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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
December 20th, 2009

ADVENT | The Christmas Story Descends
Week 4 – The Angels Candle of Peace: Gabriel
“The First Preacher of the Gospel”
Luke 2:8-21

I. Angels & The One Named Gabriel
II. Gospel & The Message of Gabriel
III. Worship & The Praise from Gabriel

Introduction

This year for Advent we’ve been doing character studies for each week of Advent and looking at a particular individual from the Christmas story to see what we can learn from them and how they related to Jesus’ birth. So far we’ve looked at Zechariah, Mary, and Elizabeth. Now, this week, for the final Advent candle, the Angels Candle representing peace, we’re going to look at the angel Gabriel. So let’s jump right in and talk about “Angels & The One Named Gabriel.”

I. Angels & The One Named Gabriel

Now on one hand angels seem sort of fantastic. They’re present in all the Christmas decorations and songs but as far as thinking of them as real actual living beings…is a whole other story. So on one hand angels are sort of considered fictional things, like comic book characters. We all love batman and superman but no one considers them real.

That’s one way to look at angels, as fictional. The other way goes to the opposition extreme and goes kind of overboard with them. If you just google “angels” you’ll find they are actually quite popular figures in our culture and not only at Christmas time.

There are tons of movies with angels in them like “Angels in the Outfield” and “City of Angels.” There’s been all kinds of TV shows like “Touched by an Angel”, “Dark Angel”, and just plain, “Angel.” There’s bands like “Angels and Airwaves”, “Black Angel”, “Red Angel”, “White Angel” and “Jaded Angel.” There’s a ton of books like the “Angel Chronicles”, “Angels & Demons”, and in 1991 Tony Kushner won a Pulitzer Prize for his “Angels in America.”

We’ve got cities named after angels like “Los Angeles”, bike gangs named after angels, “Hells Angels”, baseball teams named after angels, the “Anaheim Angels”, pretty much a whole holiday credited to angels called “Valentines Day.”

A few years back Time magazine did an article titled “Angels Among Us” noting that all major religions and religious texts have angels in them and that many people claim to have had a genuine encounter with some sort of supernatural being they describe as an angel. In fact just recently, a 2007 poll showed that nearly 70% of all Americans believe in angels. Which is perhaps one of the reasons that they are one of the most common tattoos people get. People are into angels. Even Hilary Clinton has a gold pin of wings she wears on days she feels like she especially needs help and she calls them her “angel’s wings.”

So angels are extremely common in our cultural landscape. Even in the church, we commonly read about them or hear about them in songs or the stories of the Bible but rarely do we stop to pause and consider what we’re actually talking about.

With so many ideas out there about angels how are we supposed to know what to believe about angels? How do we separate truth from fiction? And is there anything really true about angels at all? Are we just supposed to rely on other people’s opinions and experiences? And even then, there’s not just the experiences themselves but the ways in which they are interpreted, so what are we to do?

It seems that truly we are lost on this subject…unless, unless there is actually a God and unless he has chosen to tell us about these creatures. If there is a God and if he really is the creator of everything…all the plants and animals and of human beings, then it is not too crazy or too far off to think that he may have other creations or creatures we are somewhat unfamiliar with.

One of my favorite things about the Chronicles of Narnia series from C.S. Lewis is a picture of a whole world of different beings who have different abilities and different purposes but are all made for the service and worship of the king of Narnia. Sometimes I think we get so humanoscentric, that we only really care about ourselves and our race…and we fail to see that though we are immensely more complex than a flower, that a flower is still a class of being in God’s creation that worships and does what it was created to do for God and his world.

It is not unimaginable that God has created another race of beings called angels who being to an even more complex than our own as human beings. The point of all created things is God, he is the central focal point of the universe…everything is meant to point back to him. All of space and existence and the world is by nature theocentric, God-centered.

So angels are not intellectually untenable if we conceive of a world with a true God. Then there is this. Angels are mentioned in the Bible about 265 times. In 1975 Billy Graham, the famous Evangelist of the last century, wrote a little book titled, “Angels: God’s Secret Messengers.” In it he makes an important point, which is simply this: because angels are mentioned so frequently in the Bible, you really cannot take the Bible seriously at all unless you deal with and accept the reality that angels exist.

I think he is right. I’ve never had any kind of encounter with an “angel” that I know of to give me reason to believe angels exist. However, this self-authenticating book, the Bible, has proven itself to me over and over and over again to be fully and truly be the divine word of God. If it says it I trust it and believe it.

So with that said, let me give you a brief overview of what we know about angels from the Bible and then we’ll look at some stuff about one of the three angels that are actually named in the Bible, the angel Gabriel.

The Nature of Angels

1. Angels are immortal spiritual moral being created by God. Psalm 148 calls the angels to praise the Lord because it says God commanded and they were created.

2. Angels have names, like Michael, Gabriel and the fallen angel Lucifer.

3. There are various kinds of angels. Some are always on fire, literally “burning ones” called Seraphs. Some have wings and some don’t (Is.6:2). Some have multiple faces (Ez 1:10). And some simply look human (Gen 18).

4. Angels are organized are frequently called an army or a host, and there are ranks within them. In Jude 9 we are told that Michael is an archangel. Guards are called “Cherubs.” Gabriel is called a “Prince.” Often we see angels with swords (Num 22:23; 1 Chron 21:16). Some of their swords are flaming (Gen 3:2), and they use their swords to execute God’s justice, protection, and to destroy evil angels and their dragon leader (Rev 12:7).

5. Angels have supra-physical bodies that are not normally visible to the human eye (2 Ki 6:17; Num 22:31). This is probably something akin to how we cannot see microscopic substances only angels are macroscopic. And in addition, according to Daniel 9:21 angels have bodies that can travel extremely fast without the aid of technology.

5. In Daniel 10 we learn that though angels have the ability to appear and disappear, they can only be in one place at a time (Dan 10:13-14).

6. Angels are great in number, great in power, and great in wisdom. There are thousands upon thousands (Deut 33:2; Ps 68:17). In 2 Kings 19, a single angel once wiped out 185,000 human soldiers (2 Ki 19:35). And in 2 Samuel 14:20 are said to know of all things of the earth, so they are extremely smart, multiple Ph.D’s.

7. According to Jesus in Matthew 22, angels do not marry or procreate (Mt 22:30).

8. And lastly, angels are unredeemable. Similar to how the human race fell, both Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 tell us that a large number of the angel race fell by following the leadership of a bad angel named Lucifer (Ez 28:11-19; Is 14:12-17). The difference is that unlike us, not all the angels fell…and for the ones that did fall God has not granted an opportunity for salvation or redemption like us (2 Pet 2:4). And for that reason, the good angels called the “elect” ones (1 Tim 5:21), though being of a higher class and race than humans, they marvel at what God has done and is doing with us (1 Pet 1:12; Eph 3:10; 1 Cor 4:9).

1 Peter 1:12 says angels enjoy looking in on what God is doing with us and Ephesians 3:10 and 1 Corinthians 4:9 tell us that God is showing off to the angels his wisdom and greatness by what he is doing with us. Angels will never know what is like to be in the redeemed love of God…which is simply mind boggling.

What Angels Do

1. Some angels continually worship God before his throne (Is. 6:1-3; Rev 7:9-17).

2. Some angels are sent by God to give humans messages, like in our Christmas texts.

3. Some angels God has to execute his hand of judgment on earth (Rev 15).

4. Some angels have the job of protecting God’s people from dying before their appointed time. Psalm 91:11 says God, “command(s) his angels… to guard (us) in all (our) ways.”

5. Then at our appointed time of death an angel escorts us either to heaven or hell (Lk 22:19-31).

6. One of angels main job is to particularly minister to Jesus. They are all over Jesus birth, they’re there again two years later when Herod tries to kill two-year-old Jesus. They’re with Jesus in the wilderness during his temptation. There at the cross ready to respond to Jesus command to stop everything if he calls on them. They’re the ones who roll away the stone after Jesus rises from the dead. They’re there when Jesus when ascends back into heaven on a cloud. And Jesus says that when he returns to earth next time, he will come with all his angels in a big display of power, glory and might.

7. And lastly, because angels are so into Jesus, they are also really into the gospel. They are announcing the good news of the gospel at Jesus birth and helping the events along. And then again in the book of Acts we see angels helping the church out, performing miracles like prison busts and giving the apostles directions of where to go and what to do (Acts 5:19; 12:7; 12:23; 8:26; 10:1-8).

Okay, well that’s a ton about angels. I just gave you a whole course on biblical angelology crammed into five minutes. If you check out my manuscript online you’ll find all the Scripture references that support each point I made.

Now that we know a little about angels let’s go back to our Christmas story and look at some things. In our text for today in Luke 2:8-21, initially just one angel shows himself. It doesn’t say it’s Gabriel but because in all the other passages in Luke that talk about Jesus’ birth, when an angel shows up, it is Gabriel…it’s likely that this was him and he just didn’t give his name this time.

So initially, Gabriel shows up and right away he says the same thing he said both to Zechariah and to Mary when he appeared (Lk 1:13,30), “Do not be afraid” or “Fear not.” So first we learn from Gabriel that when you see him, there is initially a sense of fear that overcomes people. But then we also learn that Gabriel is sensitive to that. He recognizes when others are apprehensive and afraid and does not try to use that or manipulate people to perform for him.

Instead, he directs things back to God. In our passage for today he is sent to bring news. In the earlier accounts he is more specific about this. Listen to what he says in Luke 1:19 ” “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.”

So rather than prey on fear, Gabriel is satisfied with merely being a messenger, a servant of God sent to direct attention back on to God, on to who God is and what God is doing. He makes God the reason and the source of motivation. Consistently, throughout the Bible, we never see angels accepting worship or attention on to themselves…

In fact in at the end of the book of Revelation, John says this, “I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God (Rev 22:8-9).”

I think there is an important lesson here for us to learn from the angel Gabriel. Even as great and awesome as angels are, they are merely servants of God and everything is about God and his glory. We learn here that Gabriel has a humble character who is satisfied in redirecting all praise and all motivation back to God.

So often we want people to do things because it’s what we want them to do. Or we are motivated by a desire for people to think that we are great. Sometimes the desire for people to like us or love us is so strong that we will do anything to get it. Cut corners. Slight God. Work overtime. Or project ourselves in a certain light so that others will think just right about us. And all of it really boils down to a form of self-idolatry…where we are seeking other people’s praise toward us.

Gabriel is a good example of a humble servant of God. Like him we need to be satisfied with just being sent. With just being used. With just having the joy of having access to God and being in his presence and doing whatever he asks us to do. Gabriel is a great example of that for us.

II. Gospel & The Message of Gabriel

Well let’s move on and look at some of the particular things that Gabriel says and talk about “Gospel & The Message of Gabriel.” Let’s go back to our main text and re-read what he says, Luke 2:10-12 “And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

First off, check out that little phrase, “good news of great joy.” Those two words, “good news” is the word “gospel” in Greek, “euangelion.” So Gabriel says, I bring you gospel of great joy. Now, yes the prophets, kings and judges preached the gospel in the Old Testament…looking forward to Jesus. But in the Christmas story accounts, Gabriel gets the unique privilege of being the first one to announce the gospel to human beings both right before Jesus birth and if this is him in our text for today, right after his birth. What a privilege, to be the first preacher of the gospel!

Now, sometimes the Bible translates “euangelion” as “gospel” and sometimes as “good news.” And I get that, I wrote a whole chapter on it in my master’s thesis. But what I do like about the times when English translations translate it as “good news” it is brings out the fact that the gospel is always news. It is always an announcement in words that God has done something for us in Jesus that is relevant for us here and now.

Sometimes we talk about trying to make the gospel relevant. And that’s good and can be helpful but when it comes down to it you can’t make the gospel relevant, it merely is in its nature because it is an announcement. It is not religion. Not something that you do or something you earn. It’s announcement of what God has already done. That he has done something in history for us that is the answer to our lives. Whatever it is that you are going through the message of the gospel, the message of Christmas is that God has acted for you in Jesus and he is what we need to bring us the joy we long for. And that is relevant. The gospel is the most relevant thing of all…it only becomes irrelevant when Jesus gets taken out of the picture.

Look at the next thing Gabriel says about the gospel…it is a gospel of great joy. Like the announcement of the birth of a child or the ending of a war…the message is by nature a joyful one. But for it to be joyful for you there has got to be the frustration or the lack of joy that precedes it right. The reason it is joyful is because there is a need for joy that is not being experienced. This isn’t just added joy on top of an already joyful existence.

So for the gospel to be one of great joy, you have to already be emotionally engaged. For the shepherds…they were outcasts, outside, working a crap job taking care of sheep and they are told by angels that God has done something for them to bring them joy. Not necessarily a new job…shepherding would still be shepherding, but no longer would it be a sign or a reason for any kind of sense of exclusion from God…because of Jesus birth God enables new a new heart and life of joy. Jesus changes the affection and intention of the heart from one of stone and duty and religion and judgment to one of joy and peace and love.

And this joy is not just a temporal joy. It is a permanent, eternal kind of joy. The word here for great, is literally in the Greek, “megalane.” Where we get the word “mega.” Gabriel says, “I bring you gospel of mega joy.” This is mega. I mean Gabriel is literally thousands of years old. He’s an angel and he says this act is mega, on par with and greater than even when God first created the world.

Then look at the second part where Gabriel describes the way this gospel joy works…he says, here is the sign of it…where you find gospel joy is where you find Jesus as a baby in a manger. What is that about?

On the mere outer layer you could just take this “sign” as being practical instructions…like google maps or something, here’s how you’ll find him and you’ll know which baby it is. I’m sure that information helped the shepherds find baby Jesus. But that’s not what the word “sign” means. The words “sign” is a technical theological word…a sign is when a physical thing is meant to teach a spiritual thing. So in this case the physical occurrence of God being born as a baby in a manger is meant to say something spiritually about who he is and what he came to do.

Now calling him savior, Christ and Lord already said a ton about who he was… Savior, he came to deal with sin and save us from it and it’s consequences. Christ, he is the prophesied and promised messiah king who was to come. And Lord, he is God and ruler over all. That’s already saying a ton. But the sign adds something else.

The sign is not a positive sign but a negative one. John Calvin calls it a “sign of mockery”…that the king savior would be born in a “mean and despicable manger.” It’s crude and degrading and humiliating. It’s upside down. You don’t put the king of the universe, the savior, Christ Lord in a dog dish on the floor next to animal feces.

So what’s the sign? The sign is the great extent God was willing to go to save. That he would utterly humble himself. Taking not only the low form of human but the lowest of humans. From his birth born in despicable and dejected circumstances and lifestyle.

This would be the tenor of Jesus life for the entirety of his time on earth. He would be poor and homeless. He would gather a following and every single follower would turn away and abandon him. And then he would die a despicable death on a cross.

The sign Gabriel points the shepherds to here is the same sign that Jesus offers when the people ask him for a sign and he told them of Jonah and that he would die on a cross. It’s the sign of utter humility to embrace a life no human would knowingly pursue. It’s the sign of God, that he would go to such great lengths in order to save a people for himself.

Theologian J.I. Packer has this to say about the sign, “At Christmas, the profoundest and most unfathomable depths of Christian revelation lie…(that) the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie, and stare, and wiggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child…the babyhood of the Son of God was a reality. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the incarnation.”

The message of Gabriel and of the angels is the gospel. That God is born and born to save. That’s the sign. That God would be humiliated and mistreated and ultimately die in order to save people.

The beauty of this for us is that it doesn’t matter who we are, what we have done, where we are at in life, or what is currently going on with us. In Jesus birth God broke into time so that he might save people from among all times and all peoples.

Outcasts like shepherds. Outcasts like Gentiles. Outcasts like 21 century pagans. Outcasts like us might be included into being the people of God.

That’s the message of Gabriel…good news for us. Do you believe the good news? Does the message of Christmas reach you? Or is it just a fairy tale in your mind? If so, have you really considered your life and the things you are hoping for and the longing of your heart?

Angels don’t have the opportunity nor know what it is like to be saved and redeemed. We do and have that opportunity today. When it comes down to it, we all know that we are fallen and are imperfect and are in fact truly a mess. We need a savior. And God has become one for us. Unlike the angels we can embrace Jesus and receive great joy. No gift, no celebration, no nothing can compare to the joy that comes in giving our lives to Jesus and embracing him as our savior.

III. Worship & The Praise from Gabriel

Well, let’s move on and look at our last point for this morning. “Worship & The Praise from Gabriel.” After Gabriel announces this message, verse 13 in our passage says, “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God.”

Look at that word, “suddenly.” It’s almost as if after hearing Gabriel speak those words heaven could not hold back praise any longer and just erupted. Thousands upon thousands of angels appear, calling out over and over again, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

You have to imagine this from an angel’s perspective. Jesus created them. He is their maker. Colossians 1:16 says that it was by Jesus that the angels were created. It’s not like they are just now getting used to him. They know who Jesus is. And not only that but angels know the future. Not all of it exhaustively like God…but repeatedly we see angels telling men of the Bible what God has planned ahead of time before it happens.

So angels knew that Jesus would one day come into the world. Angels heard from God what he planned to do in the saving of human beings. And now at last the day has come. It’s one thing to hear something. It is entirely another to stare it in the face.

Jesus. Probably the first person they ever saw after he created them…now stared at them in the form of a little baby. No wonder the angels marvel and astoundingly look in on what God has done for human beings.

Several times God had sent angels with messages to give human beings. But this was the greatest message ever to leave the court of heaven. Jesus is born! And they erupt in praise and worship.

Verse 13 says, “Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God.” So Gabriel starts singing and then all the angels join in with him.

It teaches us an important theological principle here. And that is that our praise and our worship is a response. We worship because of who God is and what he has done. Worship is worth-ship. We worship God because he is worthy of worship. The birth of the Son of God is meant to invoke worship!

Are you invoked? If this story does not cause something in your gut that moves you to want to worship and praise our God there is something wrong with you. I don’t mean that in a mean way…I’ve got the same problem at times. But when we are unmoved there is a hardness and coldness and staleness that comes from Lucifer himself who did not want to worship. And it’s wrong. We were made for worship just like the angels and as John Calvin says it is “brutal stupidity” for us not to join their chorus.

Conclusion

So Sean’s going to come up here now and lead us in song. We take communion every week here and you can take it in whatever way you need to this morning. If it’s in joy and thanks and celebration then great…if it’s in repentance and humility and forgiveness then great. Do what you need to do with the Lord.

But most of all this morning, let’s respond to God’s Word today by singing. Christmas carols were meant to be sung! Not just played in the background to create a nice setting in the stores or in our homes. They are meant for worship! So let’s worship and praise our great God and savior along with the angels.

Let’s pray.

Listen 
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The Resolved Church | www.theresolved.com
(619) 393-1990 | contact@theresolved.com
All Rights Reserved © The Resolved Church

Permissions: you are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material provided you not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee. For web posting a link to this document is preferred.

The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
December 13th, 2009

ADVENT | The Christmas Story Descends
Week 3 – The Shepherd’s Candle of Joy: Elizabeth
“The Mom Whose Baby Knew Jesus and Rejoiced”
Luke 1:39-45

I. Elizabeth Recognizes the Hand of God (v.39-42)
II. Elizabeth Confesses Belief in Jesus (v.43)
III. Elizabeth Explains the Joy of Her Baby (v.44)
IV. Elizabeth Celebrates the Promise God (v.45)

Introduction

Good morning. It’s the third week of Advent, the Shepherds Candle which is the week that focuses on the theme of joy. But I didn’t feel like preaching on the shepherds this year since I have every year for like the past three Christmases. So I went with the one other character in the story that uses the word joy. She’s actually basically a pastor’s wife, so I guess she’s sort of connected to shepherds.

It’s actually a great story and it happens probably around 6 months or so before Jesus is actually born…so in reality the joy that’s talked about it is a future looking joy to the joy the angels announce to the shepherds. So we’re sort of quasi legit with looking at Elizabeth today for the Shepherd’s candle.

This is a fascinating story and it usually gets skipped over because it’s just this little side note in the middle of this grand story about how God comes into the world. On just a cursory reading of it, it just sounds like two women getting all giddy together about being pregnant.

But there’s a lot more going on in it than we realize. Not only is Luke, the human author of this passage, bringing the two stories together… the story of Elizabeth’s pregnancy and Mary’s pregnancy. Not only is he bringing these stories together, but he brings them together in such a way to say something amazing about who God is and in his ordering of these events, who his Son Jesus is to be, how Jesus brings joy, and how Jesus is the long awaited fulfillment of the human heart and the Old Testment prophecies. It’s quite phenomenal, all that is packed in these short nine verses.

So let’s re-read the text again and pray over it.

I. Elizabeth Recognizes the Hand of God (v.39-42)

Okay, so again…this story is kind of funny to me. If you’re not a Christian and you don’t buy into all this crazy miracles stuff then the story is kind of comical. It sort of reads like two super emotionally charged pregnant women who see each other, get all happy, one of their babies starts moving and so they read all this super spiritual stuff into it. Right?

That is probably how most people would read this story…unless you have really come to know God and trust that the Bible is his Word and believe that it speaks truthfully we would naturally look for some logical, rational explanation for this story and we try and read through all the “Christian” stuff to find out what really happened.

There’s some interesting things here though that you can’t get from just reading this short little passage kind of ripped not only out of it’s immediate context, but also ripped out of the entire book of Luke and his second volume, Acts which was written to go with it. The book of Luke and the book of Acts in the Bible really go together, they were meant to go together and be read together as one book, Luke-Acts. That’s how Luke wrote them. One is the gospel of Jesus and one is the acts of the Jesus disciples. One tells the story of Jesus, the other tells the story of the church.

Now, if you sit down and you read through then entire book of Luke and Acts together you’ll recognize something…this phrase we read in 41, “filled with the Holy Spirit” is a special favorite phrase of Luke’s. He uses it when God does something in a person so that something supernatural takes place.

And Luke isn’t a guy who is about making stuff up. He’s a medical doctor who cared about truth and accuracy and history. He says in the beginning of his book, right in the first few vereses of each of them that followed things closely and wanted to write an orderly and accurate account of what happened. But when something supernatural is about to take place…he often uses this phrase, “filled with the Holy Spirit” to say God is doing something special here.

One time, it’s when God gives a prophecy to Zechariah (Lk 1:67). One time it’s when God enables Peter to speak in tongues and people heard him speaking in five or six different languages (Acts 2:4-6). One time, it’s when the church gets together for a prayer service and God causes an earthquake to erupt (Acts 4:31). One time, it’s when Paul has been blinded and God enables him to see (Acts 9:17). One time, it’s when God enables Paul to do spiritual warfare with a magician (Acts 13:9).

And one time, it’s when God causes Elizabeth’s baby to jump when he encouters Jesus and God enables Elizabeth’s heart and mind to be opened to recognize that her cousin Mary was more than just a cousin who was pregnant.

So here’s what’s going on. Elizabeth is old. Who knows how old…maybe 50 or 60. Her husband said she was “advanced in years (Lk 1:19),” so whatever that means. Probably gray hair and past menopause. She was barren, couldn’t get pregnant her whole life no matter how hard her and her husband tried. An angel comes to her husband and tells him she is going to get pregnant and that it’s going to be a boy and the boy’s name will be John and John will prepare the way for the messiah who’s going to come right after him, that being Jesus.

So, sure enough Elizabeth gets pregnant and then after her Mary gets pregnant with Jesus. After Mary gets pregnant, somehow she hears about her cousin Elizabeth encountering an angel too and also getting pregant and decides to make a trip and go see her. The moment pregnant Mary with Jesus gets to the house, little baby John the Baptist turbs out and gets all excited in his mom’s belly. When that happens the Holy Spirit fills Elizabeth and she says some radical and awesome things about Jesus.

The first thing is her recognition of God’s hand being at work. By God’s hand, I don’t mean a literal hand I just mean that he is acting and doing something. You have to remember, that nothing spiritual or supernatural or meaningful had happened for over 400 years. It ought to be a good reminder to us who have trouble with believing miracles can and have happened. Sometimes God takes long breaks from doing stuff.

But Aslan is on the move as C.S. Lewis would say. God’s doing stuff. The moment baby John the Baptist jumps Elizabeth essentially starts prophesying…speaking Holy Spirit inspired and illuminated words. Look at what she says first, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”

You gotta get a feel for this. If anything is special or a miracle it’s Elizabeth’s womb. She’s the old hag who couldn’t get pregnant and now she is…if anyone’s womb is blessed by God, it’s hers. It’s not hard for a young girl to get pregnant. But she sees Mary and she recognizes the hand of God at work…that God is doing something special with Mary.

Now obviously, this type of “filling of the Holy Spirit” from God is not a common thing. It’s a special thing. So not that God couldn’t or doesn’t sometimes still do things like this…but when he does it’s probably rare. However, there is a principle here for us to learn from.

Whenever you’re reading a story in the Bible, the narrative genre…there is a subtext. A lesson beneath the story, that the author is hoping you’ll pick up. Here, the lesson is do you recognize when God is at work?

Elizabeth here is not so self-involved with what’s going on with her personally to miss what God is doing around her, in other people. I think there is a good lesson in there for us. We need to learn how to be spiritually sensitive to what is going on around us. We need to be looking for where God is working and who he is working in.

It’s so easy just to get wrapped up in our own lives and our own agendas that we become blind to what God is doing around us. Rather than thinking of life as though it were a car that we are driving I think we need to think of it more like a train that is moving and we need to figure out where God is working and get on board with him.

Let me ask you. What do you think God is trying to teach you or show you in your life right now? What does it seem like God may be doing? When you think of your life and your circumstances and your relationships, who and where does it look like God may have something going on?

So often I personally have my own agendas and I try and force fit stuff…and things are so much easier when I just get on board with what God is doing and invest my time and energy there instead of trying to make the things that are not working work. That’s a good lesson we can learn from Elizabeth here.

II. Elizabeth Confesses Belief in Jesus (v.43)

The second thing Elizabeth says just blows me away. She quite literally confesses her belief in Jesus. As we talked about last week, Mary was undoubtedly the first Christian. Here, it looks like Elizabeth very well could have been the second. Let’s check it out, “Elizabeth Confesses Belief in Jesus.”

It’s in verse 43. The next thing she says is in the form of an emphatic rhetorical statement, “Why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?!” Wow! Completely set aside her massive humility…she doesn’t even feel worthy of encountering Mary…her way younger cousin…but she calls Mary’s baby, baby Jesus, “my Lord.”

The text almost seems to go out of it’s way to say this whole interchange happens before Elizabeth and Mary even get to talk. It’s not like Mary came in the house and they sit down for tea and then a couple hours later she says this. It’s right away. The moment she walks in the door.

Now maybe she heard some stuff about the angel that appeared to Mary and Joseph or something. Maybe. But it seems like she didn’t know any of that and God just revealed it to her when he “filled her with the Holy Spirit.” I have know idea what that experience would be like, anything I’ve ever come to know has either been through a lot of hard work and study or a lot of stupid mistakes in life.

But here, it just seems like God drops this mad knowledge bomb into her forehead and she’s knows that the baby that is inside Mary is the divine Son of God who is going to save his people from their sins and so she makes a profession of faith to him.

Get ahold of that. She calls the baby Jesus, still in Mary’s womb, “my Lord.” This is what is printed on the coins at the time, “Lord.” They said, “Ceasar is Lord.” And this is what Elizabeth would say outloud every time she read the name of God in her Bible, she would say, “Lord.” So “Lord” is a loaded word. It means ruler over all and it means God.

I almost wonder if Elizabeth fell down on her knees and clapsed onto Mary’s belly when she did this. I can almost picture that happening. “My Lord.” It’s the same thing Thomas, Jesus’ disciple would say after Jesus died on the cross and rose again. He was skeptical that after being dead for three days that Jesus really came back to life. But when he finally saw Jesus for himself, John looks at him and says, “My Lord and My God (Jn 20:28).”

Elizabeth here recognized that this pregnancy of her cousin was far different than any normal pregnancy. Elizabeth here recognized that this child was far different than any other child. Elizabeth here recognized that this child would be her savior. She knew she needed a savior from her sin and God opened up her eyes to see that baby Jesus would be that for her.

This is what we all need. It’s one of the most challenging things about being a Christian and desiring so much for others to see and know how good Jesus is and how much they need him. But the truth is we can’t make that happen. You can talk with someone until I’m blue in the face about how much of a sinner they really are and how much they really need Jesus what Jesus has done but nothing we ever say has the ability to change a heart.

Like with Elizabeth God has to open up our eyes to be able to see that Jesus is Lord and that we need him and he will save us. We have to see him as more than just a baby. My little daughter Adina right now loves playing with little babies. We’re training her to be a good mommie and she loves it. While we’re trying to potty train her, she’s trying to potty train her dolls.

But I think she’s a little confused because I think she thinks all babies are baby Jesus. Whenever she picks up one of her dolls or see a little baby she calls it Jesus. Our biggest prayer for, every day and every night is that God would help her to see that she needs Jesus and that she would turn to him as her savior.

It’s kind of a good picture of how we are. We need God to open up our eyes to see Jesus as being more than just an imaginary person that we play with like a doll. We need God to help us to see him as our Lord and our God.

Is he yours today? Is Jesus your Lord? Can you say with Elizabeth, “my Lord”? May God help us all see the glory and the wonder of who he is, that we might worship him and be amazed by him like Elizabeth.

III. Elizabeth Explains the Joy of Her Baby (v.44)

Well, the things Elizabeth says seem to get either increasingly more preposterous or increasingly more amazing. Check out verse 44. After saying these two huge things. One that God is at work and has blessed Mary’s womb and two, that Mary’s baby is her Lord. After saying these things she gives reason for why she says them.

Look at it. The beginning of verse 44. She says, “For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” This is crazy. Any normal person would just think it’s coincidence or maybe gas or something. Just because a baby moves doesn’t mean that it’s a special baby from God who is the Lord and savior.

But remember here, Luke says here, that God filled Elizabeth with the Holy Spirit to be able to recognize this. So you can take it or leave it, but that’s what the text says. And actually it’s not too far off. In fact, throughout the Bible, the Bible’s universal picture of baby’s in the womb is like this.

Baby’s can know God and are spiritual, in the womb, before they are born. Unborn babies are people. Which as a side note ought to make us think twice about ever aborting a child. Aborting is a nice word. Murder is more accurate.

The Bible universally pictures babies in the womb as people who are spiritual beings who are created in God’s image. Here’s some verses listen to them.

Moses says in Genesis 1:27 “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” So we are made in God’s image.

David says to God in Psalm 139:13 “You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” So God sovereignly oversees the biological forming process that occurs in the 9 months of a pregnancy.

God says to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” So God knows our personality, gifts and talents and has a purpose and design for our lives, even when we’re in the womb.

David also says our inherent sinfulness as human beings go back to the womb. Psalm 51:5 “I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me (NIV).” So even in the womb we have a moral capacity to be able to relate to God and either glorify him or not.

Then lastly, look back at our text for today, Luke 1:44, the baby “leaped for joy.” What’s that tell us? Babies can have joy! Even in the womb! They are persons who can not only partake and experience sin but can also experience joy and happiness.

Now, that’s some cool stuff about babies in the Bible and there are a ton of lessons to be learned from those texts and doctrines that follow because of them. But what is significant about our text today is why baby John the Baptist gets so happy? What is the reason?

It’s Jesus. It’s the presence of Jesus. Even when he was in still in the womb John the Baptist was pointing to and preparing the way for Jesus. This is essentially the gospel, that Jesus brings joy.

When Jesus is born, a whole host of angels will appear in the night sky before a bunch of shepherds and will say they bring, “Good news of great joy that will be for all the people” because Jesus is born “in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord (Lk 2:10-11).” Jesus brings joy. Sin brings sorrow, pain, corruption, destruction and hell. Jesus brings joy, life, freedom and heaven.

The essence and heart of the gospel is that it saves us to joy in God. That we are a people who are made to enjoy life under the rule and reign of God. That God’s glory is meant to make us happy. Because of sin, we corrupt it and make ourselves miserable. Over 12 million Americans are clinically depressed. And we try and try to fix ourselves to no avail.

It’s because we were made for something greater that the world cannot contain and sin seperates us from the greatness and goodness of God. But Jesus has come to make away for us to be forgiven and to be redeemed and to know the true love and goodness of God and experience life in this world and the world to come in the way it was meant to be.

If you’ve thought that Christianity was a religion about guilt and rules you’ve missed the gospel, the Christ in Christianity…Jesus, Jesus who came to bring joy. And when you first realize all of who Jesus is for the first time, like Elizabeth and her baby…it is exuberent joy. That’s what the Greek word here is, exceedingly great joy. Joy of joy!

But maybe joy seems pretty foreign to you right now. Maybe you’re suffering in some way in this season of your life…facing some tough stuff. Let me offer you this. Jesus knows what you’re going through and that’s why he came, to show you his love and to offer up himself on a cross in immense suffering so that you might know love and forgiveness and grace and hope and joy!

The reality of life whether you are a Christian or not is that life is hard. Times get rough. Sometimes especially at Christmas for some reason. Those times teach us that Jesus is our only hope for happiness.

Keith Green is a old music worship leader from the 70′s. Most of his musical style is outdated but there’s one song who’s lyrics I think speak of the piercing joy that he gospel of Jesus Christ brings to us even when we are at our lowest. The song’s title is “My Eyes Are Dry.” It’s really just a prayer put to music. Here’ s the words.

“My eyes are dry. My faith is old. My heart is hard. My prayers are cold. And I know how I ought to be. Alive to you. And dead to me. So what can be done for an old heart like mine? Soften it up. With oil and wine. The oil is you. Your spirit of love. Pease wash me anew. In the wine of your blood.”

It’s a good example of what to pray when we lack joy. I love that there is a whole week of Advent that is focused on the theme of the joy Jesus brings. We need to hear that. Whenever there is a lack of joy in our life, even in the midst of suffering…it is because we have begun to value something or someone else more than Jesus. It happens when overestimate our need for something else and underestimate our need for Jesus. Our identity gets wrapped up in something else that seeking to get joy from that can only come from Jesus.

Our hearts need to leap for joy at Jesus, when we consider all of the goodness of who is is and what he has done. We don’t have a maximum capacity for that. There is always more and an ever-increasing amount of joy to be found in Jesus. When we cease being amazed we begin to tread on dangerous ground.

Sometimes, we do not feel the amazment of Jesus, the joy of Jesus and yes it is a feeling…an emotion, or affection, a subjective experience. And yes, God has to awaken and stir and evoke such affections in us. But he has provided all kind things to help in our pursuit of joy: Scripture, creation, the church, community, communion, obedience, prayer, songs, all kinds of things. We might not be able to make ourselves happy but as Jonathan Edwards we can “to lay ourselves in (its) way” and we can petition God to light the fire of our hearts with affection for him.

The more we realize our need for Jesus the more of his goodness and love and joy we will experience. May we learn the lesson of Elizabeth and baby John here and continually be moved to joy by the presence of Jesus in our lives.

IV. Elizabeth Celebrates the Promise God (v.45)

In the last verse today we see Elizabeth celebrating the promise of God. In verse 45 she says, “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

Apparently here, she knows some things about the promise of the angel to Mary and Elizabeth apparently knows how Mary responded to it. She knew much of the things we talked about last week here when we looked at Mary’s character. How Mary immediately responded in faith and trust to the initial promise of God toher… how Mary was willing to risk such disgrace and even potentially being stoned to death in order to obey…and how Mary humbly loved and worshipped her God and savior.

Elizabeth apparently knew some of those things. And she celebrates them. Elizabeth commends Mary for trusting in the Word of God. The principle here is the same for us. I mean the whole reason that makes what Elizabeth says here significant at all is because she and everyone else recognizes that it wasn’t an easy thing to accept from God and believe.

For us, some things in the Bible are not easy for us to accept from God and believe. But when we do we experience God’s blessing in our lives. The Bible is a good good book given unto us. It’s promises are true. God’s word will not fail us. We can count on it and take hold of it’s promises and know that they will be fufilled.

For Mary the promises she had to believe was: One that she would in fact have a son and two, that he would be the savior. The promise of salvation in Jesus is the same for us.

Here it is in Romans 10:9,11-13 “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved…Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction… the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

That is God’s promise to us. I think we know we need a hero and that we know we ourselves are not that hero. We need Jesus. May he enable us to continue to call on him and call on him and call on him so that we might end up being like Mary, whom Elizabeth commended for “believing that there would be fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord (Lk 1:45).”

Conclusion

In conclusion this morning as we reflect over all the things we can learn from Elizabeth it’s almost as though the goodness of the gospel is woven through each part of this story.

So often we miss the hand of God at work in and around us…but God in his goodness has not allowed his hand pass over us.

So often we make ourselves out to be Lord…but God graciously shows us that we our terrible Lords and helps us that only Jesus is able to able and worthy of be the Lord over our lives.

So often we find ourselves saddened and burdened by sin and we search for joy in all the wrong places, but God has given us Jesus so that we might search know more and have the longing of our hearts met in him.

So often we tend to buy into all kinds of promises whether it be from TV or Time magazine but God has given us the one promise we can truly count on…that he has come into the world for us and no one who ever puts their faith and trust in his Son will ever be put to shame.

Jesus is everything. Jesus is the hand of God at work, Jesus is Lord of all, Jesus is source of joy, and Jesus is the promise of God. Jesus is everything.

Let’s go to him in prayer.

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
December 6th, 2009

ADVENT | The Christmas Story Descends
Week 2 – The Bethlehem Candle of Humility: Mary

“Confessions of the First Christian”
Luke 1:26-38,46-56

I. The Faith & Trust of Mary (v.26-34)
II. The Servanthood & Submission of Mary (v.35-38)
III. The Worship & Joy of Mary (v.46-48)
IV. The God & Savior of Mary (v.49-56)

Introduction

Well it’s the second week of Advent. Advent means “coming” or “arrival” and throughout the years Christians have celebrated the coming and arrival of the God-man Jesus, who came into the world as a humble little baby and who will come again as a powerful and glorious warrior. This year for our Advent sermons I’m doing character studies of individuals from the Christmas story. Last week we looked at Zechariah, this week we’re looking at Mary.

I’ve titled today’s message, “Confessions of the First Christian” and we’re going to be working through Luke 1:26-38,46-56 so you can open up your Bibles there and follow along with me. The first thing we’re going to look at today is the faith and trust of Mary.

I. The Faith & Trust of Mary (v.26-34)

We get introduced to Mary in verse 27. And before we even find out her name we find out details about her life at the time, who she is. Check it out. Verse 26-27, “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.”

So before we even find out Mary’s name we find out what time it is, the sixth month, Elul in the Hebrew calendar, sometime in August or September. We find out where she lives, the city of Nazareth. We find out her sexual history, she’s a virgin. And we find out her marital status, she’s betrothed to a dude named Joseph. That’s a lot of information.

A couple of things. First a nerd point. The historical time reference. You don’t get that kind of thing with made up myths. There are a ton of ancient myths about various deities and what not, even in other “gospels” not included in the Bible. There’s even one that goes into great detail about the early life of Mary, the Gospel of James. But it wasn’t written until 2-3 hundred years after Jesus and the start of the church and was readily recognized and dismissed as dubious. None of the other ancient records have historical time references. You don’t do that because then it can be proven wrong and spurious.

So anyway, it’s a nerd point. I get excited about little phrases in the Bible like “in the sixth month.” I know the existence of angels is a big pill to swallow but you got that butted up against historical validation. All this goes down in the sixth month of one of the early years of Herod the Great’s reign. It’s kinda like a police report that could be called up in court. The written report has the date, time and location of the incident.

Okay, second thing here is that we’re told Mary is a virgin. Some people, who have trouble with the Bible have seen this and come out and tried to say oh, well this word virgin here, “parthenos” can simply mean young girl. Yes, it is true, sometimes, in some uses “virgin” can mean “young girl.” But apparently these cronies and bandits who like this idea, guys like Rob Bell and friends, apparently they don’t know how to read.

They don’t know how to read because “parthenos” can mean a young girl or more specifically, a girl who has not had sex. And Luke here goes out of his way to show that a girl who has not yet had sex is the kind of virgin he is referring to.

Look at verse 34 with me. The angel tells Mary, the virgin she is going to get pregnant and conceive. Mary has a problem with that. What’s her problem? Verse 34, “How will this be, since I am a virgin.” She’s not married yet and Mary knows there is only one way humans get pregnant. Sexual intercourse. They didn’t have in vitro fertilization yet back then.

Now Mary is a young girl. Our culture is so different then Jewish culture in the first century it makes it hard for us to fully wrap our minds around what is going on here. Mary is a young girl who is betrothed to Joseph.

Betrothal does not simply mean engaged. Here’s what’s going on. Every young girl would get betrothed to a man to be married, sometime between the age of 10 and 13. 10 was the earliest and it would be rare and a cultural shame if you did not marry your daughter off by the time she was 14.

When a betrothal took place it was a deal made by the parents. Yes, sometimes the kids would likely give their input and desires. But a betrothal was a legal deal. A legal deed was drawn up. The parents of the young man would pay a bride price to the girls parents.

So document and money exchange. A betrothal would last about one year, which would usually be celebrated by a week long marriage and festival, concluded by the consummation of the marriage, sex. And the girl then leaving her parents house and going to moved in with the young man and creating a new house together. That’s the Bible’s order.

During the betrothal, it was a legal commitment that could only be broken by death or divorce for infidelity. So this is a big deal. We’ve got it so backwards in our culture. For most of us when we hear this, we’re like what!? This whole thing is crazy right?

It really isn’t though. This is still practiced in many parts of the world. I think our feelings of thinking this is crazy is because we have become inoculated to an idolatrous approach to marriage, where our own personal feelings, desires, and decisions are chief. They are god to us and no one better dare not take that away from me. This is the attitude that says, “No one better tell me who to marry!”

This model here, with Mary and her parents, presents a view of life and marriage that is very communal and very family oriented. The model is that daddy loves her most and knows best…that a young girl’s fleeting emotions are not a good guide to finding a spouse. The model is that kids are capable of marriage when they are capable of being able to have children. The model is that parents prepare their kids for that instead of teaching their kids that they don’t need to grow up and think about that until after college.

Let me give you some history on the current form of dating in our culture. The word “dating” itself was not introduced into American culture as a form of pursuing marriage until the 1930′s. Prior to that it was a slang term used to refer to prostitution. “Dating” was a euphemism for paying for sex.

Until then, the way you got married was through a “calling.” A calling was where a boy would be called into the house of girl’s family to present himself and have dinner. If the boy proved himself of being worthy of his daughter, then a daddy would perhaps consent to a marriage. This ensured the involvement of the entire family, enabled daddy to keep away the wrong kind of men, minimized the opportunity for pre-marital sexual interaction, and kept marriage as the goal rather than co-habitation.

Now I could easily just preach a whole sermon on marriage and dating because it’s something I’m passionate about. I would be delighted to marry my daughter off to a godly and capable man by the time she is 18 or 19 and any “dates” will occur under my supervision in my home. We talk about this every night with her. We pray out loud for her every night that she would love Jesus and that God would give her a good godly husband that loves Jesus and daddy likes. I know that sounds crazy to a lot of you and you might think I’m nuts. But history and the Bible is on my side!

I know most of you are well beyond the stage of life where your parents can hook up a marriage for you. I get that. So I guess mostly I’m talking to the parents and future parents. But for those of you who are single and of marrying age and you are already out of your parent’s house, I would submit that your church family ought to be a good guide and help in finding a mate. The principle of having the godly people in your life that love and care about you most, your family, help you in this area…that principle can be provided through a church family that has good people to trust and turn to.

Well we better get back to Mary or I’ll just keep on raging about this. I remember when Amy and I first started dating back in 1997 and neither one of us believed that the other was a virgin. All the people we had ever dating prior to each other were not…so it as hard for us to believe. It ought not to be that way. And I’m on a mission to do something about it. I love my daughter too much.

Okay, so Luke is a great narrarator. He’s doing some things here literarily that are quite amazing. If you were here last week, you’ll remember the story with Zechariah. An angel comes to him, tells him that he and his old wife are going to have a baby who will prepare the way for Jesus the Messiah. But Zechariah does not believe. He essentially says, no, I’m too old. So the angel strikes his mouth and makes him mute.

Now comes Mary. An angel comes to her, tells her she is going to have a baby who will be Jesus the Messiah. And Mary believes. Right away. Her only question is how. You see when Mary says, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” She is not saying, “No way, that’s impossible.” She is saying, “Okay God, how are you going to do this, what should I expect?”

I believe Luke here is intentionally contrasting the response of Zechariah and the response of Mary. By this time, Mary knew and had heard what had happened to Zechariah because his wife Elizabeth was her cousin and she goes to visit her when she hears she is pregnant.

Look at verse 29 with me. “She was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.” Mary’s one of those people who wants to figure everything out. I think most moms must be like that. I’ve never seen my wife read more than when she was pregnant. She got this huge ole’ book bigger than the Bible called “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” and read it from front to cover. “Trying to discern what sort of greeting this might be.”

What I love about Mary’s response versus Zechariah is her immediate trust and faith in God. We’re going to see more of this in Mary’s character in a minute but right away we see an initial readiness and excitement in her for what God is about to do.

There so much we can learn from her, from the faith and trust of a young girl. When God promises us something in his word, is there a trust and an excitement or do we start heaping up the reasons and the difficulties for how it really can’t be true or isn’t going to work?

When God’s word promises things to us like Jeremiah 29:11 ” I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Do we believe it and trust it or start worrying and doubting…yeah but things are bleak right now and I just don’t see how it’s going to get better. We need to be like Mary and say, okay Lord I believe, I trust you…how are you going to fulfill this in my life…where should I put my focus, energy and effort?

II. The Servanthood & Submission of Mary (v.35-38)

Mary’s humility begins to shine in verses 35-38 in her second response to the angel. Let’s look at the “Servanthood & Submission of Mary.” Mary asks, okay…how’s this all going to go down? And the angel responds, verse 35, “And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

This is probably my favorite thing ever recorded about Mary in the Bible. This response. I mean the angel doesn’t really answer her question at all. He answers but nothing he says really makes sense. He essentially gives her a bunch of spiritual mumbo jumbo. “Oh yeah Mary, you see, the Holy Spirit’s going to com upon you, the power of the Most High’s going to overshadow you, so your child will be holy, the son of God.” Make sense?

No. Crazy angels. It’s funny. Whenever we pray and ask God “how” he rarely answers the details question does he? Usually the answer is simply, “trust me.” What we learn here from Mary is that submitting to God is not conditional upon everything making sense to us.

Look at what she says. “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” So often we want to understanding and comprehend and know everything before we will bow our knee and submit to God. Mary here shows us that the only condition is his word. If he said it, that’s enough. He is God we are not and he knows best we don’t.

I mean this was a huge deal for Mary. To trust God’s word and the potential consequences it could bring. She was risking a legal right for Joseph to divorce her and leave her alone, if he didn’t believe her. The gospel of Matthew even tells us that he thought about doing that. If he did leave her, it everyone would think she was sexually unfaithful when they saw that she was knocked up, which not only meant embarrassment and shame but in Jewish law it meant she could legally be stoned to death for adultery. This was a huge deal for Mary.

For her to say, okay God, I’m your servant, let it be to me according to your word…takes huge guts. But God’s word was enough. God’s word was sufficient for her submission.

Notice that she calls her self a servant. I think viewing oneself in this way stabs at the heart of our issue with God as fallen humans. We don’t want to be servants. We want to be kings. We want to be the ones who call the shots and have everybody and everything bow down to us. We want everything to go our way and according to our plans and desires. But Mary realizes that God is king and sees herself in a right biblical perspective, a servant…who simply does whatever she is told. “According to your word.”

I remember when I was first thinking about becoming a minister. I was an art major initially my freshman year of college…but then I became a Christian and I was sitting in my art classes and I started having the overwhelming feeling that I was wasting time. All I was interested in was Jesus and the Bible but I didn’t know what to do because I didn’t want to be a preacher. Worked out well for me huh?

I remember asking God over and over what he wanted me to do and how this sense of “calling” I was feeling would be fulfilled. What do you want me to do? What do you want me to be? The answer was simply “trust me.” There’s still a lot of stuff I don’t understand…I find myself a junctures frequently, on this side of being a minister…how to handle sticky situations, how money will work out, what about buying a house, what about this, what about that…and the answer from God is, “Trust me and my word…you are my servant. Be obedient.”

How’s your servanthood and submission before God? Do you see yourself as a servant to God or do you see God as your servant to make things go the way you want? When God clearly states something in his word or when he tells you to do something do you submit? Or do you fight and resist and come up with excuses or justifications? When something that looks like it will be bad for you happens are you able to accept it as being from God?

May God help us to be like Mary and bow our knees and say, “Let it be to me according to your word.”

III. The Worship & Joy of Mary (v.46-48)

Our last two points for this morning look at Mary’s song, what’s called the “Magnificat.” It’s a song or a poem composed of 6 parallelisms. The Bible doesn’t tell us when she composed it. It seems like it would have taken her some time it is so rich. There are 12 distinct Old Testament references and it is rich with messianic fulfillment.

Look back up to verse 31-33. The angel says four distinct things about Mary’s son that she is going to get pregnant with. The first thing, verse 31, his name will be called Jesus. In ancient times, the meaning of your name was symbolic to your character and life. The name “Jesus” means “God saves.”

The second thing, verse 32, he will be called great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Most High is a reference to God, so he will be the great Son of God. This is clearly a reference to Jesus’ deity.

Third thing, end of verse 32, he will be given the throne of David. So this means he will be the king. The royal kingship had long been desecrated and dismantled. Herod, who served as a political vassal to Rome wasn’t even a Jew. The Jewish hope was for a king like and in the line of David to rule and really rule once again. Mary and Joseph were both part of that bloodline…who was secretly waiting and hoping.

Fourth thing, verse 33, he will reign forever. So this son of hers is going to save, he’s going to be God, he’s going to be king, and he will reign forever, with no end, eternally.

No wonder Mary said…”how?” The angel responds by saying that “nothing is impossible with God” and then cites how God enabled Elizabeth to get pregnant in her old age as an example of God being able to do the impossible.

It’s a good clue for us. Often times when we read these fantastic stories with these miracles in them our modern scientific minds have trouble accepting that they really are true and really happened. But listen to the angel’s logic. If there is a God…if there is a being who actually had the power to create everything that exists, is it not possible for him to interrupt things and do as a pleases…isn’t that possible for him? That’s sound logic.

Mary accepts it and bows in servanthood and submission and then she is contemplating all of this. It appears that Mary was a deep thinker. In the next chapter after Jesus is born Luke says Mary, “ponder(ed) all these things in her heart (Lk 2:19).”

This song or poem she writes is the fruit of her pondering. It begins with a declaration of worship and joy. Check out “The Worship and Joy of Mary.” Verse 46-47, “And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

She begins in worship. She sees herself as blessed and from the uttermost part of her soul pours herself out to God in joyful worship. Pure unadulterated love of God in worship is one of the most beautiful things a human being can ever do.

Jonathan Edwards is more well known for his sermons on hell, which are phenomenal…but he actually spoke and preached much more about heaven. And no one can quite speak of it like Edwards. Mary’s expression, “my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices” reminded me of in a sermon Edwards preached titled, “Heaven is a World of Love” where he speaks about the worship and joy of saints in heaven. Here’s an excerpt:

“All shall stand about the God of glory, the fountain of love, as (if) it were (the) opening their bosoms to be filled with those effusions of love which are poured forth from (him) (just) as the flowers on the earth in a pleasant spring day open their bosoms to the sun to be filled with his warmth and light and flourish in beauty and fragrancy by his rays. Every saint is as a flower in the garden of God, and holy love is the fragrancy and sweet odor which they all send forth, and with which they fill that paradise. (In) every saint there is as a note in a concert of music which sweetly harmonizes with every other note, and (it) all together (is) employed wholly in praising God and the Lamb. And so, all helping one another to their utmost to express their love of the whole society to the glorious Father and Head of it, (they) [pour back] love into the fountain of love, (from which) they are supplied and filled with love and with glory.”

Good stuff. Do you know what it is like to utter love God from your gut where you can say, “my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices within me”? It is the greatest joy we can know and experience…to know the greatness of God and his blessing unto us.

Mary was full. Filled to overflowing of the greatness and love of God because of what he had promised her according to is word. We like Mary stand in the same place. The promise of a savior who died for our sins, the savior who is the Son of the Most High God, who reigns as king over sin and Satan and who will return and physically reign over the earth one day.

Mary’s promise is our promise and it is cause for great soul magnifying and great joy.

IV. The God & Savior of Mary (v.49-56)

Our last point for today looks at who this God is Mary worships and trusts in for her salvation, “The God & Savior of Mary.” Mary refers to God by name or pronoun 16 times in this song of hers and she mentions key attributes of God.

In verse 49, she says he is mighty. A core attribute of the God of Bible is that he is all-powerful. If you think of all the power of all the automobiles and all the planes and all the nuclear plants and all the power of the sun and all the power at work in all the stars…God is more powerful than all of it. In Jeremiah 32:17, the prophet Jeremiah was contemplating this and said, “Ah Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.”

In the second part of verse 49, she says God is holy. This is another core attribute of the God of the Bible, that he is holy. In the ocean of his existence, in all that he is and does there is not one single ounce or sliver of imperfection or immorality. He is completely pure and righteous and true. It is his very being. All that is good and right flows out of who he is. This is pretty much the major theme of the whole Old Testament, the whole sacrificial system, the architecture of the temple, the journey of the people…everything is to show that God is holy.

Then in verse 49, 50, and 54 Mary repeats that God is a God of mercy. Mercy implies the opposite of holiness. It’s recognition that we as a people and as individuals are not holy. We fall far short of God’s holiness and because of that we deserve judgment. Mercy is not getting the judgment we deserve. God’s withholding of it. In Exodus 34:6 Moses contemplated this and said, ” “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”

In verses 51-53, Mary counts the justice and the goodness of God. She says he brings down the proud and lifts up the humble and fills the hungry poor with good things and sends the hording rich away empty. Mary knew what it was like to be poor. It could have been the reason there was no room for them in the inn…that all they could afford was a place with the animals to have her baby. She was the one of “humble estate.” That’s how she refers to herself twice.

After Jesus is born they go to the temple to present Jesus and it says the sacrifice they bring two birds, which is a sign that they were really poor. You were only allowed to bring a pair of birds if you couldn’t afford a lamb. And on top of it…Mary was of the royal line that had been smited and removed and left with nothing.

In Mary’s song she reminds us that God keeps the books. She was of humble estate but she knew that God knows our needs and will make all things right in the end.

Lastly, she recognizes and praises God for the fulfillment of the Messiah who is for all generations. Her whole poem is written in past tense…because in the promise of God to her of Jesus she sees all these Old Testament prophesies fulfilled. Nearly every line is from a prophecy of the Old Testament. Mary knew her Bible, well.

In Jesus she saw the promises of God completed. It’s quite interesting reading this and then thinking about the outcome of Mary’s life as an adult. She pops up throughout all the gospel accounts and even once in Acts.

Jesus first miracle, where he turns water to wine at a wedding is prompted by Mary’s confidence in Jesus as the messiah (Jn 2). Then one time in the middle of Jesus ministry, he’s teaching and preaching and apparently Mary and his brothers come and they want to see Jesus. The disciples tell Jesus and his response is for his mother and brothers to follow him as his disciples and hear his word (Lk 8:19-21).

And that’s what we see Mary do. When Jesus gets crucified on the cross and all the disciples are in hiding for fear that they will be next…Mary is there at the foot of the cross watching the whole thing (Jn 19:25). Then Mary is one of the first ones who discovers the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and she goes to tell the disciples (Lk 24:10). Jesus makes appearances for 40 days and then Jesus ascends to heaven and the church gets started and where do we find Mary? Acts 1:14, devoting herself to prayer with the church on the day of Pentecost.

Mary truly was the first Christian. The first true follower and believer in Jesus. That’s what makes her great. You can go overboard with Mary. Many of our friends among the Catholic Church have done that. There is even a push to deem her co-redemptrix or co-salvificator along with Jesus. But that’s beyond the bounds. Jesus is the savior, not Mary.

But in reaction we can go under board with Mary as well and not recognize her character and the grace of God in her life and learn from it. Mary is a great example of a woman who loved God, who loved the Bible and who believed in Jesus who turned to him for her salvation.

Is your God like Mary’s God? Mighty. Holy. Mercificul. Full of justice and goodness. Are you a follower of Jesus like Mary? One who seeks to learn from Jesus, worship Jesus, and seek the kingdom of Jesus with his church? Mary is such a great example for us in these things.

Conclusion

To conclude today’s sermon I simply want to call your thoughts and your hearts to the gospel. The good news of who Jesus is and what God has done in history for us through him. When Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the temple to be presented there when he is still a baby a man named Simeon, came up to Mary and Joseph.

Luke says that Simeon was a righteous and devout man, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and that God had told him he would not see death before seeing God’s prophesied messiah. When Simeon sees baby Jesus he takes him up in his arms and says to God, “according to your word my eyes have seen your salvation (Lk 2:29-30).”

Then he turns to Mary and says these words, Luke 2:34-35 “And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel…and a sword will pierce through your own soul also…so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

Simeon tells Mary that Jesus will save yes, hearts will be turned, but that in order for that to happen Jesus will be pierced through with a sword and that when he is, a sword will also pierce Mary’s heart.

I couldn’t help but think of that in concluding the story of Mary today. One of the coolest things about a fresh, newly born baby is seeing and feeling their little hands and toes. Mary held the baby Jesus in her arms, played with his hands and toes…but one day she would kneel in front of a cross and see those hands and toes with nails in them and watch her son be pierced through with a sword. It’s an emotionally gripping scene.

But in that act Jesus reveals, gives, and births new hearts. In that act Jesus saves for all who trust in him and his work to deal with our sin. As we close I invite all of us to join Mary at the foot of the cross this morning. To come to Jesus and worship him and thank him for coming into the world and for dying on a cross for our sin.

We like all, like Mary need Jesus. We need our hearts to be pierced through to see how much God loves us and to what lengths he has gone through to demonstrate and extend his love to us. May Jesus work in us this morning as we go to the table to confess sin and to rejoice in our salvation.

Let’s pray.

Listen 
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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
November 22nd, 2009

ADVENT | The Christmas Story Descends
Week 1 – The Prophecy Candle of Hope: Zechariah

The Preparer of the Preparer of Jesus
Luke 1:5-25, 57-80

I. Zechariah’s Fall from Righteousness (v.5-25)
The Priest Who Fails to Present God to the People
II. Zechariah’s Faith in God’s Promise (v.57-66)
The Father Who Passes on The Faith to his Family
III. Zechariah’s Filling of the Holy Spirit (v.67-80)
The Prophet Who Points Everyone to Jesus

Introduction

Well today is the first Sunday of Advent this Christmas season. If you’ve never experienced Advent, the word itself means “arrival” or “appearing” and in the history of the Christian church it is the season when we remember and celebrate the appearing or the arrival of Jesus into the world.

There are four weeks to Advent, so each week we light one candle and I preach a sermon on the theme of that week. This year I’ve decided to do character studies on four different individuals from the Christmas story. This first week is the prophecy candle, which focuses on the theme of hope and we’re going to look at Zechariah. Erica Calvert already read our text for this morning, so I’ll just jump right in and refer to parts of it here and there.

I. Zechariah’s Fall from Righteousness (v.5-25)
The Priest Who Fails to Present God to the People

All right, so let’s check out this Zechariah character. The first thing about him we read in this story is that he was a priest. Verse 5 says he was a priest in the days of Herod and that he was part of the division of priests from Abijah.

Priests were basically the pastors in the Old Testament before Jesus came and started his church. A priest’s job included many of the things that are a pastor’s job now. They regularly taught the Bible to the people, they prayed for the people, were to set an example for the people in how they lived and loved God and they were to run the church services at the temple. A priest’s job is to present God to the people.

Now there were a lot of priests. Back in the days of King David, who wrote a bunch of the Psalms in the Bible, there were 24,000 of them (1 Chr 23:4). Probably about the same amount during Zechariah’s day if not more. There were a lot of priests because the idea in the Bible is that every person is supposed to have personally access to a pastor.

A pastor is not just the guy who stands up in front of the people preaching on Sunday. It is someone who is spiritually watching over your souls and knows the details of your life and you go to him for strength, support, counsel, wisdom and prayer. Every Christian ought to have a pastor in their lives.

Now one of the priest’s duties as verses 8-9 was to be available for service in the temple, in Jerusalem if needed. Jerusalem is like the capital of the state, sort of like Washington D.C. for us. In Jerusalem there are a couple important buildings…instead of the White House and the Pentagon you’ve got the king’s palace and you have the temple.

Now, Luke wasn’t a Jew, so a lot of this temple stuff was pretty foreign to him and he’s doing is best to sort of introduce us to it. The closest he ever got to the inside of the temple was the outer court, called the “court of the Gentiles.” Non-Jews were not allowed inside of the temple…but at least he had seen the outside of it and knew common knowledge stuff about it. We’re even more removed from that.

Most of us have never lived in a city or a country where a religious building is the central focus of the entire life of the people. The closest thing today is probably what we see with Mecca in the religion of Islam. Mecca is the capital city of Saudi Arabia and once a year every able-bodied Muslim takes a trip there to go worship at the temple. Usually around 3 million people end up going.

That’s pretty foreign to most of us probably. Even more foreign is the actual inside of the temple and what went on in there. Check out verse 8-9 with me. “Now when he was serving as priest when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.” This is a huge deal.

Let me explain. Basically the temple is the dwelling place of God. Now obviously God is everywhere present and doesn’t live in temples built by human hands. But in the Old Testament, God had a major concern to teach the people holiness…that everything that is right and true and good comes from God who is the totally pure author of all morality and righteousness. So God allowed a temple to be built to demonstrate this and to have a tangible, ongoing reminder of his existence and holiness.

Now the way the temple was set up is that there were six main areas of the temple. Think concentric circles…the outer area anyone could go into called the court of the Gentiles, then there was the court of the women, then the court of Israel, then the court of the priests were the sacrifices were made. Once you were in the court of the priests you stood before this giant building called the “Holy Place.” It was a structure about 15 stories high and 150 feet wide, so almost the length of a city block.

Inside the Holy of Place were two areas. There was the outer area which had a golden lamp stand, the table of consecrated bread, and the altar of incense, which was kept always burning…that’s what Zechariah got chosen to go do, offer new incense. And then inside the Holy Place there was a the inner area called the “Holy of Holies.” It was separated by a 3-foot thick veil made of several layers of cloth and behind it was the Ark of the Covenant, the footstool of God in heaven. The high priest would enter into the Holy of Holies only once a year on the Day of Atonement.

So back to Zechariah. He gets chosen by lot to go and offer incense in the Holy Place. Getting chosen by lot, is sort of like throwing dice or drawing straws. They used two different stones called the Urim and the Thummim they would toss to determine who would go. Now Zechariah’s division only went to the temple twice a year to serve there…there were so many priests that most would be lucky if they got to go inside the Holy Place and offer incense once in their entire life. I suppose maybe it’s like getting to go see the oval office or something.

The point is, this is a huge deal for Zechariah. I went into a lot of detail in all that temple stuff because it’s important for us to get a feel for this. God starts the Christmas story by announcing it to the top level of religious and spiritual authority by telling his plans first to the most Jewish Jewed up Judaism Jew guy you can get other than the high priest himself.

I mean Zechariah is a Jewish priest who serves in the temple, he married a chick whose dad was a priest. And on top of it he was a good priest. Look at verse 6, he and his wife “were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statues of the Lord.”

What happens? Zechariah goes into the Holy Place, sees an angel, and this angels who tells him that his old wife who can’t get pregnant is going to have a son, and that his son is going to prepare the way for the arrival of the Lord in the world.

This is so huge. There has been no visions, no angelic appearances, no prophecies, no nothing for over 400 years…nothing. And Zechariah is the very first person God decided to tell he is about to send his son Jesus into the world and that Zechariah’s going to have a boy who will set things up for Jesus. This a big deal. Advent really begins with the story of Zechariah.

So how does Zechariah the righteous man who walked blamelessly in all the statues of the Lord respond to this news? Let’s check it out and re-read it. Verse 18, “And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”

Zechariah blows it. Hard. He just had an angel appear to him. The angel told him that the thing he and all the other priests and true followers of God had been longing for, the messiah, was about to come and that his own family would have a part in it. And Zechariah doesn’t believe it. He’s says, no. That can’t be true. That can’t happen. My wife and I are all old and saggy. There’s no way.

You just had an angel appear before you dude! It’s an important thing to note I think that having a supernatural encounter doesn’t grant faith. A lot of times I’ve heard people say things to me like, well if I ever saw Jesus or something supernatural with my own eyes then I’d believe.

The truth is that such a sentiment already reflects a hardness of heart that would explain away any thing that did happen…not to mention that it would demean the greatness and significance of Jesus coming into the world if he had to come in every generation just to re-convince us. So see, the supernatural doesn’t always help…it really is a heart and faith issue.

Notice that’s what the angel says. To me, it actually kind of sounds like he ticks Gabriel off, which isn’t too smart. In 2 Kings 19 an angel killed 185,000 soldiers single-handedly in one night. Check out how the angel responds. Verse 19, “And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”

The angel says Zechariah’s response was unbelief, a lack of faith, “you did not believe my words.” I think Luke wanted us to feel that. He was redundant about how good and righteous Zechariah was. He didn’t just say he was righteous…but that he walked blamelessly, in all the commandments, and statutes of the Lord. But here he falls. His righteousness, his blamelessness, his obedience all falls to the wayside.

And then God takes away his mouth. The one thing he was meant to do as a priest…minister to the people and now he can’t. Literally. After offering incense the priest was supposed to come out and stand on the steps and pray for the people. Now he can’t. All he could do was make signs and gestures. There are consequence for disobeying and not trusting and believing God’s word.

The story of Zechariah’s fall ought to remind us that none of us are ever too good that we cannot and have not fallen and failed. We must believe and trust the promises of God for us. Our goal and calling in life as followers of Jesus is to believe and to present him to the world.

Listen to 2 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

May God help us to be priests who are both like and unlike Zechariah…priests who seek and serve the Lord and obey him, but ones who are constantly driven not by a confidence in our own works but by a confidence of faith in the word of God.

II. Zechariah’s Faith in God’s Promise (v.57-66)
The Father Who Passes on The Faith to his Family

This is my favorite part of this whole story. Let’s re-read it and get it fresh in our heads. (re-read verse 57-66)

So here’s what’s going on. Elizabeth was barren. Her and Zechariah were never able to have children their whole lives long. This was embarrassing. Usually a sign of God’s curse in that day. Earlier in verse 25 when Elizabeth actually got pregnant as the angel said she would, she said, “The Lord has…(took) away my reproach among people.”

We need to get a feel for this because our culture is so freaking backwards on this. Here is the very very very first thing God ever says to mankind. Genesis 1:28 “Be fruitful and multiply.” That is a command! God straight out says that the thing he wants us most to do, one of the primary ways that we will love him and glorify him, is to get a spouse and to have children.

And if you don’t have children, Elizabeth here is right, it’s a reproach. I want to hammer on this because we are bred in this self-serving self-centered self-planning self-determining spiritually masochistic culture that says marriage and children sucks. So everyone dorks around having sex outside of marriage…puts off marriage as long as possible and then wants to wait until the chances of getting pregnant are very slim to even start thinking about having kids. What they essentially do is make themselves barren by an abuse of birth control. That is wrong. And it is a violation of the first commandment of the Bible.

So let me say just a couple things. If you’re sexually active and you’re not married, you need to stop and repent and you need to get married. You need to repent because that’s against God’s design and it’s sin. And you need to get married because it’s not bad that you have sexual desire. God made you that way. It’s a good thing to have a strong libido. Every time you feel it that is God telling you to get a spouse and make some babies. I’m serious.

The other thing I want to say is to you couples who are married but don’t have kids. First, if you’re trying or have been and you’ve been having trouble…I know that has got to be extremely difficult and painful. The emotions involved are complex and not easy. Know this though, you are not alone. Several people throughout history have gone through what you’re going through and the Bible has stories of couples who were barren but God ministered to them and gave them children…not only do we have Elizabeth Zechariah, but also Hannah and Peninnah and Abraham and Sarah. Read their stories and find comfort and hope.

The second thing is to you couples who are married but not having kids. Be careful of the reasons you may be putting it off. Be careful of idolizing you’re marriage, where you just want it to be you and your spouse because you love it just being you two so much. That’s idolatry.

Also, be careful of thinking you can plan everything out just right. You will never be ready to have children if that’s what you’re waiting for, you learn in the process. You just get pregnant and God gives you nine months to force you to get ready and then you’re still not ready. It’s a great plan. Just trust God and do it. If you’re thinking of getting a dog or getting pregnant, forget the dog have a baby. Human babies are the kind of animals God designed you to parent.

All right. Enough of that. If you have kids, have had them or are having them. Good job. Keep up the good work. Christmas is a great time for baby-making.

Okay, back to the story. So Elizabeth has her baby and it comes time to name the baby. Zechariah has been mute for 9-10 months. Unable to speak. So he’s had a lot of time to mull over the angel’s words to him.

The angel said three main things. One, Zechariah’s wife Elizabeth would have a baby. Two, Zechariah was to name him John. Three, John would play a special role in the history of God’s intervention in the world to bring salvation…he would turn hearts back to God from disobedience and prepare the way for the Lord to come into the world.

The times comes for Zechariah to name the baby. His friends and family are urging him to name the baby after himself…which is usually done as a reminder of a child’s dad being a great man. And Zechariah was a great man. He was a priest. He saw an angel. And he his wife got pregnant when she was old. A genuine miracle.

But something changed in Zechariah’s heart during those 9 months. The text doesn’t say it straight out, though we get a feel for it in his song. But whatever had caused his initial unbelief and resistance to God and his work in his life had been broken. Repentance had taken place and Zechariah followed through with obedience and trust in the words of God from the angel and did as he was instructed, naming the baby John.

And immediately his mouth is opened and he follows through in faith and obedience he is able to speak and verse 64 says he begins “blessing God” right away. And then word spreads. Anticipation begins to build. Check out verse 65-66, “And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, ‘What then will this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him.”

Advent. God sets up his arrival. Building anticipation. Making a big deal about it. It’s exactly what you would expect if God were to in fact come into the world.

Zechariah here naming his baby John is perhaps the greatest act of spiritual leadership in his entire life. More than all the privileges of teaching the Bible, praying for and counseling people, even more than getting to go into the Holy Place and offering incense. It’s great because in this act Zechariah both demonstrates his faith in the promise of God AND he passes the faith to his son.

When Zechariah names John John, he seals his destiny. When Zechariah named John John he determined to raise John up teaching him about his special calling in life to prepare the way for Jesus. The very end of the chapter actually even indicated that Zechariah may have even moved and taken his family away out of the city into the wilderness in order to prepare John to be John.

For fathers here today and future fathers let me tell you this. The greatest thing you can ever do for your family is to pass on the faith to your children. The greatest thing you can ever do for your family is to teach them to trust the Word of God and to look to the savior Jesus.

It’s interesting. Especially reading his prophecy that we’ll look at in a moment. But I think we see the same attitude here in Zechariah that we see later in his son John the Baptist…who said, Jesus must increase I must decrease (Jn 3:30). Zechariah was humble and was okay with his son just having a small part.

Sometimes there is so much pressure on us in our culture to be a success. To make a lot of money. To be able to buy a lot of things. To be esteemed, powerful, and influential. None of that matters. What matters most is following the Lord and having whatever part we can in preparing the way for him.

It’s why I titled my sermon, “The Preparer of the Preparer of Jesus.” Zechariah as old and he would spend the final years of his life preparing his son to be the preparer for Jesus.

All of us, whether or not we’re fathers need to be like Zechariah. We need to be repentful when we are wrong and sinful and lack faith and trust in God. And we all need to do everything we can to pass on the faith to your family.

I got one of the coolest calls this week. It was from the dad of one of our college students who is a part of our church. He called me because he wanted to tell me that one of his main goals to impart to his son during his college years was the importance of being a part of a church…even when he wasn’t there to make it happen. So he called me to ask me to do everything I can to make sure his son was in church.

I like that. That’s a good example of a good dad. The greatest thing we can give to our families is our faith in God who sends the savior for our sins.

III. Zechariah’s Filling of the Holy Spirit (v.67-80)
The Prophet Who Points Everyone to Jesus

In our last point for today we look Zechariah’s filling of the Holy Spirit in verses 67-80. In these verses God gives Zechariah a prophecy to be recorded for all time. Some think maybe it was a song…we’re not sure exactly when Zechariah said it or wrote it down. But it is not only beautiful in its arrangement but is superb in it’s depth and presentation of the gospel.

There are two main parts to the prophecy. The first part looks backward to past prophesies of a messiah who would come and the second part looks forward to the role that his son John will play in preparing the way for the Messiah.

Let’s just look a couple things from each part.

First looking at the past prophesies.

In verse 68, the Messiah who was to come was to redeem his people. Redemption is a buying back. We are God because he made us…but we have all turned and run away and not worshipped and served him as we ought. So the messiah would do something to buy back God’s people so that they would belong to him once again. Jesus is the Messiah who pays the price of death on a cross in our place so that we might be close to and belong to God.

We need redemption. To be bought back by Jesus.

In verse 69, the Messiah is to be a horn of salvation. A horn is the symbol of strength. Horned animals were strong. The Messiah would save by his great strength. It would take great strength by Jesus to mocked, misunderstood, and mistreated and go all the way to a cross to die for a people who had all abandoned and turned away from you.

We are not strong enough to save ourselves. We need Jesus to save us.

In verse 72, the Messiah comes to show mercy as a fulfillment of God’s covenant promise to save. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. We don’t deserve to be in God’s family but Jesus makes a transaction for us on the cross to receive it and be brought in and adopted into the family.

We don’t need or want what’s fair…that means hell for us. We need mercy from Jesus.

In verse 74-75, the Messiah frees us to serve God in righteousness and holiness. When the power of sin is broken in our lives we then live out of love for Jesus and God’s righteousness and holiness begins to be naturally fulfilled in our lives.

We need to be freed to enjoy loving and serving God.

Now looking at the role of John. After knowing the life and ministry of John the Baptist it’s amazing looking at what his dad wrote long before he did any of the things he did.

In verse 76, John is a prophet of the Most High. When Jesus came to be baptized by John, John saw him coming to where he was and he looked at most likely pointed at Jesus and called out, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (Jn 1:29).”

The message of John is that we need Jesus to take away our sin.

In verse 76, John will go before the Lord to prepare his ways. When John was ministering to the people calling them to repentance he said these words, “He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry (Mt 3:11).”

The message of John is that everything is not about us, it’s about Jesus.

In verse 77, John will give knowledge of salvation about the forgiveness of sins. John didn’t mess around and call sins mistakes, he called them sins and said they need to be repented of and could be forgiven. In so doing, he churned up a lot of hard soil on hearts so that people would be prepared to receive Jesus, the one who would say, “your sins are forgiven (Lk 5:20; 7:48).”

The message of John is that we need salvation, we need our sin to be forgiven, wiped away and made clean by Jesus.

And lastly in verse 79, John would bring the light which will guide people into the way of peace. John the disciple of Jesus said this about John the Baptist, “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world (Jn 1:6-9).”

The message of John is that Jesus is the light who calls us out of darkness and into him and gives us peace.

An amazing prophesy. The interesting thing about Zechariah’s prophecy is that it is really all about Jesus. Even the parts that are about his son John are really, all about Jesus. Jesus coming into the world, next to the cross and the resurrection is the single greatest event in all of history. In fact, the three events really all go together as one. Incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection. Each event is meaningless without the other parts.

Here is the point to take away from Zechariah’s prophecy. Every good and true prophecy points to Jesus. A true prophet, a true teacher, a true pastor…will be all about Jesus. Looking to him. Loving him. Trusting him. Everything is about Jesus.

The greatest thing we can ever do for anyone is to point them to Jesus. And Zechariah is a great example of that. He left a godly legacy, written down for all time, which does just that.

Conclusion

Well let’s wrap up this first Advent sermon for this year. It’s a good sort of preparatory story for the Christmas season because we’re not quite fully into it yet.

We’ve looked at the life of Zechariah…the first person God ever announced his coming in the world to. In many ways his story is the story of every follower of Jesus.

We’re a people who have fallen from righteousness but God has been gracious and given us the promise of Jesus…the man who never fell and yet gave up his life for me in my place so I might be saved and transformed. Once we really and truly believe that, repent and put faith into that promise like Zechariah, then God fills us with his Spirit and enables us to then start pointing people to Jesus.

That’s our story. I’m a sinner who has fallen and Jesus has saved me and I pray that everything I say and do in my life will point you to him.

So as we go to the table today to receive Jesus body and blood in bread and wine…let’s remember both the special-ness of all that God went through to set up his coming into the world…and let’s remember the good news of the gospel. That we too like Zechariah have fallen but God has had grace on us and given us Jesus whom we confess and put our faith in.

Let’s pray.

  Listen         

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December 21st, 2008
Pastor Duane M. Smets
Advent 2008
Peace – The Angels Candle
“King Jesus: the God-man is Born”
Luke 1:26-38

I. A Story
II. The Name Jesus
III. The Son of God
IV. The Everlasting King

Merry Christmas. For some the bells are ringing, the cash is flowing, the celebrations are under way, cookies are being baked and loved ones are found all together. For others there is no music in their ears, there is no money, it is a dark and hard time and loved ones are nowhere to be found. All cultures in all places across the world have their traditions and we have ours for sure. But what often gets masked beneath the layers of the unavoidable festivity is the greatness of the story of Christ being born.

And it doesn’t matter if you are a christian or not, whether you are fan of the story and it is familiar to you or whether it is a faint echo you hear in the songs being played at the stores while you shop. For those who know it well and have celebrated many christmases as followers of Christ there is a numbness to it all that can come. Santa, good meals and treats, presents, and playing in the snow (well, not in san diego) all sounds a lot funner than thinking about some middle eastern Jewish people who dressed in robes and didn’t have ipods. and on top of it, it’s something that supposedly happened about two-thousand years ago. I feel that. I can feel the detachment to this story.

God help us. It is my goal today to hopefully ignite or rekindle a passionate love and adoration for the birth of the Son of God this morning…that we might burn with amazement and wonder and deep affection for the supreme God who sent his Son into the world.

This is the fourth and final week of advent. Advent is the month of the year that Christians throughout the centuries have celebrated the coming of Jesus Christ into the world. The first week focused on the hope of Christ, the second on the humility of Christ, last week on the joy of Christ, and this week on the peace of Jesus. The passage we are going to look at today is found in Luke 1:26-38 (Read text and pray).

In preparing for this sermon during this last week in studying this text and taking some culture notes about opinions of the nativity I realized very quickly that the main issue that comes up, that is challenged or questioned whenever there is real discussion about the nativity story is whether or not the baby Jesus was really God in the flesh. Sure people argue about whether Mary was a virgin, whether there were really angels, whether or not this even happened, or if the story we have is just an explanation of Mary or a conjecture of Jesus’ disciples that was made up for one reason or another. But the thing that isn’t really even on most radar, the thing that is most quickly dismissed as absurd and preposterous is that the baby Jesus was God in the flesh. This is simply just unacceptable to most modern or postmodern minds.

A couple years ago 20/20 did a special called “The Real Nativity Story: Separating Fact from Fiction” where the main tone of the show is that very little of the story from the Bible is really true and that those who believe the Biblical story have an extremely distorted and extended view of what really happened. So I considered responding to and addressing these questions since we are dealing with one of the primary texts today which form the story of Jesus’ birth for us.

But…when I was thinking about doing that it didn’t seem very Christmassy. I realized that setting up the theological arguments and textual debates and going through all of that to prove to you that the gospel records are reliable and that there is good solid reason to believe that what Bible says happened happened is really true and that the baby Jesus was really God…I realized that didn’t feel right for Christmas Sunday, does it?

What I want to primarily do today instead is do my best to get us inside of the story so we can see it afresh and then hopefully feel the weight and significance of the birth of Jesus.

A Story

So I want to start out by telling you a story. Most of you know that besides pastoring this church I also work at a group home for teenagers. The kids are from 13-17, up to 28 of them live there at a time, and they have all been placed there by law enforcement.

Last week a new girl and her boyfriend came to live with us. Jeremy and Melissa. Normally, we would never accept a boyfriend and girlfriend together but this is a weird situation. Jeremy is 17, Melissa is 15 and it is ridiculous but they are talking about wanting to get married and they are serious about it and are trying to get emancipated so they can do it.

They both come from poor families like all the kids who come to live with us. I helped check Jeremy in and he had all of his possessions in a backpack and one of those blue Rubbermaid bins. So they are both living there now. But the situation has gotten more complicated.

They are both nice kids. Jeremy is super into cars. In his Rubbermaid bin he had a bunch of hotrod magazines. I guess his dad is a mechanic and that what he wants to be one too. Melissa is a pretty quiet girl. I don’t know her as well because I work on the guy’s side. But in her room she has a few pictures of her with her color guard team and a poster of Chris Brown on the wall.

So last week a couple of days after they got to New Alternatives where I work, we found out that Melissa is pregnant. And if the situation wasn’t weird enough already, Melissa, who seems like this very honest and well-behaved girl, swears that she has never had sex…neither with Jeremy or any other boy.

When the social workers and female staff have questioned her about it she has this wild story that an angel came to her in her room four nights ago and said that she was going to be pregnant and told her what to name the baby and said that when her baby grew up that he was going to be great, that he would be the Son of God and that he would become the president and that his term would never end, he would bring peace and he would never die.

Obviously, all of us are like yeah right, you’re crazy. But Melissa swears its true. She says that she told the angel she had trouble with it at first too and when she asked the angel how such a thing could really be the angel told her that in some supernatural way that God’s spirit would come over her and by his power he would cause her to be pregnant and that the child to be born would then be the holy one of God.

That’s my story. Yes, I made it up. J I made up that story because I think the time and historical and cultural difference between us and what happened in the birth of Jesus, causes us to fail to see the greatness of what happened when God came into the world. This story shows how great the God is that we believe in. If there really is a God and if God is really worth worshipping and living our lives for then this is the kind of God he would be…a God who doesn’t come into the world in all his pomp saying look at me look at me but comes in the most stark of circumstances to show why he is worthy of worship and can really bring about peace.

He comes to a poor, meek little girl, and reveals his glory. It would have been so easy for God to come into the world in a way where there would be no question about whether or not he was God and all the world would not be the least bit skeptical about it but rather than that he creates what looks like a scandal and reveals his glory in the middle of it. All throughout the Bible God does this…he shows up to a nobody named Abraham and reveals his glory in the hiddenness of a burning bush, he shows up to another nobody named Moses and reveals his glory in plagues so that the Jews get kicked out of Egypt, he shows up to the smallest boy, a lowly shepherd of a family who had seven other older, more capable boys, and makes that boy a king named David. Yes, God is a God who loves to show he is God in unique ways that reflect all the goodness of his perfect character.

The Name Jesus

Okay I want to look at some things in our text for today that really point to the greatness of who Jesus in some of the angel’s words to Mary about the name of Jesus. The nativity story is a great story even in just the purely human side of things…the way a poor or down and out couple find hope and happiness in the midst of a difficult situation. But if we look at it only through those lens we will miss the intent and signficance of the story itself…because it is meant to go way beyond just the difficult situation of one poor couple.

We’ve got three main characters in the story here: Joseph, Mary, and the angel. We already talked about Joseph two weeks ago, and I’ll say a few small things about Mary here, but what I want to mainly focus on today is the words of the angel.

Now there is a danger in making the story more about Mary than Jesus. And this is something churches, particularly the Catholic church has struggled with through the ages. It is not that Mary is unimportant. She really becomes the first Christian. She is there at Jesus first miracle, she’s there at the cross, she’s one of the first to see Jesus after he rises from the dead. Her other son James becomes the pastor of the first megachurch in Jerusalem. Mary is quite amazing, her words in the story are quite interesting…maybe we’ll take some time focusing on them next year. But for this year, notice Mary is an important part of the story only in so far as Jesus is important in it. Mary’s importance is completely depedant on the importance of Jesus.

So let’s check it out. Mary’s a virgin. She’s betrothed or engaged to Joseph when she was probably between the ages of 12-14. And an angel comes to her. This angel’s name is Gabriel. He’s only one of two angels in the Bible where we are told their names. Gabriel’s particular job and role as an angel appears to be that he is a special messenger of God to communicate on his behalf and tells us what God plans and what humans should do.

Now if you don’t believe in angels that’s okay, I’m not going to force that issue today. As Christians we believe angels are real beings because the Bible tells us about them and we believe the Bible is true. As a support it seems very evident that we live in not just a purely physical world but a spiritual one.

If there is in fact a God then it would seem that he would have something like angels for specific tasks, especially big things like him becoming a man and entering our world. So le’t look at some of the angel’s words to Mary.

First off in verse 28 Gabriel introduces himself with a greeting and calls Mary “favored one.” Which doesn’t mean she did something or earned favor with God but that God chose her out of all of human history to be the mother of God which is a huge huge privilege…she is a favored, the recipient of a monumental blessing. Mary is scared at the sight of the angel at first.

Our text here doesn’t say what the angel looked like. When they choose to make themselves visible throughout Scripture what we seem to see is that there are all different kinds of angels…there is quite a bit of variance in their appearances. In Ezekial 1 there are angels who look like a lion, others that look like an ox, others that look like an eagle and some that look like humans. In Isaiah 6 it appears that some angels have six wings. In Genesis 3, we see that some carry a sword which continually aflame. In Acts 12 they break into a jail and there is a great light about them. And in Revelation we see that several angels carry and play the trumpet. It’s very intresting. There are nearly 300 references in the Bible to angels.

So we’re not quite sure what Gabriel looks like, whatever he looks like either his presence or apperance, probably both, frightens Mary as angels do to most people. After he calms her down he says this in verse 31, “…behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus.”

Why the name Jesus? In Bible times, what a person’s name meant was hugely important, that is how you determined what a child’s name would be. You always knew what your name meant. I think my name, Duane, means song. That doesn’t really have a whole lot to do with who I am…I can’t sing at all. That’s why I like it when Mikey plays loud, so no one can hear my voice when I sing. J

But in Bible times what your name meant was huge. The name Jesus in Greek it is Ihsus (ee-ay-soos) and in Hebrew it is Yeshua (yay-shew-ah) and it means, “the LORD is salvation” or “the LORD saves.” It is a name specifically associated with the salvation of God. Mary was to name her baby “Jesus” because of who he was and what he came to do. To save.

This is the God came into the world and he came to save…Jesus, the savior. Saving is like a swooping down and coming to the rescue. It is an incarnation where God enters our world. That isn’t easy, ever. I mean set aside the whole God-man thing for a minute. Just think about the difficulty of entering a new town or a new job. I was talking to my neighbor the other day and he just started a new job working for the city in the water department. He was saying that the most difficult part of the job is the people he works with…because nobody really wants to talk to him and those that do, just want to tell him how long they’ve been there and how important their individual job is. It is difficult to enter a new community of people. It’s difficult to really plug in to a church and get to know people and start living life with them. That can be hard. Entering into another’s world. That is what God does for us in Jesus, he enters in…to save.

In the account according to the disciple Matthew, we read that an angel appears to Mary’s fiancé Joseph as well and the angel says this to him, “you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins (Mt 1:21).” So from the start, we learn that Jesus came into the world to solve the spiritual problem that we have as human beings, sin. Our problem is God. We are estranged from him.

Everyone is estranged. I had a friend who showed up on my doorstep the other night who I haven’t seen in years. He just up and left his job at the Washington Post in DC and rode his motorcycle across country and decided to stop in San Diego and see me on his way down to South America. When I asked him why, he was very serious, he said he felt estranged and needed to go find and figure out some things.

He doesn’t believe there really is a God but God is the very thing he longs for. I think we are all estranged. We all sense lonliness and detachment and separation from the love and joy and peace we know we are made for. That’s probably why the Christmas season can be so difficult for some. Even for those of us as Christians when we have times when we realize the truth of who he is… we so easily resort back into living our lives as though he doesn’t. We are made to be happy in God and we are not because we have an internal spiritual problem…sin and Jesus came to save us from it and its consequences by being born and by dying on a cross and rising again.

J.I. Packer says in his book knowing God says this, “the crucial significance of the cradle at Bethlehem lies in its place in the sequence of steps that led the Son of God to the cross of Calvary…” The wonder of God becoming man and being born as a baby is that he was born to die for us in order to save us. He saves us from the power of sin so that we may begin to taste true satisfaction in God and he saves us from the consequence of sin so that we will not suffer eternal death but rather eternal joy forever and ever with God because he died that death for us in our place.

That is what takes my breath away…that God, who has no need of anything, became a baby and from the moment he was conceived in the womb of Mary…every bit of food, every sip of drink, every thought, every conversation, every act of his life growing up, every single thing he experienced was all purposely part of his mission to go to the cross and die.

Think of that. How much Jesus loves us that for 33 years every single thing he did, all the while knowing he was God, but in everything he did we were present in his mind as the reason for doing what he was doing. That is incredible. Jesus, the LORD saves!

The Son of God

We’ll lets move on and look at the next verse in Luke in what the angel Gabriel says about this baby as the son of God. Verse 32, “he will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.” This is where some interject and they say, “See it just says ‘son’ it doesn’t say that Jesus was very God himself.” But listen to how the angel clarifies himself to Mary in verse 35, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to born will be called holy – the Son of God.”

The description is very clear. The Holy Spirit will come upon you. So this work will be a work of God. What kind of work? One where a unique use of God’s power will occur and the result will be that the child will be the holy Son of God. Holy means separate, different, divine…the divine Son of God.

The phrase “son of God” has a few different uses in the Bible. Sometimes it is used as references to mankind in general in that we are created by God…sons of God. Culturally, sometimes rulers were called the “son of God.” But when referring to Jesus the term has a special designation in the Bible as being the heavenly eternal Son who is equal to God himself.

“Son of God” was a title Jesus allowed himself to be called by. It was one of the things that made the Jewish leaders really mad because they understood that he was claiming to be God. The story of the birth of Jesus in the gospel of John is quite different. Here is what John how how John describes the birth of the Son of God. John 1:1,14,17 “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Jesus Christ.”

Then a few chapters later Jesus exercises his authority on the Sabbath as the Son of God and this is what John 5:18 says about it. “This is why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”

But what does it mean to say that Jesus was the “son of God”? Does it mean that first there was God before there was Jesus? But then God procreated, making a son so that now there are two gods? That is what some have suggested. But is that really what is going on here? Is this story about Mary, and all the references to Jesus being the Son of God really just another story like Zeus and Ganymade or Poseidon and Caeneus…the Greek gods who would come down to earth and have sex with humans resulting in another god? Is that what the Bible is doing with the Christmas story.

I don’t think so. I think that is obvious when you read it, especially if you read the Greek gods birth narratives. I mean, the angel’s in his words to Mary is very careful, choosing specific words to clearly say that Mary gets pregnant by God’s supernatural power and not by God having sex with her. Gabriel goes out of his way to say that this is something different in regards to Jesus being the Son of God, he is fully divine and yet will at the same time be fully human.

The phrase “son of God” is a use of human terminology, a metaphor, to describe what in some ways Jesus is like…it is a reference to Jesus’ divine role. In the Bible Jesus is eternally the Son of God, long before the angel came to Mary…when that happened is just the point in history when Jesus permanently took on human flesh.

You see, there were times long before Mary became pregnant when Jesus showed up. The name “Israel” was given to Jacob, the son of Abraham, after the Bible describes him wrestling with God who was in the form of a man. There are other references to Jesus showing up in the Old Testament…we call them Christophanies. But listen to just one more passage that makes it clear, Hebrews chapter one, “…(God) has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by his powerful word (Heb 1:2-3).” God created through Jesus.

Now that is a little mind stretching I know…how Jesus could be a God-man but then become a baby. It hurts my head. I just want us to try and get our heads around how huge this is. This angel comes to Mary and says that the eternal son of God, the one who made the universe, God of God himself, is going to come into the world and be born as a baby in her stomach. This is nearly insane. It is no wonder Luke says in verse 29, “But she was greatly troubled at the saying.” and then asks, “How can this be?”

Then the angel replies with some good solid logic and philosophy. I mean it. One of the most frustrating things about those news pieces is that they like to pit these issues as issues of reason versus feeling. Where if you believe these things then that is just wishful religious and spiritual feeling that if you listened to reason you would simply not accept. But the angel here gives some good sound reasoning when he answers Mary and explains how she will give birth to the Son of God. Listen again to his words; verse 37 “nothing will be impossible with God.” That is good reasoning. If there is a God, then there is a being who is all-powerful…not limited by the constraints of time, space, gravity, and matter…he made it all and upholds it all by the power of his word and he can change it at any moment if he chooses because he is God…there is nothing too impossible for him to do! That is good logic. Sound philosophy. I love it.

There is no question that what the angel was telling Mary was that she would give birth to the God-man himself. There is a lot more that could be said about this. Questions of how to rightly conceive of Jesus being a God-man and how it played out in his life. But we are going to move to on this morning. There some good stuff on our website about it we’ll be offering Theology 101 again in February and we talk about it a little in that class, so take it then if you haven’t.

The Everlasting King

The last thing I want to point out in our text today is in verse 32 and 33 where the angel says, “And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” So far we have learned that this baby will be our savior, that he is God himself, and now we learn that he is an everlasting king. In Isaiah 9:6, he prophesied about the birth of Jeus and said, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Jesus is the prince. In the angel’s words to Mary he says that Jesus will sit on “the throne of David.” David was the first real king of Israel, the Jewish people. He solidified the kingdom. Defeated all Israel’s enemies so there was peace. And spiritual and material prosperity began to flow through the nation, which continued in even greater proportion during the reign of David’s son Solomon. But from David on, he gets permanently branded as being the royal father of the Jews. So it is clearly said here that Jesus will be a king…in the line of David, like David, on the throne of David.

Later in Luke’s gospel (Luke 23) just moments before Jesus was crucified, the Jewish leaders bring him before Pilate and say, “we found this man misleading our nation…and saying that He himself is Christ, a King.” And so Pilate asks him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” And Jesus says, “It is as you say.” Jesus the king. The king who was born to die for his people.

And the angel tells us a little more…not only will he be the king but also he will be the king forever. Do you see that? It’s verse 33 of our passage today, ”He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end.” No end. Neither in time nor in breadth. That is why Jesus is the king for all people and for all time. There is no end to his reign. No need for any other kings or rulers after him.

So what kind of king is Jesus? At this point we could easily just spiritualize his kingship and say he is simply a spiritual king and his reign is in our hearts. And that is true. Jesus came to save us from our sins. Our allegiance from birth as humans is to wickedness and Jesus comes to deliver us from that and begins to extend his reign and rule so that we start to truly love righteousness and hate wickedness.

But there is more. Jesus taught that there were two comings. The time when he came in a manger, to humble himself and to deal with our spiritual problem…and the time when he would come again in all his power and glory, gather his people, and demonstrate to all that HE is king over all.

Here’s what Jesus said himself in Matthew 24, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come…(as) lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be…And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky…and (all) will see the son of man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory…And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other (Mt 24:14,27,30-31).”

What a day that will be. There will be no question on that day who is king. Jesus is the everlasting king. He is the king of heaven, the king of our hearts, and will come and show himself to be the king of the earth.

Jesus our king. I think this is difficult for us here in America because of the idea of a monarchy itself. Here in America we live in a democracy with a president and a senate and House of Representatives and this whole governmental structure that is completely different than a society that is ruled by a king. We have a whole system set up which intended not to give any one person too much power because we’ve seen that power corrupts…so the American system is an attempt to provide checks and balances and leave the power with the people.

But it still doesn’t work. There is still not peace and there still is a lot of corruption and inequality huh? That is because people are weak and sinful and no matter how you structure them living together there is going to be difficulty and a lack of peace. Our only hope is that we have God as our king. The perfect ruler who will never fail us. One who has absolute power but is not and cannot be corrupt. One who genuinely will care for his people accomplish peace in their hearts. That is what we need. We need Jesus to rule. When God is king that is called a theocracy. And that is what God has intended all along…he has just been patient with humanity in demonstrating that to us.

This is what the angel Gabriel knew and was communicating to Mary. The angel knew the problem with humanity was bigger than just some countries not getting along. He knew that things couldn’t be fixed with a peace treaty between political leaders because sin can’t be dealt with by a treaty. He knew that social justice and activism alone would not be enough absolve or make up for our internal problem. He knew that religious tolerance and just mixing all beliefs together couldn’t solve anything but only confuse things. He knew we needed a savior, the Son of God as King to bring about peace. Gabriel knew the world needed Jesus and you can almost sense his excitement at God’s activity when he’s telling Mary about it.
Gabriel was telling Mary who that little baby Jesus was…he was God, come into the world to live and to die in order to go to the root of all war and violence, the human heart. Gabriel knew the little baby Jesus tightly bound in that swaddling cloths would later be bound to a cross to die for the sin and wickedness of our hearts…so that peace might reign in this world forever.
This is the gospel my friends, peace in Jesus. If we put our faith in Jesus as our savior we will have peace. We need to accept his love and forgiveness for our lack of peace….a lack of peace for not being satisified in God alone. A lack of peace in seeking the praise of other people. A lack of peace for lashing out against others. Every area of our lives that fights for our attention and attempts to tells us it can save us and give us peace. It can’t. It can only come through a God-man king who came into our world to save us.
Peace is in Jesus. Only Jesus can give peace because he paid the price for our peace, he took his life to the cross to put an end to the war. Colossians 1:14-15 says Jesus took our trespasses and nailed them to the cross, disarming the rulers and principalities, putting them to shame and triumphing over them. Jesus died for sin and its consequence of hell and because of that we can have peace.
That’s the real war. The real war which every war flows out of is the war for our souls. The inner turmoil between us and God. Our lack of peace is not just because there is bad energy against us. It’s not that we don’t have good feng shui and just need to rearrange our furiture. It’s not that we just need to work off some bad karma.

Our lack of peace, is peace with God and the only answer is to turn to Jesus Christ. In him we can live a life of peace. In him we can follow God and love him and love our friends and family and the people we work with. In him a stop can be put to the things which turn our motives away from God. In him salvation is found, a salvation from ourselves and a salvation forevermore…a peace that one day will never end.

Conclusion

King Jesus, Son of God, and savior. It’s Christmas Sunday. The Sunday before the day when we celebrate the birthday of the king of the universe. In every sermon I try to give us some application…and as I took all of this in it seems that what we are left with is thanks. Knowing what we know…what this story tells us about Jesus…my heart is overwhelmed with thanks to God for sending Jesus into the world. Miracle of miracles. Christ the savior is born.

Let’s just worship and adore our God today. My hope is that something from this morning’s sermon would take a seat deep inside you and just sit there and that we would go home to our friends and families or wherever we go and have a deep sense of thanks and joy for Jesus. My hope is that when life gets tough we would remember that we have a God who stepped into the roughness of life to give us peace. My hope is that when we sense the wrestleness and challenges that we would run to the peace of Jesus and not into any other arms. My hope is that we would simply rest in the peace of Jesus as we spend time loving each other and our famiy this week.

As we come to the table this morning, Let’s have especially have a heart of thanks to God for being born to die. He became a baby, flesh and blood, bread and wine, in order to die for us.

Let’s worship our king. Spread the news of how great his kingdom is. And let’s give our lives for it…from our time, to our gifts, to our money. Let’s give ourselves to the king and do everything we can to support and spread his kingdom.

Let’s pray.

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December 14th, 2008
Pastor Duane M. Smets

Advent 2008
Joy – The Shepherds Candle
“Good News of Great Joy”
Luke 2:8-20

I. The Background of our Joy
A. Shepherdness vs.8
B. Fearfulness vs.9-10a
II. The Foundation for our Joy
A. Good News for All vs.10
B. A Savior who is Christ the Lord vs.11-12
III. Heaven Expresses Joy vs.13-14
IV. Earth Expresses Joy vs.15-20

Introduction

Good morning. Today is our third Sunday in this month of December celebrating the advent of our Lord. Advent means coming or appearing and refers to this season when we pay particular attention to that pinnacle time in all of history when God came to mankind in the person of Jesus in order to save us.

There are four weeks of advent that the church as a whole throughout the ages has celebrated, The first focuses on Jesus as our hope, the second on Jesus as our humility, the third on Jesus as our joy, and the forth on Jesus as our peace. This is the third week, so we have three of the four candles lit today and the title of my message is “Good News of Great Joy” and we are going to study The Gospel of Luke chapter 2, verses 8-20.

Joy, like a lot of “Christian” words is another one of those somewhat slippery words. Sometimes it seems to me that in being a Christian you sort of adopt all this special vocabulary that doesn’t really make sense to anyone else outside of the “Christian Circle.” Now I don’t think that means we shouldn’t use them…I just think we just need to explain better, spend more time with people, asking them questions, and then explaining what we actually mean…it’s simply being a little more culturally sensitive with the people we talk to.

So I hope today to try and answer some of our questions about the joy we Christians speak of. What is it? What is joy? Is it happiness, gleeful laughter, smiles and fun and games? Or is it serenity, assurance, satisfaction and a calm and collected grin? What about a tear of joy? Is it pleasure and what has it to do with desire? What does it mean to be joyful? How do you rejoice? what is mean for Jesus to be our joy and that the gospel is good news of great joy? What is joy? Is it a temporary feeling of elation or is it a deep rooted unchanging thing? What is joy?

We may not answer all of those questions but i want to try. So let’s read Luke 8-20 and pray.

God, owner of the universe, determiner of all things who alone has all power and all knowledge, When the fullness of time came you sent your Son into the world you made. When reading this story there is a sense of extreme significance for all of history before that moment and all of history afterward hangs on the climax of its significance. I ask you today my God that you would awe your people. As you appeared to those shepherds long ago and displayed your glory would you shine your light into our hearts that we might see the glory of the savior and be filled with great joy. Teach us about joy from your Word. May my mouth as the preacher be one that magnifies the greatness of your Word and praises Jesus for the joy he brings. Amen.

I. The Background of our Joy
A. Shepherdness vs.8

We come to this story and the first thing we encounter are some shepherds. I suppose there are still shepherds around today because I think a lot of clothes are still made from the wool taken off sheep. I’ve never seen or met a shepherd, but I do know some things about them because shepherds are kind of a big deal in the Bible and I’ve studied the Bible a lot.

We read first that these shepherds were “in the same region.” That is reference back to the few verses before that talked about Joseph and Mary, the human parents of Jesus, going to the city of Bethlehem right before Jesus is born. We talked about this small little village last week. Now Bethlehem in the region of Judea…the shepherds were in that region, so they were likely somewhere between 5-20 miles away, maybe a little closer, maybe farther…but it seem they still had to make somewhat of a journey to get to Bethlehem even though they were close.

Now the text says these shepherds were “out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.” This is an interesting and perhaps very telling detail because shepherds usually only lived outside during the warmer months of the middle east, like March through about November at the latest.

This is one reason why many believe that Jesus was probably born during the summer sometime. it is funny to me how much debate there is over the time of Jesus birth, there are actually different arguments for every single month of the year.

It seems like the date we have now, December 25th, was set by during the reign of Constantine’s in the early fourth century after he, as the ruler of the whole roman empire became a Christian. He wanted to purify and unify their holidays and so it seems that the pagan holiday “Sol Invictus” which was a festival to the birthday of the “invincible sun” was exchanged and made into celebration of the time when Jesus Christ was born. I actually kind of like that idea…of taking something from culture and redeeming it’s gospel value and turning it into something good.

Okay, so some stuff about shepherds and what that has to do with the gospel of joy. To be a shepherd was a lowly job. Nobody ever really wanted to be a shepherd. They were peasants at the bottom scale of society, considered ceremonially unclean to participate in a lot of the Jewish rituals and they were considered unreliable and therefore not allowed to testify in court. Being a shepherd would kind of been like being one of the guys at McDonald’s who makes hamburgers or clean toilets. It’s just a crappy job that nobody wants.

And God chooses shepherds to be among the few groups of people who he announces the birth of Jesus. The glory of God shows up after nothing significant has happened for at least 400 years. It seems as though God is dead and gone and all those miracles of the past perhaps didn’t ever really happen. And God finally shows up and the recipients of this divine visitation amidst the darkness of the night…are shepherds. poor, pathetic, dirty, outcasts. Shepherds.

God had at his command many reliable witnesses to choose from, many honorable and trustworthy people he could have had his angels appear to, like a king or something. But he chooses shepherds. Why? One, because this gospel, this Jesus would be for all people, no matter what race or class in society, no matter how much one had screwed up their life. This Jesus came into the world for the outcasts for those who feel different than everyone else, for those who feel empty and lost and alone and confused and hurting. For those who find themselves stuck time and time again in bad situations and bad decisions that leave them broken and seemingly beyond hope.

As long as this church exists there I pray it will be a place here in our community for the outcasts of society no matter whether you are gay, homeless, a racial minority, if you are handicapped or diseased, if you are a stripper, pothead, junkie, porn addict, or if you are rich and a cut-throat business man…there is room for you here to pursue God with us. There are no qualifications for you to enter our community and begin to live life with us in this city. We all have areas in our life we are working on, where we are helping each other change and we do not believe where we are currently at prohibits the grace of the gospel from being for us.

So that is the first reason why I think God chose to reveal himself to shepherds…to show that God reaches out to outcasts. The other reason I think is because of the uniqueness of the trade.

Shepherding, though a dirty task, is a unique one. The whole of their job description involved caring for sheep…leading them to places where there is food to eat and where there is water to drink. Protecting the sheep from other animal predators who may come in to kill them and eat them. From the time a little baby sheep was born most shepherds would name them and the shepherd could tell the difference between the sheep and all the time that little sheep was growing up he would call them by name and the sheep learned the shepherd’s voice to trust him and follow him.

These are endearing qualities. I don’t think it is just coincidence between this story and Jesus words when he grew up and began preaching and said “I am the good shepherd” who lays down his life for his sheep (Jn 10:11). Jesus’ birth is announced to shepherds because he would become the chief shepherd.

Shepherdness really becomes the foundation for joy. Think of joy. I don’t think anyone would ever say that they don’t want joy. Where does it begin? I think it has to start at the lack there of, or at the recognition that you want or need it…something better. There is the lack of joy when things are just ordinary, apathetic and plain. There is the lack of joy when you are sad or downcast or just feel lowly. There is some affection either resident or brought about where there is a contrast to joy, you don’t have it, and you need it and want it.

How is your joy today? Are you longing for it or residing in it? In this story it doesn’t matter whether we see ourselves as the sheep who needs a shepherd to lead them or whether we see ourselves as the shepherd outcast who needs someone to love them…the point is that the gospel begins at the point where we recognize that we have a need. That we need Jesus and that we always need him. That Jesus is where the only place where joy can really be found.

Jesus is the gospel and there is something very interesting here. Look at the verse 10 where the angel says, “I bring you good news of great joy.” The two words good news there is the one Greek word gospel and it is really interesting that here, the gospel gets defined as inherently being one of joy.

I. The Background of our Joy
B. Fearfulness vs.9-10a

Let’s look at how joy comes about in this story. Verse 9 says, “an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were filled with fear. And the angel said fear not, for I bring you good news.” So as we just saw, the first thing in the foundation of joy is shepherdness, now here we see that the next thing is fearfulness. We will talk about the angels and this amazing thing that happened in a minute but first notice the fear of the shepherds and how the angel does not condemn their fear.

The shepherds rightfully responded in fear at such a sight. John Calvin is so good here, he says this, “…it is profitable for the minds of men to be struck with awe that they may learn to “give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name…and so (to) fall down lifeless at the sight of God because he appears to them as…a judge. But to revive the minds of the shepherds, the angel declares that he was sent for a different purpose, to announce to them the mercy of God.”

Throughout the Bible whenever anything like this happens the immediate response from humans is fear. And I’m sure that an angel ever showed himself to me or any of you our response would be the same. Why? The reason is because at the sight of God’s power and truth, automatically our moral person kicks into high gear and when recognize or realize that God is true, and then shame at our doubt, recognition of our sins and guilt would fill our minds and we would recognize that we rightly and most probably are about to receive the consequent judgment from God for it.

In that moment I am sure that the shepherd’s response was not unlike the prophet Isaiah’s in the temple when he saw God seated upon his thrown with two angels flying about calling out holy holy holy is the Lord and Isaiah said, “woe is me, i am a man of unclean lips and i live among a people of unclean lips (Is. 6:5).” Woe is a death sentence. Isaiah thought he was about to die for his sin and I am sure the shepherds thought the same here.

So here is the second thing that prepares us for joy, fear. The first is recognizing that we have a need the second is recognizing how great our need is. It is a desperate need. An eternally desperate one upon which life and death hangs. I’m convinced that the more I realize my need for Jesus the more I will be able to see how good the good news really is and begin to discover this great great joy. We’ve talked about the background of joy…the things which prepare us for it. Now let’s look at the foundation of this joy, what it consists of.

II. The Foundation for our Joy
A. Good News for All vs.10

The first thing is what we talked about already, that the gospel is for all. That the good news is for all peoples. The angel announces that he is not here for judgment, there is a day the bible talks about when angels will come for the purpose of judgment and will rain the wrath of God upon the earth. But the time the angels come here in Luke is a joyous occasion because Jesus has come to make a way for all kinds of people to be welcomed into the family of God regardless of who they are or what they have done.

Verse 10 says this “good news of great joy will be for all the people.” The offer of the gospel goes out to all people and will save people from every kind of place and culture. I think that is what is meant by all. The angel wasn’t saying that everyone was going to be saved by this Jesus but that he would be for all peoples.

It is what Jesus said when he said, “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd (Jn 10:16).” It was good news because those who had not been considered part of the fold would now be welcomed in. the angel was announcing a shift from God’s particular working with the Jews to a time when all kinds and classes of people would be privileged, even shepherds and other outcasts.

II. The Foundation for our Joy
B. A Savior who is Christ the Lord vs.11-12

The next thing in the text and really the main thing that is the substance or foundation for our joy is Jesus himself. Verse 11 says, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

We will focus a little more intently next week on who peace Jesus brings as the king and messiah, so I’m not going to exhaust everything here but instead point out a few things in these verses that illuminate the greatness of Jesus.

There are four identifying marks concerning the person who is the reason for this joyous news from the angel. Two are Jewish references and two are Roman references. The two Jewish references are the city of David and this word “Christ.” David was Israel’s greatest king, a strong leader who really put Israel on the map for the first time, he was a man after God’s own heart, he started out as a shepherd, and Bethlehem was the city he lived in and it was prophesied over 700 years earlier that a messiah, who was to be greater than David, would come and shepherd the people (Micah 5).

The word “Christ” is not Jesus last name but a designation meaning messiah or anointed one. Orthodox Jews, the ones with the sweet beards and long curls in their hair…they are today still waiting and hoping for the messiah to come because they do not believe Jesus was the Christ since he did not bring military and political peace in his first coming.

The two Roman references are that this Jesus is to be a savior and a Lord. The common title for the emperor or the Caesar of Rome at the time of Jesus was “Lord.” And even more interesting is that we have an inscription from the same time period which calls Augustus, the emperor of the time, “savior” and it says “the birth date of our God has signaled the beginning of the good news for the world.” So calling Jesus savior and Lord was like making a claim to the imperial throne of Rome.

That is how the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day got the Romans to crucify him, by presenting Jesus to the Roman government as being a malcontent disrupting and challenging the peace and authority of Rome.

We could talk a lot about these four identifying marks but I don’t think the shepherds or Mary or any of Jesus disciples understood everything right away in how Jesus fit each of these titles and so I think I can get away with simply saying this. I think what Luke does, or rather what the angel does by what he says is that he identifies this Jesus person to be greatest person who will ever have lived. He assigns him names and titles that all put together crown him as the king of all kings and Lord of all lords.

One of the main names used for God in the Old Testament was LORD, so “Lord” was not a term significant to the Roman only. Lord was the primary way Jews addressed God, they called him “adonai” which means Lord. There is a lot more I could say about that but I’ll just say this today, at the very least Luke has already presented Jesus as the son of God, the son of the LORD most high…and as such Jesus is declared the Lord of the universe, the ruler of all rulers, and the king of all kings.

And despite the expanse of his reign he has come for his people and in the most humble and meanest of circumstances…in the form of man as a baby who spends his first nights sleeping in a dirty feeding trough made for horses and donkeys.

This is the scandal of the Christmas story. Not so much that Mary got pregnant and her fiancé wasn’t the father…but that God became man in Jesus in order to die for his people. The scandal is the humiliation of Jesus, the savior, the Lord, the Christ, the king of all laying aside the obvious marks of his deity in order to undergo the suffering and weakness of being a mistreated human from the time of his birth to the time of his death when he was very God of very God.

Next week we will talk more about Jesus being this God-man but at this point just stop and realize the staggering beauty of such a thing happening. It is a wonder of all wonders. All people have come from one man, Adam and from him we have all been corrupted. Now in Jesus comes one unlike any we have ever conceived. One who holds all the most perfect and admirable qualities. and not just that in some sort of detached philosophical way but one who is intimately and individually for each of us.

That is amazing. That is a joyful thing. the being of Jesus is the beginning and the end of our joy. All the world and all of our lives come together in worshipping him. And that is what how both the heavenly angels and the earthly shepherds respond to this announcement…in joyful worship.

III. Heaven Expresses Joy vs.13-14

Look at the angels’ response and see how heaven expresses joy, our third main point. Up to this place in the story there had only been one angel appearing and speaking and all of the sudden it says, a multitude of heavenly host appear. The word “host” could also be translated “armies.” Literally hundreds of thousands of angels filling the sky and making the night as bright as day. Perhaps it was the same host Jesus referred to when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus but and the disciples wanted to fight and he told them to put away their swords because he said at once he could call down twelve legions of angels (Mt 26:53). Twelve legions is about 60,000 angels.

And then imagine 60,000 angels singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” What a sight! This is crazy exciting stuff. A blaze of heavenly glory. A dazzling luster displayed in the heavens where this royal entourage explodes in praise at Christ being born! It is exactly what you would expect if the God of the universe became a man and was born into this world.

His divine glory may have been hidden underneath the rags covering the fresh baby skin newly welded to the being of God, but it was not hidden from the angels, and it was revealed to the shepherds and has now been revealed to us.

How can our response not be the same? This exhibition of divine splendor with which God adorns the birth of his son beckons us to praise. How can we refuse to join with this choir of angels? It is only brutal and sinful stupidity that keeps our hearts from leaping with zeal to praise God and to be inflamed with joy in this song of the angels…glory glory glory to God!

And lest we think that joy only exists as some sort of temporal spiritual experience where we feel this great excitement, Luke, our narrator, describes an earthly response…how this insane experience of joy plays out in the long run.

IV. Earth Expresses Joy vs.15-20

Watch what happens with the shepherds. “when the angels went away from them into the heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.’ And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.” This is our fourth and final point for today.

The shepherds do three things: One, they go to see Jesus; Two, they go and tell about Jesus; And three, they go back and live in the joy of Jesus. Do you see those three things? First they say, “let us go…” And then Luke tells us “they went with haste.” Can you feel the excitement? the zeal? This is what they had been longing for all their lives.

Then look where it says, “they made known (what) had been told (to) them.” They started telling people what they had seen and heard. God is with us. The savior is born. There is now an answer to the longing of our hearts, an answer to their questions, a salve for their guilt, and a purpose for their lives.

And then I love the last thing this story says about the shepherds when it says, “and the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God.” They returned. They went back to taking care of sheep but you know I’m sure taking care of those sheep would never be the same again for those shepherds. They had been exposed to the joy of the universe and were forever changed.

I think there are some great lessons here for us about what joy is like and how following Jesus effects us. First, there is the going to Jesus. All have a longing for joy, like I said earlier I don’t think that is something anyone would dispute, but it is recognizing that joy in life comes from following after Jesus. The life of the Christian is one which goes to find him and goes to find him. we wake up in the morning looking for Jesus and throughout the day we continually search for Him as the source of our joy.

The second lesson here is the telling about Jesus. The sharing of our joy with others. One of my favorites verses is in the smallest book of the bible, Philemon, and it says, “I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ Jesus (Philemon 6 [NIV]).” It is true that our own joy is propelled and increased in the sharing of Jesus with others.

And the third lesson here is the living a life of joy. The first line of the Westminster Confession says, “the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” And that is what we at the resolved are about…making a big deal about God because that is what makes us happy. It is the doctrine of Christian hedonism, where the heartbeat of our lives is continually pursuing our happiness in the being of God himself.

It is a different life. It is a life formed by the gospel, a gospel centered life, and this gospel is one of great joy. It is where what brings us happiness and satisfaction most comes from God. Even in the seemingly insignificant and trivial things, they become significant and meaningful because God is wrapped up in it and that brings us joy.

Conclusion

Let’s conclude this sermon. In the beginning I asked a whole slew of questions about joy. And I think maybe this passage of Scripture has helped with some of them. Not all of them for sure. I still have my questions. But here is what I think this text has given us. It seems that like faith there are a few different aspects to joy.

It seems that joy is first a worldview thing where you come to believe that humans are made for joy and that joy is in knowing God through following Jesus. I think that is where the deep rooted, serenity, assurance aspect of joy comes from. I think having this kind of core belief or conviction is what enables joy in the middle of hard, difficult, and painful experiences because there is a sense of the truth of God residing within and that no matter what is joy can be there even in the midst of the tears.

Then it seems that joy is an emotional experience that can occur. There are moments of time when we have laughter and fun and pleasure and we are experiencing a taste of what we eternally made for, happiness. At our community group this week we were discussion joy and the question was asked about the whether non-Christians could have joy or if the gospel effects simple joys even things as small as enjoying chocolate.

My answer was yes, I think non-Christians experience moments of happiness and yes there is simply joy in chocolate…however I think it only occurs in the brief emotional way because it is not rooted in the ground of joy what joy really is. It is a disconnected joy because it is not connected with the author of joy and so it lacks the fully quality of peace and satisfaction. You didn’t know that there was a gospel way to eat chocolate huh?

Lastly it seems to me that discipline is a part of joy, that there is a volitional will element to it. there is an ebb and flow in life. Trials come and God stretches us and challenges us in order to teach us deeper depths of joy and to open us up to new and different experiences of His pleasure. Sometimes we have to fight and work hard to find our joy in God because there are so many things out there either attempting to distract us from that joy or competing with a lie saying that their joy is better when it really is not.

As a pastor, many people will come to me with their problems, which is fine, that is part of what I am here for…but my response is always in some way, “Well, what are you doing to pursue joy in God.” We so easily think that we just need this, or we just need that but what we really need is to stop, spend some time on our knees praying, spend some time reading God’s word, spend some time going outside and realizing the glory of God’s creation, spend some time eating a good meal and drinking a good drink and thinking about how God made it taste so good, or to spend some time thinking about Jesus and who he is and what he has done for us. God is an inexhaustible resource if we would only be moved to draw upon him and drink deeply.

Any time I ever preach on happiness or joy as being the center of the Christian life I can’t help but quote Jonathan Edwards who wrote perhaps one of the best books on the subject called “The Religious Affections.” I’ll conclude with a quote from it.

“The love and joy of the saints on earth is the beginning and dawning of the light, life, and blessedness of heaven…as it is with the love of the saints, so it is with their joy and spiritual delight and pleasure…it primarily consists in the sweet entertainment their minds have in the contemplation of the divine and holy beauty of these things as they are in themselves. And therefore, the religion of heaven consists chiefly in affection of holy love and joy.”

Let’s pray.

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The Resolved Church | www.theresolved.com
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All Rights Reserved © The Resolved Church

Permissions: you are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material provided you not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee. For web posting a link to this document is preferred.

December 7th, 2008
Pastor Duane M. Smets

Advent 2008
Humility – The Bethlehem Candle: Luke 2:1-7
The Upside-Down Kingdom is Born

Introduction

Good morning everyone.

Well, it’s the second week of Advent as you’ve heard. We in full Christmas swing here in San Diego. The malls, the freeways, Santa, candy canes, and Christmas music playing everyone. It’s down right dangerous in some places. Did you guys here about the people who got shot at Toys R Us and the ones who got trampled in a Wal-mart stampede? I didn’t know Wal-mart was that cool of a store? How it ever got to this is insane. Jesus has seriously got to be just shaking his head as he looks at all this…a consumer driven materialistic frenzy.

San Diego is a unique place for Christmas. We wanted to cut down our own tree, so we had to drive out to hick-ville in El Cajon and it was like 85 degrees. Something just didn’t seem right about that. It’s supposed to snow at Christmas right? Not in San Diego. We wear bikinis all year long.

Well, this year for the Bethlehem Candle which focuses on the theme of humility I’ve chosen Luke 2:1-7 as our text. Michelle read it earlier and I want to go ahead and read it once more and pray over it.

Lord God, today by your Holy Spirit would you help us today as we revisit the profound humility you so vividly demonstrated in the birth of your son. Father, would that humility, the humility which encompassed Jesus life from birth to death be born in us. Through the story of your word would you transform us. As sinners humility is not our strong suit, but rather at the base of our fight for contention with you. May we see today why you are worthy and why you are our only hope. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord I pray, Amen.

We’ll work through three main points from this story today: “Augustus Dethroned” “Joseph and his Town” and “The Sign of the Manger.”

Augustus Dethroned

First off, notice how Luke, the human author of this story intentionally mentions the political rule of the day four different times:
1. “…a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.”
2. “…it was the first registration when/before Quirinius was governor of Syria.”
3. “…all went to be registered.”
4. “…(Joseph) went to be registered with Mary, his betrothed.”

It seems like a little bit of an overkill doesn’t it. I mean if I was going to sit down and write a book about how I came to know Jesus, I’m not so sure I would start out talking so much about the politics of the day. Like…”It was the year 2008 when Barrack Obama was elected President. And he promised that there would bring change.” It seems a little off subject to bring up this commanded registration four times in just five verses.

I think there is a reason for that. I think Luke is up to something. First, I think he cares about the historicity of what he was writing about. Many people today question the accuracy and authenticity of the Bible. Interestingly, the Biblical authors cared a lot about people knowing that what they were writing was true history because they recorded these verifiable names and time periods. You don’t find that in other cosmogony stories of antiquity. Listen to Luke as he addresses his concern for true historical representation.

These are the first words of the book, Luke 1:1-4, ” 1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.”

So that’s the first reason I think Luke repeatedly mentions this whole decree of registration from Caesar Augustus. But I think the second reason is far more interesting and important. You see Luke’s goal was not just to write history but also to write theology and present Jesus Christ to us. I think he is getting at something theological with the issue of who Caesar was and what Jesus came to do.

Notice the interesting phrase Luke inserts here in verse 1, the decree went out from Caesar that, “ALL THE WORLD” should be registered. Luke notices, Caesar’s claim of rule over all the world.

Let’s talk about Caesar Augustus and his rule. He ruled the Roman Empire, over 2 million square miles of land, for forty-five years. He had absolute power, was called the emperor and was essentially a dictator. He had three names. A personal name, which was Octavian. A family name, which was Caesar. And an official name which was Augustus, which means “divifilius” or “Son of God.” He was considered both by the Roman Senate and the majority of the Roman people to be divine and placed as the leader over the whole world by the gods.

This is all common knowledge at the time. So Luke comes at this a says look, Caesar has declared himself god over the whole world, but God, the God, the one true God is guiding history and sovereignly ordering his providential rule so that Caesar’s decree inadvertently brings about God’s plan to have his one and only son be born.

Notice that little phrase, “the time came.” Surely there it is a double entente, a double meaning, noting not only culmination of nine months of pregnancy, but the planned time which had come when the Son of God was to born for all the peoples of the world.

There is a sharp literary contrast in this story between Jesus and Augustus.
- Augustus asserts and declares his rule to all. Jesus demonstrates his right to rule and declares it to a few lowly people.
- Augustus had power and glory he made sure everyone was aware of. Jesus would show his power and glory to the humble and lowly, the poor, the outcasts…Joseph & Mary, shepherds, fisherman, the diseased, the drunks, and the prostitutes.
- The regalia of Augustus was all displayed openly in the cities he defeated with military might. Jesus would one day display his ultimate rule on a cross where he defeated Satan and all his demons.
- Augustus was a king over top of all. Jesus would be a king who was a servant to all.
- Augustus claimed to be a God. Jesus was God. Augustus proved his deity with military enforcement. Jesus proved his deity not with force but love and his willingness to be utterly humbled by taking on the lowly form of humankind.
- Augustus called himself the savior of the world. Jesus would die so that he could actually save the souls of every kind of person in the world.

Truly, in every physical way Augustus at the time was ruler over all the world. But unknown to him, in his province there was a small little village called Bethlehem where a God-man would be born, who would dethrone him in every way, and be born as the king of the world for all time. It’s the upside-down kingdom, the way God does things through Jesus.

So my first point for today is in Jesus’ birth all rulers, past, present and future…of all time are dethroned, because in Jesus the true king of the whole world king is born. There is not a person here today who Jesus is not for. Your background and past does not matter. Where you have come from…the things you may have done or not done…your culture, upbringing, race…it does not matter. Jesus was born for the whole world. He was born for you. Wherever you have come from, wherever you are at right now, whatever issues you are dealing with…Jesus is relevant and intentionally came for you.

Jesus is the ultimate king, the epitome of humility. In his birth he demonstrates why he is so worthy to rule. Any king who would be humble enough to go through what Jesus has gone through is far superior than any man who has led any number of people throughout all time. Jesus stands in a league of his own. A king, who has reigned over the world before time was spoke into existence…would choose to leave that place of rule and come and in the most vivid and humiliating way show why he alone is worthy to rule in that place…why he alone is able to truly be for the whole world.

Joseph and his Town

Well, let’s talk about the first man Jesus chooses to reveal himself as a king to. Joseph. Let’s move on to our second point and talk about “Joseph and his Town.” This Christmas year I am more awestruck with Joseph than I have ever been. It’s probably because I’ve been a dad now for over a year and I know a little bit about what that is like. So let me talk to you a little bit about Joseph and his Town, Bethlehem.

Here’s what we get about Joseph in the text. He lived in Nazareth, but was born in Bethlehem, his home town, which also happens to be the birth town of his great, great, great, great, great, 40 greats Grandpa is King David. The most well-known and well-loved king of Israel’s history.

He is engaged to a woman named Mary, who is at least three or more months pregnant, which we know because Luke’s first chapter tells us she spent the first three months of her pregnancy at her cousin Elizabeth’s house.

Now Mary is not pregnant with his kid. He knows that. They are engaged or betrothed to be married. In these days, not having sex before you are married wasn’t something only crazy Christians did but was law. Being engaged was a binding contract. If one of the parties had sex with another person, that infidelity would be treated as adultery. They would have to a certificate of divorce if they chose to not get married in spite of the adultery.

Marriage was a lot bigger deal back then. We’re trying hard here at The Resolved Church to make marriage and family a big deal once again. You all know I work part-time at a group home for troubled kids. 100% of the kids there are there because they come from homes that did not have good strong marriages and families.

Here’s some statistics for you. A few years back Georgia State University did a study on couples who co-habitated and were sexually active before they were married. These marriages had a 62% higher divorce rate than those who did not live together or have sex with one another before they got married. That’s one of the reasons along with the clear teaching of God’s word that we have all couples who get married in The Resolved Church to sign a pre-marital purity covenant until their wedding day.

We’ve got to do something to change the way we view marriage today in our city. I mean you can freak’n become a minister online today and any ole’ person thinking they can do a wedding and anyone can get married if they want to just for the heck of it. It’s ridiculous…marriage means so little to so many today. I’m on a mission to change that.

So anyway, marriage is a big deal in the Bible and for Joseph. Joseph is this poor dude, who has royal blood, apparently had to move to Nazareth at some point because he couldn’t make any money in little o Bethlehem. Bethlehem was a blip on the map. I mean it is a little village. It was located up in the hills just about 5 miles south of the big city Jerusalem. So Bethlehem is like Jamul or something. Some little tiny town on the outskirts of the city that no one knows about. Some of you who live here in San Diego probably have no idea where Jamul is huh?

So Joseph’s from Jamul. He’s got to move to Mission Valley to get a job where he can sell the wood furniture he makes. While he’s living there he falls in love with a girl named Mary. It’s young love. She’s like 14 or something. They get engaged. And then crap, she’s pregnant and he knows they haven’t done it yet.

The gospel of Matthew tells us he was going to go ahead and divorce her but an angel comes and talks to him and tells him not to because Mary, his soon to be wife, is pregnant with God and conceived without having sex with any dude. Joseph buys the story from the angel, which I guess I would too if an angel actually came down and talked to me. Now he is more in love with Mary than ever. He didn’t have to take her to Bethlehem, only the heads of households needed to show up for the registration in their hometown…but maybe to spare her the potential shame and gossip, he decides to take her to his hometown, Bethlehem.

I mean you got to get your head around this. At our community group this week we were asking Greg (he and Carrie just got engaged) how he’d feel if he found out that Carrie was pregnant? Just the other week Greg took Carrie to his hometown up in Nor Cal for Thanksgiving and apparently it was like engagement celebration the whole week long. So we were asking him how that would have been if he had taken her home for that week and told everyone she was pregnant? He said it would have been a lot different mood for sure.

So you see, Bethlehem was not only small and little in terms of its size and insignificance. But it was also a place of humiliation in many ways for Joseph, Jesus’ step dad. Bethlehem. It’s scandalous and beautiful at the same time. About 700 years earlier the prophet Micah, said the messiah would be born there (Micah 5:2-4). But no one ever dreamed it would have happened in circumstances like this…that the savior of the world would come from Bethlehem. Interestingly, Jesus is never said to return there in his entire life and ministry. Bethlehem.

Bethlehem was an insignificant village. But from Bethlehem would come the most significant person in all of history. Bethlehem was a place of shame for Jesus’ family because his step dad brings home a knocked up wife fiancé. But from Bethlehem would come the man who would bear the shame of the whole world on a cross. It’s the upside-down kingdom, the way God does things through Jesus.

The Sign of the Manger

Well, let’s move on to our last main point for today and talk about “The Sign of the Manger.” So Joseph and Mary get to Bethlehem safely. We’re not sure when exactly they got there. Apparently they were there for a little while because if you notice the text says, “…while they were there.” So it probably wasn’t like Mary was about to pop when she came riding into town on a donkey.

Apparently when they get there because of the registration census, the town has a lot more people there than usual. There’s probably no room for Joseph and Mary at any of his family member’s houses. The text says there was no room for them in the inn. Interesting, this word for “inn” isn’t the normal word that gets used for a commercial hotel, like the one mentioned in the story of the Good Samaritan. That’s probably because most likely Bethlehem was too small of a town to even have a Hotel. It’s wasn’t a big vacation spot.

The word for inn here, usually means a private residence or public shelter. So in that day, if a stranger showed up in town there was probably a few people in town who had extra rooms who were known for letting people stay there. Kind of like Ron & Kathy’s house. They are so hospitable and generous letting people stay with them for periods of time.

So there’s sort of three options for where Jesus was actually born. Some of the houses were two story houses and the garage sort of speak was underneath the house and that is where they would keep their animals. Other people owned little caves in the hills nearby and that’s where they would keep their animals. Then the last option, is the public shelter. We don’t have any record of one in Bethlehem but some towns would have a central place for animals to be stored at.

So here’s the deal. The word “inn” here suggests the lower-level room. Early Christian tradition says Jesus was born in a cave. But the shepherds which get mentioned next in the story are said to have been nearby, which suggests an outdoor public shelter.

Now it doesn’t really matter and I’m sorry if that screws up your nativity scene. They’re already messed up because the wise men don’t get there until two years later. But that’s okay. Here’s what does matter…wherever they stayed, it was with animals and it was because of crowded conditions.

Having a baby with the animals was not normal. Not even for the poor. I’ll give you a comparison. If you averaged out Joseph’s income as a carpenter, he probably made about a denarri a day. The well to do class, like say that of the king’s house allotted his wives 400 denarii a day for pampering, that’s over a year’s worth of wages, for one day. You say how could a woman even spend that much? All you got to do is go over to Bloomingdales in Fashion Valley and look at the price tags and the people walking around and you’ll figure it out.

These women had a whole band of servants around them to meet their every need. Perfume, jewelry, back then they were even into false teeth made of gold…apparently that was hot. If you are rich today, you might hire a nanny to help take care of your kids. These women had at least ten nannies around to help them out with the children…so you can imagine what it was like when they gave birth. Not with the animals. It was serious pampering I’m sure.

Imagine it. Mary’s laying there in the straw. There’s the wafting fumes of the horse dung in the air. She’s in excruciating pain. There’s no epidural needle to take the edge off. This is nasty. Who knows who delivered the baby. And once they do they lay him in the dog dish. I mean come on! And this is Jesus, God, the king of the world, the creator who spoke life into existence.

Do you guys get the scandal of this story? The utter humility shown by God, by not only allowing this to take place but actually setting it up? Our God is a humble God.

I’m telling you…we have Kaiser insurance through my job at the group home and after Adina was born they placed her with Amy and I in this room that had another couple and their baby in there…and I was pissed! I wanted our own room. If they had put us in a room downstairs with the animals I would have punched someone.

A manger was no place for a baby, let alone the son of God. But this was to set the tone for the life and the mission of Jesus…who came not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. From the day of his birth onward Jesus laid himself down to be the feeding trough for us and he remains so today. He is our life and our health. I think Jesus went about as low as you can go. His humility in exchange for our hope and salvation. It’s astonishing.

Conclusion

Let’s conclude. I want to conclude in this way today. This week of advent focuses on humility. Let’s think about that for a second. How would you feel as Jesus.

How would you feel about Augustus? You’re the true king of the world. For hundreds of years, you’ve watched various kings and emperors come and go. All of them claiming their dominance and might. You know it is really nothing at all.

You decide you are going to enter the world, in order to save the human race. If it were me I would want to come in right away and show ‘em who’s boss. Prove ‘em all wrong and make them recognize.

Not Jesus. He wasn’t so insecure that he was intimidated or had something to prove. Instead, he humbly submits himself to the decree of a mere man, who only has power because you have allowed it.

In this backwards, upside-down way, Jesus shows himself to be the true king over the world.

How would you feel about Joseph? You’re going to become a God-man and enter the world. Wouldn’t you want to pick someone who kind of had their act together…Was already married and had a good paying job from a reputable town? Where I would see weakness and a bad idea, Jesus saw a perfect opportunity where his humility and glory could be further displayed.

In this backwards, upside-down way, Jesus shows himself to be willing to undergo shame and weakness.

How would you feel about the manger? I mean the parents here know this well. You want the best for your kids. You want them to be healthy, safe, and well.

If you are Jesus looking ahead at all this, wouldn’t you want to make sure you’re going to born at least in a place where there is not this huge risk of infection and bacteria floating around everywhere? Wouldn’t such a thing just be so starkly opposite to everything Jesus was used to.

In this backwards, upside-down way, Jesus shows himself willing to be subject to the worst of the worst and to entrust himself to the most meager means.

When we look at each of these things in this way…and contrast them with our own hearts I think it has the effect of sort of drawing out the sin and the pride that runs so deep in each of us because it is so radically different. It is so different it is almost impossible for us to wrap our heads around it.

We are so motivated by self-interest, self-indulgence, self-sufficiency, selfish ambition, and self-glorification. We all have these inflated views of our selves. Jesus is the one person who has reason to have an inflated view of himself, he’s God, it’s not an inflation. But rather than call attention to that, he takes the upside-down backwards way, to show us, why he is that great.

R.C. Sproul says this, “The grand difference between a human being and a supreme being is this: Apart from God, I cannot exist. Apart from me, God does exist. God does not need me in order for Him to be; I do need God in order for me to be…We are dependent. We are fragile. We cannot live without air, without water, without food. No human being has the power of being within himself. Life is lived between two hospitals. We need a support system from birth to death to sustain life. We are like flowers that bloom and then wither and then fade. This is how we differ from God. God does not wither, God does not fade, God is not fragile.”

The birth of Jesus has this effect. The God who needs nothing, humbles himself, placing himself in the world of humans so that we might be humbled know our great need for him.

Where in your life do you need to be humbled today?

Do you pride yourself in your power…maybe as a parent in telling your kids what to do, maybe you’re a manager or a boss and you have employees, maybe you’re a teacher or maybe you have an assistant. Remember the humility of Jesus who is born under the decree of one lesser than him who dared to claim his right over the world.

Do you pride yourself in your plans…maybe it is your plans for the next year and how you will progress in your job, get married, have more kids, buy a new house…thinking then you will be happy or things will be better. Remember the humility of Jesus who is born into a town and a family of shame, smallness, and weakness, in order that the greatest plan of all might be fulfilled.

Lastly, do you pride your possessions…the place you live, the things you own, the relationships you maintain. Remember the humility of Jesus who was born into a poor family next to the animals so that we might know he and he only is our only need and greatest possession.

Let’s pray.

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March 15th, 2008
Pastor Duane M. Smets

The Mission of Jesus
Luke 19:28-44

Introduction

Good morning. Let’s read our text for today and pray.

Today is Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Good Friday, where we remember Jesus’ death. Today, Good Friday, and next Sunday, Easter all go together like three acts of a play. Palm Sunday is the first act, where things are set in motion, Good Friday is the climax of the story, and Easter is the grand conclusion.

“Palm Sunday” has been called such in Christian history and tradition because the version of this story in the Gospel of John tells us the people not only laid down their coats but palm branches as well. In ancient times palm branches were used to honor kings and were symbols of peace and victory.

For example, often times during a festival of some sort the king would walk through the crowd of people on a path made of palm branches and then he would go sit on his throne and have servants wave palm branches before him.

So let me kind of get the picture of this story in your heads for you. It says the whole multitude of his disciples or followers were there and that there was a crowd. Now I take the words “multitude” and “crowd” to mean it was a lot of people. Other stories in Luke where these words are used it was thousands of people. When was the last time you were in a multitude or a crowd of people. Maybe at a big music concert, maybe a political rally, you know a crowd…hot sweaty bodies all crammed in together.

You’ve got a crowd here. And then we have the essential rolling out of the red carpet here in Luke…like at the Kodak theatre in Hollywood at the Academy Awards, where the stars are dropped off out of their limos to walk down this nice red carpet into the theatre only here instead of a fancy red carpet you got palm branches and coats laid out to make a path for the celebrity…the miracle worker, the hopeful revolutionary, the spiritual sage, the person of royalty, King Jesus. We’ll talk about Jesus’ kingship and some of the stuff here about the donkey and the people’s reactions, but first I want to talk about the significance of Jesus coming into Jerusalem.

Missional Intent

Jesus is going into Jerusalem when this happens. It says he “drew near to Bethphage and Bethany” and then when the crowd gathers and he is riding on the donkey, he’s cruising down the Mount of Olives. That’s probably about a mile outside of Jerusalem, about maybe twenty to thirty minutes walking. This is the outskirts of town, sort of like coming into San Diego from the east but you and you first come through El Cajon. That’s where we’re at.

But Jesus’ journey here, going down into Jerusalem really began much earlier. The gospel of Luke from the very beginning has Jesus moving steadily closer and closer to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is Jesus goal. He starts his ministry after being baptized in the Jordon river and then starts traveling around and talking about going to Jerusalem. What is the deal about Jerusalem? Jerusalem is the big city, the central focal point of the whole region, a cultural mecca…But even more than that is it’s the place where Jesus was going to die and Jesus was determined to go there and do that.

Look back a few chapters with me to Luke 9:51. In Luke 9:51 It says, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up (that’s a nice way of saying “be killed”) he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” That phrase “set his face” is so picturesque…it is a determination…he “set his face.” The whole of Jesus ministry is caught up in this massive missional intent, the mission of Jesus to live and to go to Jerusalem and to die for the sins of his people.

But Jesus intent to go to Jerusalem and to die did not just begin at this point in his ministry where he set his face, and it did not just begin at the Jordon river where Jesus was baptized and began his ministry which would end in Jerusalem, it began long before that. It began in heaven when Jesus determined to come into the world. In Mark 10:45 Jesus said he came, “…not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.”

So the entire purpose of Jesus’ life and existence is wrapped up in the culminating events that are initiated by his entry into Jerusalem. This is huge! Like an actor following a script he wrote about himself, Jesus came into the world at the right time and took his cue and moved toward Jerusalem in sequence to set up the great climax of the story of humanity!

Think about this. Jerusalem was not an accident. Jesus knew what would happen there. That is the most amazing thing to me about this story is the intent of Jesus and his mission to save people through his death and resurrection. Mission does not happen without intent. So if we are going to be followers of Jesus and his mission it is going to take some intent on our part. We will not grow as a church, the people of San Diego will not be reached with the gospel, if we don’t have some sort of set our face intent about it!

I’ve been thinking about this all week. First, what a privilege it is to be a follower of Jesus and to be with him on mission. His mission is still the same, to save people through his death and resurrection. Second, that such a mission takes a lot of intent. So let me probe us a little on our intent, I’ve been convicted by this during the last week. My intent.

As yourself this question, how many people can you think of right now that you are actively and regularly praying for by name, are in relationship with them in the city taking time getting to know them and talking to them about Jesus, solely for the purpose and intent that they might come to know him as savior of their lives? How many? How is your intent? When was the last time you had someone over to your house for dinner who was not a Christian? Let me ask it maybe another way. We have some friends over to watch Lost with us on Thursday and that’s good, I wish some of you would do that. But how about this, how many of you here have had your neighbors over for dinner recently?

I was sickened this week when I thought of it. I’m friendly with my neighbors, but we’ve lived in the same house for almost a year and we’ve never had a single one of them over for dinner. My intent sucks with them. We’ve talked with them about it but it’s never happened. You might say, oh well you had good intentions…no good intentions do nothing! Sometimes “busyness” can be one of the biggest barriers to the gospel. If you are so busy in your life that you don’t have time for mission, then something is out of place.

Today in our age and culture and this city we live in mission has to be almost synonymous with hospitality, listening, dialogue and openness. George Hunter says in his book “The Celtic Way of Evangelisms” that we are in a secular culture, “…people with no Christian memory, who don’t know what we Christians are talking about.” Christianity is weird in a lot of ways and almost has it’s whole set of particular language and things.

Some of you are new Christians and I was reminded of how easy it is to just assume things when one you said to me just a few weeks ago, “Duane, you say ministry or minister to a lot, what do you mean?” It brought me joy, just to know that even something so seemingly common to me such as ministry was new to some of you! I love that.

That’s the majority of San Diego. Only 6% claim to be Christians. So out of the million and a quarter people living here, only 6% probably know what the word “ministry” even means. Hunter continues about post-Christian cultures, he says “…these populations are increasingly post-modern; they have graduated from Enlightenment ideology and are more peer-driven, feeling driven, and “right-brained” than their forebears. (And they) are increasingly receptive–exploring worldview options from Astrology to Zen–and are often looking ‘in all the wrong places’ to make sense of their lives and find their soul’s true home.” This is our city.

My friend Ed Stetzer who is on the North American Missions Board, who wrote a 100 page document on our city for this Missionary Board called “San Diego City Exegesis.” It used to be that missions meant people from the US sending missionaries to other countries. Now people from those countries are sending missionaries to us because we’ve become so lost and broken and the only thing Christians are doing here is sending flyers out to come to our Easter service. I mean seriously, just that there is now a whole North American Missions Board ought to tell you something. We have to start thinking of ourselves as missionaries. I’m a missionary here and so are you.

Okay, sorry about the digression. Ed Stetzer, “San Diego City Exegesis,” he says this about our spiritually open and broken city: “When interacting with people who hold less clearly to defined beliefs or those who have a worldview that avoids any all-encompassing summary of truth and meaning, missionary practitioners must remember the ministries of listening and hospitality. When Christians (do this), the people whom they are hoping to reach might say or think something like this: ‘Here is a Christian who is willing to talk to me. He is not lecturing me. He is giving me space to say what I think and feel.” When engaging pre-Christian persons who are deeply spiritual, we run the risk of making the gospel irrelevant, not because of the message of the gospel but because of the messenger’s inability to treat the person with dignity and respect.”

I’ll put that up this week in the journal entry if you want to download it and read it. www.theresovled.com/downloads/SanDiegoExegesis.pdf But the point is this, have your neighbors over for dinner or go get dinner somewhere with them. Make friends with people. Get to know them and what they love and what they think. Listen and then talk to them about Jesus.

I have one Christian friend the other day who was telling me that he joined a pagan Wicca book club just to get to know some of those people and try and reach them for Jesus. So now he’s reading Harry Potter and making friends with them. That sounded like a great idea to me.

I’m sure if you check out meetup.com you can find all kinds of groups to get involved in. It doesn’t matter what it is, just get some intent. Get on mission with Jesus. Jesus went into a city, we must follow him and go into our city as well. Crowds of people gathered to coronate his entrance. Why? Because Jesus had been going into cities all over Israel and eating with people and talked with them and respectfully answering their questions and telling them that he was the answer they were looking for and he healed them and gave them hope.

The Glory and the Peace of the King

Well let’s get back to the story and look at what kind of person this Jesus is, why he is worthy of our praise, and glory and how he went into Jerusalem as a king on a mission for peace. Before he cruises down the road on this donkey walking over palm branches and coats, he tells two of his disciples, verse 30, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, one which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’ So those who were sent went away and found it as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, ‘Why are you untying the colt?’ And they said, ‘The Lord has need of it.’ And they brought it to Jesus.”

Now this story is crazy to me. Jesus tells them to go get this colt and when the owners are like, “Dude, why are you stealing my donkey…just say, the Lord needs it.” I can’t imagine this working anywhere in San Diego. I mean seriously, don’t get any ideas. If you walk up to someone’s car and break in with a slim jim and start hotwiring it and the owner comes by and says, “Hey man, what are you doing?” He’s not going to go away and be cool with it if you’re like…”Uh, Jesus needs it.”

That part is just crazy to me. I can only imagine that somehow these people must have known the two disciples who came to take their donkey and that they were people who loved Jesus too and would give him anything and probably came back with two disciples and joined the crowd. But that isn’t even the craziest part of this story to me. The craziest part is that Jesus knew. He knew about this colt, he knew what the owners would say, he knew what they needed to hear.

Jesus is always doing this. He meets a woman at a well and tells her she needs living water. She’s like how do you know what I need? And Jesus is all, we’ll you’ve had seven husbands and you’re sleeping with another dude now who’s not you’re husband…and none of that is making you happy. The woman is shocked that Jesus knows everything about her life, so she is like okay, give me the water, I want it. And Jesus tells her that he is the water. She was probably there among the crowd waving a palm branch at Jesus. (Jn 4:1-42)

Another occasion…it’s election time, taxes are due, so the disciples come to Jesus and are like what are we supposed to do Jesus? Jesus says give to the government what they want and give to God what is God’s. He tries to teach them a spiritual lesson about living for God in every part of your life…but they don’t get it, they’re like Jesus, we still got to pay taxes bro. So on another occasion Jesus just says okay, go fishing and you’re going to catch a fish and when you open it’s mouth there will be a coin in it. Go give that coin to the government and our taxes will be taken care of. (Mt 22:15-22; 24:24-27)

Jesus is always doing this. He exhibits a divine knowledge…not just in his great spiritual understanding but in his knowledge of things he could not possibly know if he were just a man! He knows about a coin in the fish’s mouth, he knows the life history of the woman at the well, and he knows there is a donkey in a village he has never been too and that the owners will let him use it. Jesus knows everything, because he’s not just a man, he’s God in the flesh.

And he is not only God of God himself, he’s fully man, come to save his people, he is the messiah king. Have any of you wondered, what the heck is up with the donkey? I love all the old commentaries on this because the old King James Version of the Bible says “ass” instead of donkey and so do all the old commentaries. So I just chuckled to myself this week in my office…when I’m reading about why Jesus rode on a ass into Jerusalem and you’re not supposed to say ass in church. So I get to today. What’s up with the ass in this story?

The ass is a big deal. First notice they call Jesus a King. He’s riding on the donkey over the palm branches and cloaks and they are shouting out, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.” On other occasions Jesus had shied away from being called King because it wasn’t time yet and he knew what would happen once he allowed and accepted that title.

But from this point on and with this event Jesus announces his kingship…to the point when Pilate, the ruling governor asks Jesus if he is a king, and Jesus say yes and that Pilate would have no power over him unless Jesus wasn’t currently allowing it. Jesus is tough man. He is a King! Right before he is arrested, the disciples think Jesus is going to bring peace by overthrowing the Roman government in a physical battle with swords.

That’s probably why a lot of people were there crying out, “Blessed is the King…peace and glory!” They think Jesus is the promised messiah to come and lead revolt and topple over the government and free Israel into being a great and powerful nation once again. So right before Jesus is arrested, Peter pulls out a sword and cuts off one of the soldier’s ears. Peter isn’t getting it. So Jesus heals his ear and says, dude, don’t you know I could call down twelve legions of angels to fight for me if I wanted (Matt 26:53)? Twelve legions is about 72,000 angels. In the old testament one angel killed 185,000 soldiers in one night (2 K 19:35). Jesus is tough. He’s a king!

Usually, when King’s would enter a city they would ride in on a nice, great, big, strong, bright white and beautiful horse. An animal fit for a king. But in the book of Zechariah, it says that God’s King, the messiah, the savior, the deliverer, the Christ, would come on a humble donkey. This was a verse many people knew and had memorized, they were waiting for a king to come and they way they would know is he would ride on a donkey. Listen to Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” That is what was in these people’s minds. So when they see Jesus riding in on a donkey, they go crazy, this is it…the king who comes.

Notice what this story says about Jesus character. He’s God. He knows everything. He just demonstrated it like he had time and time again…but he is not a King who rules like those of this world…he is a humble king, he rules with things like peace and love and joy…he rides on a brute donkey. If anyone deserves to revel in his power and might, it’s Jesus…but he is humble, the chief of humility. So this donkey serves two purposes, first to identify Jesus…he is the one, and second, to say what kind of Jesus he is, the humble savior who comes to bring true peace to the world.

Now, I’ve said some things before about it and I’m not going to take time to get all into it again today, but this word peace is here, so I’ll just mention it briefly. Peace is called out to Jesus, he’s coming to bring the peace of heaven to earth. Some of you are really into activism. Activism is cool and socially acceptable, and seen as a good thing, feeding the poor, working with abused kids, helping out Mexico. Those are good things and we should do them, we want to love the city of San Diego and it’s neighbors. I’m going to this conference in New York to learn more about how to do that better.

But we need to have a good theology behind it. Just doing those things will not bring peace. Jesus knew this. He could have started a war and he could have won. But that would not have brought peace. The lack of peace comes from the human heart…the divided, jealous, rebels against God, darkened by sin heart. Our humble King, Jesus, went to Jerusalem to die so that our sin might be forgiven and thus have peace with God…out of that we testify to others by doing deeds that reflect that peace. That’s why I say we need a theology behind our activism…because a sandwich, or some new socks, will not heal the strife of the heart, only the cross of Jesus.

Praise, Anger, and Tears

Well, in our text there are three responses of the events of this story. Each one of them provides an application for us what our response is to be. First is the response of praise. It is hard not to just move to praise directly, when you see and hear the glory of who Jesus is and the intent of his mission, what he came to do. Jesus is amazing. We ought to respond with praise and adoration and thanks toward Jesus today. Palm Sunday is a joyful day.

But we are very quickly reminded of what it is such a joyful day…it is joyful because it looks forward to Friday and then to Easter. The joy of today is crushed if Good Friday and Easter did not happen. So lastly, look at the other two responses which remind us of that in this passage.

First, is the Pharisees. The people are calling out, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord…” Then in the very next verse, verse 39, we read, “And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher rebuke your disciples.” He answered, ‘I tell you if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.’”

The Pharisees remind us of the darkness of our hearts that are so quick to judge and think we have all the answers and have it all together and then fail to recognize Jesus who is at work and is right in front of us. Pharisees are Bible teachers. Literally, they are teachers of the Law found in the Bible. They’re smart. They had at least the first five books of the Bible memorized. But they missed Jesus. They couldn’t see him. To them, he was just a man, and they did not see their need for him. Some of you are so opinionated, you think you know everything and have an answer for everything…that’s dangerous. The moment you start thinking you got it together and you don’t need Jesus your in danger.

The Pharisees here are basically telling Jesus that he should tell these people not to do what he is about to do by entering into Jerusalem…they know it will cause a ruckus and they got a sweet deal going on with the Romans. They don’t want Jesus to mess that up. But Jesus response just point back at his deity once again. Jesus says, if these people don’t praise and worship me, the very stones will cry out.

Some think that crying out of a stone would be in praise or song, some think it means judgment, like they would start throwing themselves at the people. Why? Because the very stones know that their maker is in their midst. The creation knows, that Jesus is the one who maker of heaven and earth. They recognize it. We don’t because our hearts are darkened. But the stones do, they know who Jesus is. The Pharisees remind us of our constant ability to try and earn our own salvation…thinking that we can work things out ourselves and that we got things under control, when we don’t at all and need to see our need for Jesus in everything.

Lastly, we have the response of Jesus. Let’s read it, verse 41-44, “And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

What’s Jesus response, he cries. When Jesus hears the hardness and resistance of our hearts against him…he cries. In one minute we have the divine Jesus who knows everything, the next minute we have the mighty king Jesus who can wage war with his angels if he wants, the next minute we have the humble Jesus riding on a donkey, and then the next minute we have the broken Jesus, crying over our sin and failure to see him and embrace him…when he is the only thing that can meet our need.

Jesus says, would that you would know what makes for peace! Me! Me! I am here! But you don’t see, it’s hidden from your eyes and if you keep your eyes wide shut, there will be a judgment day. The judgment day Jesus refers to here could have very well been the destruction day of the temple in 70 AD. If it is it point to the future day of judgment that hangs over all our heads if we do not get right with God. God is not unmerciful…he has given us Jesus. He is a judge for sure and if we do not repent there is surely a hell to be had. But he is not unmerciful, he has visited us in Jesus.

That’s what Jesus says. So many want a sign or some proof that God exists and that he is who he said he was and can do what he said he could do. Jesus is right there, saying, “Here I am…it is the time of your visitation.”

Conclusion

So here is our conclusion for today. Know Jesus. Don’t dismiss the time of his visitation. Rejoice at it! Don’t be angry at him for it, thinking that he somehow messes with your plan and with your life. Yeah, if you become a Christian and start walking with Jesus, it’s going to mess with things and you’re going to have to change how you live and not do some things you’ve been doing. If you’re sleeping with your girlfriend or living with her you need to stop. If you’re getting high and drunk you need to stop. Jesus isn’t down with that. If you’re neglecting your family or Jesus’ church or becoming dependant on some other thing than Jesus, that needs to change. The stones cry out…don’t profane his name like that. Jesus is a king and he is worthy of your life and you represent him.

We are on mission with Jesus, the mission to bring glory to his name, to tell and to show the city of San Diego that Jesus is the savior. So we weep over the city like Jesus wept over Jerusalem. We got to start caring about your neighbor and getting intentional about Jesus mission to save them. Get to know them, after you’ve got to know them and talked to them about Jesus, invite them to the community group you go to, then maybe invite them to church…then maybe by that time they won’t be so wierded out by all the strange things we do here, like sing, listen to me, and take communion.

In this story you’re either the Pharisee or the people in the crowd. You’re either praise and thank and worship Jesus or you tell him to leave you alone. In this story you’re either going into the city with Jesus or you’re telling him to stay out. In this story your either give up your coat and your colt for Jesus or you tell him that he can’t have it. In this story you either recognize that you are a sinner in need of Jesus or you think you’re fine and don’t need him or already got him.

I’m everyone in the story. Sometimes I’m the Pharisee trying to control things and make them happen the way I want and I try to keep Jesus out of it. Sometimes I’m in the crowd and I’m singing at the top of my lungs that Jesus is the king! Sometimes I’m not willing to give up my money because I’m afraid I won’t have enough. Sometimes I’m will to give not just my coat and my colt but everything I own, I just give up and it’s so freeing. Sometimes I think I’m just too busy for mission or that it’s just too hard and people make me to mad and frustrated. And sometimes I’m so pierced by the gospel that I want nothing more than to help others know the peace and the glory of Jesus I have come to love and I weep in the dark hours of the night.

Where are you and where do you most need Jesus to work in you today and in this season of your life? As we go to the table today, let’s repent and ask Jesus for help and to work in us, let’s worship him and praise him, King Jesus who came in the name of the Lord to save us. If you’ve become a Christian today by recognizing your need and desire for Jesus, please, you are welcome to go to the table with us.

Let’s pray.

The Resolved Church | www.theresolved.com
(619) 393-1990 | contact@theresolved.com
All Rights Reserved © The Resolved Church

Permissions: you are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material provided you not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee. For web posting a link to this document is preferred.

December 23rd, 2007
Pastor Duane M. Smets

Advent: The Angels Candle
Luke 2:8-20 – “The Peace of Jesus”

Luke 2:8-20 8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Introduction
I. The Angels and their Message
II. Why there is not Peace on Earth
III. Peace in Jesus Forevermore
Conclusion

Introduction

Good morning everyone. This is Christmas Sunday, so Merry Christmas. We are in the fourth and final week of Advent when we celebrate the coming of God into the world, Jesus Christ. God is truly everwhere, there is nothing which escapes his eye, yet in Jesus he made himself known in a very unique way, by taking on humanity into himself and becoming a little baby. God becoming a baby is a big deal. The biggest deal on the news the other night was that Britney Spear’s little sister, who is 15, is pregnant. That’s not a big deal! Mary was probably 14 and she was pregnant with God!

The candle in this week of Advent is called the “Angel’s Candle” and it is the week when we focus on the peace of the gospel in Christmas. So let me read our passage and pray for our time studying God’s Word.

I. The Angels and their Message

Right off the bat the most striking thing to me about this passage are the angels. When we just read it were there any of you who found your curiosity fixiating most on these angels? Angels are interesting, personally I’ve never seen an angel, I’m not sure how many people even really believe angels exist. But one thing is for sure, angels are super popular in our culture.

There are a ton of movies with angels in them…there are love movies with angels like “City of Angels” with Meg Ryan and Nicoloas Cage, there are scary movies with angels like “The Prophecy I, II, & III,” there are action movies with angels like “Constantine,” there are kid movies with angels like “Angels in the Outfield” and there are philosophical and comedy movies with angels like “Dogma.”

Angels are big stars in TV too. Here is a list of TV series which all have angel in their name: “Angel,” “Dark Angel,” “Touched by an Angel,” “Fallen Angel,” “Galaxy Angel,” “Charlies Angels,” and there is a even a whole anti-cutlure super-Christian network with shows that mostly suck called “Angel TV.”

If you want to talk about music it’s insane…the list goes on and on just with artists who have album titles mentioning angels, not even considering songs that talk about angels. Here is a small sample of artists who are apparently into angels in some way or another, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Depeche Mode, Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, Judas Priest, Fuel, Faith No More, Foo Fighters, Gwen Stefani, Dido, K.D. Lang, Sarah Brightman, Lindsey Lohan, Papa Roach, DMX, Tupac, and T-Bone.

So angels are evidently pretty common…I just wouldn’t expect to learn to much about what angels really are from any of these sources. If there really is such thing as angels then we would need something outside of any individual’s personal experience to tell us who they are and what they are about…which is why I am glad God gave us a Bible. We are always listening to what someone says or thinks, the probably is that people are often times wrong. So if we are to know anything at all about anything we need God to tell us. That’s why God gave us a book, the Bible…40 different authors, 66 different books, written over a period of 1500…and the whole thing bearing his divine fingerprint: one view of God and the gospel, archeological and historical precision, a truly God inspired book.

So I want to give you a brief survey of angels in the Bible and then we’ll talk about their message, what they said when Jesus was born. We can’t take time to go to all the passages in the Bible that mention them, so if you want the Scripture references just look up my blog later this week and you’ll find the notes there. So here is a brief summary of angels in the Bible:

1. They are a class of being created by God (Neh. 9:6), also called the “heavenly host,” “holy ones,” “cheribim,” “seraphim” or called by their indivudal names, like “Michael” or “Gabriel.”

2. There are ranks among them somewhat like what you would have in an army…the angel Michael is identified as an arc angel (Jd 9) among their clan.

3. All angels are immortal (Ez. 1:5-14) and unredeemable (Job 1:7-2:7; 1 Pet 1:12). The unredeemable angels are bad angels called demons, whose chief leader is Satan, also called “Lucifer.”

4. Angels can only be in one place at a time, can travel very fast, and can appear in different ways and forms (Dan 10:12-14; Heb 13:2).

5. Angels are guardians of God’s people, though not every person is assigned their own individual angel (Ps. 91:11-12)

6. Angels don’t marry according to Jesus (Mt.22:30).

7. Angels are very, very, powerful (2 Pet. 2:11). One time an evil king from Assyria came up against Judah, camped outside the main city and vowed to wipe them off the face of the earth. Judah’s king, Hezekiah, prayed to God and God sent one of his angels and that angel killed 185,000 soliders single handedly in one night (2 Kings 19:35)!

8. The job of good angels is to worship God, which sometimes involves singing praise, sometimes sending messages, and sometimes performing some specific task (Ps. 103:20; Is. 6:2-3).

9. The Bible is very clear about how our relationship as humans to angels should be. Angels remind of the unseen spiritual world, but we are not to seek them and if we encounter them we are not to worship them (Rev. 19:10). Instead we are to listen and judge them because bad angels can pose as an angel of light and deliver false messages (Gal 1:6). The way we judge is by the Bible and if everything lines up we need to do what they say.

So that is angels in the Bible. Now let’s go back to our passage, with this information and ask the question “why angels?” Angels are all over the story of Jesus’ birth. Angels appear to Mary, Joseph, Zechariah, the shepherds and could have even been the “star” which guided the wise men to Jesus two years after he was born. So why did God send his angels to mark the birth of his son coming into the world? We don’t know exactly how many angels there are, but when Jesus was on the cross he said he could call down “twelve legions” of angels to fight for him if he wanted. Twelve legions is about 60,000 angels. So here in our passage, this “host” could have at least been 60,000 angels. That’s about the number of people you can fit into qualcomm stadium…a lot of angels to be sent just to announce that Jesus is being born…

Here is what I think. I think there is no greater thing that has ever happened in all of history, even the beginning of creation itself, no bigger thing then when God came into the world! Jesus is the most significant thing to have ever happened. And if you are God, then becoming a little baby is a huge deal and you would expect it to be an occasion to be marked by all kinds of supernatural and glorious things…like angels. The divine glory of Jesus may have been hidden underneath the rags covering the fresh baby skin newly welded to the being of God, but it was not hidden from the angels, no they saw it and they rejoiced! “Glory to God in the highest!”

II. Why there is not Peace on Earth

And the angels rejoiced not just because of the suberb nature of this miracle God had just performed, for indeed it was one of God’s greatest feats yet…becoming a God-man! But they also rejoiced because they knew why God did it, what his purpose was. Look at the what they angels say while they are rejoicing. Verse 14, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.”

Peace. What a weighty, weighty word. It is difficult to read this and not hear U2′s song “Peace on Earth” in my head. Maybe you know it: “Heaven on Earth, We need it now, I’m sick of all of this hanging around, Sick of sorrow, I’m sick of the pain, I’m sick of hearing Again and again, That there’s gonna be, Peace on Earth. Where I grew up, There weren’t many trees, Where there was we’d tear them down, And use them on our enemies… Jesus can you take the time, To throw a drowning man a line, Peace on Earth. Tell the ones who hear no sound, Whose sons are living in the ground, Peace on Earth. No whos or whys, No one cries like a mother cries, For peace on Earth. She never got to say goodbye, To see the color in his eyes, Now he’s in the dirt. Peace on Earth…Jesus can you take the time, To throw a drowning man a line, Peace on Earth. To tell the ones who hear no sound, Whose sons are living in the ground, Peace on Earth. Jesus in this song you wrote, The words are sticking in my throat, Peace on Earth. Hear it every Christmas time, But hope and history won’t rhyme, So what’s it worth, This peace on Earth.”

Peace…a weighty, weighty word. Peace, the absence of violence, the presence of justice, peace. Our world longs for it. Years and years and decades and decades and centuries and centuries of violence and wars. According to Wikipedia there are currently 30 wars happening right now across the world with an estimated death toll of over 1,787,794. There are over 54 organizations like Amnesty International, The Peaceforce, and the World Peace Council who are dedicated to trying to bring peace to the world. Over the years there have been several peace summits, peace rallys, and peace declarations. We have a Nobel Peace Prize, a World Peace Day, and our peace hand gesture… But somehow all attempts at peace fail and have failed.

Why is there not peace? What’s going on? What is it going to take? What is the answer? Why is there not peace? You hear all these people talk about world issues on talk shows or radio programs. They talk about what is happening and how it happened and what they think needs to happen. But you never hear anyone ask, why is there not peace on earth? Were the angels wrong? Didn’t the angels say with Jesus coming there would be “peace on earth?” Why is there not peace?

The Bible asks this question. Turn with me in your Bible to James chapter 4, verse 1, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?” “Why is there not peace among you?” Read the next line with me, “Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions (Js 4:1-3).”

This is such a telling verse…one of those verses where it seems the Bible reads us rather than we who read the Bible. It not only answers the question of why sometimes it seems that God doesn’t answer prayer but it goes to the heart of what is wrong with the human race…why there are wars and strife among us. It goes to the heart of things, our desires, our motives. It is the reason for every conflict and every dissatisfaction that ever occurs. Desire, passion, want…for something we don’t have or are not getting which we think we need. Sin manifests itself in our motives, where we move toward something that is not God in place of God or we try to use or appease God to get something else other than God.

Let me give you some examples. A kid on the basketball court gets mad at another kid because the kid blocks him and he trips and falls, instantly he is angry, partly because he is hurt and partly because he thinks kid was out to get him. He feels disrespected and embarrassed in front of his peers and now feels he must fight. What is the motive? The praise and approval of peers.

It doesn’t change with adults. The desire for praise, for people to think good of us, so we try hard to earn their favor and we get frustrated when we can’t. You might be a people pleaser, where you never want someone to be disappointed in you so you try so hard to say and do all the right things. So you stress over a Christmas gift and spend 5 hours at fashion valley just trying to get the right gift so that they’ll like you. Or you could be on the other end, where you want people to think you are so important and better than them, so you don’t give people the time of day and figure if you blow them off it doesn’t matter…but then, when you need something you get angry and frustrated if they don’t respond right away.

The thing is we know how we are supposed to be. Especially if we are Christians. We know God is God and that he is good and that he will take care of us and provide for us just as he takes care of and provides for the birds in the air. We know we should be content with what we have and not always wanting more…more money, more things, nicer things (the materialism and consumerism at Christmas is crazy!)…but we just can’t seem to help it. We know he knows the future and because he does we don’t have to…but we just can’t seem to stop worrying about it. We know we should be kind to everyone and forgiving and not reacting so hard when people hurt us or if they disrespect us. We know we should care more about what God thinks than anyone else.

We know these things…but we are in conflict, conflict with ourselves. And all too often it leads to some sort of outward war. It just eats and eats away at you until you do something like send the silent but mean text, or the nasty voice mail or email…or you decide you’re going to do the Christian thing and go and confront the person and you just end up blowing up at them and cussing them out. Or the maybe you go the passive aggressive route, where you just don’t do anything, ignore whats going on, hoping it will go away…or you figure that you’re just gonna to give that person the silent treatment, not do anything but just check out, that’ll show ‘em how much they hurt you…none at all, hah!

Whether you are young or old it’s the same. For you kids, think about the last time you got into a fight with your brother or sister. For adults, think about the last time you got in a fight with your spouse. If you’re not married think about the last time you got in a fight with a friend or maybe more likely your parents or a ex-boyfriend or girlfriend.

There is no peace on earth and it is because there is a problem with our hearts, we don’t love God or his people like we should. And that puts us in a mess. A mess at home, a mess with our neighbors, a mess with the people we work with, a mess with our government and a mess with other countries.

III. Peace in Jesus Forevermore

This is what the angels knew. They knew the problem with humanity was bigger than just some countries not getting along. They knew that things couldn’t be fixed with a peace treaty between political leaders. They knew that social justice and activism alone would not be enough. They knew that religious tolerance and just mixing all beliefs together couldn’t solve anything. They knew we needed a savior and that’s why they rejoiced because they knew who that little baby Jesus was…he was God, come into the world to live and to die in order to go to the root of all war and violence, the human heart.

The angels knew that the little baby Jesus tightly bound in that swaddling cloths would later be bound to a cross to die for the sin and wickedness of our hearts. Glory, glory, glory to God in the highest peace, peace at last, peace on earth among men for whom Jesus came to die for and save!

This is the gospel my friends, peace in Jesus. If we put our faith in Jesus as our savior we will have peace. We need to accept his love and forgiveness for our lack of peace….a lack of peace for not being satisified in God alone. A lack of peace in seeking the praise of other people. A lack of peace for lashing out against others. Jesus peace is practical. It works for the kid on the basketball court and it works for the adult in the shopping mall or the parent trying to raise their children in the ways of the Lord.

Peace is in Jesus. Only Jesus can give peace because he paid the price for our peace, he took his life to the cross to put an end to the war. Colossians 1:14-15 says Jesus took our trespasses and nailed them to the cross, disarming the rulers and principalities, putting them to shame and triumphing over them. Jesus died for sin and its consequence of hell and because of that we can have peace.

That’s the real war. The real war which every war flows out of is the war for our souls. The inner turmoil between us and God. Our lack of peace is not just because there is bad energy against us. It’s not that we don’t have good feng shui and just need to rearrange our furiture. It’s not that we just need to work off some bad karma. Our lack of peace, is peace with God and the only answer is to turn to Jesus Christ. In him we can live a life of peace. In him we can follow God and love him and love our friends and family and the people we work with. In him a stop can be put to the things which turn our motives away from God. In him salvation is found, a salvation from ourselves and a salvation forevermore…a peace that one day will never end.

Conclusion

I’ll conclude with this, Jesus birth was announced by thousands of angels, “peace on earth!” Jesus death was announced by thousands of sinners, “crucify him!” Jesus rose from the dead and his victory was announced by his disciples “he is risen!” When all those who are his have embraced his peace and received him, the Bible says Jesus will return to earth. And when he does he will return with all the host of his angels, they will blow a trumpet, and he will set up his kingdom. He will put a physical stop to all human violence and take those who have had the root of violence dealt with in their heart by the gospel and we will live in a city with him as king together. My question today is, will you be in that number?

Christmas is a wonderful time. It is wonderful because of Jesus. The savior, who is Christ the Lord, born to bring peace on earth. I urge you today, put your faith in Jesus. Find peace in him. We fail at peace on our own, but by believing in him his life gets imparted and it’s a life of peace and joy in his Holy Spirit. In so far as we embrace the gospel, the peace of Jesus will permeate our lives. Kids, adults, families, friends…put your faith and trust in the peace of Jesus. and celebrate and love him this Christmas. May every gift you give and receive remind you of the great gift of Jesus.

Let’s pray.

The Resolved Church | www.theresolved.com
(619) 393-1990 | contact@theresolved.com
All Rights Reserved © The Resolved Church

Permissions: you are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material provided you not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee. For web posting a link to this document is preferred.

December 16th, 2007
Pastor Duane M. Smets

Advent: The Shepherds Candle
Luke 2:8-20 – “The Joy of Jesus”

Luke 2:8-20 8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Introduction
I. The Joy of Shepherds
II. The Joy of All People
III. The Joy of Joy
Conclusion

Introduction

Good morning everyone. We are in the advent season, advent means coming or appearing of Jesus Christ. It’s where Christmas gets it’s name from, from the coming of Jesus. We recognize when he came into the world as a baby and we anticipate the time when he’ll come again to gather all his family together. There are four weeks to advent and this week is the 3rd week where we focus on the joy of Jesus and light the shepherds candle.

Last week I began my sermon talking about Kanye West. So this week I figured I better even things out a bit. San Diego has a been a manufacturer of all kinds of musical artists. Famous artists like Jewel, Blink 182, P.O.D., Switchfoot, As I Lay Dying, and Pinback are all from San Diego. We’re no Seattle or Nashville…but most bands and artists stop through San Diego whenever they go on tour and there are a ton of smaller bands that San Diego keeps pumping out.

If you know anything about music you know there are different genres. There’s country, rock ‘n’ roll, blues, jazz, r&b, classical, hard core, emo, and several others. Are any of you into “emo” music? The term, if you wikipedia it, actually started being used in the late 80′s in reference to one of my favorite bands, Fugzai. But now it has sort of morphed into this classification of music that is either really really sad, or really really angry and can even be used to describe a certain type of dress and hair style. If you’re into self-reflective emo you sort of like being depressed and your favorite thing to do is go home, turn of all the lights, maybe light a candle and sit in the dark listening to music and thinking about how bad your life sucks and crying about it. If you’re into hard-core emo, then you’re just mad and you want to go out and destroy things and light cats on fire or something. It’s actually really funny…it’s kind of a like a secret club with all these unwritten rules. You show up to a concert and you better be wearing converse and something black and just look down a lot…or you’ll probably feel real out of place. Everybody thinks they are all different and you show up to a show and everybody looks the same! I wore my converse today, so I can make fun of it.

I bring it up today because we got a musical genre in our text, it’s angel music, and the theme of this week of Advent is joy…which is kind of different then being really really sad or really really angry. So let’s read our text and pray.

We’re going to work with this text for two weeks. Next week is the last week of Advent which is the angels candle where we talk about the peace of Jesus. So I’m going to save talking about angels for next week. This week I want to talk about shepherds and the message of the angels to them.

The Joy of Shepherds

That there are shepherds in this story and that God had angels announce the birth of Jesus to shepherds isn’t a mistake. There’s something too that. I realize we’re a little disconnected from shepherdness. Shepherding is actually one of the oldest professions on the planet, …just not so much anymore, at least here in San Diego and barely in the U.S. at all.

Dolly, the famous cloned sheep is more popular than shepherding these days. Sheep are still widely used for wool, meat and cheese. Sorry to the vegans, I know that probably makes you cringe. But you can be glad that only about 1 percent of the sheep industry comes from the U.S. though California is the next highest producer after Texas. So shepherding is something pretty distant from us and even the kind of shepherding that happens today is far different. Today you got to have at least 500 sheep and a farm before you can even think about being a shepherd, if you want to make a living at it.

And even then you still don’t make much. You can get a hint of what shepherding was like in Bible times right from our text. Notice it says they were “out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.” How many of you are intersted in working the graveyard shift and being outside all night? Doesn’t sound too fun too me. Shepherding was a pretty low scale job. It was dirty, so shepherds were considered ceremonially unclean to participate in a lot of the Jewish rituals. Shepherding were considered peasants, poor dudes, and they were not even allowed to give a testimony in court, just because they were shepherds. So being a shepherd is pretty low-level job. It might be like working at Jack-in the Box or something.

San Diego doesn’t have shepherding but we got a lot of Jack in the Boxes. That’s because they started here. I was so excited when I turned 15 and could get a workers permit that I did one of the stupidest things I have ever done in my life and I went out and got a job at McDonalds. I worked there for 8 months and by that time I had been there longer than 90% of the staff. Now, I’m sorry if you work at a fast food place, I’d still do it if it came down to it and I needed a job to provide form my family. But I don’t know anyone who is like, “I want to work at a fast food restraunt!” It’s a pretty low-scale job. Like shepherding was.

And not only that but being a shepherd in the Bible put you in this class of society that said you were sort of less than or secondary or just kind of weird and different. In San Diego, we have a pretty thick Catholicism base, it’s particularly big among our Mexican population. That’s because in the 16th century when the Spainards went into Mexico there was the message of the gospel did not come out right. Mexicans felt inferior to the Spainards who thought they were better than the Mexicans because of their Catholic religion. So the story goes that one day, just north of Mexico City, up on the Tepeyac hill, the Catholic Priest Juan Diego, saw a vision of the virgin Mary and she asked him to build a church. When he asked for a sign, she told him to gather some flowers. So he picked a bunch of roses and put them in a cloth and when he presented them to her an image of her with the flowers miraculously appeared imprinted on the cloth. And from that point on, this sign became known as the “virgin of Guadalupe” which means “the brown skinned virgin” which validates and identifies the Mexican people.

Our Mexican neighbors know what is like to feel other than, second-class, like outsiders…just like shepherds. It’s a big deal that God’s angels show up and announce the birth of God’s Son, the creator of the universe, the most important person in the whole world who has ever been born, and he announces it to shepherds…poor, pathetic, dirty, outcasts…shepherds. God had at his command many reliable witnesses to choose from, many honorable and trustworthy people he could have had his angels appear to, like a king or something, but he chooses shepherds. Why?

First, I think God loves to do things like this. Paul, the author of several books in the Bible, talks about how God sent Jesus into the world and writes in 1 Corinthians 1:27 that “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” Jesus birth is announced to shepherds. Jesus is born in a manger, a feeding trough, a dog’s dish, Jesus handpicks his disciples and he chooses guys from another lowly group, fisherman, Jesus starts teaching and preaching and he spend time with other outcasts like lepers and prostitutes and theives and drunks. There is something to this, it is what makes the gospel news.

Let’s look at the message of the angels. Verse 8, “There were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.” I’d be scared too if I saw an angel. “And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

We say we at The Resolved Church want to be a “gospel-centered” church. Here is that word gospel, where it says those two words “good news” there is one Greek word behind it and the word is gospel…I bring you the gospel of great joy that will be for all people. The gospel is first news, it is an announcement. An annoucnement big enough to be made by angels and the news is so good that it brings great joy and joy not just for one person but all kinds of people, even shepherds.

Look at our passage again. The angel shows up and tells them this. Now don’t get hung up on the angels bit, if you’re interested in that, we’ll talk more about angels next week, but look at the next thing the angel says. He says, “And this will be a sign to you.” Why did the shepherds need a sign? Because people already think they are crazy for tending sheep! No one would believe them! I’m sure the angel could see it in their faces. So he doesn’t even give them a chance to respond and just says, now okay, I understand that a lot of people don’t even believe in angels and if you tell them this they may not believe you, so here is a sign…the baby will be born in a manger, a feeding trough, in a dogfood bowl.

You get it? That’s a sign because babies are not normally born in an animal’s dish where animals eat. That’s different. That’s weird. It only happened because all the hotels were booked and the only place they could find to stay was in the stables down at the Del Mar fairgrounds because the guy who was working there that night just happened to have a moment of compassion and let them in.

So the shepherds go there and what is their response? They say, “Hey, let’s go check this thing out…and they leave with haste.” They get there and see baby Jesus, they realize that they were not hallucinating and verse 20 says they “return glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.” It sounds like they are pretty happy.

The Joy of All Peoples

That leaves two main things for us to talk about, the connection of all peoples and joy and the nature of joy itself. The angel says the gospel is good news because it is about a savior for all peoples. Why is it significant that the gospel is for all peoples?

I think that is because there is this dominant idea that has been around for centuries and is still around today, that if you are rich, if you are wealthy and have a lot of money, or if you are born into the right family or country…that means you are privileged. Good things will come for you.

And in many ways doesn’t it seem like that is how it works. If the right set of circumstances are there for you, then you will be okay. If you have enough money then you can buy good health insurance for yourself. If you have enough money you can a good car and a house and go on vacation and that is the good life. The implicit message is that then you will be happy and have joy.

I have a friend who is very wealthy, born into a family where he will be set for life, a multi-millionaire probably billionare easily. He bought his first house when he was 21 which was a huge condo on top of a high rise building. One day we were standing out on his balcony looking out over the city at night and he said this to me. He said, “You know Duane, having money really is better and all the people who say it isn’t just say that because they don’t have it.”

I saw him a few years later, shacked up in a tiny little apartment in New York. He had got rid of all his cars. He had a sweet Porsche I got to drive a couple times. But we went out to dinner and he said to me, “You know Duane, it’s all meaningless, none of it matters.”

So who are the all peoples? They are everyone. Everyone experiences that sense of being alone and outsider, like no one else knows what it’s like to be them and go what you are going through. Even the rich person. Sometimes we are so isolated in our individual lives. We may hang out with other people but never have any real conversations and you fail to realize that other people are going through the same or similar things that you are. The circumstances may be different but the feelings which result are the same.

The message of the gospel from the angel here says it is about a savior for all peoples. I don’t think he was just making a class disctintion about the rich and the poor. And I don’t think he is saying that eveyone, every single person will be saved and embrace the savior, that’s why I say peoples with an “s” meaning peoples from every different kind of place and status and location in life across the world. There is none to whom the gospel does not and cannot apply. Jesus is a sufficient savior for all.

Perhaps a better disctinction is the healthy and the sick. Jesus said in Luke 5:31-32 “Those who are healthy have no need of a doctor but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” What Jesus sees, is that we are all sick, and only those who see themselves as sick are able to embrace him and receive his gift of redemption and forgiveness and life. If you think you are all fine and can figure it out on your own and find your own way…as long as you “lean on your own understanding” as the Proverb says…then Jesus and the good news of salvation found in him will be irrelevant to you.

The Joy of Joy

The hardest thing is being able to see we’re sick because our vision gets so warped, we don’t want to think that we are at fault or that there is anything wrong with us…it is always out there. And yet this experience of isolation and aloneness is so common and we try all these things to absolve it.

This week of advent is about theme of joy. It seems here in our passage that an essential part to joy is seeing yourself as an outcast and then recognizing that though you are an outcast you are included and cared about by God and that brings joy to the heart. Now I realize that there is more to it than that but just think about the nature of joy with me.

What is the opposite of joy? Two main affections come to mind, anxiety and anger. Current statistics says that over 40 million people living in America suffer from anxiety disorders, most common illness. Anti-depressants are the number one prescribed drug creating a 43 billion dollars a year industry. That is insane, 1/3 of the total health bill for the US. That means about one in seven of us suffer from regular anxiety. 3 times more likely to go to the doctor and 6 times for likely to be hospitalized. Personally I don’t know who couldn’t get anxious about life. Life is hard.

I got a thing in the mail just a couple days ago advertising a seminar for health professionals, the title of the seminar is this “Why We Worry: Understanding and Treating Anxiety Disorders.” Here are some of the things on their agenda.

Panic disorder. Fight or flight scenarios…when you are faced with a situation where you either just blow and get angry and cuss someon out or when you just have to leave and get away. Do you every fantasize about leaving…getting out of town, going to another country and changing your name and starting over?

Social anxiety disorder. Being in too large of groups makes you uncomfortable or being in too small of groups. You don’t have many friends and when you do make friends you wonder whether the really like you because you know how weird you are. You like to read books and are into Jesus but you also like tatoos and surfing. Those don’t go together right?

Phobia disorder. Fear, a constant anticipation of the future and thinking about the worst possible scenarios. You worry about whether you are going to make it financially and pay your bills or whether you will find a mate or whether the mate you married will always love you. You worry about whether the church you are pastoring will grow, so that your family can keep eating and you worry about the people you love who make bad decisions and then you can’t sleep at night so you get up and try to make it go away by watching tv but then you feel sick afterward because you just watched two hours of UFC and feel like the only thing that is going to help is beating someone up and that is wrong. : )

Obsessive complusive disorder. Here are some of the things they list: tourettes, hypochondria, skin picking, nail biting, kleptomania, jealousy, gambling and compulsive shopping. Ever do any of those? How about weight gain or weight loss? Or excessive use of alcohol or tobacco?

Post-traumatic stress disorder, horror frozen in your memory from some sort of domestic violence, sexual assault or combat…you have flashback and often just disassociate and daydream away off into space. You try and solve your problem by thinking of everyone and everything you can blame and then you get together with someone else and can talk about how much everyone else suck together.

What about anger? Everything starts with anxiety but then just leads to anger. Someone hurts you misrepresents you mistreats you disrespects you. You get bummed and frustrated about it. Sometimes that happens pretty quickly. What is your response? See ya! You bite back and cut people off.

What is going on here? What are we to do? The seminar’s answer. Therapy, educational prevention, alternative medicine (exercise, aroma treatment, yoga, accupuncture), and medication. It seems to me there has got to be a better answer for why we feel so alone, so anxious, and so angry as a people.

There is. The story of the Bible, the Christmas Advent story. We are all outcasts, like the shepherds. Every person is created by God and designed to be in fellowship with him as their Father, worshipping and serving him who creates all things and takes care of all things. But we have all like sheep, who are notorious for wandering away, have wandered away on our own away from the love and care of God as our Father. We are all rebels and are in rebellion and the result is we feel alone, and sad, and anxious and angry in a dark world.

Into that dark world Jesus comes, the chief shepherd is born in a manager to save us and he is sufficient to save us no matter who we are, where we have come from, what we have gone through, what we have done…He is good news for all peoples because he saves us from ourselves and from the consequences of our sin on the cross.

Jesus comes into the world to save the sick and we are all sick. We are anxious and estranged and Jesus is sufficient to meet oru every need. I’m not saying that you should never take medication or anything and I don’t mean to devalue any of your experiences. I think they are real and they are areas in which Jesus has something to say and something to do in our hearts. It’s the difference between responding to Jesus with the issues of life versus reacting emotionally and try to self-medicate and heal ourselves.

Conclusion

The angel said Jesus was good news of great joy and the shepherds went away glorifying and praising God. Here is how joy works. We recognize that we are far worse than we ever thought and thus far more loved than we could ever have dreamed and that should cause joy to start to arise in our hearts. Knowing that we are loved, that God sees and cares and sent his son into the world to do something about it so that there might be an end to our sufferings.

Jesus suffered through all the anxieties we face. Anxiety and anger is not new, Jesus knew them well and defeated them in his life and defeated them finally and ultimately in his victory over all evil on the cross. And he did that for all peoples. There is none here today who is dealing with something that Jesus did not die for. Jesus is Christ the Lord.

In turning away from our anxieties and turning toward Jesus, our God and savior we begin to experience the joy and satisfaction and security for which we were made. And this joy and striving for this joyfulness through faith in Christ produces a character and a lifestyle that doesn’t get stuck but presses through and is able to abound in the midst of great challenge and hardship. We trust him and follow him and rejoice always, taking everything to him in prayer…that is our way of life as Christians. It is a life of joy and worshipping Jesus who is sufficient for our every need.

Joy gets sustained by worship. So let’s worship Jesus in joyful thanks today as we come before his table to repent of our sin and thank him for his grace.

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Christmas Eve Day
“King Jesus: the God-man is born”
Luke 1:26-38

I. a story
II. the name Jesus
III. the son of God
IV. the everlasting King

Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays. Feliz Navidad. Noel… pick your season’s greeting. for some the bells are ringing, the cash is flowing, the celebrations are under way, the turkey is in the oven, and loved ones are found all together. for others there is no music in their ears, there is no money, it is a dark and hard time and loved ones are nowhere to be found. all cultures in all places across the world have their traditions and we have ours for sure. but what gets masked beneath the layers of the unavoidable festivity is the greatness of the story of Christ being born.

and it doesn’t matter if you are a christian or not, whether you are fan of the story and it is familiar to you or whether it is a faint echo you hear in the songs being played at the stores while you shop. for those who know it well and have celebrated many christmases as followers of Christ there is a numbness to it all that can come. santa, good meals and treats, presents, and playing in the snow (well, not in san diego) all sounds a lot funner than thinking about some middle eastern jewish people who dressed in robes and didn’t have ipods. and on top of it, it’s something that supposedly happened about two-thousand years ago. i feel that. i feel the detachment to this story.

may God have mercy on us for the blind narrowness of our vision. it is my goal today to hopefully ignite or rekindle a passionate love and adoration for the birth of the Son of God this morning… that we might burn with amazement and wonder and deep affection for the supreme God who sent his Son into the world.

this is the fourth and final week of advent. advent is the month of the year that christians throughout the centuries have celebrated the coming of Jesus Christ into the world. the first week focused on the hope of Christ, the second on the peace of Christ, last week on the joy of Christ, and this week on Christ coming as the king. the passage we are going to look at today is found in luke 1:26-38.

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to born will be called holy – the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed her.

in preparing for this sermon during this last week in studying this text and taking some culture notes about opinions of the nativity i realized very quickly that the main issue that comes up, that is challenged or questioned whenever there is real discussion about the nativity story is whether or not the baby Jesus was really God in the flesh. sure people argue about whether Mary was a virgin, whether there were really angels, whether or not this even happened, or if the story we have is just an explanation of Mary or a conjecture of Jesus’ disciples that was made up for one reason or another. but the thing that isn’t really even on most radar, the thing that is most quickly dismissed as absurd and preposterous is that the baby Jesus was God in the flesh. this is simply just unacceptable to our modern or postmodern minds.

and me, when i watch a 20/20 special called “the real nativity story” or when i see a special on the history channel, or when i read an article in newsweek called “the nativity of the jews”, and the main theme and tone of these pieces is to tell that none of is really true and if any of it is we have an extremely distorted and extended view of what really happened, i get kind of pissed. the writers or hosts of these specials speak as though they were doing us a favor and telling “christians” that they know something we don’t and we are primitive imbeciles for believing such a thing and should really wake up and get serious. so my response is ok then, let’s get serious. and in gearing up for this morning i was ready fight. i love a debate and i love honesty and openness and truth and when i know something is being falsely portrayed and they are only quoting liberal scholars, well the history channel did have one of my Talbot professors on it (the one conservative), then my reaction is be like okay, you want to talk reason and you want to talk scholarship, then let’s go, let’s take off the gloves and step into the octagon and see who wins. do it UFC style you know. J

but when i was thinking about that it didn’t seem very christmassy. i realized that setting up the theological arguments and textual debates and going through all of that to prove to you that the gospel records are reliable and that there is good solid reason to believe that what happened is true and that the baby Jesus was really God…that didn’t feel right for christmas eve day. so if you want that, take our theology course and we’ll get into it there.

what i want to do today is to tell you a story and then look at a few things in this text from Luke that we read. i’m not going to go through every little bit that is there like we do when we are studying through a book like Romans, but we’ll still do some exegesis and see how incredible God’s Word is.

a story

so i want to tell you a story. hopefully it will help us see and understand a little better what was going on here.

most of you know that besides pastoring this church i also work at a group home for teenagers. the kids are from 13-17 and they eat, sleep, and go to school there. last week a new girl and her boyfriend came to live with us. jeremy and melissa. normally, we would never accept a boyfriend and girlfriend together but this is a weird situation. they are both seventeen and it is a weird situation because in california you can get married if you are under eighteen if you have parental consent and both of these kid’s parents have said they can get married, so jeremy and melissa are engaged and their county social workers and our program director are all trying to do something to help them and this situation out.

they both come from poor families like all the kids who come to live with us. i helped check jeremy in and he had all of his possessions in a backpack and one of those blue rubbermaid bins. so they are both there now. but the situation has gotten more complicated. both nice kids. jeremy is super into cars. in his rubbermaid bin he had a bunch of hotrod magazines. i guess his dad is a mechanic and that what he wants to be. melissa is a pretty quiet girl. i don’t know her as well because i work on the guys side. but in her room she has a few pictures of her with her colorguard team. i guess she has done colorguard at her high school the last few years.

so last week a couple of days after they got to new alternatives where i work, we found out that melissa is pregnant. and if the situation wasn’t weird enough already, melissa, who seems like this very honest and well behaved girl, swears that she has never had sex. neither with jeremy or any other boy. and when the social workers and female staff have questioned her about it she has this wild story that an angel came to her in her room four nights ago and said that she was going to be pregnant and told her what to name the baby and said that when her baby grew up that he was going to be great, that he would be the Son of God and that he would become the president and that his term would never end and he would never die.

obviously, all of us are like yeah right. but melissa swears its true. she says that she told the angel she had trouble with it at first too and when she asked the angel how such a thing could be the angel told her that in some supernatural way that God’s spirit would come over her and by his power would cause her to be pregnant and that the child to be born would then be the holy one of God. and melissa says that the angel told her that God had opened the wombs of barren women in the past and that because God is God and can do things that are impossible that he could make her be pregnant without her ever even having sex.

that’s my story and in case you didn’t figure it out yet…i made it up. i made up that story because i think that because of the time and because of the historical and cultural different between us and what happened we fail to see the greatness of what happened when God came into the world. this story shows how great the God is that we believe in. if there really is a God and if God is really worth worshipping and living our lives for then this is the kind of God he would be…a God who doesn’t come into the world in all his pomp saying look at me look at me but comes in the most humble of circumstances to show why he is worthy of worship.

he comes to a poor, meek little girl, and reveals his glory. it would have been so easy for God to come into the world in a way where there would be no question about whether or not he was God and all the world would not be the least bit skeptical about it but rather than that he creates what looks like a scandal and reveals his glory in the middle of it. all throughout the Bible God does this…he shows up to a nobody named abraham and reveals his glory in the hiddenness of a burning bush, he shows up to another nobody named moses and reveals his glory in plagues so that the jews get kicked out of egypt, he shows up to the smallest boy, a lowly shepherd of a family who had seven other older, more capable boys, and makes that boy a king. yes, God is a God who loves to show he is God in unique ways that reflect all the goodness of his perfect character.

the name Jesus

okay i want to look at some things in our text for today that really point to the greatness of who Jesus is. thinking about the context of this story can easily cause us to get wrapped up more with Mary and her role in all of this than Jesus. and don’t get me wrong because Mary is amazing. she becomes the first christian, a great example of faith to us all and not only that but one of her other sons, James, becomes the pastor of one of the biggest churches in the first century. but this story is mainly about God and his glory revealed in Jesus.

so we’re going to skip the cultural things about Nazareth, a small poor town that Mary came from, and we’ll skip the things about Mary’s virginity and how she was betrothed or engaged to Joseph when she was probably between the ages of 12-14 and we’ll skip looking at the angel’s greeting and what it means how mary had trouble with it. basically, calling her “favored one” doesn’t mean she did something or earned favor with God but that God chose her out of all of human history to be the mother of God which is a huge huge privilege…she is a favored, the recipient of a monumental blessing. so let’s pick the story up at verse 31 when the angel says, “and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus.”

why the name Jesus? it wasn’t a name that had never been used before. other people had been called Jesus. in greek it is ee-ay-soos (Ihsouv) and in hebrew it is yay-shew-ah (ewvwhy) and it means “the LORD is salvation” or “the LORD saves.” the name or word God has several things that are associated with it, different attributes and characteristics…but the name of God in the flesh was first meant to be specifically associated with salvation. some may have named their child Jesus because of their spiritual devotion to God but this child was named Jesus because of who he would and what he came to do. save.

God came into the world and he came to save…Jesus, the savior. in the account according to the disciple Matthew, we read that an angel appears to Mary’s fiancé Joseph as well and the angel says this to him, “you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins (Mt 1:21).” so from the start, we learn that Jesus came into the world to solve the spiritual problem that we have as human beings. and our problem is God. we are estranged from him. we doubt his existence and yet he is the thing we long for. and even when we have times when we realize the truth of who he is we quickly resort back into living our lives as though he doesn’t. we are made to be happy in God and we are not because we have an internal spiritual problem…sin and Jesus came to save us from it and its consequences by being born and by dying on a cross and rising again.

J.I. Packer says in his book knowing God says this, “the crucial significance of the cradle at bethlehem lies in its place in the sequence of steps that led the Son of God to the cross of calvary…” the wonder of God becoming man and being born as a baby is that he was born to die for us in order to save us. he saves us from the power of sin so that we may begin to taste true satisfaction in God and he saves us from the consequence of sin so that we will not suffer eternal death but rather eternal joy forever and ever with God because he died that death for us in our place. that is what takes my breath away…that God, who has no need of anything, became a baby and from the moment he was conceived in the womb of mary…every bit of food, every sip of drink, every thought, every conversation, every act of his life growing up, every single thing he experienced was all purposely part of his mission to go to the cross and die.

think of that. how much Jesus loves us that for 33 years every single thing he did, all the while knowing he was God, but in everything he did we were present in his mind as the reason for doing what he was doing. that is incredible. Jesus, the LORD saves!

the Son of God

then look at the next verse in Luke, “he will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.” this is where some interject and they say, “see it just says ‘son’ it doesn’t say that Jesus was very very God himself.” but listen to how the angel clarifies himself to mary in verse 35, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to born will be called holy – the Son of God.” the description is very clear. the holy spirit will come upon you. so this work will be a work of God. what kind of work? one where a unique use of God’s power will occur and the result will be that the child will be the holy son of God. holy means separate, different, divine…the divine Son of God.

the phrase “son of God” has a few different uses in the Bible. sometimes it is used as references to mankind in general in that we are created by God…sons of God. culturally, sometimes rulers were called the “son of God.” but when referring to Jesus the term has a special designation in the bible as being the heavenly eternal Son who is equal to God himself. “son of God” was a title Jesus allowed himself to be called by, it was one of the things that made the Jewish leaders really mad because they understood that he was claiming to be God. listen to how John describes Jesus as the son of God. “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Jesus Christ (Jn 1:1,14,17).”

but what does it mean to say that Jesus was the “son of God.” does it mean that first there was God before there was Jesus. but then God procreated, making a son so that now there are two gods? that is what some have suggested. but is that really what is going on here? is this story about mary, and all the references to Jesus being the Son of God really just another story like Zeus and Ganymade or Poseidon and Caeneus, the Greek gods who would come down to earth and have sex with humans resulting in another god?

i don’t think so. not only is the angel’s description very careful in his choosing of words to clearly say that mary gets pregnant by God’s supernatural power and not by God having sex with her, but the Bible means something different when it says Jesus is the Son of God. it is a use of human terminology, a metaphor, to describe what in some ways Jesus is like…it is a reference to Jesus’ divine role. in the Bible Jesus is eternally the son of God, long before the angel came to mary…when that happened is just the point in history when Jesus permanently took on human flesh.

there are times long before mary became pregnant when Jesus showed up. the name “Israel” was given to Jacob, the son of Abraham, after the Bible describes him wrestling with God in the form of a man. there are other references, but just to make it clear that the Bible does in fact teach that Jesus as the Son of God means his eternal role as God, listen to Hebrews chapter one, “…(God) has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by his powerful word (Heb 1:2-3).”

now that is a little mind stretching i know. i just want us to try and get our heads around how huge this is. this angel comes to mary and says that the eternal son of God, the one who made the universe, God of God himself, is going to come into the world and be born as a baby in her stomach. this is nearly insane. it is no wonder luke says in verse 29, “But she was greatly troubled at the saying.” and then asks “how can this be.”

then the angel replies with some good solid logic and philosophy. i mean it. one of the most frustrating things about those news pieces is that they like to pit these issues as issues of reason versus feeling. where if you believe these things then that is just wishful religious and spiritual feeling that if you listened to reason you would simply not accept. but the angel here gives some good sound reasoning when he answers mary and explains how she will give birth to the son of God. listen again to his words, verse 37 “nothing will be impossible with God.” that is good reasoning. if there is a God, then there is a being who is all-powerful…not limited by the constraints of time, space, gravity, and matter…he made it all and upholds it all by the power of his word and he can change it at any moment if he chooses because he is God…there is nothing too impossible for him to do! that is good logic. sound philosophy. i love it.

there is no question that what the angel was telling mary was that she would give birth to the God-man himself. there is a lot more that could be said about this. questions of how to rightly conceive of Jesus being a God-man and how it played out in his life. but we are going to move to on this morning. if you want more of that i gave a teaching recently at the last theology on tap called “the theoanthropos – a hypostatic union” and you can now download it online under the theology section of our website.

the everlasting King

the last thing i want to point out in our text today is in verse 32 and 33 where the angel says, “And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” so far we have learned that this baby will be our savior, that he is God himself, and now we learn that he is an everlasting king.

look at that phrase “the throne of David.” David was the first real king of Israel, the Jewish people. he solidified the kingdom. defeated all Israel’s enemies so there was peace. and spiritual and material prosperity began to flow through the nation which continued in even greater proportion during the reign of David’s son Solomon. but from David on, he gets permanently branded as being the royal father of the Jews. so it is clearly said here that Jesus will be a king.

later in Luke’s gospel (Luke 23) just moments before Jesus was crucified, the jewish leaders bring him before pilate and say, “we found this man misleading our nation…and saying that He himself is Christ, a King.” and so Pilate asks him, “are you the king of the jews?” and Jesus says, “It is as you say.” Jesus the king. the king who dies for his people.

and the angel tells us a little more…not only will he be the king but he will be the king forever. do you see that…”he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. and of his kingdom there will be no end.” no end. not in time nor in breadth. that is why Jesus is the king for all people and for all time. there is no end to his reign.

so what kind of king is Jesus? at this point we could easily just spiritualize his kingship and say he is simply a spiritual king and his reign is in our hearts. and that is true. Jesus came to save us from our sins. our allegiance from birth as humans is to wickedness and Jesus comes to deliver us from that and begins to extend his reign and rule so that we start to truly love righteousness and hate wickedness.

but there is more. Jesus taught that there were two comings. the time when he came in a manger, to humble himself and to deal with our spiritual problem…and the time when he would come again in all his power and glory demonstrating to all that HE is king over all. listen to Jesus words in Matthew 24, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come…(as) lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be…And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky…and (all) will see the son of man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory…And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other (Mt 24:14,27,30-31).”

what a day that will be. there will be no question on that day who is king. Paul who wrote the book of romans that we are studying and will get back to in January…in philippians just after he describes Jesus coming into the world he too talks about this second coming of Christ. he says that then that, “at the name of Jesus of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:10-11).”

are we ready for that. the way that you can tell is whether you long for it or whether you are afraid of it. but one thing is for sure and that is Jesus is the everlasting king. he is the king of heaven, the king of our hearts, and will come and show himself to be the king of the earth.

in conclusion there is one last thing i want to point out about Jesus being our king. and that is the idea of a monarchy itself. here in america we live in a democracy with a president and a senate and house of representatives and this whole governmental structure that is completely different than a society that is ruled by a king. the whole king thing is just kind of foreign i think…at least it is to me.

but i think it is important for us to know that there is no hope in any human government because humans are weak and sinful no matter how you structure them together. the point is that our only hope is that we have God as our king. the perfect ruler who will never fail us. when God is king that is called a theocracy. and that is what God has intended all along…he has just been patient with humanity in demonstrating that to us.

there is a passage of scripture that comes to my mind every time elections come around or when people get really hyped up about politics and this and that. and i’m not saying that isn’t wrong or there isn’t a place for christians in all that. but that is not where our hope lies. this passage is in 1 Samuel 8 before David comes on the scene, before there was ever a king in Israel…but the people come to Samuel, who along with the judges of the land led the people, and the people say they want a king so they can be like all the other nations around them…God’s reply is wrenching. he says to samuel to go ahead and give them a king and then listen to God’s next words to samuel, he says “they have note rejected you but they have rejected me from being king over them (1 Sam 8:7).” you see, God intends to be king over us and it is the only way we are satisfied.

conclusion

king Jesus, son of God, savior. it’s christmas eve. the day before our the birthday of the king of the universe. in every sermon i try to give us some application…and as i took all of this in it seems that what we are left with is thanks. knowing what we know…what this story tells us about Jesus…my heart is overwhelmed with thanks to God for sending Jesus into the world. miracle of miracles. Christ the savior is born.

let’s just worship and adore our God today. my hope is that something from this morning’s sermon would take a seat deep inside you and just sit there and that we would go home to our friends and families or wherever we go and have a deep sense of thanks and joy for Jesus. as we come to the table this morning, let’s have especially have a heart of thanks to God for being born to die. he became a baby, flesh and blood, bread and wine, in order to die for us. as we come to give of our money, let’s have a heart of thanks for Jesus. we don’t pay any dues or tithes here…we just give gifts of thanks to our God.

in most governments you protect the ruler whether it is a king or a president or emperor or whatever. but this king, king Jesus, is the one who goes out in front of all to protect us, he gives his life for us. the most worthy king of all. and in most governments only the rich and powerful know the ruler and have access to him. but not with king Jesus. he goes after the lost, the outcast, the poor, the messed up and invites all to come and sit at his royal table and to dine with him. that’s the gospel. the gospel of the kingdom of Christ.

let’s worship our king. spread the news of how great his kingdom is. and let’s give our lives for it…from our time, to our gifts, to our money. let’s give ourselves to the king and do everything we can to support and spread his kingdom.

let’s pray.

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Luke 2:8-20 8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

the third week of advent – JOY

introduction
I. the background of our joy
A. shepherdness vs.8
B. fearfulness vs.9-10a
II. the foundation for our joy
A. good news for all vs.10
B. a savior who is Christ the Lord vs.11-12
III. heaven expresses joy vs.13-14
IV. earth expresses joy vs.15-20
conclusion

introduction

good morning. today is our third sunday in this month of december celebrating the advent of our Lord. advent means coming or appearing and refers to this season when we pay particular attention to that pinnacle time in all of history when God came to mankind in the person of Jesus in order to save us. there are four weeks of advent that the church as a whole throughout the ages has celebrated, the first focuses on Jesus as our hope, the second on Jesus as our peace, the third on Jesus as our joy, and the forth on Jesus as our king. this is the third week, so we have three of the four candles lit today and the title of my message is “good news of great joy” and we are going to study the gospel of Luke chapter 2, verses 8-20.

my plan is simply work with this passage of Luke today. there is an interconnectedness to each of the themes in advent, these different aspects wrapped up in Jesus coming. in this passage of Luke we will see each of these themes but what i want to do is to really focus in on the joy aspect that is present here.

joy, like a lot of “christian words” is another one of those slippery words where i am not totally sure about exactly what it means. i don’t know if you ever feel like i do but sometimes it seems to me that in being a christian you sort of adopt all this special vocabulary that doesn’t really make sense to anyone else outside of the “christian circle.” maybe there isn’t any way around that and maybe that is okay.

but i hope today to try and answer some of our questions about joy. what is it? what is joy? is it happiness, gleeful laughter, smiles and fun and games? or is it serenity, assurance, satisfaction and a calm and collected grin? what about a tear of joy? is it pleasure and what has it to do with desire? what does it mean to be joyful? how do you rejoice? what is mean for Jesus to be our joy and that the gospel is good news of great joy? what is joy? is it a temporary feeling of elation or is it a deep rooted unchanging thing? what is joy?

we may not answer all of those questions but i want to try. so let’s read Luke 8-20 and then pray.

God, owner of the universe, determiner of all things who alone has all power and all knowledge, when the fullness of time came you sent your Son into the world you made. when reading this story there is a sense of extreme significance for all of history before that moment and all of history afterward hangs on the climax of its significance. i ask you today my God that you would awe your people. as you appeared to those shepherds long ago and displayed your glory would you shine your light into our hearts that we might see the glory of the savior and be filled with great joy. teach us about joy from your Word. may my mouth as the preacher be one that magnifies the greatness of your Word and praises Jesus for the joy he brings. Amen.

I. the background of our joy
A. shepherdness

we come to this story and the first thing we encounter are some shepherds. i suppose there are still shepherds around today because i think a lot of clothes are still made from the wool taken off sheep. but i’ve never seen or met a shepherd even though i do know some things about them because shepherds are kind of a big deal in the bible and i’ve studied the bible a lot.

we read first that these shepherds were “in the same region.” that is reference back to the few verses before that talked about Joseph and Mary, the human parents of Jesus, going to the city of Bethlehem right before Jesus is born. Bethlehem is in the region of Judea so these shepherds could have been anywhere within about a 30 mile radius of the small little town of Bethlehem.

now it says that these shepherds were “out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.” this is an interesting and perhaps very telling detail because shepherds usually only lived outside during the warmer months of the middle east, like march through about november at the latest. this is one reason why many believe that Jesus was probably born during the summer sometime. it is funny to me how much debate there is over the time of Jesus birth, there are actually different arguments for every single month of the year.

it seems like the date we have now was set by during the reign of constantine’s in the early fourth century after he, as the ruler of the whole roman empire became a christian. he wanted to purify and unify their holidays and so it seems that the pagan holiday “sol invictus” which was a festival to the birthday of the “invincible sun” was exchanged and made into celebration of the time when Jesus Christ was born. i actually kind of like that idea…of taking something from culture and redeeming it’s gospel value.

okay, so some stuff about shepherds and what that has to do with the gospel of joy. to be a shepherd was a lowly job. nobody ever really wanted to be a shepherd. they were peasants at the bottom scale of society, considered ceremonially unclean to participate in a lot of the jewish rituals and they were considered unreliable and therefore not allowed to testify in court. being a shepherd would kind of been like being one of the guys at mcdonald’s who makes hamburgers. it’s just a crappy job that nobody wants. sorry, if you work at mcdonald’s. i love you.

and God chooses shepherds to be among the few groups of people who he announces the birth of Jesus. the glory of God shows up after nothing significant has happened for at least 400 years. it seems as though God is dead and gone and all those miracles of the past perhaps didn’t ever really happen. and God finally shows up and the recipients of this divine visitation amidst the darkness of the night…are shepherds. poor, pathetic, dirty, outcasts. shepherds.

God had at his command many reliable witnesses to choose from, many honorable and trustworthy people he could have had his angels appear to, like a king or something. but he chooses shepherds. why? one, because this gospel, this Jesus would be for all people, no matter what race or class in society, no matter how much one had screwed up their life. this Jesus came into the world for the outcasts for those who feel different than everyone else, for those who feel empty and lost and alone and confused and hurting. for those who find themselves stuck time and time again in bad situations and bad decisions that leave them broken and seemingly beyond hope.

as long as this church exists there will be a place here in our community for the outcasts of society no matter whether you are gay, or a bum, or if you are just not cool, or if you are black, asian, mexican, or if you are handicapped in some way, or if you are a stripper, dime bag junkie, porn addict, or if you are rich and a cut-throat business man…there is room for you here to pursue God with us. there are no qualifications.

so that is one reason why i think God chose to reveal himself to shepherds. the other reason i think is because of the uniqueness of the trade. shepherding, though a dirty task, is a unique one. the whole of their job description involved caring for sheep…leading them to places where there is food to eat and where there is water to drink. protecting the sheep from other animal predators who may come in to kill them and eat them. from the time a little baby sheep was born most shepherds would name them and the shepherd could tell the difference between the sheep and all the time that little sheep was growing up he would call them by name and the sheep learned the shepherd’s voice to trust him and follow him. these are endearing qualities. i don’t think it is just coincidence between this story and Jesus words when he grew up and began preaching and said “I am the good shepherd” who lays down his life for his sheep (Jn 10:11).

shepherdness, the foundation for our joy. we are an interesting people. i don’t think anyone would ever say that they don’t want joy. here is where it begins. it doesn’t matter whether we see ourselves as the sheep who needs a shepherd to lead them or whether we see ourselves as the shepherd outcast who needs someone to love them…the point is that the gospel begins at the point where we recognize that we have a need. that we need Jesus and that we always need him. that he is where joy is found.

I. the background of our joy
B. fearfulness vs.9-10a

the next step on the road to joy, or the thing that prepares us for joy, is fear. verse 9 says, “an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were filled with fear. and the angel said fear not, for i bring you good news.” we will talk about the angels and this amazing thing that happened in a minute but first notice that the angel does not condemn their fear.

the shepherds rightfully responded in fear at such a sight. John Calvin is so good here, he says this, “…it is profitable for the minds of men to be struck with awe that they may learn to “give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name…and so (to) fall down lifeless at the sight of God because he appears to them as…a judge. But to revive the minds of the shepherds, the angel declares that he was sent for a different purpose, to announce to them the mercy of God.”

throughout the Bible whenever anything like this happens the immediate response from humans is fear. and i’m sure that an angel ever showed himself to me or any of you our response would be the same. why? the reason is because at the sight of God automatically our moral person kicks into high gear and when recognize or realize that God is true, and then shame at our doubt, recognition of our sins and guilt would fill our minds and we would recognize that we rightly and most probably are about to receive the consequent judgment from God for it.

in that moment i am sure that the shepherd’s response was not unlike the prophet Isaiah’s in the temple when he saw God seated upon his thrown with two angels flying about calling out holy holy holy is the Lord and Isaiah said, “woe is me, i am a man of unclean lips and i live among a people of unclean lips (Is. 6:5).” woe is a death sentence. isaiah thought he was about to die for his sin and i am sure the shepherds thought the same here.

so here is the second thing that prepares us for joy, fear. the first is recognizing that we have a need the second is recognizing how great our need is. it is a desperate need. an eternally desperate one upon which life and death hangs. i don’t recognize my need for God enough and i’m not afraid of God enough and i’m convinced that the more i realize my need for him that the more i am able to see how good the good news really is and begin to discover this great great joy. let’s look at the foundation of this joy. what it consists of.

II. the foundation for our joy
A. good news for all vs.10

the first thing is what we talked about already, that the gospel is for all. the angel announces that he is not here for judgment, there is a day the bible talks about when angels will come for the purpose of judgment and will rain the wrath of God upon the earth. but the time the angels come here in luke is a joyous occasion because Jesus has come to make a way for all kinds of people to be welcomed into the family of God regardless of who they are or what they have done. the offer of the gospel goes out to all people and will save people from every kind of place and culture.

i think that is what is meant by all. the angel wasn’t saying that everyone was going to be saved by this Jesus but that he would be for all peoples. it is what Jesus said when he said, “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd (Jn 10:16).” it was good news because those who had not been considered part of the fold would now be welcomed in. the angel was announcing a shift from God’s particular working with the Jews to a time when all kinds and classes of people would be privileged, even shepherds and other outcasts.

II. the foundation for our joy
B. a savior who is Christ the Lord vs.11-12

the next thing in the text and really the main thing that is the substance or foundation for our joy is Jesus himself. verse 11 says, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

now my whole sermon really could have been on just these two verses. and we will focus a little more intently next week on who Jesus is, so i’m not going to exhaust everything here but instead point out a few things in these verses that illuminate the greatness of Jesus.

there are four identifying marks concerning the person who is the reason for this joyous news from the angel. two are jewish references and two are roman references. the two jewish references are the city of david and this word “Christ.” David was Israel’s greatest king, a strong leader who really put Israel on the map for the first time, he was a man after God’s own heart, he started out as a shepherd, and Bethlehem was the city he lived in and it was prophesied over 700 years earlier that a messiah, who was to be greater than David, would come and shepherd the people (Micah 5).

the word “Christ” is not Jesus last name but a designation meaning messiah or anointed one. orthodox jews today are still waiting and hoping for the messiah to come because they do not believe Jesus was the Christ since he did not bring military and political peace in his coming.

the two roman references are that this Jesus is to be a savior and a Lord. the common title for the emperor or the ceasar of rome at the time of Jesus was “Lord.” and even more interesting is that we have an inscription from the same time period which calls Augustus, the emperor of the time, “savior” and it says “the birth date of our God has signaled the beginning of the good news for the world.” so calling Jesus savior and Lord was like making a claim to the imperial throne of rome.

that is how the jewish leaders of Jesus’ day got him crucified, by presenting Jesus to the roman government as being a malcontent disrupting and challenging the peace and authority of rome.

we could talk a lot about these four identifying marks but i don’t think the shepherds or mary or any of Jesus disciples understood everything right away in how Jesus fit each of these titles and so i think i can get away with simply saying this. i think what luke does, or rather what the angel does by what he says is that he identifies this Jesus person to be greatest person who will ever have lived. he assigns him names and titles that all put together crown him as the king of all kings and Lord of all lords.

one of the main names used for God in the old testament was LORD, so “Lord” was not a term significant to the roman only. and we could go too far here, but at the very least Luke has already presented Jesus as the son of God, the son of the LORD most high…and as such Jesus is declared the Lord of the universe, the ruler of all rulers, and the king of all kings. and despite the expanse of his reign he has come for his people and in the most humble and meanest of circumstances…in the form of man as a baby who spends his first nights sleeping in a dirty feeding trough made for horses and donkeys.

this is the scandal of the christmas story. not so much that Mary got pregnant and her fiancé wasn’t the father…but that God became man in Jesus in order to die for his people. the scandal is the humiliation of Jesus, the savior, the Lord, the Christ, the king of all laying aside the obvious marks of his deity in order to undergo the suffering and weakness of being a mistreated human from the time of his birth to the time of his death when he was very God of very God.

next week we will talk more about Jesus being this God-man but at this point just stop and realize the staggering beauty of such a thing happening. it is a wonder of all wonders. all people have come from one man, Adam and from him we have all been corrupted. now in Jesus comes one unlike any we have ever conceived. one who holds all the most perfect and admirable qualities. and not just that in some sort of detached philosophical way but one who is intimately and individually for each of us. that is amazing. that is a joyful thing. the being of Jesus is the beginning and the end of our joy. all the world and all of our lives come together in worshipping him. and that is what how both the heavenly angels and the earthly shepherds respond to this announcement…in joyful worship.

III. heaven expresses joy vs.13-14

look at the angels’ response. up to this point there had only been one angel appearing and speaking and all of the sudden it says, a multitude of heavenly host appear. the word “host” could also be translated “armies.” literally hundreds of thousands of angels filling the sky and making the night as bright as day. perhaps it was the same host Jesus referred to when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus but and the disciples wanted to fight and he told them to put away their swords because he said at once he could call down twelve legions of angels (Mt 26:53). twelve legions is about 60,000 angels.

and then imagine 60,000 angels singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” what a sight. this is crazy exciting stuff. a blaze of heavenly glory. a dazzling lustre displayed in the heavens where this royal entourage explodes in praise at Christ being born! it is exactly what you would expect if the God of the universe became a man and was born into this world. his divine glory may have been hidden underneath the rags covering the fresh baby skin newly welded to the being of God, but it was not hidden from the angels, and it was revealed to the shepherds and has now been revealed to us.

and how can our response not be the same? this exhibition of divine splendor with which God adorns the birth of his son beckons us to praise. how can we refuse to join with this choir of angels? it is only brutal and sinful stupidity that keeps our hearts from leaping with zeal to praise God and to be inflamed with joy in this song of the angels…glory glory glory to God!

and lest we think that joy exists as some sort of spiritual experience where we feel this great excitement, Luke, our narrarator, describes an earthly response…how this insane experience of joy plays out in the long run.

IV. earth expresses joy vs.15-20

watch what happens with the shepherds. “when the angels went away from them into the heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘let us go over to bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.’ And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”

the shepherds do three things: they go to see Jesus, the go and tell about Jesus, and then they go back and live in the joy of Jesus. do you see those three things. first they say, “let us go…” and then Luke tells us “they went with haste.” can you feel the excitement? the zeal? this is what they had been longing for all their lives and like penny lane from almost famous they knew “it was all happening.”

then look where it says, “they made known (what) had been told (to) them.” they started telling people what they had seen and heard. God is with us. the savior is born. there is now an answer to the longing of our hearts.

and then i love the last thing this story says about the shepherds when it says, “and the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God.” they returned. they went back to taking care of sheep but you know i’m sure taking care of those sheep would never be the same again for those shepherds. they had been exposed to the joy of the universe and were forever changed.

i think there are some great lessons here for us about what joy is like and how following Jesus effects us. first, there is the going to Jesus. all have a longing for joy, like i said earlier i don’t think that is something anyone would dispute, but it is recognizing that joy in life comes from following after Jesus. the life of the christian is one which goes to find him and goes to find him. we wake up in the morning looking for Jesus and throughout the day we continually search for Him as the source of our joy.

the second lesson here is the telling about Jesus. the sharing of our joy with others. one of my favorites verses is in the smallest book of the bible, philemon, and it says, “i pray that you may be active in sharing your faith so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ Jesus (philemon 6 [NIV]).” it is true that our own joy is propelled and increased in the sharing of Jesus with others.

and third lesson here is the living a life of joy. the girls bible study here at the resolved church is studying a book called “desiring god” and the thesis of the book is that God is most glorified when humans realize that they are made for joy and that joy is in God. the first line of the westminster confession says, “the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” and that is what we at the resolved are about…making a big deal about God because that is what makes us happy. the heartbeat of our lives is continually pursuing our happiness in the being of God himself.

conclusion

let’s conclude this sermon. in the beginning i asked a whole slew of questions about joy. and i think maybe this passage of scripture has helped with some of them. not all of them for sure. i still have my questions. but here is what i think this text has given us. it seems that like faith there are a few different aspects to joy.

it seems that joy is first an intellectual or worldview thing where you come to believe that humans are made for joy and that joy is in knowing God through following Jesus. i think that is where the deep rooted, serenity, assurance aspect of joy comes from. i think having this kind of core belief or conviction is what enables joy in the middle of hard, difficult, and painful experiences because there is a sense of the truth of God residing within and that no matter what is joyful.

then it seems that joy is an emotional experience that can occur. that there are moments of time when we have laughter and fun and pleasure and we are experiencing a taste of what we eternally made for, happiness. last night amy and i were having dinner and we were talking about my sermon a little bit and she asked me if i thought non-christians could have joy. my answer was yes, i think non-christians experience moments of happiness, but it that it only occurs in the brief emotional way because it is not rooted in the ground of joy what joy really is. thus it lacks the fully quality of peace and satisfaction.

and lastly it seems to me that discipline is a part of joy, that there is a volitional will element to it. there is an ebb and flow in life. trials come and God stretches us and challenges us in order to teach us deeper depths of joy and to open us up to new and different experiences of His pleasure.

as a pastor, many people will come to me with their problems, which is fine, that is part of what i am here for…but my response is always, “well, what are you doing to pursue joy in God.” we so easily think that we just need this, or we just need that (and i’m in this too), but what we really need is to stop, spend some time on our knees praying, spend some time reading God’s word, spend some time going outside and realizing the glory of God’s creation, spend some time eating a good meal and drinking a good drink and thinking about how God made it taste so good, or to spend some time thinking about Jesus and who he is and what he has done for us.

John Calvin says, “…to rejoice in the salvation brought to us by Christ (is a) blessing so great and boundless, as fully to compensate for all the pains, distresses, and anxieties of the present life.”
let me conclude with one last quote. this from jonathan edwards in the best and hardest book you can read about joy, “the religious affections.”

“The love and joy of the saints on earth is the beginning and dawning of the light, life, and blessedness of heaven…as it is with the love of the saints, so it is with their joy and spiritual delight and pleasure…it primarily consists in the sweet entertainment their minds have in the contemplation of the divine and holy beauty of these things as they are in themselves. And therefore, the religion of heaven consists chiefly in affection of holy love and joy.”

let’s pray.