God's Only Son

Burlington – God’s Only Son - December 17, 2024

Scriptures: 2 Samuel 7:12-14a, Isaiah 7:14-15, Isaiah 9:6-7, Micah 5:1-5a, Matthew 26:26-28, Philippians 2:7, Colossians 1:15-17, Hebrews 1:1-3

(Greeting). As all of us prepare for the coming Christmas holiday, I just want to remind you that we are a family. First, we are children of the Most High God, believers in Jesus Christ as our Risen Savior, Amen? But we are also a family within our community and this congregation. Holidays can be difficult for us for many reasons, so I just felt called by the Lord to remind you. If you’re struggling, you’re not alone. And sometimes, because we’re not alone as the Lord walks along beside us and if saved we’re filled with the Holy Spirit. He is always present and available to comfort and support us. We still might need to feel a sense of God’s presence because we’re having a conversation, a cup of coffee, even a phone call or a text from someone else who shares our faith. We are called to bear each other’s burdens and to pray for each other. So, if you’re struggling, and you’re not reaching out for help? Well, my budget doesn’t have room for coal to put in stockings. We can always pray generically for each other, but we can’t pray specifically for a need, heal each other by the power of the Holy Spirit, if we don’t know what’s going on. So please, please, for even the smallest reason, reach out to one of us in your church family. He loves us with an everlasting love, and this is how people know that we are Christians. That we love one another. Ok?

Last week we walked through several scriptures to help us try and understand God’s plan for salvation which came through a young woman from Nazareth named Mary. How more than 900 years before the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, and afterwards, to Joseph, the birth of Jesus Christ was predicted when God spoke to King David through the prophet Nathan. (SLIDE) 2 Samuel 7:12-16 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.

At the end of last week’s discussion, we talked about two specific reasons why we can believe in the virgin birth, and the truth of scripture as we have it today. (SLIDE) The writings we read as 1st & 2nd Samuel, were written by Samuel up to a point, then the prophets Gad and Nathan for 2nd Samuel. Those are also the three prophets in 1st Chronicles. 1st & 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Chronicles are considered historically accurate. The timeline is between 1100 and 900 BC when there was United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, then David, and Solomon. This chart was created by pastor, writer, East Africa missionary, Anthony Scott Ingram. His website is AnthonyIngram.com if you want to look at his ministry.

As discovered with the Dead Sea scrolls, segments of Samuel that you could look at today, not touch, but view, have been dated to between 349 and 318 BCE. When I was younger, I thought BC meant before Christ, and AD meant after death, and really, they did. The term Anno Domini (AD) is Medieval Latin first proposed in the year 525 by Dionysius Exiguus, a Christian monk and it means "in the year of the Lord", referencing back to the birth of Christ as the beginning. It wasn’t until the 1700’s that the terms BCE, before the common era, and CE, the common Era began to be used in reference to time.

So, when someone says to us that there’s no evidence for the accuracy of the bible. There’s no evidence of a virgin birth, there’s no evidenced of a resurrected Jesus, I would pray for God to soften their hard heart and closed mind. Sometimes the reason we, as people, don’t want to believe in what’s in the word of God, is because that means that there’s consequences for our actions. It means that there’s accountability at some point in time, we must face and accept. That I need to strongly consider and then act upon, what God calls us to do, to be, to become as we grow in the Holy Spirit by studying the word of God and then acting upon it to serve others. Praise God for sending His one and only begotten son, Jesus. Amen?

(SLIDE) Then, continuing the historically accurate and prophetic word more than 700 years before the birth of Christ, we see two more prophecies of Jesus in the book of Isaiah. This copy of the Isaiah is in Jerusalem at the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum. It is complete, in the sense that this document dating to around 350 BCE is not different from what you read in your bible today. So if God’s word is the same 2500 years later, there’s no reason to believe that the copy we have is different from what was originally written 2800 years ago when the prophet told us that God had a plan to overcome the sin and evil in the world.

(SLIDE) Isaiah 7:14-15 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel. 15 He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, often we’ll stop with just verse 14, right? I think it’s important to see that continuation that even as small child, Jesus not only knew the difference between right and wrong but had the ability to choose to do what is right and refuse to do what is wrong by the power of the Holy Spirit within Him.

That follows Proverbs 22. Raise up a child the way it should go and when older they won’t depart from it. Although I can say that by earthly standards, I raised up very good young men, in my three sons. Scripturally, not as much. Even when we have done our best in raising and teaching our children about the Lord, the temptations of this world and the desires of their hearts, fallen since Adam and Eve, can pull them in other directions. That doesn’t mean that Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit aren’t still seeking after them. Amen?

In Matthew’s gospel, chapter, 1 he quotes from Isaiah 9:6-7 6 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 Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

(SLIDE) We’ve talked about how all Hebrew words are either male or female. The word we read as “government” in Isaiah 9:6 is “misrah” (mis-raw). It’s a feminine word. And it means rule, and dominion. It is the female side of God, not the male. It’s possible that this is where we get that old cliché: If mama’s happy, everybody’s happy. If mama’s not happy, run for the woods, the hills or the corn fields in season. Just run. Except of course there is no running from the creator of the universe. (SLIDE) How often do we tend to limit God? So, if you’re not filled with Spirit, then the word “government” means something much smaller, than the weight of the entire universe is upon His shoulders.

One of gifts that God has given us, is how easy it is to not only have access to the bible, to God’s word, but also the ability to create images that we can share with others, that we can hang on our walls to remind us. To lift our spirits when we’re feeling down or feeling tempted. He will always provide a way out, but we must make the choice to turn away from whatever it is that tempts and keeps us from serving the Lord and serving each other as Jesus calls us to do.

Isaiah continues (SLIDE)

7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and for evermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Justice and righteousness, from the time that the only begotten Son of God is born, the teaching and healing Jesus gave that shows us the way people treated each other, beginning with the fall from the garden, was not as God intended. When you read the gospels, Jesus always referred to the Kingdom of God in the present tense. At the beginning of verse 7, God’s kingdom is growing, and the ability for there to be peace in our hearts and in our lives, begins when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, turning away from whatever keeps us from Kingdom living, and seeking after Him instead.

In particular I was curious about that word zeal of the zeal of the Lord of Hosts. The Hebrew word is “qinah”(kin-aw), and is again a feminine word that can be translated as zeal, but also as envy, jealousy, passion, and at times, anger. Mostly it’s translated as jealousy in the Old Testament, and sometimes as zeal. If we think again about cliches that may have been a variation out of scriptural wisdom. What do they say about a woman scorned? Hell has no fury? Turn that around though. We’re not singing it today but as I was studying I had to pull up David Crowder’s How He loves, which begins with the opening lines. “He is jealous for me, loves like a hurricane.” I’ll be honest. Just listening to that song brought me to tears and I felt the Spirit saying that’s what you’ve singing at the end of the service today.

The words “Lord of Hosts” appear in the Old Testament over 250 times, and is referring to the all powerful creator of the universe. Lord is “Yahweh” the proper name of God, and tsaba (tsaw-baw) is very interesting here, because the most basic definition of that Hebrew word is army, war or warfare. So while it can be translated as hosts, what we’re really seeing here in Isaiah, is that the Lord God, the creator of the Universe, the creator of all that has been, that is, and that ever will be, loves us so much, and is so jealous for us to return His love by taking care of each other, but learning to walk in increased obedience to the calling He has upon our hearts, our minds, our very souls, that He sent his one and only begotten son, not to condemn the world, but to save the world from condemnation. To go to war against evil and death and be victorious over both.

That understanding fits the next scripture prophesying the coming Messiah in (SLIDE) Micah 5:1-5a. 5 Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek. 2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. (SLIDE) Now Micah is a prophet at the same time as Isaiah and Hosea, right before and during the fall of Israel. When we read Bethlehem Ephrathah here, that is the name of the city of Bethlehem at that time. Ephrathah simply means fruitful. Elsewhere in the Hebrew scriptures it’s referred to as Bethlehem Judah, and the City of David. It’s called the City of Dvid because that’s where King David’s father Jesse lived, and where Samuel anointed David to become the next King of Israel.

(SLIDE) Last week we talked about Nazareth where Mary and Joseph lived as being about the size of Burlington here. 200 to 400 people. A very small community. The kind of place where everyone knows everyone else’s business. Bethlehem, on the other hand, at the time that Jesus was born, 700 years after Micah is writing this, was much larger. (SLIDE) It’s only about five or six miles south of Jerusalem with a population of two to three thousand. This painting from 1882 is an artist’s rendition of what that may have looked like. So, it’s a much larger community, understandably it’s a suburb of Jerusalem but in comparison, it’s considered insignificant. The Hebrew scriptures in Joshua 15 and Nehemiah 11 list towns and Bethlehem, didn’t make the lists.

(SLIDE) In fact this is what it looks like today even, right outside of Bethlehem. Not a lot of crops are growing there. You could though, graze sheep and goats on these hill slopes. I think we read about Shepards coming to visit the newborn King, don’t we? Interestingly, Bethlehem is the place where Jacob buried Rachel (Genesis 48:7) and also, the word Bethlehem means “house of bread.”

What did Jesus say and use at the last supper?(SLIDE) Matthew 26 26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do you see how God’s plans weave throughout human history and scripture to fulfill the promises He’s made to us? Let’s finish the prophecy in Micah 5.

(SLIDE) 3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. 4 And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. 5 And he shall be their peace.

Now, just to clarify, because some of us can be quite legalistic in our thinking and interpretation of the word. Jesus was conceived in Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. He didn’t have any brothers and sisters with Mary and Joseph yet. They come later. His brother James didn’t come to believe in Jesus until after the resurrection. He wasn’t one of the 12 disciples, but He was the first leader of the Jerusalem Church of the Apostolic Age. He was martyred, stoned to death in AD 62 or 69 by the Pharisees on order of High Priest Ananus ben Ananus as recorded by Josephus. Matthew and Mark mention James, Joses, Simon, and Judas as the brothers of Jesus as well as two unnamed sisters.

Micah is writing either right before Israel is taken captive by the Assyrians and the great dispersion takes place. Israel is being scattered. And what did Jesus say in Matthew, Mark and Luke when Mary and his brothers come to see him but can’t get to Jesus because of the size of the crowd? “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”

Some days I wonder. Are you and I hearing the word of God and doing it? (SLIDE) Do we really understand when we read that Jesus was born in a manger what that means. How low God chose to become to bring us salvation? This image comes from a museum at Harvard of the Houses of Ancient Israel. At that time, families may have a few animals that were kept on the main floor. If you look closely there’s a sheep sitting here on the right. A manger was a rack or structure used to hold the food for the animals. As I said just a few minutes ago, the word Bethlehem means “house of bread”. The disciple John describes Jesus feeding thousands by breaking the bread and saying “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry.”

(SLIDE) The son of God came to earth, as a lowly human being, not as the all-powerful creator of the universe. He wasn’t born in a mansion, he left a mansion to bring us life, and abundant life at that. Philippians 2:7 He gave up His place with God and made Himself nothing. He was born as a man and became like a servant.

(SLIDE) Jesus, the son of God, was born, to offer himself as bread, not for our stomachs. Man does not live by bread alone but by the word of God. Jesus came to offer us bread for our hearts, our minds, our souls. To satisfy a hunger that cannot be filled by anything this earth has to offer. God gave His one and only begotten son, not to condemn the world, but to save the world. Whether you’re here in this room or watching online, I wonder if the depth, the incredible love that God has for all of us, is fully alive within us. I’ve said many times that going to church doesn’t save you. That’s not a confession of faith in asking Jesus Christ to be your personal Lord and Savior. And I often pray in services and with individuals that we do confess Jesus as Lord and Savior, but that’s coming my mouth. So, if you have any doubts about whether or not you are walking in salvation through Jesus Christ. You don’t have to do that in front of the entire congregation or family. But let’s have a conversation. Whenever you’re ready to have that conversation. Two more scriptures today and we’ll close in worship.

Colossians 1:15-17

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Hebrews 1:1-3

1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. 4 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs. 5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son: today I have become your Father”? (Psalm 2:7) Or again, “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son”? (2 Samuel 7:14; 1 Chron. 17:13). 6 And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.” (Deut. 32:43)