Spirit reveals to you and says, "This is the thing that is keeping you from getting closer to God to receiving his wisdom and security." And ask that God would help release those things into his gentle care and that you would receive his protection and wisdom. We have to, in order to accept God's protection and wisdom, we have to submit, and submitting to him means surrendering to him. We can't have both. We can't say, "God, I'm going to do it my way, but I'm submitting to you, and you can also do it your way." And we can just, sometimes we live like that. We're like, "God, I'm going to try mine. You do yours and we'll see whichever one works out, and we'll just, hopefully in the end, I have peace, or I have provision, or I have protection." And Jesus says, "This doesn't work that way. You can't do your thing and then also expect me to do it. You need to surrender to me. If you want what I have, which is here for the taking, you have to lay down what you are doing to be able to receive what God gives." So if God is saying something to you through the Spirit, and he's saying, "Hey, I'm here. I have the wisdom. I have security. You can be secure in me, but your hands are full right now with your efforts." Take some time this week to lay that before God and say, "God, I do surrender. I'm going to rely on you fully." The great thing about this King is that submission to King Jesus leads not to oppression, but to the truest freedom and joy that there is. Subsiding to the King is the only way to true peace, to heavenly provision, to divine order and security. So this Christmas season, if you find yourself weary, take refuge in Christ. Take comfort in Jesus. Rest in Emmanuel, God with you, and worship the King. We'll close with this.

We notice that we sing many songs that speak of Jesus as our King. We sung some of them this morning, and they have lines that mention the royalty of Jesus, like "O come all ye faithful, come and behold Him, born the King of angels." Charles Wesley wrote one of my favorites, which is "Come thou long expected Jesus." It's an old hymn. I want to read it for you, and it'll be up on the screens. As you read this and hear this, I want you to notice the kingly tones, the royal words, and see how this hymn captures Jesus as the King that we need, as the King that we're waiting for, waiting to celebrate this Christmas. So it goes like this. It says, "Come thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free. From our fears and sins release us. Let us find our rest in thee. Israel's strength and consolation, hope of all the earth thou art, dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart. Born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a King, born to reign in us forever, now thy gracious kingdom bring. By thine own eternal spirit rule in all our hearts alone. By thine all sufficient merit raise us to thy glorious throne." We the weary world church can rejoice in Christ our King this Christmas.

Let's go ahead and pray. God, we praise you for sending your son to be born into this world, to enter the story. And as we enter into Advent season where we wait to celebrate the birth of Jesus, I pray that we would remember who Jesus is, and he is our King. And God, I pray that through your spirit, you would work in our hearts to submit to God, to submit to Jesus if we need to, if we are struggling because we're trying to live life on our own. I pray that you would help us to surrender and to submit. God, I pray that we would seek you for our provision, our security, for order and for peace, and that we would be able to see that all the things in this earth that say and advertise that they provide any of those things ultimately fall short of you. God, we pray that you would reign in us and over us. And as a response to that, God, that we would praise you with everything that we have. So be with us this Advent season, be with us this week, and may we see and rest and rejoice in the fact that you are King in our lives. Amen.

The Message of the Manger: Part 4

The Messiah of the Manger

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Man, this Christmas season is flying by. I know last week, Pastor Lauren got all of us thinking about the Christmas traditions that we do. She had mentioned donuts in her family, which I thought was awesome. I don't know if you guys are in the midst of carrying out all your traditions. We have Christmas cookies going, and then we have some movies on, and we love it. We still have to do the Christmas lights, and behind Bel Air here, we haven't gone through yet. We're looking forward to doing that. And so, hopefully you guys are enjoying those things. I know it goes by fast, and so we want you to enjoy that. But yeah, the season is, 2024 is just around the corner. And today, speaking of things going fast, our series is coming to an end. We're wrapping up our Christmas series, The Message of the Manger. We've had, three weeks ago, we talked about the mystery of the manger. That was the incarnation, how Jesus is fully God and fully man, and wrapping our heads around that to the best of our ability. We also talked about the miracles, all the impossible things made possible by God for the birth of Jesus. And then last week, Pastor Lauren talked about the majesty of the manger and how people were awaiting the coming heavenly king.

And so today, we're gonna shift our focus from this moment around the manger. I don't know if you know this, by the way, we have a manger up here. Did you guys see this throughout the, it's been there? I love it, Pastor Chris built a manger for us. But we're shifting from the scene directly around the manger around Jesus' birth, and we're gonna look forward to what he's gonna do in his life. We wanna answer the questions, why was Jesus born? Why did God send his only son to earth? In other words, why do we have Christmas? In order to understand that fully, I wanna take us back a bit and help us understand why we needed Jesus to descend from heaven, why we needed the incarnation, why God had done all these amazing things, all the miracles, and why people were waiting for a king, the majesty around the manger. Because God didn't just do this for fun. He didn't just say, "Hey, this is a good time in history." They just kinda like, "Let's put Jesus in the story right now. "This works out, this would be a good time." Or, "Hey, it's getting kind of shady. "I think we need Jesus to kinda help it out a little bit." No, there was way more intention and purpose in the arrival of Jesus. There was a need for him. And this moment at the manger is a culmination of so many other moments. This was anticipated and prophesied and waited for, for years upon years, generations upon generations. And so I wanna start briefly at the beginning.

Now let me ask, how long do you think humanity was in need of a Messiah, of a Savior? Well, it's all the way back at the very beginning of our Bibles, thousands of years ago, in Genesis in the Garden of Eden. You may be wondering, this is Christmas, Why are we talking about Genesis right now? Well, without understanding what happened here at the beginning of the Bible, we won't fully grasp and appreciate what is happening when Jesus is born. You see, we believe that the Bible is one coherent story, all leading us to Jesus and God's plan of salvation. It's important that as we read scripture and try to understand what God is doing in the midst of different people and different scenarios, that ultimately it's driving us to the arrival of Christ. The moment where Jesus the Messiah arrives. And it's gonna point us to what will happen in Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection. So, to go all the way back, just a brief refresher for some of you, or maybe something new. We're gonna go back to the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. And back then, everything was perfect, right? God had created this Garden of Eden. He had put Adam and Eve in there to be partners with him, and everything is great for a time until it isn't. Until Adam and Eve, and we know of the fruit and the tree, and they choose to separate themselves from God, and sin is inserted into the story. They choose to try to do life apart from God. And all of humanity from that point on has a sin problem. And that sin problem is a separation from God. Instead of being destined to be with him forever, humanity is at risk of never being with God, and apart from him for eternity.

So that is the sin issue, and it's an issue that God wants to correct, but in his perfect and beautiful way, and it's gonna take time. And he alludes to his plan when speaking to Adam and Eve and the serpent in the garden. After everything goes down, God is debriefing with each of them. The big moment happens, sin enters, and God, I'm going through this so fast, but God is talking to Adam, and he's like, "Hey, this is how life is gonna change." He talks to Eve, "Hey, this is how life "is gonna change for you." And he talks to the serpent, the enemy. And he says this, in Genesis 3.15, he says, this is God speaking to the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, "between your offspring and hers. "He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." The "He" in that verse is foreshadowing to the coming Messiah, Jesus. Jesus will defeat the enemy. And so everything in our Bibles, everything, up until we get to here, right around here, Jesus' birth, everything in between is God's plan unfolding about bringing about that Messiah. From the moment that sin enters the story, everything else is pointing and leading to Jesus entering the story. It's from this moment on that we know that God has a plan of salvation. Someone is going to come and rescue humanity. Like I said, sin has corrupted humanity and driven us away from God, and there's nothing that humanity can do on its own to restore that broken relationship. The human situation because of sin is hopeless and chaotic and despairing and void of any love.

But Jesus brings love and peace and hope and joy to humanity, as he is the source of all those things. And he brings restoration for our relationship with God. Jesus is born to confront the issue of sin. This is why we need Jesus. This is why God has sent his son to earth. And this is how the manger points us So what Jesus the Messiah will do. So there was our brief Bible lesson from the past and now we're back in Jesus' time. There are many references to Jesus being the Messiah in helpful passages in Scripture and they all describe a little bit about who He is and what He does. We don't have time to go through them all but I would encourage you this week and up until Christmas and this season to maybe do a Google search in your personal time and you know Bible passages Messiah and see what you learn from that. But today I want to focus on one, and that's in Luke. We'll be in Luke today, chapter four. And in this scene, this is Jesus, grown up by the way, we're far past his birth, we're gonna come back to the birth, but we're far past his birth. He's a grown man, he's starting things, he's starting his ministry. And so he's coming from the wilderness, where he spent significant time being tested and tempted by Satan. And he succeeds through that temptation and testing by resting on his purpose, his mission, that he came to be the Messiah. He's a part of the rescue plan. He is the rescue plan. And so he comes back from the desert and he's like, "I gotta let people know who I am now." He's kind of been under the radar. He's just been Jesus living his life.

And so he goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath and he reads from a scroll of Isaiah. Isaiah's a book in our Bible. It's full of prophecy. And this is an epic moment of Jesus sharing who he is. So if you guys wanna follow along, I'm gonna read from verse, starting in verse 16, chapter four of the book of Luke. It says this, "He went to Nazareth, "where he had been brought up, "and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, "as was his custom. "He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah "was handed to him. "Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, "because he has anointed me "to proclaim good news to the poor. "He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners "and recovery of sight for the blind, "to set the oppressed free, "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, "Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." This is, I mean, amazing, thinking of how long people have been waiting for the Messiah, how long generations after generations and the people, this wouldn't be the first time they've heard this passage before. So they know everyone's anticipating at some point there will be someone to come rescue us. And they recognize as Jesus is reading this, like that's him. This is the guy that we've been waiting for. All their eyes are fixed on him. So what is Jesus gonna do? Let's find out what the Messiah is all about. I just wanna go line by line here and break down what Jesus is saying by reading this scripture.

So the first part says, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me "because he has anointed me." Well, anointing symbolizes holiness and authority. In the Bible, kings, prophets, and priests could all be anointed to signify that they had been set apart and selected for a specific role. And the Hebrew word here that Jesus is using when he says "anointed" is also the word for Messiah. So he's saying, "Look, it's me. I am the anointed one. I am the Messiah, the one you've been waiting for." So we know that Jesus, as the Messiah, has been anointed, he's been purposed, he's been selected for this role by God. To redeem and to rescue, to sacrifice and to be king. The passage continues to proclaim good news to the poor. Jesus as the Messiah brings good news, brings the gospel. John 4, in the Gospel of John, there's a different scene that's a little bit more explicit in explaining this role of the Messiah. There's a conversation between Jesus and a woman, and the woman says to Jesus, "I know that the Messiah, called Christ, is coming, and when He comes, He will explain everything to us." says to this woman in this passage, "I, the one speaking to you, I am He." And so we know that Jesus brings truth. He brings perfect understanding and explanation to the Scriptures, to the way that we are supposed to live according to God. His purpose was to reveal truth and to... He has the power and clarity of sharing God's perfect Word. This is the role of Jesus as a prophet, being the voice of God. And he would do this throughout his life by teaching in synagogues, by having conversations with his followers, parables, more conversations with his disciples, explaining what scripture really means and what God is actually calling people to.

The end of that verse says, "To the poor." And why "to the poor"? Well, Jesus would teach on the on the Sermon on the Mount, that the poor in spirit are blessed, because the kingdom of God, God himself, values those who the world may see poor in their eyes, God sees value in them. And so he's speaking the gospel to everyone, not just who the world would think, hey, the good news should come to those who have earned it, who have lived a certain life. No, Jesus came to give good news to absolutely everyone. The passage continues again, it says, He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind and set the oppressed free. So it's not just that the Messiah reveals truth, he does that, but he also has come to do things. He's come to rescue and to redeem. Now the Israelites for a long time had this idea of what that rescue plan would look like. They thought an earthly ruler, an earthly king, that would help them rise up against their oppressors, thinking of the Roman government, and we're gonna establish this new kingdom here on earth. That's what all of Israel thought. But Jesus is not talking about an earthly nation or kingdom. Jesus came to rescue, to save lost people, and to give freedom, but freedom from sin. Rescue from that eternal separation from God that they were dealing with. That people would no longer be bound by the oppressive sin and darkness in their life, but would have the light of Christ and have freedom in him. Jesus came to free sinners and to give new life, eternal life to those who believe.

And then it ends with, “to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” Now, this is referenced to an old Israelite tradition that every 50 years, any slave would be freed and any borrowed land would be returned to its original owners. And Jesus is not saying, "Hey, that's what's happening this year, everyone." He's saying, "I'm now ushering in a new era of salvation." This is an era where the work of sin can begin to be undone, where people were once separated from God, and now that relationship can be restored, not fully, like it will be in heaven, but we can once again commune with God the Father through Jesus. So this whole passage, verses 18 and 19, when Jesus is reading this, he's saying, this is what I'm bringing, what the Messiah brings, is an era worthy of celebrating, of anticipating, of getting excited about. This is what the Messiah will do. This is why God sent his only son to earth. This is why Jesus is born, and this is why we have Christmas. Jesus was born to save, to share God's truth, and to redeem the lost, to free humanity from their sin. And so in our scene, Jesus says all this, rolls back up the scroll, gives it to the attendant, and all eyes were on him. And it was clear that he was saying this about himself.

And in verse 21 it says, "Today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." Jesus has announced that he is the Messiah. And he's alluding to what will happen, God's plan that's gonna be carried out in the coming years of his life. Now today, our series is around the manger. We're approaching Christmas Day where we often think of baby Jesus, and that's appropriate, we can do that, we can celebrate that. But it's important to know that thinking of Jesus in the manger is to think of what that baby, the Messiah, will do in his life. While we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we truly celebrate the birth, what that birth brings, what the Messiah brings. You see, Christmas means less if we think we aren't in need of rescuing. Christmas means less if we don't think we need a savior. And Christmas means less if we aren't looking forward to the Messiah doing work in our own lives. The passage in Luke continues in a very unfortunate way. We won't read it, but let me just tell you what happens. Jesus says all this, and I wanna compare it to what we're doing today too. So Jesus says all this, he's at the synagogue on the Sabbath, which is what they would do at that time. We're today at church on a Sunday, which is what we do. And Jesus comes unexpected and claims to be the Messiah. And at first people were in awe. They're amazed at what is happening. But then the people wanted proof. They didn't take Jesus at his word any longer.

And so Jesus has some harsher words for them, telling them that prophets are not accepted in their hometowns and the people are offended. As one scholar says, it says, "People are more ready to see greatness in strangers "than in those that they know well." And that's what was true of the people in Nazareth. And so I just want us to pause and think about that. If you know Jesus, if you've been walking with Jesus for most of your life, are you at risk of being numb to the greatness that he's doing around you and in you and through you, especially in another Christmas season? Are you numb to how amazing the birth of Jesus is? Well, that's kind of what Jesus is saying to these people. He's saying, "Hey, I'm saying all these truths and you want more. You don't need more, but you want more." And they get angry. And they get so angry that they want to push Jesus off of a cliff. I'm not making that up. That's in the Bible. They are pushing him. This crowd, this angry mob, is forcing him to this cliff. They want to throw him off. They're so offended. But in verse 30, this is what happens. "He walked right through the crowd, and he went on his way." He just left. He walks on and continues with his purpose, with his rescue mission, because he is the Messiah. And they missed out on experiencing more of the Messiah in their lives.

And so what is our response to the Messiah today? Are we amazed, hearing amazing things, seeing amazing things from God? And sometimes we're in awe and we're like, "Yes, God, you are so good. "This is incredible." Or are we more offended and angry? Jesus, you wanna do what with my life? Jesus, you're asking me to change in what way? Jesus, you want how much of me? You want all of me? Sometimes these things offend us. They stir us up. We don't like that. And maybe we identify with both these groups if we're honest with ourselves. Even in the same day, we can be, at one point in the day, we're amazed at God. In the next moment, we're really offended. "God, I don't like what you're doing in my life right now." But verse 30 is a warning to us. He walked right through the crowd, went on his way. Our Messiah is on a mission. He's got things to do in our lives, and we don't want to miss out. If we reject or ignore the Messiah, we'd be missing out on being freed from sin, or seeing light in the darkness, or being rescued completely. So I wanna invite the worship band back up as we close. We're gonna close our sermon this morning and really our whole series with this. The Message of the Manger, that was the title of our series. And so I wanna make sure that we all know what that message is, be very clear. The message of the manger is one of salvation. It's about how the incarnation of God in the person of Christ came down through miraculous means and circumstances. Jesus came to be our King, came to be our Redeemer, our Rescuer, our Lord and Savior, our Messiah. And so will you this Christmas lean into God? Will you worship Him? Will you give him your entire life? And as you celebrate his arrival and you celebrate what his arrival means, don't let Jesus pass you by this Christmas.

Let's pray. God, thank you again for Christmas, for sending your son. Thank you for what that birth means and the fact that we get to have an opportunity to experience everlasting life with you. That through your son that you would bring salvation, that you would correct this sin issue that all of us are dealing with. So God, our prayer this morning is that in today, in this next week, and through Christmas and beyond, that you would draw us closer to you. And if that's by focusing on your birth, on the birth of Jesus, then so be it. If that's on focusing on what Jesus would do later on in his life, great. In whatever ways, God, I pray that you would draw us closer to you, that we would come to this point of surrendering, giving our lives over to you, worshiping you with all that we have. I pray that we would all, however we're feeling, at some point in this Christmas season, we would experience your joy, your peace, your hope, and your love. God, you are so good. We give you all the praise. We pray this in your name. Amen.

The Message of the Manger: Part 3

The Majesty of the Manger

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Welcome! I am so glad to be here with you today. Last time I was up here, I was very pregnant. So hopefully my lung capacity will be a little bit better this time. If I haven't met you, I am Pastor Lauren, and I am so excited to be with you today with our third week of Advent. Real quick, unrelated, I know you heard it from the guys, but I wanted you to hear it from me. Thank you so much for your generosity as we have transitioned with a new baby and just, we have not bought diapers yet because of you all. You guys have blessed us so much. I think we saw months worth of diapers left in our garage. So we are so thankful for that and for meals and gift cards. And then right after that, you guys have been so generous with Pastor Appreciation and just loving on our families. And so I just wanted you to hear that from me, completely unrelated to the sermon today, but thank you. Thank you for those that have given and sacrificed and served to fill in spaces when I was missing this the last couple of months. So thank you. Just wanted you to know that you are appreciated and you are so loved. And I just love the culture of generosity we have here in our SVC family.

Well, we are on week three of the message of the manger series. Pastor Chris started us off with the mystery of the manger and talked about Jesus coming and being fully God and fully man and how we can maybe grasp that on some level, but there's still so much mystery there. And it's a wonderful mystery. If we could figure God out, I would be concerned. So I'm glad there is still some mystery and that I am not God and I do not fully understand Him. And then Pastor Andre talks about the miracles last week of the manger and the multiple miracles surrounding the birth of Jesus and His incarnation and Mary and Joseph and Elizabeth and Zechariah and even the wise men coming. And then today we are going to talk about the majesty of the manger. So something you should know about me is I love Christmas. I know that is not the case for everybody. I know this time of year can be really hard for a lot of people, but I am so grateful that I just love it. I love, it's just magical to me. I love the music and the twinkle lights and the presents and the songs, just the movies, just all of it. Give me all of it, I want it all. And I get it from my father. Now I'm a pastor's kid, so he's used me in a lot of sermons, so I have the microphone this time, so I get to use him.

But my dad loves Christmas, and growing up, the first-ish weekend of December, he would make homemade donuts, and a big breakfast, we'd have like our nice Christmas dishes, and he'd play Christmas music, And that was our way of ushering in the Christmas season. And as a tradition, we carried on with our kids. In fact, my parents are in town. And so he made donuts with my kids yesterday to help us continue that tradition. But when I was a freshman in college, I was not going to be home in time for Christmas donut day. But I went to college about, we went to college in Indiana. My parents were here in California. And I was so bummed I was gonna miss it. And we looked forward to it every year. But I went to college about 15 minutes from my grandparents. And that Saturday morning that my family was doing Christmas donut day in California, I get a phone call that my grandma is at the front door of my dorm. And I go downstairs and she has a plate of homemade donuts. 'Cause my dad called her and said, "You gotta make my kid donuts." That to me is the magic of Christmas. I want all of it. I love it.

But we're gonna talk about the majesty today. The majesty of Christmas, I've come to appreciate it more and more. I've always known Jesus is the reason for the season. You know, we know that that's why we celebrate. The older I get, the more I appreciate what it truly means that our God came to earth as a baby. And truly, appreciating the majesty of Christmas makes it that much more magical. It just enhances the magic of Christmas for me. So what do I mean about, or what do I mean when I say majesty? Majesty is one of those words that I know what it means, but to explain it, I'm like, oh, what's the definition of majesty? So I did what we all do and I Googled it. And some definitions that came up were impressive stateliness, dignity or beauty, Royal power, a title given to a sovereign. All of these accurately describe Jesus. He is impressive and beautiful and he is sovereign and has royal power. So today we're gonna focus on his majesty and specifically his kingship. His kingship isn't necessarily something we talk about super often, but diving into this, I found it is just, it is an attribute of Him that I think is really important and it impacts our daily lives. So how do we know that Jesus is King? How do we know that? What does it mean for us practically to have a King?

Well, the Bible talks about Jesus is King and there are many prophecies of the coming King or coming Messiah. And Messiah means anointed one. And in Bible times, prophets would anoint the next king as a symbol of their kingship. So Jesus is the Messiah. He is the anointed one. And it was foretold in the Old Testament, thousands of years before Jesus's birth, that he would be king and that he would sit on David's throne forever. So we're gonna be kind of jumping around in scripture today. So if you wanna follow along, great. pleased you, we got Bibles in the seats. You can pick it up on your phone or we'll have it on the screen for you. But our first passage today is Isaiah 9, six through seven. And it says, "For to us, a child is born, to us a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing it and upholding it with justice and righteousness. From that time on and forever, the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this." This is just one of many prophecies of Jesus's coming King. The Israelites in the Old Testament, they wanted a King. They were struggling to follow God and his way for them. They saw the surrounding nations had kings and they wanted a king. They wanted a ruler and a warrior to help them conquer other lands. They wanted a protector. They wanted a king. The problem is their only options for kings were humans. So there was not going to be a perfect king. There were good kings and there were a lot of really bad ones too. David is one example. He was a good king. He made a lot of mistakes, but the Bible also says he was a man after God's own heart. So he was a good king, but he wasn't a perfect king. And he wasn't going to live forever, so he couldn't sit on his own throne forever. Someone else had to come. Only Jesus could be that perfect king. We know from the first week of our series that he was fully God, and so therefore he could be perfect. He could fulfill this prophecy. But we also know that he was fully man. And so he had to come from a family line. Specifically, he came from David’s.

Isaiah 11:1, couple pages later says, "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse." Jesse was David's father. "From his roots, a branch will bear fruit." Branch here is capitalized, meaning it will be a person. Jesus is the branch. So here again, we have another prophecy of Jesus's royal lineage. And then in Matthew one, we see his whole lineage laid out for us. I think sometimes at least growing up, I was like, why do we need all of these names? Why do we need to know his family history all the way back to Abraham? But it shows us where he came from. It shows us that he is in the royal line. He is the one to fulfill and sit on David's throne forever. The Israelites begged for a king. In New Testament, the Jewish people were looking for a king. We, even today, need him to be our king. We need him to redeem us, to restore us, to protect us. but only Jesus can do that. Only He can do it perfectly. Author and theologian Amy Gannett writes, "Jesus is the true and better King who came from the line of David, who would lead His people only in righteousness, who could ever be trusted to guide them in the pathways of Jesus." They were good Kings, but there was no one like Jesus. The thing about having a King though, is that a King has subjects and the subjects must bow down to their king, must honor and submit to their king. So when we, as human beings, choose to follow Jesus, we are essentially saying, you are my king, you are my Lord. I submit to your authority, to your sovereignty, to your majesty.

Philippians 2:9-11 says, "Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. He is Lord. Everyone take a deep breath, 'cause that's really hard to acknowledge sometimes, that we are not the king or queen of our own life, that we are not the Lord of our lives. We like, as humans in general, we typically like to have control. We like things to go our way, or is that just me? Okay, I like to have control. I like things to go my own way. And it can be really hard to let that go, to submit to Him and acknowledge that He is King, He is Lord, and His ways are better. When we look at the Christmas story, we see someone who also had difficulty submitting to Jesus's kingship. Pastor Andre talked about this last week and talked about King Herod and how he was, he heard of this baby king and was threatened by him. He did not want to humble himself. He refused to acknowledge his authority and even went so far as seeking him out to kill him and kill thousands of other baby boys just to make sure he had his bases covered. It's interesting though, because in stark contrast to that, we have the wise men. They went and searched for Jesus at great personal sacrifice. They went to find Him because they knew He was King. They knew He was the one that they had been looking for and waiting for. They wanted to worship Him.

Matthew 2:1-2 says, "After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the East came to Jerusalem and asked, 'Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews?'" They hadn't even met Him yet and they knew who He was. "We saw His star when it rose and have come to worship Him." We know from different studies that the wise men took about two years to get to Jesus. So he was about two years old. He was a toddler. And these wise men came and bowed down and worshiped a toddler. Now we all know enough two year olds to know that that's humbling in and of itself, right? But they were willing to submit to him because they knew who he was. They were so convinced of his kingship that it didn't matter if he was two, 20 or 25, 80 years old, it didn't matter. He was their king. Many years later, around the time of Jesus's ministry, the Jewish people were under the oppression of the Romans and they wanted their king. They wanted someone to come save them. They were on the lookout of this king that had been prophesied in the Old Testament. They knew the scriptures, they knew that He was coming. They expected the Messiah to be an earthly king, to set up an earthly kingdom and to save them, to free them, to bring them redemption from the Romans. Unfortunately, that wasn't, or fortunately, that wasn't Jesus' plan. They didn't realize that Jesus would set them free. He would redeem them. He would save them from their sins and the consequences of their sins. He had so much better planned than anything they could ask or imagine. So although he was king, he wasn't what they were expecting. And because we're on this side of Jesus's death and resurrection, and we have the Bible, We know the end of the story. We know that he didn't come to set up an earthly kingdom, but an eternal kingdom.

Revelation 17:14 says, "They will wage war, they, his enemies, "will wage war against the lamb, "but the lamb will triumph over them "because he is Lord of lords and King of kings, "and with him will be his called, chosen, "and faithful followers." We get the spoiler alerts. We know what's coming. We know we have a king and he is gonna win. We're told that he will be triumphant. He will be the king of kings eternally. We have the opportunity now to make him the king and Lord of our life while we wait for that eternal kingdom. but it requires something of us. How do we do that? How do we put Jesus on the throne of our heart and our life now while we wait for eternity and take ourselves off of it? Well, I got a few ideas for us to help this process. The first thing is that we have to remember that our king wants a relationship with us. I don't know many kings that want a relationship with every single one of their subjects. Our king is different. He is good, he is loving, he wants our best and he wants to be in relationship with us. Does he want us to submit to him and to surrender to him? Absolutely, but he wants to be our friend too. He wants to be in relationship.

John 15:15 says, "I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends for everything that I learned from my father, I have made known to you." So the first thing is remember, he wants a relationship with us. Secondly, we must submit to his kingship. We must surrender to him, just like the wise men did. We have to choose his way over our way. And I do not stand up here as someone teaching this because I have it figured out. I promise you I do not.

The Lord typically gives me a word or a phrase for the coming year to focus on in my study, in my just everyday life. It's just something that I can be intentional with throughout the year. Well, this time last year, the Lord gave me the word surrender. And I'm just gonna tell you, If the Lord gives you the word surrender, buckle up. And I knew something was probably coming. If I needed to work on surrendering more to Him, there was probably something coming down the pike. And there were, there were so many opportunities this year for me to practice surrender. We had our fourth baby. There were some professional things that were opportunities for me to trust Him. There were things that didn't go my way that required me to pivot. And I'm still pivoting. Like don't, I do not have it figured out, but it was lots of opportunities for me to say, or to ask myself, do I trust him as my king more than I trust my own ways? That's a hard question to ask. And there were some days, if I'm honest, I wanted it to be my way. I had to surrender my plans, my will, my timeline. I wanted it to go the way I thought it should. But these opportunities to surrender and these situations throughout the year grew me deeper. They took me deeper in my relationship with Jesus and my faith in Him and to grow my trust in my Lord and my King.

Next, we must choose humility. Being humble, like I said, can be so hard 'cause it's not necessarily our natural inclination. But if the wise man can bow down to a toddler, we can bow down to the risen King. I wonder sometimes if it's easier for us to focus on some of the other attributes of Jesus, like savior, friend, shepherd, because they kind of make us feel good. You know, baby Jesus at Christmas time is cute and cuddly and makes us feel good, right? It benefits us in some way. But Jesus is King? That requires us to humble ourselves and acknowledge that He is King and we are not. Humility. We have to practice humility. And lastly, we must keep an eternal perspective. Jesus isn't just king right now. He's not just an earthly king that will pass away. He is an eternal king. And so when it's hard to submit, when it's hard to be humble, when it's hard to go His way or choose His will for your life, Keeping that eternal perspective that it is not just about right now, it is about eternity, makes it a little bit easier. Here's a secret sauce for you though, okay? Here's what makes this work. We make that choice to submit to Him over and over and over again. When you choose to follow Jesus as your savior and you make that choice, that's a one-time decision. You don't have to keep asking for salvation. He's given it to you, it is a gift. But our part, our submission sometimes require us to do it over and over again. Sometimes day by day, we have to keep submitting minute by minute in some occasions. We have to keep choosing Him to make Him King over and over again. So all of this is the majesty of Christmas. It's the majesty of this manger that when a baby came to earth, he was the fulfillment of so many prophecies and promises. He was the answer that we were looking for that we all need. Fully God, fully man. came as a miracle, not only to create the coming physical kingdom, but an eternal one, and to be the King and the Lord of our lives right now.

So my prayer for us this Christmas season is that we would celebrate the magic of Christmas. Go to the parties, eat the food, make the donuts, Have presents, do it all, go see the lights, celebrate with your people, enjoy the magic of Christmas, but let that magic be even better by remembering the majesty of who was in that manger. Remember that he came to have a relationship with us, to identify with us as humans, to be the perfect King that no one else could be for us, to save us, to redeem us, to protect us. And as we leave today, I just have a question for us. You can just kind of take with you and maybe think about this week and answer for yourself. I gave you some ideas of things that can help, but we all have to answer this for ourselves. What would it look like for you to trust Christ alone, to be your king and keep him on the throne of your heart? What does that look like for you personally? How do you practically live that out? Worship team's gonna come up and I'm gonna pray us out. But I pray that you are encouraged to not forget that even though he came as a baby, he was still our king. He's still the Lord of our hearts. And if you don't know him as the Lord of your heart, as the king in your life, please come talk to us. Let us share that with you. If you have questions, we'd love to answer them. But for those of us who've already made that choice, what an added part of Christmas we get to just celebrate even more.

Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for this time. We thank you that we can fellowship together and celebrate the Christmas season with all of the fun and the magical things that come along with it. But help us to never forget the majesty, the grandeur of Christmas, because you are King. You sit on the throne right now, God. You are King eternally and in our hearts today. We praise you that you are King. We praise you that your way is better. May we submit and humble ourselves before you, our King and our Lord in Jesus' name, amen.

The Message of the Manger: Part 2

The Miracle of the Manger

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

So far, I mean it's December, it's finally December, I feel like Christmas was being pushed off and pushed off and now it's here we can all you know go full in. I love this time of year I've always loved Christmas. It's a season for many things it's a season of giving as we're talking about with this outreach. It's a season of special food I know this Christmas food kind of like Thanksgiving only comes around once a year unless you guys are having stuffing all the time which that's awesome but for us it's only around Christmas time. Christmas movies those are awesome and again just all these things that only happen during this time the decorations hopefully family, hopefully also a season of rest or break, whether from work, there's some time off, or school, but we just love this season.

And it's also a season of miracles. Miracles, we think of miracles, or maybe some of us experience something, but this year, this time of year, they just kind of come to the forefront of our mind just a little bit more. I want to remind us that each week in our series, "The Message of the Manger," we're looking at different aspects of Jesus's birth, trying to highlight God's plan, His providence, and His provision in the arrival of our Savior. We're striving for a better understanding of the true story, the true message, and the true purpose of Christmas. And Jesus's birth is a pinnacle moment in history. We want to have it on on the forefronts of our hearts and minds every day this season. And so this week we're gonna be focusing on the miracles of the manger. Last week was the mystery, this week we're doing miracles, and it's because the circumstances surrounding Jesus' birth have God's fingerprints all over them. I wanna start by defining what a miracle is. A miracle is an act or event that occurs outside the bounds of normal or natural means and demonstrates God's involvement. So it's something that is outside of human possibility where God is intervening. And I have today three miracles, three small stories, vignettes, and when we put them together, they help us see even more the work that God is doing around this very first Christmas. So are we ready to dive into these three stories? Okay, good. Are you ready at home, all those at home? Okay.

The first miracle of the manger might be the most obvious, and that is the birth of Jesus. How was that possible? You start off, many of you probably know this story, of with a young woman, probably in her late teens, who is betrothed to be married to a man, and her name is Mary, and she is approached by God through a messenger, an angel, letting her know that her life is about to change forever. Now, anytime there's a pregnancy announcement, that is some kind of recognition that life is about to change in a drastic way. And I don't know about you, but seeing some of these pregnancy announcements recently, they're getting pretty extreme. They started with just like, hey, leaving the pregnancy test out on the counter for the husband to come home to and like, oh, what's happening? And then, you know, now it's like cake and then you open it up, you slice it open and it's pink or blue. And then there's balloons that pop in the air. I don't know if you guys have seen these things. Some of you are like link stairs, but others of you know that these viral trends of pregnancy announcements are getting very, there was just a huge fire that happened because of a pregnancy announcement that went wrong. So, careful with pregnancy announcements. But they're going, they're huge. And all that to say that a pregnancy announcement signifies a big change in life. And this pregnancy announcement would have gone viral today, if it happened today, but it's extreme. And so I want to read for us, and you guys can follow along, we're going to be in a couple different scriptures. We're going to start off in Luke chapter 1, and this is a conversation where the angel is approaching Mary. So I'm going to start in verse 20. You guys can read along in your own Bibles. I love that, or you can read it on the screen.

But it says, "The angel went to her and said, 'Greetings, you who are highly favored,' speaking to Mary, 'the Lord is with you.' Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son. you are to call him Jesus. He will be great, and he will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom will never end." "How will this be?" Mary asks. "Since I'm a virgin," the angel answered, "the Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.”

Mary's having this conversation with this angel who tells her she's gonna have a child and she's engaged and so she's she might be wondering like is this gonna be like my future child with that guy or is this something different and the angel says oh it's very different this is going to be the most different thing ever to happen when it comes to a pregnancy you're gonna have a child that comes from God through the work of the Holy Spirit this is going to be a miracle this is God getting involved outside of human means in the most personal way by sending his Son. This is, and I love this phrase, this is the author of life inserting himself into the story. This is God intervening in human affairs for the sake of bringing salvation to the world. This miracle birth is more than just bringing life into the world through miraculous means, it's about bringing eternal life through the only way possible, Jesus. So Mary is going to give birth to Jesus, who is human, is a child, but is also something more, who's God. We talked about this last week, the mystery, and she's going to do so remaining a virgin. And this is the first of our major miracles. So what does this miracle mean? Well, the miracle of the virgin birth signifies that this baby is unlike any other ever born. The The miracle of the birth, this divine causation behind Jesus lets us know that this life and death of this child is going to be deeply divine and purposeful and missional. The miracle of the virgin birth shows just how powerful God is. For us in our finiteness, in our limited power and capability, the virgin birth is truly a miracle because it's something that is impossible happening.

But for God, I want us to realize this, this is nothing extreme. In the realm of what God can do, this is effortless. He's not straining to make this happen. That's how powerful He is. From the miracle of healing a blind man, to turning water into wine, to the virgin birth, this is not hard for God. And it just shows how amazing, how capable, how powerful our God is. The significance of the virgin birth is this, that Jesus is truly man, but also truly God. And it signifies that the divine initiative in salvation, that means that salvation does not come from man, but from God. And so this miracle, think of this miracle as absolutely life-changing, world-changing. And I love if we think of this as the news of this miracle, starting small, just started with Mary and the angel, and then to Joseph, obviously. And then as time went on, it maybe grew and the circle became large and maybe her extended family knew about him, I'm pregnant, it's not Joseph's and here's what's happening, here's what the angel said. And so now we fast forward thousands of years later and now the whole world can know about this birth. It's a miracle. All right, the second miracle, we gotta go fast 'cause a lot of miracles to get through.

The second miracle of the manger is found earlier in the same passage and it has to do with Elizabeth and Zachariah. Now Elizabeth is Mary's older relative. And God is absolutely purposeful in this miracle. I want to say that from the forefront. This is so intentional by God and what he's doing. Imagine Mary, not yet married, and the possible shame and judgment that she would face in society as she is having a child out of wedlock. And she's saying these things like, "Hey, it's of God." And people are like, "Sure, sure it's of God, trying to hide whatever you want to hide." but the shame and judgment and how that would test her faith. And so God was thinking of that, knew of that. And we have the story of Elizabeth and Zechariah. So I wanna read from Luke chapter one, you guys can follow. I'm gonna be jumping around here, but I'm starting in verse five. It says, "In the time of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah. His wife, Elizabeth, was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commands and decrees blamelessly. but they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive and they were both very old. If that sounds familiar, hold on to that thought.

Verse 11, "Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him, 'Do not be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard. Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth. for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He was never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this? I'm an old man, my wife is well along in years." And the angel said to him, "I am Gabriel. "I stand in the presence of God. "I have been sent to speak to you "and tell you this good news. "And now you will be silent and not speak "until the day this happens, "because you did not believe my words, "which will come true at their appointed time." I'm gonna fast forward a little bit. During the part where the angel is talking to Mary, the angel says this to Mary as a way of encouraging her. Says in verse 36, "Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age and she is said to be unable to conceive and she's now under six months for no word from God will ever fail.”

And then later in the chapter, we won't read it, but their baby is born, Elizabeth and Zechariah. They have their baby. And again, as Scripture says, Zechariah during this time was unable to speak because he questioned Gabriel, said, "How can this be?" And Gabriel says, "It's going to happen, but by the way, you can't talk for the whole pregnancy." So for ten months, this guy cannot speak. I'm sure Elizabeth is just having a great time making all the decisions. What are you... Okay, I'm going to go ahead and buy all this stuff for the... Yeah. But the baby is born, and they're trying to decide a name, and it should be named something in the family line. But in that moment, to everyone's astonishment, Zechariah can speak and says, "No, the angel said it was going to be named John. This baby is going to be named John." amazing, amazing story.

So where is the miracle here? Well, in the life of Elizabeth and Zechariah, this is a huge miracle. They were unable to have a child, and now God has given them a son. And, as I said, if that sounded familiar, is there anything else that happened in the Bible? I'm glad it did. And if it didn't, that's okay. Let me tell you how amazing our God is, and how He links things, and how He uses those references to encourage people. So, If you guys thought of Abraham and Sarah, then good. That should, the way this is written, what was happening, even Zechariah and Elizabeth would have been reminded of Abraham and Sarah, who were also past childbearing years, and God gave them a child to fulfill a covenant that God made with Abraham, to be the father of God's people, and that the promise of the Messiah would come through Abraham's descendants. And now we have Elizabeth and Zechariah, who are going to have a child, and that child's entire life will be focused on announcing the coming Messiah. That reference, again, would have been in Elizabeth and Zechariah's mind, and I think it would have been of great encouragement to them to think of. I know in our great history of this nation of Israel, there was another couple who prayed and wanted a child, and God gave them a miracle baby. And we too are about to experience a miracle baby. So this is God intervening in ways that were not possible by human means. And how does this, again, miracle tie in with the miracle of the manger? Well, the lives of John the Baptist and Jesus are linked together from even before they were born. And again, there's no doubt in my mind that Mary is facing this new ordeal of being pregnant as a virgin, that seeing her relative Elizabeth, who is elderly and now pregnant, going through her own miracle would be of the greatest source of encouragement to Mary.

If ever there was moments of doubt, and maybe there were in Mary's mind of, "God, is this really happening? Can I do this?" And then she sees Elizabeth, who is experiencing her own miracle, and so clearly God is intervening in Elizabeth's life. How encouraging is it to Mary to say, "God is intervening in my life. God is in control over what's happening." Mary can hold God's Word strong in her heart, that she would believe and have faith in her own pregnancy. It's God's way of saying to Mary, "I'm right here with you. I've got you. Don't worry. I've got things under control." And we also know that John was born first, and so she could see that whole miracle through its entirety, and again, be a source of encouragement, empowerment, and peace, as Jesus will soon be born. So what does this second miracle mean? Well, it conveys that sometimes we need help. Sometimes we need some encouragement and some evidence that God is at work, and God knows that. He sees that, and He meets us where we're at. At the same time, this miracle also shows that God is not holding back from doing whatever is necessary for the the birth of the Messiah. God's pulling out all the stops to make it happen. Even these references to the Old Testament, and keep in mind that would have been a huge boost to their faith, God is doing everything to make sure that Jesus comes into this world and the purpose, the plan of salvation is going to come to fruition.

All right, the third miracle is one that truly foreshadows greatness and God's redemptive plan. It's going to bring everything together. And this one actually happens after Jesus is born. If you're in your Bibles, we're going to be flipping over to Matthew 2. But I'll just kind of summarize where we're at. You guys have heard of the three wise men or the three magi? Well, they've come from the east. God is doing his own work over there and brought these three wise men to go visit Jesus. And along their way, they come to Herod, the king of that area, and they say, "Hey, Herod, we're on our way to see the new king of Israel, the new king of the Jews." And he's like, "Uh, what? I am the king of the Jews. This is news to me." And he does not like this. He's threatened. But he plays it coy, and he's like, "Oh, yes, you as well? Well, let me know if you find him so I can also go and worship him." He's lying. He doesn't want to worship Jesus. And so the magi go and they follow the star, but they're warned to not return the same way. God's intervening, God's protecting Jesus, and He's guiding the wise men's path. And so they go to Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus, and they deliver their three gifts. Do we know their three gifts, by the way? Yes, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Good. And then they leave, and they go a different route.

And the angel comes to Joseph and gives him a message. And so I'm going to read from Chapter 2, starting in verse 13, "When they had gone," that's the wise man, "an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. 'Get up,' he said, 'take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for King Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.' So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet, 'Out of Egypt I called my son. When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious and gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem in its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time that he learned from the Magi. If that rings familiar, then hold on to that thought. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled. A voice is heard in Rama weeping in great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more. After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in the dreams of Joseph in Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who are trying to take the child's life are dead." Herod, again fearing for his reign, commits an awful atrocity by commanding that the newborn babies, two years old and younger, be killed. And as much mourning as that takes, there's also a miracle in this.

God intervenes outside of human possibilities, God sends a messenger via angel to Joseph, telling him to take his family and baby Jesus and to flee to Egypt. Now, if you know your Bible, and this part sounds a little familiar, and you're thinking, "Where have I heard a ruler trying to kill baby boys two years old and younger, and you got to Moses, then I'm proud of you. Good job." And if you don't know your Bible, that's okay. Let me tell you again How amazing our God is that he would do this so purposefully. Again, for Mary and Joseph, this would be very much on their mind. These are all, when he does this, when we come across this from the stories, this is purposeful by God. This is God trying to say to us as readers and also to the characters at that time, to the people at that time, "Hey, I'm up to something. If this sounds familiar, it's because I am doing something great that maybe I've done before in a similar vein." He's trying to give them a heads up. He's trying to give them encouragement, some foreshadowing. So again, Egypt, Pharaoh, Moses, this was the same similar situation that Pharaoh, when Israelites were in captivity in Egypt, Pharaoh, fearing of what could happen in the future, orders baby boys to be killed, and miraculously Moses is saved in the basket. We all know that story in the basket in the Nile and is rescued. And Moses would grow up to become the leader of Israel, bringing salvation to them by delivering them from slavery in Egypt by the power of God. And Moses would become their first, Israel's first prophet and priest. Well, in our passage today, under similar circumstances, Jesus is being saved from certain death, and he's going to bring salvation to the world, from people's slavery to sin, and he's going to be our perfect prophet, priest, and king.

So, I love this. I love when God does this. I love when the Bible makes this apparent to us that God is up to something big. What's the significance of this miracle? Well, God was telling them, "I am at work right now. I'm doing something amazing. This is crucial to my plan, to my people, to the world. And even as we read this today, a couple thousand years later, from when this all happened, we can still be reminded that God is the bringer of salvation. His heart is to save what is lost, to redeem what is broken, and to bring life and true freedom where sins' bonds are tight. The miracle of Jesus being saved from death affirms that nothing is going to stop God's plan of salvation. Absolutely nothing. And so we have these three miracles, and these miracles help us see that the birth of Jesus is the most central point of all of history. The birth of our Savior is the most important birth of all time, because the birth of this Messiah, God's plan of salvation, was being carried out through this child. Jesus' birth is absolutely a miracle, and it's surrounded by other miracles. Even though the situations for these people seem dire, improbable, or impossible, we see that God is in control. He cares and He provides for them, looking out for them. And church, I know you know this, but He does the same for us today.

And so I want us to know some messages for us from the miracles of the manger. I want to ask you some questions as you reflect on these miracles. The first one is this. What impossible situation do you need God to show up in this Christmas season? For Mary, it was having a child as a virgin. For Elizabeth and Zachariah, it was having a child in their old age. And then for Mary and Joseph and for the baby, it was being saved from having Jesus be killed as a baby boy. What situation are you in where you desperately need God to show up and and intervene in your life. You know, as happy as the holidays can be, they're honestly, they can be a mixed bag of emotions and situations. And, you know, we could be missing loved ones. We can be reminded of deep hurts and wounds that we have in our hearts. Finances can be tight and maybe we don't get to celebrate in the way that we want to, or give in the way that we want to. As happy as this time is, it's also true that the enemy doesn't take a break at Christmas. You may have areas in your life that you're facing challenges that are even getting harder as we speak in this time of year.

So where can God be at work in your life? The miracle of the manger helps us to recognize our need for God's intervention. We need to ask God for help. So I encourage you in this time, with whatever's coming to mind, whatever situation or person the Spirit is putting on your heart right now, to cry out for God and ask for a miracle. Ask for God to intervene. Maybe you've tried all the human ways to fix the issue or to address whatever's going on, and now, God, in your own way, in a way that is beyond normal means, please intervene. Pray that prayer this week.

Second question, what is God trying to draw your attention to? We saw in our passages how God was cluing people in to the work that he is doing. Elizabeth and Zechariah experiencing a similar situation to Abraham and Sarah, Mary and Joseph and Jesus going through a similar experience to Moses in the Old Testament. And these were all God's way of saying, I'm up to something, I'm here, I'm present, I'm working. So what might God be trying to get you to see that He's doing? The miracles of the manger help us to expect God to show up. All these signs are that there's something big happening, God is on the move. So I want to say to you, don't miss God trying to get your attention. Is it through, is He trying to get your attention through relationships, people close to you that have influence over you, and they're saying something to you? Maybe God is speaking through them. Or maybe it's through circumstances that something is lining up, or the way that things are happening in your life, it seems that maybe God is pulling you in a certain direction. Or maybe it's in the silence, it's in the quiet, it's through the lack of all those things that God is trying to speak to you, trying to get a hold of your heart. Whatever it is, expect God to show up. Expect God to be at work in your life. You may not know all the details, you may not know how he's going to do it beyond the next step in front of you. You may not even know that. But you can still expect God to be at work, to be present and engaged in your life.

And the third and final question, what are you expecting of God? What are you expecting of God? Praying for miracles, we can all, I'm guilty of this, we can often think of something glamorous or over-the-top, amazing. "God, if you could just answer my needs in this amazing way." But God, it's not that God can't do that or doesn't do that, but look at the story of the manger. When Mary and Joseph didn't have a place to go, did he send them to a five-star hotel or the most amazing birthing center in Bethlehem? He was like, "Don't worry, I got you. This doula was off, and so she's perfect for you." No. They were in a stable and Jesus was put in a manger, a feeding trough, right? Like, we have, we can, we tend to have expectations. But just because God chooses to intervene doesn't mean it's going to be exactly what we expect. It's not going to be necessarily the nicest or prettiest or most expensive thing, but will it help us? Yes. If God is sending it, then yes, it'll help us. Will it point to us to God? Yes. Will it provide for our needs? Absolutely. So, check your heart and your expectations of what you expect of God. The miracle of the manger helps us to accept God's provision, whatever it may look like. If it means fleeing certain death, then we have to run. If it means not being able to talk for 10 months, but then getting to celebrate a new baby boy, then we'd be silent. And if it means doing whatever is necessary, that may not be desirable, but it's what God's calling you to do, then we do it out of obedience and thankfulness. So accept God's provision, whatever it may look like. I'll ask the worship man to come back up right now. I want to close with this. I hope this week that you are encouraged in in this Christmas season, that when you think of Jesus, when you think of the manger, that you're reminded that it can be a season of miracles, of God intervening in your life, in a way that's outside of human possibility, of human means, all with the purpose of drawing you closer to Him. And let us remember this, that the greatest miracle is Jesus' birth, and that it also brought the greatest gift. That's the gift of salvation, which we'll talk about more coming weeks. But if you want to talk more, I want to put this out there too, if you want to talk more about this miracle, the miracles of the manger, or the fact that Jesus brings salvation, we'd love to do that with you. And so if you want to talk to myself or Pastor Lauren or Pastor Chris, please come see us afterwards or email us throughout the week. We'd love to answer these questions during this Christmas season. So this week, let's have joy and peace in our hearts as we keep our hearts and minds on Jesus.

Would you guys pray with me? God, thank you again for sending your son in the most miraculous way to the Virgin Mary and for all the other miracles that happened during that time to encourage Mary and Joseph to save them, to save Jesus. God, we see as we read these stories, we see that you are so clearly at work in ways that aren't always recognized at the time. And so we take that today and pray that that be true too, that even though we may not see it, God, we want to trust that you are at work, that your fingerprints are all over our lives. And God, we pray for miracles. There are things that are on people's hearts right now where they are desperate, that they see no other possibility beyond your intervention. And so we pray in your perfect way, however glamorous or unseen it is, that you would intervene, that you would be at work in each of our hearts and in our lives. And God, we pray that someday that you would make that appearance to us so that we could give you all the praise for what you're doing. We're so excited to worship you with everything that we have. So we pray this in your name. Amen.

The Message of the Manger: Part 1

The Mystery of the Manger

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Yes! Let's go! - So Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. So glad you guys are here. Welcome. Thank you everybody who's joining us online. I know we got a lot of people out that are sick and we love you, but we love you from afar. We don't want that sickness here, amen. But we pray that you restore health and get back to 100%, be back here as soon as you can. We miss you. We're not the same without you. So we are this morning gonna kick off our Christmas sermon series. And this year we're going a little different. I know we're not technically taking the traditional Advent route, but don't worry. This Advent will come back, we promise. But we wanna do something a little bit different this year. Pastor Andre and Ari had taken some time earlier in the year and really prayed through kind of, what does God wanna share with our church family this Christmas? What does God wanna teach us this Christmas season? And the more we talked about it, the more we focused in on what Christmas is about, we just kept getting drawn back to the manger and get back to this place where Christ first came that first ever Christmas and was placed and laid in that manger. And that changed the trajectory of the world. And Christmastime is awesome. There's so much excitement and joy and fun that happens at Christmas, whether it's presents on Christmas morning, and maybe it's a favorite food that you cook or bake only at Christmas time, or maybe it's a family tradition that you have wrapped around Christmas that you only do during that Christmas season. And I love those. And they can be so much fun and excitement in that with lights and music and food. But it's important for us to even in the midst of all of that, to still celebrate when Jesus came, what that meant for the savior of the world in Jesus Christ. And I think for us, unfortunately, we live in a world where there's really two polarizing opposites when it comes to Christmas, right? Either you have on one side, maybe it's all about just the stuff. And you don't necessarily hear about Jesus. You hear about the North Pole, you hear about Santa, snowmen, elves, reindeer, you fill in the blank and they miss Jesus. And sometimes on the other side, for those of us who have been in the church, it seems like forever, we hear the story of Christmas and go, "Oh yeah, I remember Christmas. The wise men and the shepherds and the manger scene and the donkey and Mary and Joseph and everybody else, the angels. Yeah, I remember Christmas.

But I think even there it gets lost because we forget truly what Christmas is about. And this awe and this majesty, this mystery that we're gonna talk about this morning that comes with the manger. And I want to encourage you this year, that as you walk through Christmas, now through the next 30 days until Christmas morning, that you might have fresh eyes. You might have a renewed perspective, a renewed outlook maybe on what Christmas is about. That in the message of the manger, there's mystery, there's miracle, there's majesty, there's Messiah. And as we look at the manger scene and baby Jesus that was wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in the manger, that in that very moment, the world changed. Let us not forget that, that when we look at that baby in the manger, we look at the savior of the world. So we're gonna be in John chapter one this morning, and we're gonna go deep today. We're jumping into some deep, deep theology. So I want you guys buckle up. It's gonna be some heavy stuff. I actually took a course, a class in college. It was all about Christology, which is just the study of Christ. I've never had a class in my life hurt my head so much. The book that was involved in this class was one of the thickest books I've ever owned in my life. And I remember times sitting in my dorm room reading this and I would just have to stop and I would literally start to have a headache because these theologians and these people that had giant IQs, way smarter than myself, would take paragraphs upon paragraphs upon pages upon pages to just take one little sliver of who Christ was and try to explain it in normal people terms. And you still couldn't fully understand. It was just like, oh my gosh. So this morning, if you walk away and going, I don't even know what Pastor Chris said today. Hey, you're in common company. I don't know what I'm saying today either. So it's all right. And if you walk out of here going, that makes sense. I understand it all, you're preaching next week. So you come and tell me.

No, but we're gonna start in John chapter one this morning And we're gonna start all the way at the beginning. It said, "In the beginning was the one who was called the Word. The Word was with God and was truly God. From the very beginning, the Word was with God. And with this Word, God created all things. Nothing was made without the Word. Everything that was created received its life from Him, and His life gave light to everyone. The Word became a human being and lived here with us. We saw his true glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father. From him, the complete gifts of undeserved grace and truth have come down to us. Jesus came that very first Christmas. And in that, John here starts his gospel account on talking about this Word. And this word translated, if you were to dive a little deep into this, is translated as logos. And that word in the Greek means basically God. This logos, this word, this God came. And that term, if you wanna write something down this morning, big term here would be incarnation. And the incarnation here is God becoming man, fully God still, and yet at the same time, fully man. And we at Christmas time are invited by God to further understand this mystery. It's something that for centuries, the church has talked about and yet still doesn't fully understand. That's how big God is. I love that about God, that we can sit here and talk about it and try to understand it and to learn about who he is. And yet we still kind of fall short. 'Cause that's who God is. And we on our humanity are limited. And that this mystery is okay. Because this mystery pulls us in. It draws us in to see the miracle of Jesus. It pulls us in to point to his majesty of who God is and truly shouts that he is the Messiah. That's what this mystery does. And when we come into this place of seeing Jesus coming to earth, we're faced with this struggle of two. Of Jesus being fully the person of God, and yet fully a human. And so we struggle in this because sometimes we sit here and we try to wrap our minds around this thing and go like, okay, he's fully God, but he's fully human. He's fully human and he's fully God. How does all of this come together? And John here is pointing us in the direction of helping us to understand.

So let's unpack this a little bit here. Unpack this. It says in the beginning was the word. What is this beginning? Well, this beginning is actually even before time came into existence. This is pre Genesis 1, 1. This is time before when there really was no time when God was there. There was no world, there was no creation, there was no night, there was no day, there were no nothing out there and yet God existed. And at that time, all things were originally created. This logos was already in continuing existence. Clear as mud? This term here, I'm gonna have a four of these. I'm gonna call them the four essentials of Incarnational Christology. Okay, we're gonna have four of these this morning. The first of which is this, yes, good word. This first one is one eternal person, the logos, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit have always existed and will continue to always exist. And this is what John here is saying, "In the beginning was the Word." God has always been, will always be, and will forever always continue to be. That's how God is. John continues on, he said, "The Word was with God." The Logos was already in face-to-face relationship with God. They were close, tight relationship with one another. That's where God being there with the Logos, with the Son, with the Holy Spirit, all together have this incredible relationship that you and I get to have just tiny glimpses in our earthly relationships. This is where we say God is an incredible relational God. This is his nature, this is who he is. And we see that even before time began. And the word was God, John continues on. The Logos was already existing with the same characteristics of God itself. John talks about this, talking about the deity of the incarnate Christ in verse 18 of John that says this, "No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son who is himself God and is in closest relationship, remember, relationship with the Father, has made him known. Paul also talks about this in the words of, not Paul, John talks about this. When Jesus has died and he's risen again and he appears before the disciples and Thomas shows up, and Jesus says, "It's me." Thomas, come touch my side, touch my hands. I am here, I am risen. And Thomas literally says, my Lord, my God. These are the same words that are used in the original manuscripts that talk about Thomas at that moment going, Jesus, you are God. You're not some separate entity. You're not some lower thing. You are God. And there was a never a time when this word that John talks about that was separate from Jesus, they have always continued to exist. And then John says, the word became a human being. You might remember it as the word became flesh. And this is Jesus. That very first Christmas, the word became flesh. This logos changed his way of living to be fully conformed to concrete humanity, just like Adam and Eve. And this is what we call the incarnation. The word literally means in flesh. God entered the world as a human man, Jesus Christ. So that's Christ divinity. That's his God side.

And then we have Christ's humanity, his human side. And it says this in Philippians chapter two, who being in the very nature of God, do not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant 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. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. And at the name of Jesus, every niche about in heaven and on earth, under the earth and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to glory of the God, the father. So God himself emptied of him, his own plans, his own agenda, his own desires. I'd be curious to see how that conversation went in heaven. God walks over to Jesus and goes, "Hey, I got a plan." And Jesus goes, "Yeah, I know. "I gotta leave, don't I?" And God goes, "Yeah, it's gonna be tough, "but it's gonna be worth it." Finally, to the point, the plan of redemption, of salvation for the entire planet, is gonna happen and it's gonna be through you, Jesus. And Jesus empties himself. It says in verse six and seven, see this existence in the form of God that Jesus had is translated as morphe theo, a God form or a God being, a person. Is it an essence? Anybody drinks sparkling water? You have those cans where it's like the essence is like they just rub the fruit on the outside of the can and hope that something tastes like it. (congregation laughing) Or they had the giant batch of water and some guy with like a spray gun went, "Psst, psst, psst, all right, bottle that." You guys know what I'm talking about? This isn't what God here is, is with Jesus. This isn't just a man that has a little spritz of divinity over him. This is a whole divine lifestyle. one that is in lockstep with God. We just finished a series in Romans. I thought about getting them this morning. All right, turn your Bibles to Romans 1, one. It'd be like, oh, just kidding. But Romans, I gotta go back to Romans. It's just so good, right? The power of the gospel. Romans talks, Paul talks about this in chapter 12. He says, "Do not conform to the power of this worm, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what's God's will." His good, His perfect, His pleasing will. Jesus has a morpheiau with God. It is in lockstep with who God is. And so God then, He humbles Himself in Jesus and takes on the status of a human. But this isn't a thing where Jesus is now separated from God, if you're taking notes, our second point of our super deep theology, essentials of incarnation Christology, is God and Jesus has the same eternal deity as the Father. So when Jesus took on the form, as it says in there in the Greek, morphandalo, the form of a bondservant, Jesus did not walk away from his divinity. Jesus wasn't just a good guy here on earth who performed some tricks and pulled the great escape artists after his death on the cross. Jesus was and continues to be to this day, God. He takes on this form of a bond sermon Another way would be saying that Jesus then devoted to another, to the disregard of his own interests. Jesus took on the calling and accepted God's great salvation plan in him and became a servant to come here to earth, to go to the cross for you and for me so that our biggest problem in life, our sin problem would be put away with and our relationship with God could be once again restored with him. Amen. That's what we celebrate at Christmas. That is the mystery of the manger. And so Jesus takes on this human likeness, this homatoia, a forefront, and this brings on himself these physical traits of a human person. Jesus looked like an everyday ordinary dude in Israel in that day and age. I'm sorry to tell you, Jesus didn't have long blonde hair, wearing a white robe with the blue sash. If you grew up in church, you knew that flannel graph figurine. Jesus looked like a normal person in that day and age. You wouldn't have been able to go, "Oh, there's God." He looked like a regular guy. And yet what? He was God. He was God. Our third incarnational Christology point is Jesus then had the same temporal humanity as us. The same temporal humanity as you and me. And yet what? He was still God.

So how does that work? How does all of this work? How does all this come together? Well, these two natures are united in what we call Christ's fullness. These two natures are pulled together. A big term for this, you ready? Is hypostatic union. I told you you're getting some good stuff today. A hypostatic union. This is the union of Christ's human nature and divine nature. See, they don't just merely coexist and take turns leading from time to time, nor are they blended together to create a third nature. The human and divine are united as one. Jesus had one fully divine nature and fully human nature. They were not mixed and they didn't create something new. Instead, they coexisted in perfect unity while retraining full attributes of both. This is important, okay? This is super important because the reality here is remember that Jesus' human nature was not a fallen human nature. That's where this born of a virgin Mary comes into play here is that Jesus comes through a sinless line. He was free from sin. He was free from any corruption. And yet he lived as a human with divine nature. There was no transfer of one to the other. So if we were to say it like this, another way would be the divine, if you were to take divine godly deity attributes and put them onto a human, the human would cease to exist, right? And if you were to take a human and to give it character and nature of God to make it a God-like figure, it would cease to be a human. God brings this mystery of this unity together to where God walks this line that no other human has ever walked. Perfect, blameless, full step of God's will. of God's will and yet not losing his divine character. The scriptures teach us that the human nature of Christ remained in its integrity after the incarnation and that the divine nature remain divine. Our fourth point of incarnational Christology would be full unity of the person of Jesus. a perfect harmonious being, fully God and fully human. And this union was incredibly personal. Again, reflecting this nature of God, incredibly relational. God, Jesus did not have a split personality. Some might say he had split personality disorder. That was not who Jesus was. It wasn't like when miracle time happened, The God side took over and da, da, da, da, da, da, da, bread and fish, water into wine. But then when Jesus was hungry, which says in scripture, when he was tired, when he was worn out from travel and being with people, it wasn't like the God side went away and he never experienced some of our physical struggles that you and I face every single day. He was still God, even in those moments and yet remain blameless. The two natures didn't take times being in control over him. He was one whole person with two natures that were perfectly united with him.

I love this quote from Dr. Jerry Bercheres. Maybe this will help bring some understanding here to this. He says, "The Logos, the second person of the Trinity, who was fully equal with God in every way, emptied himself of the divine role and lifestyles and prerogatives, I'll get there, and took a fully human nature, living as a perfectly spirit-filled human, submitting himself to the will of the Father and the leading of the Holy Spirit in order to reveal the Father, redeem the world, and become the Messianic King.”

This is the of the incarnation. This is the purpose of Jesus coming that very first Christmas, to be laid as a babe in the manger, to redeem, to reveal the Father, to reconcile the world, and to become our Messianic King. So all of this to say, we could take weeks and talk about this. You just got the speed version. But all of this to say, as we look at the manger, I don't want you to get frustrated and go, I don't understand this God. I don't understand how this perfect union coming together fully God, fully man, born without sin, born as a baby, not as a human coming together. I don't want us to get frustrated with that, but rather might we stand back and marvel at this mystery. To stand back and to look and to hear this message of the manger that even from the beginning, when the heavens and the earth were not even created before time even existed, when there was nothing but God, the Word, the Logos, existed and it was there. And the Word came to us and made flesh and dwelled among us. This isn't some fairytale that we tell every Christmas. Jesus, God, deity, walked among us humans on earth, as a servant, to love us, to show us there's a better life to live, to show us that this feeble, fragile thing that we think we know as love isn't really true love, but a fraction of the real thing that God wants us to experience, that fake peace that the world tries to sell us isn't true peace, that fake hope isn't the true hope that we have in the cross. And that grace and mercy that we might try to share with each other isn't the full picture of what God desires for our lives. And that this message from the manger is a mystery. Pastor Andre and I have studied this for a long time and we still don't fully get it. But that makes us step back and go, "God, you are incredible." That you somehow fixed a problem that we didn't know we had and yet you figured it all out to the tiniest detail. And you did it through a baby in a manger? That's incredible. And that God took on flesh and he dwelled among us. We'll invite our worship team up. We're gonna close in the song this morning. But as we think about Christmas this season, we think about the manger and the baby. Don't get caught up in this mystery, but to remember what God did, that the Word became flesh, the Word was God, and the Word dwelled among us. It's not something we can fully understand. I feel there's days when I wake up and I understand it a little bit, and then the next day I can wake up and go, I have no clue what happened. (laughs) But let's marvel in that this Christmas. So when you look at a manger scene, you look at a manger, you see those throughout the season, these next 30 days, let's marvel at this mystery. Let's marvel at this idea of how God came that very first Christmas and changed the trajectory of the world. And let that grow our faith. and let that flow over us and consume our heart with this beautiful picture of what God did.

Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you. Jesus, to come in the way you did that very first Christmas. God, we are so grateful of how you gave up your rightful place on the throne in heaven and came and took on flesh and dwelled among us, God. May we revel in that mystery this Christmas season to hear the message of the manger with a new perspective this year, that Jesus, you would be reminded us of your Messiah person that you are. God, don't let us get caught up in the hustle and the bustle of Christmas, but to focus back on what you did that very first Christmas. We thank you, Jesus, we love you. In your name, we can only pray this. Everybody said, amen.

Christmas Eve Eve

His Holy Arrival - Part 4