The miracle and demand of Christmas
Christmas 2020 • Sermon • Submitted
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· 10 viewsJesus, the Lord is coming: will you submit to Him in faith?
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“Jesus, Lord at Thy birth”
“Jesus, Lord at Thy birth”
Christmas is about the arrival of the promised Saviour. We see that Jesus is He, from the following:
His birth is announced by Gabriel, Luke 1:26-28.
This is the angel who announced the coming of the Messiah to Daniel, in Daniel 9:25. Now, he is sent to earth again, this time to the one who would deliver the Anointed One, the Messiah.
This is his second recorded visit to earth in six months. He had already been sent to a man named Zechariah (Luke 1:11-12, 19), to announce that he would become the father of the Messiah’s forerunner, John the Baptist — and we see that his words carry authority, because He delivers God’s message.
His conception is supernatural, Luke 1:29-31.
This is a fact. The favour Mary has found with God, the grace she is about to receive is to conceive and give birth to a son — a gracious gift even under normal circumstances, but she is to receive it as virgin! This is the plain witness of the text — and it’s only a problem to accept if we don’t believe in the power of God. For Mary was told, “the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” (v35a) Jesus is no ordinary child.
This is a sign. When reading about this, we are meant to recall at least two things from the Old Testament.
Other women of faith, especially Sarah, Abraham’s wife, and God’s promise to her in Genesis 18:9-11.
9 ‘Where is your wife Sarah?’ they asked him.
‘There, in the tent,’ he said.
10 Then one of them said, ‘I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.’
Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. 11 Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing.
Note that in the context of our passage in Luke, there’s another woman in her sixth month of pregnancy already: Luke 1:36! Elizabeth’s pregnancy was remarkably similar to Sarah’s: they had husbands, and their boys, Isaac and John were God’s supernatural gifts through natural means. God overruled the normal course of nature, as He’d promised he would do. Luke 1:37 is an interesting verse. It can equally be translated, “For no word from God will ever fail.”, or, as in the NIV84: “For nothing is impossible with God.” This recalls how the Sarah-story developed further — note the question in last verse in Genesis 18:12-14,
12 So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, ‘After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?’
13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh and say, “Will I really have a child, now that I am old?” 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.’
Let me bring it together:
“Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14a) — “For nothing is impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37, NIV84)
“I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” (Genesis 18:14b) — “For no word from God will ever fail.” (Luke 1:37, NIV)
Sarah’s son, Isaac was the child of God’s promise, whom God brought about by a mighty work in overruling how He normally gifts children — and it was through an even greater miracle, completely bypassing all natural means other than Mary’s own body, that the Greater Child of Promise should come to this world:
The prophecy of Isaiah 7:14.
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
This prophecy is completely fulfilled in the conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb. This child is none another than God in human flesh: God with us. If we miss this, we’ve missed the point of it all. The miracle is amazing — but more than that! You can tip your hat in agreement that this has happened, and still miss that in Jesus, God has come to live among us. It’s not just a supernatural, miraculous conception — it is a mighty work of God.
His conception is a work of God, Luke 1:34-37.
To what can we compare the significance of this, the incarnation of the Son of God? Gabriel’s message brings to mind two key historical events:
We are reminded of God’s work in creation, Genesis 1:1-2.
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
Is that not what is alluded to in “The Holy Spirit will come on you” (v35)? As the Spirit of God, out of the waters of the deep brought the world forth, so He will create a body for God’s Son in the womb of the virgin Mary. No other child is like this one — that’s why He is “the holy one” (v35), “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him” (Colossians 1:19)! As the song Mary, did you know? says, “When you kiss your little Baby you kissed the face of God” Indeed, He is “the Son of God.”
We are reminded of God’s filling the tabernacle, Exodus 40:34.
34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Is this not clearly heard in “the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (v35)? God filled this human flesh as He filled the freshly constructed tabernacle in the Old Testament, and came to live with His people. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
This Child, the Man Who is God, came with a mission.
He is the promised Saviour, Luke 1:31-33.
“You will conceive and give birth to a son,” v31a. — “a son”, a male child! Why is this significant? Because the Satan was promised that one day a man would be given through the woman, and “he will crush your head” (Genesis 3:15) The first woman saw her son, Cain, and she probably thought it might be him; but Cain was a murderer. Abel was murdered. All her other sons died, and she was still not freed from the devastation that the Satan brought. Noah was a righteous man, found favour in the eyes of the Lord — but he, too, died. Moses delivered the Jews from Egypt, but he, too died — and the effects of sin remained. Is it going to be a king, this deliverer? David was a man after God’s own heart, yet, how horribly he has sinned… Neither were any of the other kings the Saviour — until this Child! That’s the claim. As His name confirms:
“and you are to call him Jesus”, v31b. Jesus means “God is salvation”; it is in Matthew 1:21 that the significance of Jesus’s name is explained: “because he will save his people from their sins.”
“He will be great”, v32a. Nothing less than the very greatness of God will be ascribed to Him! John the Baptist “will be great in the sight of the Lord” (Luke 1:15), but no such qualification for Jesus. “He will be great”. And so He is to be honoured and worshipped as God the Father is, John 5:22-23,
Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father, who sent him.
“and will be called the Son of the Most High”, v32a — cf. v35b. This is no less than a claim to His divinity. He is God.
He is the Son of David, v32b-33. He is the One promised by God to restore all things under God’s rule. This is why we sing, “Jesus, Lord at thy birth” — He is God’s Chosen King (Messiah), to Whom every knee will bow the knee one day. His people, those who have been rescued from their sin by Him, will do so in worshipful adoration. His enemies, those who will not have Him rule over them, in submission to His authority as a judge over them. Which side will you be on that day?
Will you submit to Him in faith?
Will you submit to Him in faith?
Therefore, Christmas demands faithful submission to God. How does that look like?
For Mary: giving birth to the Son of God
The cost: Luke 1:27, 31.
She was a virgin with child. If you don’t know the insider-line, like we do, you’ll think she who is supposed to be virgin had been with a man and been sexually immoral. That’s a big deal. Mary ran the risk of being at the very least ostracised, and could have even been stoned to death for this, as we see in the case of the woman caught in adultery in John 8:3-5.
She was pledged to be married. This makes matters even worse for her — to be pledged to be married was taken so seriously that you could only dissolve your betrothal by divorce: which, once it showed that Mary was with child, and thinking she’d been unfaithful to him, was exactly what Joseph wanted to do, see Matthew 1:18-19. Now eventually Joseph also was told what was going on (Matthew 1:19-21), but Mary at this point does not know that. She runs the risk of being disgraced by others, as well as her son be called an illegitimate child, and being destitute with him for the rest of their lives.
So, the cost is giving up her life in submission to God’s plan.
The reward: Luke 1:28, 30.
The grace God has bestowed on her was to be the woman through whom the Saviour comes into the world! God promised that the Messiah was to be the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15). It was not Eve who had that honour; neither was it Sarah; it was not one of David’s wives, not even faithful Zechariah and Elizabeth — it was her, Mary from Nazareth, as a commentator said:
“a nobody in a nothing town in the middle of nowhere.”
R. Kent Hughes, Luke: That You May Know the Truth, 2 vols., Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1998), 1:30., as quoted in Ryken, P. G. (2009). Luke. (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, & D. M. Doriani, Eds.) (Vol. 1, p. 30). Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing.
Will she say ‘yes’ to God? Will she take the cost, considering God’s gift to her being worth it? Yes, she will: and that is an act of faith.
The faith, Luke 1:38.
When Mary says, “‘I am the Lord’s servant’”, she is saying, “I belong to God, and I serve Him: I will do therefore as He says.” This is rooted in the history of her nation, the Jewish people. Hundreds of years before she was born, they were slaves in Egypt. God raised a saviour, called Moses, from among them, and God rescued them from their slave-masters. Now that they were freed from that slavery, they became the Lord’s servants. This was how Moses was commissioned by God in Exodus 3:12,
He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
So Mary was saying: “I am an Israelite — I belong to the Lord, I am His servant, the slave of God my Saviour. Whatever the cost, my joyful duty is to do what He says.” She revealed that she knew
God loved her. This is the reason God saved the Israelites from Egypt — she, too, has “found favour with God” (Luke 1:30)
She lived by God’s grace. There wasn’t anything special about Mary — she, like all of us, needed her sins forgiven; she needed God’s grace. She believed the angel when she said, “you who are highly favoured” (Luke 1:28)
God would look after her. She knew God, not His detailed plan for her. Faith rests in God, not in knowledge of His plan.
For you and I: receiving Him, as Mary did, as our Saviour.
The cost.
Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.
Like Mary, you’ve got to be ready to give up your life, if you are going to benefit from Christmas. I am no longer talking about our celebrations when I use this word: I am referring to the Christ of Christmas. If Jesus is going to benefit you, it will be at great personal cost. You must be ready to give up your life. He meant this literally: many of His followers would go on to die for their faith.
This does not, however, mean physical death for all Christians — but without exception it does mean denying yourself:
Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
Will you give up living for your pleasures, and pledge yourself to obey God? Will you forsake your sins, and seek to live a holy life? Will you give up your reputation among your friends? Are you ready to go against the flow of society and culture when it clashes with God? Will you give up your “freedoms” and become God’s servant? In one word: will you repent, responding to God’s love for you?
That’s the cost — that’s the question that Christmas forces you to think through.
Is it worth it? You bet!
The reward: Luke 1:28, 30 cf. Ephesians 1:3-6,
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
Note that last verse! That’s how the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary; he spoke of the “grace, which he [God] has freely given us in the One he loves [Jesus].” In that song, Mary did you know?, there’s this amazing line: “The child that you’ve delivered will soon deliver you” — that’s why He is called Jesus! Mary had no grace to give, but had to receive it herself, and it would come through her Son, Jesus, going on to die for her sins as well as for the sins of all who believe.
Faith is casting yourself on Jesus, saying: “I need you to save me! I can turn nowhere else, there is nobody else who can save me from my sins!” And those who so turn to God, He will receive as His sons, forgiving all their sins, and gifting them eternal life. You will be born again!
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The faith, Luke 1:38.
So, my Friend: have you cast yourself on Jesus to save you? Will you do that? Who is your master: is it Satan, who hates you; or the world that wants you to conform to it, or else; is it yourself, but then what will you do when you stand before God? Or is it Jesus, God’s own Son?
Have you got eternal life through Jesus, the Saviour? If not, will you ask God that you may be born again this Christmas? Hear the promise and the demand of the Season, as expressed in John 3:16,
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.