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Christmas with Both Feet on the Ground

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Introduction

One of our great temptations is to project doctrinal anachronisms back into the past. When Jesus was living among us, and teaching His disciples, it is pretty easy for us to take post-resurrection realities, or post-ascension realities, or even post-Nicene realities, and project them back into the minds of the disciples. Now these were realities at these earlier times, but they were not known or confessed realities. Yet.

The disciples had a dim and hazy understanding of who Jesus was, but it did not really come into focus for them until after the resurrection. And even the understanding that Jesusgrew up into, as He grew, was an understanding of His own identity and mission which increased.

The Text

“And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.” (Luke 2:40).

Summary of the Text

Speaking of the Lord Jesus as a child, Luke tells us some very interesting things. First, as a true child, He grew. His spirit grew stronger, which means that it grew stronger than it had been before. The child was filled with wisdom, and you could see that wisdom growing in Him. In all of this, it was clear that the grace of God, meaning the favor of God, was resting upon Him. There is an echo here of what was said centuries before of Samuel. “And the child Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with the Lord, and also with men” (1 Sam. 2:26).

Away in a Manger

The sum of what I am saying here is that the baby Jesus was not lying in the manger, thinking something like “well, thirty years to go.” That conception is far too much like “God in a man suit” to be orthodox—assuming infinitude inside and finitude outside. Remember that we are confessing that Jesus is fully God and fully man, and these natures are fully united together in one person, Jesus the son of Mary.

But to say that Jesus is fully God and fully man is to say that He was fully infinite andfully finite, which means that infinitude and finitude must somehow be added together, and not finitude somehow subtracted from infinitude. Jesus was fully omniscient andtruly limited in knowledge. Now what is the psychological import of all this? What was Jesus thinking and experiencing? Fortunately, the Bible tells us.

The Experience of Finitude

In His divine nature, Jesus was fully omniscient. But in the lived experience that Jesus had, this was a knowledge that He did not “tap into.” How do we know this? There are several instances in Scripture where Jesus confesses that He does not know something. Being omniscient and experiencing omniscience are not the same thing.

“And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?” (Mark 5:30).

“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father” (Mark 13:32).

And Yet . . .

At the same time, we know that Jesus had to have known of His divine vocation from early on. Luke almost certainly got his knowledge of the early events of the life of Jesus from Mary—he says he got his accounts from eyewitnesses (Luke 1:2). He says pointedly that Mary treasured all these things up in her heart (Luke 2:19). And there was that back closet at their house with three chests containing gold, frankincense, and myrrh. An angel had appeared to her. Mary knew that she had conceived Jesus when she was still a virgin. I mean, something was up.

We know that He had a strong awareness of who He was by the time He was twelve. “And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49). Jesus knew at this point that He had to be about His Father’s work. He did notknow why Joseph and Mary were frantic with worry. And yet, it says, He was submissive to them (Luke 2:51), and this is part of what Mary treasured up in her heart. And right after this is our text, saying that Jesus flourished under the grace and favor of God.

The Confirmation

Jesus presented Himself to John the Baptist for a reason, and that reason had to do with His understanding of the Scriptures. Jesus already knew when He came to the river. And yet, in a special and miraculous sense, what He knew was divinely communicated to Him.

“And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22).

And what was confirmed to Him at His baptism is the very point of the assault from the devil in the temptation immediately following (Luke 4:1). This was the point of the devil’s spear. “Ifyou are the Son of God, if you are the Son of God . . .” Thatwas the truth that Jesus was being tempted to test. That was what He was being challenged to doubt and independently confirm.

Anointed by the Spirit

Jesus did not do the great miracles that He did, and He did not know what He miraculously knew, because He was “God inside.” He did all that He did because the Holy Spirit empowered Him to do so. He did what He did throughout the course of His ministry as a Spirit-empowered man.

To be tempted is to be limited and finite. And Jesus knows what it is to be tempted. He has that experience, which is strong consolation for us. “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15). The word rendered here as “touched” means to “suffer together with.”

Apostle and High Priest

“Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus” (Heb. 3:1).

Jesus is fully God, and fully man. As God, He is the sent one from God, the apostle of God coming to us. As man, He is our high priest, coming to God on our behalf. He is the perfect bridge that crosses the chasm between a holy God and sinful man. And thatis the entire point of Christmas.

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Christmas: God’s Solution to Fear and Bitterness

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Isaiah 9:6-7

For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name 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,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Introduction

How does the political and social conditions of Isaiah’s day reflect possible fears that we could have for our own nation at present?

What are two ditches of temptation that we can fall into related to our concerns for the future or distress for the past and present?

Fear of the Future?

What role does prophecy play in establishing God’s sovereignty over the future? Isaiah 41:21-24

What are some of the major prophetic promises made by God concerning this promised Son? Genesis 3, 12, and 16,  Deuteronomy 18, 2 Samuel 7, Isaiah 7 and 9, Daniel 2.

Bitterness for the past?

What are the character qualities of the promised Son?  Isaiah 9:6

What does it mean to be the Prince of Peace?  What is the extent of His rule/kingdom?  Isaiah 9:7

Conclusion?

Have you made peace with God or are you standing in the way of His zeal?

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The Christmas Gift

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Introduction

Our celebration of Christmas is all about the arrival of the one who was given to us. For unto us a Son is given (Is. 9:6). The Christ was given. God so loved the world that He gave. In Isaiah’s promise, there are two words that are repeated twice, and they emphasize the reality of God’s great gift. Those words are unto us.

The Text

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16).

Summary of the Text

John tells us that God gave us His only begotten Son because He loved the world. He did it so that anyone who believed in that Son should not perish, should be delivered from the wrath that was already resting upon him, and could be ushered into everlasting life. But this love that God has for the world is not something He decided to do on a whim. God’s love for the world proceeds from the way He is. It proceeds from His ultimate and everlasting character. The love that God extends to the world (John 3:16) is the same love that we have known and believed in, the love that God has to us (1 John 4:16). And what kind of love is that. John tells us that God is love, and so it follows that the one who lives in love is living in God, and the one who lives in love has God living in him. But note the potency of that phrase—God islove.

Deep Error from Shallow Hearts

Before we are converted to God through Christ, we tend to veer in one of two directions. Whenever we conceive of ultimate reality, we either imagine unity at the top or we imagine plurality at the top. If the former, then we go in the direction of some form of Unitarianism—it could be Deism, it could be Islam, or it could be the generic God of American civic religion. The god at the top of this system is a solitary monad, the ultimate hermit god, the greatest bachelor.

The other direction is to assume some sort of multiplicity at the top. This reduces to some form of polytheism—many gods. And because each of these gods is contained by the cosmos, by the “whole show,” over time that cosmos in its entirety tends to assume the place of ultimacy, which has a tendency toward pantheism.

These two ways of thinking have a political expression as well. The Unitarianism system is a model of the cosmos that is a “tower of power,” and so the political arrangement that reflects this (remember that we become like what we worship) is authoritarian. The political arrangement that reflects polytheism is called pluralism. There is usually a hidden unity in the system somewhere, but on the surface we have many voices, many laws, many gods.

The unbelieving mind is incapable of resolving the problem of the one and the many. Which is ultimate? Unity or plurality?

God Is Love

When the early church was battling through the various controversies surrounding the Trinity, and then surrounding the relationship of the human and the divine in the Lord Jesus Christ, these were weighty controversies—they were notnontroversies.

Prior to the creation of the world, when there was nothing but God, how was it possible to say that God islove? How can we possibly claim that love is an aspect of God’s essential character? If there is no one else, if God is simply an ultimate solitary being, there can be no Beloved. If there is no Beloved, then God didn’t start loving until He created the world, and He needed to create the world in order to start loving. This would mean that He was dependent on something external to Himself in order to be love—which is intolerable. God islove.

God So Loved

Biblically defined, love means revealing yourself and it means giving yourself. When God loved the world, what did He do? He gave. What did He give? He gave His only begotten Son. The word here is monogenes, and the clear implication is that He gave Himself. But then what did He do? This is also important. He toldus about it. So God gave us Jesus, so that we could have everlasting life. And then God gave us John 3:16, to tellus that He had given Jesus so that we could have everlasting life. God gave us Himself, and then God revealed Himself.

These gifts are not offered to us insteadof Himself.

An Aside About Christmas Presents

Why do we give presents at Christmas? What is that all about? What we are doing is celebrating the greatest gift ever given: “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift” (2 Cor. 9:15). The gift that God gave to us was ineffable, indescribable, beyond all mortal calculation. Giftis the hinge upon which all human history turns. Gift is the meaning of everything. Grace provides the meaning of life.

In the beginning, God gave us a perfect world in the first instance, which we promptly wrecked in our insolence and rebellion. So then God undertook to repair that cosmos, making it much more glorious than it had been before, and He did this by bearing the penalty of sin Himself. This is how He gave Himself, and the Christmas message reveals how He gave Himself.

When you are shopping for presents, you are imitating that. When you buy a present for someone, you are not doing it so they will leave you alone for another year, or at least until their birthday. No, you are giving a token that represents you, that reveals you, that gives you.

Nicea and Chalcedon

Nicea testifies to the truth that God is love. If the eternal Word is God, then God loves His Son eternally, which means that God is love. It cannot be any other way. Love is not an add-on extra. Love is an essential part of who God is. The Father loves the Son eternally. The Son loves the Father eternally. Their mutual infinite love is Himself an infinite person, the Holy Spirit of God. This is why the Spirit is described as the Spirit of God, and as the Spirit of Christ.

And Chalcedon means that that the God who is love is that love unto us. And as recipients of that love, what are we to do? Returning to the text, we are to dwell in the love He has bestowed, which is how we are enabled to dwell in Him. When we dwell in His love, we dwell in Him, and when we dwell in Him, He dwells in us.

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Mary’s Christmas Courage

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Introduction

How would you answer this? “Christmas is a season of…” Gifts, joy, eggnog, perhaps. I’d suggest that Christmas is a season of courage. Because Jesus Christ has entered into his world, Christians should have courage. This courage is not primarily to wade boldly into opening presents Christmas morning, rather courage directed toward the world and God’s work in the world. Here in this story, we have the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth, rejoicing that the Christ has come. Because Christ has come, these women become courageous. What produces Christmas courage? These women know and believe God’s word about Christ’s incarnation. Both are humble. And in their belief and humility, these women become courageous because Jesus Christ has come.

Elizabeth’s Belief, Humility, Courage (vs. 39-45)

Our story begins when two very happy and unexpectedly pregnant women meet. A rapid series of events then happen when Mary greets Elizabeth––John gives a mighty leap, the Holy Spirit fills Elizabeth, she blesses Mary with a loud voice (41-42). This must have been a mighty leap to make it into Scripture. What is Baby John doing? He’s already fulfilling his mission––to lead people to the Christ. If he could have talked in utero, John may have said something like this, “Mom! That’s HIM! That’s the Christ.”

The Spirit has filled Elizabeth and Elizabeth believesthat Mary is pregnant with the Christ, the blessed fruit of Mary’s womb (vs. 42). With great humility, Elizabeth asks, “But why is this granted to me, that he mother of my Lordshould come to me?” Elizabeth lays aside her great news––this barren woman is having a baby, to celebrate Mary’s best news––this virgin woman is having the Christ. Elizabeth demonstrates what her son would soon do––I must decrease, the Christ must increase.

Elizabeth’s humility and her firm confidence of knowing her Lord has come produces a courage in her. Notice that when she blesses Mary she speakswith a loud voice. After she became pregnant, Elizabeth hid herself away for months. But now that Christ has come to her, she has fresh courage!

Mary’s Belief Magnifies the Lord (vs. 46-47)

Up to this point, Mary has only gotten out a greeting. She has received Elizabeth’s words of blessing and confirmation and joy, and believesthem. Mary believesthe words that Gabriel spoke to her that the Holy Spirit would come upon her, and she would conceive a child by the power of the Most High, and this child is the Christ, the Son of God (1:35-36). She believesand so magnifies the Lord and rejoices, “My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior!” Mary rejoices because she knows and believes that the baby growing inside her will not only be her son, but her Savior! That means that Mary knew she needed to be saved, saved from her sins. This verse battles the Roman Catholic lie of the “Immaculate Conception of Mary.”

He has Regarded the Lowly State (vs. 48-50)

Mary’s belief in Jesus as the Christ and her Savior rises from Mary’s humility. “For He has regarded the lowly state of his maidservant; for behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name” (vs. 48-49). You hear this and wonder if Mary is being kind of conceited, arrogant? Mary is actually demonstrating a deep humility that looks to God to receive her identity.

Humility looks to the Lord to receive your identity. Yes, Mary knows her low estate. But she calls herself blessed, because God called her blessed. She is exalted because of the great thing the Lord has done for her. Because she humbly looks to the Lord and believes, she is not ashamed, afraid, embarrassed of the “scandal,” but is courageous.

Put Down the Mighty and Exalted the Lowly (vs. 50-56)

Mary knows the Lord’s favor and mercy is not just for her but “from generation to generation” (vs. 50) And so she becomes a bold evangelist, “He has shown strength with his arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly” Mary’s song is about unexpected reversals, and of God setting things right. Unexpected reversals have already been happening in this chapter. Barren wombs are growing babies. A humble maidservant is the mother of the King of the universe. The humble are lifted up and exalted. The proud and mighty are and broken and brought low. Why? Because Jesus Christ has come. Christ comes and turns the world upside down in order to set all things right.

Notice that Mary puts all the Lord’s work in the past tense. He has already scatteredthe proud. He has put downthe mighty from their thrones and exaltedthe lowly. It’s like Mary believes the victory has already been secured, the conclusion of the war already achieved. But “reasonable” eyes could look around and see that Herod is king and he’s going to try to kill Jesus in the next chapter. There are complacent priests and proud pharisees. Caesar is still the ruling world. But Mary knows that she has already conceived the Messiah. Elizabeth is already six months pregnant with the one to prepare the way. And so, they have Christmas courage.

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Because He Comes

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Introduction

We don’t celebrate Advent as re-enactors. We do not pretend that Christ has not come. We celebrate Advent as believers. We believe that Christ has come and therefore all of the promises of God have come true and are coming true. Because Emmanuel has come, we take this time each year to remember and celebrate what is true all the time: we serve the God who has come, continues to come, and who will come again to judge the world. So while we are not in the same position as the Old Testament saints who needed to prepare the way of the Lord for the first time, we still do indeed prepare Him room. We are all practicing to meet Jesus every day because He comes. We are getting the world ready for Jesus, and we are getting ready for Him.

The Text

“Comfort ye, Comfort, ye, my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young” (Isa. 40:1-11).

Deep Comfort

A Christian prepares for Christ by practicing deep comfort (Is. 40:1). How does anyone prepare to meet God? Meeting the God of the universe will be like nothing we have ever experienced. It will utterly undo us; every secret will be laid bare (Lk. 12:2-3). There will be no excuses, no explanations – there will be nothing to say. All will be exhaustively clear (1 Cor. 3:13). And yet the glorious thing is that sinners who have hidden themselves in Christ will find themselves laid absolutely bare and will look down and see the righteousness of Christ covering them in glory. And it will be the deepest comfort you have ever known. But Christians long for that day to come because they have begun to taste that comfort now. Christians still await the final, perfect comfort, but they wait in hope because they have experienced true comfort now. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). The warfare of fighting for our own righteousness, meaning, success, and joy has ended. Our iniquity has been pardoned. We have received double from the Lord’s hand for all our sins (Is. 40:2).

Remove Every Obstacle

This was the cry of John the Baptist, but it still represents well how Christians should prepare for the Lord every day. We want straight highways to God everywhere every day. We want everything in our life to be a sacrifice of praise (Heb. 13:15). We want everything to be an altar of worship. So every valley in our life needs to be filled in, every mountain and hill bulldozed, the rough and crooked places need to be straightened and steamrolled. So do an inventory: where are your valleys, your mountains, your rough and crooked places? Is it work? Entertainment? Your thought life? Your extended family? Your fears? What do you need to do? What changes do you need to make? Jesus said that if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better to go to Heaven with one eye than to go to Hell with both eyes, better to go to Heaven with one hand than to go to Hell with two hands (Mt. 5:29-30). Remove every obstacle to faithfulness and obedience. The flip side of this is the clear implication that God is coming for all of us. All flesh shall see the glory of the Lord, and that is either the most wonderful news or the most terrible news. Either the glory of the Lord will find us faithfully pressing toward Him or else it will find us unprepared. All flesh shall see Him, and this can also be encouragement for you to do the right thing even if no else is.

Get Your Priorities Straight

You prepare this world for Christ by prioritizing rightly. What really matters? The voice cries that flesh is grass and it withers like flowers and grass. This life is momentary, short, like a breath. God created material stuff. Material stuff is good. But it’s all practice for the permanent things: either heavenly or hellish. Fading things aren’t worthless, but it’s silly to pretend that fading things are permanent. When you get a tree and decorate it, when you wrap presents, when you hang lights and wrap presents, you’re practicing for something permanent. What are you practicing for? You’re either practicing joy and generosity and patience and wisdom – things that last forever or you’re practicing selfishness, greed, pride, vainglory – worthless shadows. God’s Kingdom is forever. Human souls are forever. God’s Word is forever.

Lift Up Your Voice

How do you get ready for the Lord coming? Tell other people. Do you have good news? Do you have a mountain? Get up there and yell (Is. 40:9). Do you have good news? Then say it out loud. Don’t be afraid. God has come. YourGod has come (Is. 40:9-10). The God who made the heavens and earth, the God who created you and knows you and loves you. He is King and He knows what He is doing. His work is before Him (Is. 40:10). He is a faithful shepherd (Is. 40:11). He will gather all who are His in His arms. He will carry them. He will gently lead them. Are there hungry people in your life? Are there hurting people in your life? Are there lost people in your life? Don’t they need the good news of the Good Shepherd? Don’t you have that good news? Where is your mountain? Get up there and yell. Do not be afraid.

Conclusion: He Surely Comes

We sing in our metrical version of Psalm 98, “Because He comes, He surely comes, the judge of earth to be, with justice He will judge the world, all men with equity.” And this really is the good news of Advent. Because He comes, He surely comes. Because Christ has come, He will never leave us or forsake us. He meets us day by day in His Word. He meets us in the fellowship of the saints. He meets us every Lord’s Day in worship. So prepare Him room. He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found. We’re getting everything ready because He comes.

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