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Advent and Angels
Christ Church on December 20, 2020
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Advent and Astonishment

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INTRODUCTION

We sometimes glide over the stupefying doctrines that are entailed by the Christmas miracle. We are accustomed to the story, and so we simply nod our heads at the familiar words and phrases. But if we are listening, actually listening, the whole thing should bring us up short. “Wait, what?”

THE TEXT

“And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Beth-lehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them” (Luke 2:15–20).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

This story is one of the familiar ones, and so we all could probably tell it again ourselves without any prompting. But there are a few things that perhaps we have not noticed.

The shepherds at Bethlehem were keeping watch over their flocks by night (v. 8). One of the things that Bethlehem was known for was as the place where sacrificial sheep were raised. The Temple was only a few miles away, and all the sheep that were sacrificed there had to come from somewhere, and one of those places was Bethlehem. And how fitting it was for the Lamb of God (John 1:29), slain before the foundations of the world (Rev. 13:8), to be born there in Bethlehem—the place where sacrifices came into the world.

When the angels appeared, the shepherds were terrified (v. 9). After the angels had delivered their glorious message, the shepherds looked at one another and said that they needed to go and see this thing (v. 15). And then it says that they came with haste (v. 16). They hurried, they ran, like disciples running toward an empty tomb. They found Mary, and Joseph, and the baby in a manger (v. 16), and then went out telling everybody what the angels had told them (v. 17). Everyone who heard their account wondered (v. 18). They marveled. They were astonished (thaumazo). Mary pondered on all of it (v. 19), and the shepherds returned to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all of it (v. 20).

So consider the emotional tilt-a-whirl that the shepherds experienced that night. First terror, which is why they had to be told not to fear (v. 10). Then whatever emotion accompanies excitement and haste (v. 16). Then they told everybody about it (v. 17), and the recipients of their news were astonished (v. 18). And then the finale for the shepherds was giving glory and praise to God (v. 20).

THE CENTRAL MIRACLE

But angels in the sky, as remarkable as that is, were nothing compared to what dawned on the people of God later on. The signs and portents that accompanied the birth of the Christ were of course appropriate, which is why God sent them. But they were all pointing to the central miracle of all history, which was the miracle of the Incarnation.

FULLY GOD, FULLY MAN

When we talk about this miracle, we cannot draw pictures of it, or reduce it to a formula that we can understand. We can describe what the exact miracle is, but we cannot do the math, we cannot “show our work.”

Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see,
Hail the incarnate Deity . . .

Jesus was born into the world, just like the rest of us. He was a baby boy, who needed to be carried down into Egypt. All the faithful accounts we have of Him include descriptions of his genuine humanity. He was no apparition. He had fingernails. Jesus walked places (John 1:36). Jesus got exhausted (Matt. 8:24). Jesus ate meals (Mk. 14:18). Jesus put clothes on in the morning (Matt. 9:20). Jesus sang songs (Matt. 26:30).

Jesus lived this manifestly human life among the Jews, who were the most fiercely monotheistic people ever. But after His ministry was apparently ended by His agonizing death on the cross, He was declared, with power, to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead (Rom. 1:4).

And so this band of faithful Jews began worshiping their late rabbi as if He were God. But this is not a distortion of the Lord’s teaching because He plainly anticipated it. “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). Thomas confesses it when his doubts were removed. “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). The fundamental Christian confession is that Jesus is Lord (Rom. 10:9), and so we are to call upon Him. And why? Because, Paul says, quoting Joel 2:32, whoever calls on the name of Jehovah, YHWH, shall be saved. That is why we call upon Jesus.

Two natures, human and divine, united in one person, Jesus of Nazareth. What is predicated of either nature can be predicated of the person also, but what is predicated of one nature cannot be predicated of the other. And they are brought together in what theologians call the hypostatic union, which is the great miracle.

If seeing the miracle of the fish made Peter sink in fear (Luke 5:8), what should contemplation of this miracle do in us?

CHRISTMAS FEAR AND ASTONISHMENT

We all know that there is a kind of religious fear that is negative. It holds people captive to the devil through fear of death (Heb. 2:15). We know that perfect love casts out fear because fear has to do with punishment (1 John 4:18).

But there is a kind of fear that is wholesome, and which is the clean source of many graces. “Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; And let him be your fear, and let him be your dread” (Isaiah 8:13). Jesus Himself feared, and this is why His prayers were answered (Heb. 5:7). The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever (Ps. 19:9). We are told to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12). It is the grace of God which enables us to fear Him (Heb. 12:28). The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him (Ps. 147:11). We are forgiven by the Lord, so that we might fear Him (Ps. 130:4). It was the fear of the Lord that made Cornelius so generous (Acts 10:22, 31). The fear of the Lord, in other words, is the source of all kinds of goodness.

Like the wise men, kings shall come to the brightness of our rising (Is. 60:3). And we will see, and flow together, and our hearts will fear and be enlarged (Is. 60:5).

If you are thinking rightly, you should want this season to be filled with forgiveness and generosity. You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21). And God so loved the world that He gave . . . (John 3:16). This is the God we love, serve, and fear. Imitate the shepherds. Make haste.

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You Are My Son

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THE TEXT

“I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me,‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel'” (Ps. 2:7–9).

THE SONSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST

Psalm 2:7-9 is probably one of the busiest intersections in all of Scripture. It is quoted or alluded to many times throughout the New Testament. Here David reveals to us the great irony that one of his own descendants will be actually be the eternal Son of God. This sonship is an eternal sonship, not something that came into being at a certain moment in time. Therefore, the sonship of the Son of God is unlike anything that we have ever known or experienced. The Son is the eternal Son of the Father, whose being is a revelation of God’s eternal self-giving love.

THE DECLARATION OF THE SONSHIP

God the Father announced that Jesus was this eternal Son at both his baptism and his transfiguration. And in both instances the proclamation that Jesus was God’s Son was accompanied by the declaration of the Father’s love for his Son.

And then again, we see the revelation that Jesus is the eternal Son of God at his resurrection, when he became the firstborn from the dead, and at his ascension to heaven, where he is seated at the right hand of the Father. Jesus’ life corresponded to the Father’s announcement, showing that he was the eternal Son.

TODAY

So when is the “today” of Psalm 2? The answer is yes. There isn’t one moment when the Son was begotten, because the Son was eternally begotten. What we have are multiple moments throughout history when the eternal sonship was revealed in the life of Jesus Christ.

GIFTS

And one of the things that Psalm 2 reveals is that being God’s Son means that you have a Father who intends to give you certain gifts, like victory over all your enemies (including death itself) and an eternal inheritance.

YOUR SONSHIP

But here is the amazing part, in Rev. 2:26-27 we see because Jesus is the Son of God who became a man and joined himself to us, we can be placed inside of Jesus by faith. And when we are untied to Jesus through faith, we receive sonship as well. This means that the declaration of the coming of God’s eternal Son is the declaration to you that you are now children of God. What Jesus has you have.

And so you have victory over all your enemies (including death itself) and an eternal inheritance. And this is why the declaration that a Son is born in Bethlehem is good news for you. It means that you are a child of God, waking up on Christmas morning with a pile of gifts from your Father that you didn’t deserve. But they are yours because you are his. And you live inside his eternal love.

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Advent and Abundance

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INTRODUCTION

A genuine biblical faith is one that knows how to climb mountains, and how to not get lost in the valleys. In the flesh we know how to get used to what happens to us all the time. But it takes a true spirit of Christian character to deal with the fluctuations.

THE TEXT

“Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:11–13).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The apostle Paul has come to the point in the letter where he thanks the Philippians for their financial support. He really is grateful, but he wants them to know that he had learned the secret of being contented either way. He did not bring up his thanks because he was falling short in any way (v. 11). He knows how to be abased, and how to abound (v. 12), how to full and how to be hungry, how to overflow and how to fall short. The “all things” of v. 13 refers to contentment in all things.

DRIVE TO CONTENTMENT

The Advent season also happens to be the season of shopping and sales, and so it is the time when a great deal of material stuff is paraded in front of us. This means that it is the season when a lot of people start lamenting how commercial the whole thing has gotten, what a racket it all is, and so forth.

Now when someone is abased, hungry, and suffering need, the carnal response is to drive toward abundance. If only I had more, if only I could get out of this place, if only . . .

But by the same token, when someone is abounding, is full, and has both hands full, there is a strong temptation (and it is a temptation) to drive toward some kind of minimalism. If only we could simplify. If only we could off-load some of these responsibilities . . .

The directive given to us in this passage is that we are not to try to fix our discontents with stuff, whether by accumulating more of it, or unloading all of it. You can’t fix the problem by getting more money, and you can’t fix the problem by getting less of it either. We are charged to drive toward contentment, which is not determined by how much money is in the bank. Rather, it is a matter of how much trust is in the heart.

HOW FAITH HANDLES THIS WORLD

Faith knows how to play it as it lays. There are those who tell us that the true Christians are the ones who scarcely have a dime to their name, while others tell us that the health and wealth message means that God wants you to have loads of stuff. The Scriptures are not so simplistic.

“And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again [remarkable tone shift here]: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth” (Heb. 11:32–38).

The Bible teaches us that when the godly win, they win by faith. The Scriptures teach us that when the godly lose, they lose by faith, thereby winning something much greater. The real winners are not those who have millions. Nor are the winners those who have a measly mite. God’s champions are those who have true contentment.

WHAT OUR TEMPTATIONS ARE LIKELY TO BE

C. S. Lewis once said that when confronted with a flood, we break out the fire extinguishers. We tend to resist the temptations we were least likely to succumb to anyhow. For this congregation, what are our temptations likely to be over the coming generation? We do not know this sort of thing for certain, but my strong suspicion is that we are going to face the temptations that come with being a hard-working and wealthy community. And the Scriptures have a great deal to say about that.

And as Christmas is the time of year when a lot of stuff passes through a lot of hands, we should use this annual boot camp time as a live fire exercise. We are handling the goods. We give a lot away, and we receive a lot. Learn how to do it. This is like a catechism class. These are your exercises. Embrace them.

CULTIVATING CONTENTMENT

Remember that we noted earlier that we are to drive toward contentment, and we are to do it with what we currently have. We must not think that my contentment would magically arrive if only. Banish those words if only.

“Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee: And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever. Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee” (Deut. 28:45–48).

There are two stages here, two things to do. Hearken to the voice of the Lord your God. Obey His commandments. Put away the porn. Stop complaining. Work hard. Love your family. Husband your resources. That is the first thing. And the second is this. Rejoice. Celebrate. Set the table. Why did severe judgment fall upon Israel? Because they did not worship the LORD their God with joy, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything.

Christmas is coming. Throw yourself into it.

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Advent and Affliction

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INTRODUCTION

Over time, holidays take on a certain patina. Long usage and custom make this necessary, but it remains our responsibility to not allow such later accretions to overthrow or to reverse the actual import or meaning of the festival. In the case of Christmas, we have, quite obviously, the scriptural story of the birth of the Messiah, but we also have—do we not?—silver bells, softly falling snow, Hallmark movies, caramel popcorn, miracles on 34th street, fireplaces aglow, and various sorts of festive jello dishes. What are we to do with all of that? Well, enjoy them . . . but don’t let them become your teachers.

THE TEXT

“Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not” (Matt. 2:16–18).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

There may have been three wise men, we don’t know for sure. We guess at that number because of the three enumerated gifts mentioned—the gold, the frankincense, and the myrrh. At any rate, these wise men from the east showed up in Jerusalem and went and asked the king about the newborn king of the Jews These men are called magicians (magi), and were most likely Zoroastrian astrologers. They were from “the east,” most likely Persia (Iran), and they had seen a star in the east that had compelled them to come. Herod found out when the star had first appeared (most likely two years before) and he helped the magi out through summoning the chief priests and scribes, who referred the magi to Micah 5:2. They went on to Bethlehem, where the star identified the house where Jesus was, and there the magi adored Him, presenting their gifts. The wise men were then warned by God in a dream not to go back to Herod (v. 12). An angel then warned Joseph of what was coming, and so he escaped with his family to Egypt (vv. 13-15), which brings us to our text.

When Herod saw that the magi had made a fool of him, he got extraordinarily angry, and ordered all the boys in the area of Bethlehem to be slaughtered. This resulted in the fulfillment of a sorrowful prophecy from Jeremiah. The prophet spoke through the personified figure of Rachel, who lamented the loss of her children. That matriarch had been buried near Bethlehem—Gen. 35:19-20, near the border of Benjamin—1 Sam. 10:2.

BALAAM’S WORD

I may appear to be changing the subject, but not really, and only for a moment. Balaam was a true prophet, meaning that his gift of prophecy was genuine, but he was a true prophet without being a true man (2 Pet. 2:15; Jude 11). He would not curse Israel for the Moabite king Balak, but he did give him some counsel on how to use his women to seduce Israel (Rev. 2:14). But before doing that, he uttered a prophecy that was likely contained within the researches of the magi.

“I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth” (Num. 24:17).

Balaam is not a Hebrew, and it seems to me that a record of his utterances could easily have been included in the kind of libraries that the magi would have been accustomed to use.

CHRISTMAS AND SIN

The presence of sin, and the reality of it, and the affliction and distress that sin always brings, is no refutation of the message of Christmas. Rather, Christmas is God’s answer to our sin. Jesus took on a human body, the body that Mary suckled, and laid in a manger, in order that He would be able to die. He was born to die. He took up a body so that He would have a body to lay down. He assumed mortality so that He could slay our mortality. This was in view from the very beginning.

“And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:34–35).

When we look at Herod’s slaughter of the innocents, we see that the rebellion of man always wants to reverse the message of righteousness. Here in modern America, we are in the grip of the same Herodian delusion, and in our insanity, we also slaughter innocents. Herod, the Edomite king of Israel, turns himself into a Pharaoh, killing young boys for political reasons. Joseph was warned in a dream to flee from the new Egypt, which he did by fleeing to the old Egypt. Out of Egypt I called my Son.

A HARD HEADED NEW COVENANT

The chapter of Jeremiah that Matthew quotes as he records this awful crime is the same chapter where Jeremiah predicts the coming of the new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34). This glorious prophecy is cited several times in the book of Hebrews. In Hebrews 8:8-12, it is quoted in full, and in Hebrews 10, two key excerpts of it are cited (Heb. 10:16,17). These two citations, these two pull quotes, identify for us the heart and soul of the new covenant. These two tenets are the internalization of the law (Heb. 10:16) and God’s promise that He will remember our sins and iniquities no more (Heb. 10:17). The law of God is now written on our hearts and minds, and we are washed clean of all our iniquity.

And so, encouraged by these words, we return to Rachel, the inconsolable. God is the sovereign God over all things, including every form of all of our sin. He has prepared a covenant, a new covenant, one that takes the perverseness of the human heart into account. He has prepared a covenant that can etch the law of God on the adamantine heart of man, and He has also prepared the blood of the everlasting covenant, blood that can cleanse absolutely anything. And so what does the Word of God say to this Rachel? In the very next verses . . .

“Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: For thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; And they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border . . . Turn thou me, and I shall be turned; For thou art the Lord my God” (Jer. 31:16–18).

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