Introduction
Merry
Christmas. Today is Christmas day, the most wonderful time of year, and Christians
everywhere are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. But
for some people this day is not as wonderful as they once felt it to be. Have
you heard the old saying, “Distance makes the heart grow fonder and familiarity
breeds contempt.” We human beings can become so familiar with a truth, so used
to it, so accustomed to it, that it can start to really lose its impact on us. I
think this is true for Christmas day. It has been such a blessing for so long
for so many people that we can forget just how beautiful and powerful it is.
Keith Green
has this beautiful song, called My Eyes Are Dry, where he says this,
“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
But what can be done
For an old heart like mine
Soften it up
With oil and wine.”[1]
He wants to
be made freshly aware of the beauty of the truth about Jesus again. This is my
prayer for you this morning, that Christmas would be made alive to you again.
There are two kinds of Christmas wonder, and we need to, I think, never lose the
sense of both of them. The first is the wonder a small child has at the joy of
Christmas day. The expectation and excitement that they get at the fading away
of the year and the joy of Christmas coming. I think you lose this once you get
a bit older and it really starts to come back again, once you have had kids. I
really enjoy buying my kids presents, it is good to be see their joy on the day.
The other kind of wonder is the joy you had when you
first realized what actually happened at Christmas, the joy of the salvation we
have in Jesus. The Bible calls this our first love. We never want to lose
our first love, and when we feel that we have we need to ask God to help us
restore it again.
So, let’s
examine once again what actually happened on that Christmas day, so long ago. And
yes, I know it was not technically called Christmas day yet, but who cares,
let’s explore it anyway and examine the scandal of the incarnation.
The
Scandal of the Incarnation (Luke 2:1-5)
Have you
ever considered what a scandal the birth of Jesus was in many ways, to the
people of this world? Of course, from our perspective it is not, but in many
ways to the people in Jesus’ day, something had happened they could not get
their heads around or accept,
Luke 2:1-5 - “1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar
Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first
registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be
registered, each to his own town. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from
the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called
Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered
with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.”
The scandal
is in those words, “Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.” This account
starts off pretty mild. It begins with a call for a census of the Roman people
and subjects, and Joseph takes his betrothed with him to be counted in the
census. They were not quite married yet, betrothal happened sometime before the
marriage, and betrothed women were not supposed to be with child. It starts off
mild but ventures into the remarkable.
We know that
Joseph at first felt the scandal of this, because we read this in Matthew
1:18-21,
“18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.
When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together
she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph,
being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her
quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord
appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take
Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his
people from their sins.”
We tend not
to give ancient people much credit. The modern sceptic often mocks the
incarnation and the virgin birth of Jesus by saying, “That was just a bunch of
superstitious peasants in a superstitious age. They would believe anything they
are told.”
But what was
Joseph’s instant response when he finds out his wife to be is pregnant? “19 And
her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame,
resolved to divorce her quietly.” Joseph wanted to quietly put her away, to save
her the shame of what he thought had happened. He didn’t believe Mary for a
moment, these people knew how babies were made. What convinced him otherwise?
An angel of the Lord telling him how the baby was conceived.
We also know
that some people in Israel did not believe the account of Mary and Joseph and
considered it be a scandal. In one of Jesus’ debates with the Jewish leaders,
some of them respond to him, “You are doing the works your father did.” They
said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even
God” (John 8:41). When Jesus challenges the Jewish leaders about who they truly
represent, they hit him with the, “at least we know who our father is” line.
Which falls
flat because Jesus really is from God, and they really were not.
I show all
of this to highlight that the incarnation is not easy for the natural mind to
accept. Because in the incarnation we have the coming together of God and man;
two natures, divine and human, in perfect union in one body, fully God and
fully man.
It’s not
just a miracle, it’s the miracle of miracles. And it is hard to understand for
all of us.
It’s not
just hard to understand. To the ancient Jewish mind, it was scandalous in the
extreme. Because God was considered to be completely other than man, unknowable
in a sense. In their view, God and man could not come together and yet they
did.
Everything
we have talked about so far, is partly why Peter wrote this, 1 Peter 2:6-8,
“6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a
stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not
be put to shame.” 7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do
not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they
disobey the word, as they were destined to do.”
The
incarnation trips some people up. It is to them a scandal, a stumbling block. The
Apostle’s got it, and the disciples got it. The message of salvation is
foolishness to those who are perishing, but the power of God to those who are
being saved. The carol writers got it too,
“Gentle Mary laid her
Child
Lowly in a manger;
There He lay, the
undefiled,
To the world a stranger:
Such a Babe in such a
place,
Can He be the Savior?”
People
didn’t believe the statement about the virgin birth because they were
unsophisticated ancient peasants, they believed it because of the signs that
followed that conception.
A Lowly
Birth (Luke 2:6-7)
Think about
this, think about the glory of God. Think about the majesty of his being. Think
about the angels that attend to him continually, think about the presence of
his might and light and glory, and think about all this veiled and wrapped into
the body of a little boy in a place where animals sleep, “6 And while they were
there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her
firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger,
because there was no place for them in the inn.”
The king of
the universe, what does he deserve? And yet this what he received:
“Away in a manger
No crib for a bed
The little Lord Jesus
Laid down His sweet head
The stars in the bright
sky
Looked down where He lay
The little Lord Jesus
Asleep on the hay.”
When the
Bible says that for a little while he lowered himself to be lower than the
angels, it really means that. Jesus, the son of God, did not just become a man,
he became an ordinary man, of no earthly power or majesty. A carpenter’s son,
who lived in an obscure village, in a humble existence.
He did this,
so that he could experience what you experience in your everyday life. He
experienced what it meant to have parents, and siblings (and he did have
siblings, half brothers and sisters (Matt. 13:55-56)). He also experienced what
it was like to work, what it was like to be lost by his parents, what it was
like to be human in every way.
You could
say the real scandal is that we don’t give him the honour he deserves.
Humanity is
so fallen, so broken, so rebellious, so shattered in so many ways by the
problems of this world, that we could not make our way to heaven. Heaven had to
make its way to us. And it did, in the form of The Son of Man.
And yet we
often think we know better than our Lord. That is the real scandal, and praise
God, our Lord is even gracious to us when we do that.
We in our
pride seek to orientate our own lives according to our own desires, making
ourselves God in his place. But he, in his infinite humility, took on the form
of man, to experience life from our perspective so that he might suffer in our
place.
He took on a
lowly birth for us. He took on frail human flesh for us. He took on the trials
and tribulations of this world for us. To save us from our sins and the power
of Satan.
The Angel’s
Worship (Luke 2:8-18)
And this is
why the Angels worshipped,
“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 great fear. 10 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. 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.”
What do the
angels do, when the birth of Jesus happens? They go and tell some shepherds.
The Shepherds were terrified, but I love what the angels say,
“10 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. 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.”
It is right
for mankind to be afraid of the incredible glory of perfect beings. The angels
are not deities, they are simply created beings, but they reflect “the glory of
the Lord”, because they are in the presence of the Lord
continually. Our sin mars the image of God in us. It diminishes it, harms it,
causes it to be very tarnished. But the righteous angels carry it with them.
But these
angels are just so excited at the birth of the king, the birth of the one who
“will save his people from their sins” as the angel told Joseph. And because of
this they proclaim and worship, “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!”
They worship
because they get it. They get how magnificent this whole event is. They
understand the magnitude and the joy of this moment. The Bible tells us that
Angels celebrate when one lost sheep is found. How much more were they excited
when the saviour of the sheep was here?
“Hark! The herald angels
sing
‘Glory to the new-born
king
Peace on earth and mercy
mild
God and sinners
reconciled"
Joyful all ye nations
rise
Join the triumph of the
skies
With angelic host
proclaim
‘Christ is born in
Bethlehem’
Hark! The herald angels
sing
‘Glory to the new-born
king’”
It’s fitting
that they come and celebrate with some godly shepherds. Because the chief
Shepherd has been born and he is here to gather his flock, attend to his people
and heal them from their hurts and wounds. He is here to set things right and
lead his sheep to greener pastures.
Are you
going to follow him?
Mary
Treasured These Things (Luke 2:19-21)
All
throughout these momentous events is the humble young woman Mary, who rejoiced
in the magnificence of all that occurred,
“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. 21 And at the end of eight
days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel
before he was conceived in the womb.”
The one
person who was privileged to know all along what had happened, was Mary. Joseph
at first did not believe, but the angel convinced him. Mary’s family believed,
because of the miracles they themselves experienced in the Lord’s presence (cf.
Luke 1:39-80). Many of the Jews did not believe the account, some until after
the pouring out of the spirit, many never. But Mary knew all along. And she
“treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.”
For many
this event was a scandal. Remember, “Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.” Those would be
scandalous words except for one thing, the miracle of God,
Luke 1:35-38 - “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…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 from her.”
The life of
Jesus proved to many that he was from God. For those of us who believe, we can
sometimes forget how glorious this event was. For some others they cannot get
their head around the idea of God being man, in the flesh, living on earth.
That is the
real scandal, to me, is that some reject their true King. But he has come, he
has achieved salvation for us on the cross, and he offers this to all who would
believe in him. Turn to him now because he is returning. Turn to him now while
there is still time. Merry Christmas.
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