Sermon Tone Analysis

“Who is this Jesus” - God sent Son to redeem those/His people under the law

“Who is this Jesus?”

might seem like a simple enough question, but when we slow down and look around us, what we see and hear, strongly suggests that very little about the celebration of Christmas clearly reflects who Jesus really is.

If we were to set up a police type line up of the various personas of Jesus from the Scriptures and from the celebrations that we see, many would identify a “Jesus” who bears very little resemblance to the what the Word of God teaches us.

And for those who accurately identify the baby Jesus born to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem and laid in a manger, some would celebrate Jesus’ birth only as a baby rather than the fulness of Jesus who was very God of very God (Nicene Creed), sent by the Father to redeem His people under the law.

Calvary photo lineup.

“Who is this Jesus?”

With the passing of time, some things change.

That’s to be expected.

BUT, with regard to “Who is this Jesus?”, it is faith affirming that throughout the Word of God, the answer remains the same.

Matthew’s and Luke’s answers dovetail and reinforce each other.

Later, about 25 years after Jesus finished His ministry and ascended to His Father, the Apostle Paul’s summary answer concurred.

FOR THAT REASON, LET US ALLOW TO THE WORD OF GOD AND IN THIS CASE THE WORDS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL TO REMIND US WHO JESUS IS.

“Who is this Jesus?” -

Today, our focus is Paul’s summary of the details, the purpose of Jesus’ birth and ministry - 4:4-7

What Paul wrote is most clearly understood in the wider and immediate context of Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians

Galatians - churches in the North Central Region of Asia Minor - present day Turkey.

Galatian Churches - probably daughter churches of nearby churches founded by Paul on his first missionary journey - Derbe, Lystra, Iconium & Antioch in Pisidia - so recorded visit by Paul.

From what Paul addressed, it seem that these churches were formed by believers that were facing the doctrinal issues addressed by the Council of Jerusalem.

God’s sent Son - 4:4

The Churches in Galatia seem to have been influenced by Judaizers who taught that only by becoming Jewish proselytes and submitting to Mosaic Law - including ceremonial law, could one become a Christian.

Taught that forgiveness of sin and approaching God begins with what we do and continue to do rather than what Christ did.

To counteract and correct that, Paul gently but firmly reminded them: - (Dr MacArthur)

He was an Apostle - 1 -2 therefore sent by, taught by and commissioned by God

Inability of the law to justify - 2:16 -

Believers’ dead to the law - 2:19 -

Believers’ crucifixion with Christ - 2:2 -

Abraham’s justification by faith - 3:6 - - THEREFORE so are we.

Believers are Abraham’s spiritual children - - - and therefore blessed - -

Law brings God’s wrath not salvation - -

The just shall live by faith - 3:11 -

Universality of sin - 3:22 -

Believers baptized into Christ - 3:27-

Believers adopted as God’s spiritual children - 4:6-7 -

Immediate context - 4:1-3 - process/ceremony when a child became an adult/

Child to Adult:

Jewish culture - 1st Sabbath after 12th birthday - bar mitzvah/bat mitzvah -now 13th birthday

Roman ceremony - 14th year - toga virilus - white toga cloke of manhood

In Roman ceremony - boys and girls - destroyed toy and dolls - - put away childish things.

Jewish ceremony:

Until the age of twelve, a Jewish boy was under the direct and absolute control of his father.

But at the bar mitzvah, observed on the first Sabbath after his twelfth birthday, the boy’s father would pray, “Blessed be thou O God who hath taken from me the responsibility of this boy,” and the boy would pray, “O my God and God of my father, on this solemn and sacred day which marks my passage from boyhood to manhood, I humbly raise my eyes unto Thee and declare with sincerity and truth that henceforth I will keep Thy commandments and undertake to bear the responsibility of my actions toward Thee.”

Date of Bar Mitzvah set by the father.

Until that time the child under the authority of slaves, guardians household managers.

1. God’s sent Son - 4:4

thrust - our adoption as sons of God - source of that sonship Jesus Christ.

Even the most godly Jews, including Abraham, died without receiving the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham

They looked forward to God’s promised salvation.

We look back.

Fullness of time:

At the peak of the Pax Romana - peace, law, control

The fulness of time refers to the completion of the period of preparation in God’s sovereign timetable of redemption.

When the law had fully accomplished its purpose of showing man his utter sinfulness and inability to live up to God’s perfect standard of righteousness, God ushered in a new era of redemption

The birth of Jesus is the grandest light of history, the sun in the heavens of all time.

It is the polestar of human destiny, the hinge of chronology, the meeting place of the waters of the past and the future.

Why did it happen just at that moment?

Assuredly it was so predicted.

There were prophecies, many which pointed exactly to that hour.

He came at the hour that God had determined.

The infinite Lord appoints the date of every event; all times are in His hand.

There are no loose threads in the providence of God.

No stitches are dropped; no events are left to chance.

The great clock of the universe keeps good time, and the whole machinery of providence moves with unerring punctuality.

It was to be expected that the greatest of all events should be most accurately and wisely timed, and so it was.

God willed it to be when and where it was, and that will is to us the ultimate reason.

God sent forth His Son

Action initiated by God

Son does not refer to Jesus’ divine existance

The Son not eternally subordinate to the Father but equal

Some commentators suggest that the rolls and designations of the 3 persons of the trinity became clear with the incarnation.

I am not sure about that.

clearly indicated that Jesus has always been the son, rather than a role/persona that He assumed at the incarnation.

2

Ps

Shall be called - not is called or was called

2. Born of a woman - 4:4

Not a reference to virgin birth, or absence of a man

born of a woman, like all men - YET fully God - His Son

Jesus came into this world and exited it like all others - born physically & died physically.

Only exceptions Enoch & Elijah

Had to be fully God to be the Saviour of the world

He had to be fully God in order for His sacrifice to have the infinite worth necessary to atone for the sin of mankind.

He also had to be fully man in order to represent mankind and take the penalty of sin upon Himself in man’s behalf

Man had sinned, was under the curse, condemned to eternal death and separation from God

Someone had to bridge that separation.

Jesus’ full humanity - not merely virgin born

Matt

3. Born under the law - 4:4

Like every other Jew, Jesus was under obligation to obey the law and be judged by God’s written law.

3:1 - 4:3 underlies this

Christ entered a world into which God had placed the law in preparation for that very “fullness of time” that was realized by his birth.

The fullness of his coming awaited the cross, however, so Jesus too was under the law and its regulations.

Yet though he was under the law and the finite elements of the world, he was the lone human being not enslaved by sin.

He was the true seed of Abraham, fulfilling the Abrahamic promises and providing redemption, the subject of verse 5.

Unlike every other Jew, He satisfied the demands of the law.

What sinful mankind could not do, Jesus did.

The Scriptures emphasize that again and again.

Heb 7:

1 Jn

Jesus, the sinless Son of God - benchmark for underscoring who Jesus is.

TO DENY THAT IS TO IS IN THE WORDS OF JOHN TO DENY THE FATHER, JESUS AND THE SCRIPTURES.