Luke 1:25-35; 2:8-14 The God Who Gives His Son

Intro

I love Christmas. I really do. As a young boy I would be so excited to wake up and open all my presents that I could hardly sleep.

I would lie in bed trying to force my eyes closed but the excitement would have me almost jumping out of my bed.

I couldn’t wait to run out of my room and wake up my parents far earlier than they would have liked to open all the gifts waiting for me under the tree.

Looking back on it know, I had the right spirit of Christmas. I was filled with so much joy, anticipation, and hope that I could hardly stand it.

Some of you may have kids that are filled with that same spirit.

I have to tell you. I think our kids are on to something about how we should celebrate Christmas.

The excitement and joy they feel should be the same excitement and joy we have for the greatest gift we have ever been given.

The reason we even give each other gifts at Christmas is to celebrate how God gave us the greatest gift of all.

God gave his Son to redeem us from our sin.

Jesus is God’s greatest gift. And Christmas is a time for us to celebrate the joy and hope we have in him.

This Christmas we’ve been celebrating the God who gives.

We’ve been worshiping God with thanksgiving by looking at all the gifts he has given us studying what makes them so wonderful and full of grace.

And this morning we are going to celebrate God’s greatest gift of all. His only begotten Son who he sent to die for the sins of the world.

But before his death on a cross, the King of kings and Lord of lords was born in a humble manger, wrapped in swaddling cloths.

If you were to look at him that night was nothing spectacular or magnificent about him.

All you would have seen was a baby born to a poor carpenter and his young mother who was mocked and ridiculed as a loose.

But Luke 1:26-35 and 2:1-14 tell us why Jesus was so much more than just a baby lying in a manger. Why he was God’s greatest gift to his people and that is the question we want to answer this morning.

Who was this child? Who was this little baby that God gave to pay for the sins of the world?

Who is the Son of God, Jesus Christ?

Let’s open to Luke 1:26 and start with point number 1...

I. Jesus is God’s Incarnate Son

Luke 1:26-35 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 be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

In a small, no name backwoods town, there was a small girl named Mary, and one day an angel came to tell her some very good news.

God was coming to save his people! The long awaited Messiah was almost here!

Mary was going to give birth to a son and His name was going to be Jesus which means “the Lord is salvation.”

This Jesus, Mary’s son, was going to save the world from their sins.

Now this promise understandably left Mary a little confused. She wasn’t pregnant. In fact she couldn’t be pregnant. She was a virgin.

This is just one of the things that makes Jesus’ birth so incredible.

His birth was unlike any other person’s birth that has ever been born.

Usually, you have the birds and the bees. When a man and woman love each other very much the come together and have a baby.

But Jesus was not born from a man and a woman. In fact when Joseph, Mary’s fiancé and Jesus’ earthly father, found out Mary was pregnant, he was going to divorce her quietly so as not to bring Mary anymore shame until an angel came and told him that Jesus was not just another child. He was the Son of God.

That’s why two times in Luke 1 Jesus is called the Son of the Most High and the Son of God.

Putting these things together, we see two amazing truths about the incarnation of Christ that are essential to the Christian faith.

1. Jesus was born of a virgin and 2. Jesus was fully God and fully man.

1. Born of a Virgin

In Matthew’s account we are told about Jesus’ birth through Joseph’s perspective. Here is what the angel said to him.

Matthew 1:21-23 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

23  “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall call his name Immanuel”

(which means, God with us).

The prophet Matthew mentions is the Prophet Isaiah who prophesied 700 years before he was born that Jesus would be born of a virgin.

VIRGIN STUFF

And when Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would be born of a virgin he also prophesied that his name, what he would be called would be Immanuel which means God with us.

This leads to second amazing truth. Jesus is...

2. Fully God and Fully Man

First Jesus was a man. This is not a controversial statement. Even atheists believe Jesus was a real person who walked on the earth.

What distinguishes Christians from the rest of the world is that we believe Jesus is the one and only God of all creation.

Luke tells us Jesus is a man because the angel said to Mary Luke 1:31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son...

He was conceived in Mary’s womb. He truly was a man.

In fact, Jesus, the eternal Son of God had to become a man.

Hebrews 2:14-17 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Jesus didn’t come to die for angels. He came to pay for the sins of sinful fallen people. And if he was going to pay for humanity’s sins, then he had to pay as a man.

He took on flesh and blood so that he could die in our place as our substitute. So that through faith in him, his death could be counted as our death and all our sins forgiven.

But Jesus wasn’t just a man. Yes he was truly and fully man but he was also truly and fully God!

In Luke 1 he is called the Son of the Most High and the Son of God.

To say that Jesus is the Son of the Most High is to say that Jesus is God. He bears the character nature, and essence of God the Father.

Hebrews 1:3 says He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

Colossians 1:15; 19 He is the image of the invisible God...In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

So when we say on the one hand, Jesus was born of a virgin and on the other that Jesus is the Son of God we are saying something no other religion or philosophy proclaims.

God became a man. In the incarnation the eternal Son of God took on human flesh to live a sinless and perfect life as a man, and to suffer die on the cross as a man to save his people from their sins.

This is what theologians call the hypostatic union. Jesus is one person with two distinct natures. He is truly and fully man, and he is truly and fully God.

He is not a man who became God or attained deity.

He is our eternal God and Savior, the Sovereign Creator of the whole universe who left his throne and stepped into his creation to redeem his sinful, rebellious people.

Philippians 2:6-11 [Jesus who] was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Here’s why this is so amazing. We don’t worship a God who is far off and distant. We worship a God who loved us so much that he became one of us.

He suffered and died on our behalf so that we might be reconciled to him and worship him forever.

Jesus is God’s greatest gift because Jesus is God himself. The second person of the Trinity is the Incarnate Son took on human flesh to lay down his life for our sins.

Number 2...

II. Jesus is God’s Sovereign Son

Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords.

We read this covenant in 2 Samuel 7:12-16 where God promised David to establish his throne forever.

That God would raise up one of David’s offspring to reign and rule over all God’s people. To give God’s people rest from all their enemies forever.

And Jesus is this offspring. Luke’s genealogy traces Jesus’ genealogy through Mary. Mary was David’s offspring through David’s son Nathan. Nathan never reigned on the throne but he still had the royal blood of the King.

Matthew traces Jesus’ genealogy through Jesus’ adoptive father Joseph. Joseph was also the offspring of David. Joseph came through the line of King Solomon. So Joseph was descended from the line of David that had the legal right to the throne.

So Jesus, even though he was born of a virgin was the true offspring of David in every sense of the Word.

He had the royal blood through his mother Mary, and the legal right to the throne through his adoptive father Joseph.

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III. Jesus is God’s Saving Son

IV. Jesus is God’s Returning Son

Conclusion

Aim Hope

Let’s Pray

Scripture Reading

John 1:1-5; 10-14; 16-18