12/20/2015 The Meaning of the Advent: A Meditation on the Incarnation by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Isaiah 9 and Luke 2: The Readings for Advent

The scripture we're reading for today is 1st Isaiah chapter 9, reading verses 1 -7. That's on page 465 of the 13th Bible, in front of you. And we'll read Luke chapter 2, verses 1 -20, page 689 of the 13th Bible.

So first, Isaiah chapter 9, reading verses 1 -7. Please stand for the reading of God's word. Isaiah chapter 9, reading verses 1 -7. Nevertheless, the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed, as when at first he lightly esteemed the land of Zebulun and the land of Pharaoh, and afterward more heavily oppressed her, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan and Galilee of the Gentiles.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. You have multiplied the nation and increased its joy. They rejoice before you according to the joy of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

For you have burdened the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. For every warrior's sandal from the noisy battle and garments rolled in blood will be used for burning and fuel of fire.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a child is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.

Upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice, from that time forward, even forever, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Now turn to Luke, chapter 2, reading verses 1 -20.

It came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.

Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.

So it was that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloth, laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.

Then the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

And this will be the sign to you, that you will find David wrapped in swaddling cloth, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, Let us now go to Bethlehem and see the thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.

And they came with haste, and found Mary, Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them. Please be seated.

The Gospel in the Prayer and the Purpose of the Service

Heavenly Father, Jesus came, was born, was raised, was died and raised again. And that is the gospel, pure and simple. Father, we are here to hear the gospel, to proclaim through the preaching of the word.

We pray for our pastor, to give him the words to speak to us, to proclaim the gospel, to bring salvation to those who are unsaved. We pray that Holy Spirit be upon us to open our ears and our heart that we might receive the message, that we might glorify you for the wonderful things you have done to us and for us through Jesus Christ.

We pray that you would bless this day and the coming days, as we celebrate, not Santa Claus, but Jesus Christ. We pray twice a day. Amen. Amen.

The Ineffable and Holy God Revealed in Scripture

Well, this morning I don't have a text to have you turn to. One message out of 52, not an expositional message, not an exegetical message brought to you in that normal fashion that we do the other 51 Sundays of the year from this pulpit.

But that doesn't mean that what I have to say is not biblical. What I have to say is, Lord willing, you will agree, a biblical message. It is not the normal way we take a particular verse or a passage and unpack it and apply it for you.

When we say God is ineffable, what we mean by that is that his qualities can't be expressed, not fully, at least not fully by mere mortals. He's ineffable. He's beyond us to describe. When we say he's sublime, another word that's often used, what do we mean by that?

But that he's elevated, he's awe-inspiring. We speak of God's omniscience, that he knows everything. And he does not, as it were, go out and attain knowledge. He is knowledge itself. We speak of God's omnipotence, by which we mean his limitless power, which accomplishes his will at the mere thought of it.

It makes us think of God, who in the beginning said, let there be an intercession. And according to his word of power, there was. How else do we try to describe God? He's perfect in all his ways. He's holy.

He's morally pure at his core. Holiness also means that he's distinct. He's separate from what he's made. That is, he's transcendent. He's totally other than all else, most especially fallen humanity.

God is simply indescribable. We can describe him, as far as it goes, by reading our Bible and seeing what the Scripture says of him, that he's eternal, that he has life in himself, as Jesus has said of himself and of the Father.

But beyond that, if we saw God, I think we would join the prophets and say, well, we're ruined. We can't comprehend this. It's too far beyond us. Can't even look upon something like him. No man can see him and live.

You know, reading Scripture back in Judges 13, verse 22, when Samson's parents are visited by the angel of the Lord, and Manoah, we read, his father said to his wife, we shall surely die because we have seen God.

When Isaiah saw him on the throne, when he heard the never-ending holy, holy, holy, what did he declare? He declared himself to be ruined. As R .C. Sproul puts it, I am disintegrated. I've come apart because my eyes have seen the King of glory.

The Incarnation and the God Who Became Flesh

And we think this morning about Jesus Christ and the beginning of his human sojourn here, his birth. Let's remember something of the Jesus Christ that we remember. That Jesus always has been, ever shall be God, including his incarnation from birth to death.

That Jesus Christ never stopped being what he was, and is, and always will be. The second person of the Trinity, God the Son. John puts it this way, and the Word became flesh. He means God the Son, the second person of the Trinity.

The Word became flesh. And his next words encompass his entire earthly visitation here. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. God in Christ became flesh and lived here. And we can say with us, though it was some 20 centuries ago, he came and entered into humanity.

I speak this morning, of course, of the incarnation, a word that's not found in our Bibles. You won't find the word incarnation, but then neither will you find the word Trinity, which, of course, is crucially important to our faith.

Incarnation literally means infleshing. In Jesus Christ, God became man. In him, God the Word not only dwelt among us, but as he did, having submitted himself to the Father's will, he lived his life within the confines of our limited, weak, sinful, fleshly experience.

He came, as the Apostle Paul has it, in the form of sinful flesh. The author to the Hebrews places this as of paramount importance to us. He says he was tempted at all points as we are, yet without sin.

We'll say this several times in this message, yet without sin, yet without sin. He became what we are, and he lived as we do, and he faced all that we face, yet without sin. So what does the incarnation of Jesus Christ mean?

What is the significance of the baby and the nativity story? When we read that in Christ God became flesh, just what should we take from that? Well, much. Too much to exhaust in a single message. We're necessarily limited.

I want to focus on a single idea, on a theme I think the biblical writers would support. And it's this. Because of the incarnation, because Jesus Christ came as a man in the form of sinful flesh, in other words, in humanity as we all live it out.

That's how God came. In Christ. Because of that, you have a God who relates to you as both God and as man. He's not some faraway deity, cold and impersonal, like the gods of the Gentiles. When God the Father sent God the Son to be born of a woman, he, Jesus, came to do his will, his Father's will.

What was that will? Well, Connolly alluded to it, more than alluded to it, he said it pretty clearly. He came to die for sinners. Jesus Christ came to make atonement for fallen humanity before God his Father.

That's why the baby Jesus was born. To grow to be a man, just like all of us grow, to live a life completely devoid of sin, unlike the rest of us, and to give himself as an offering for us that would reconcile us to God.

Because of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, as I said before, we have a surety of God's promises. If you read your Bible, you see promises that are not yet fulfilled. Promises yet to come. Those things that are future to us now.

What does the incarnation mean to those? It means that God keeps his word. God kept his word when he sent his son, and God will keep his word. It gives us that confidence, it gives us that sureness in everything that the scripture says.

There's not too much to say that in Jesus and because of Jesus, God has made a way for a relationship with broken sinners. In Jesus, God entered our experience. In him, God relates to us. That's what the incarnation means.

The Historical Birth of Jesus in Luke's Account

Think first that he was in fact born. We have a point of time in history. As I like to say, in time and space, this thing factually happened. It actually happened. Jesus Christ, excuse me, was born. Matthew and Luke are the two who record this in their gospels.

And both date their accounts very carefully. They fill them in with key details and figures. Things that extra biblical sources all confirm. The names and the places and the times and all the great events around them.

The veracity of their work is beyond my scope this morning. But if you read them, if you haven't read the gospels before, read them. Read all four of them. And see how they lack the embellishment of myth or anecdote.

Just see how plain they are. How easily they relate the facts. Just to let you know what actually in fact happened. I think even when it says that she brought forth her son, and Luke 2 was read to you a moment ago.

I mean, when my wife gave birth, I had a lot more about it to say than just that. But there's no embellishment to these gospels. These men who lived with Jesus Christ for the three and a half years that they walked with him, they just tell it so plainly.

So to know how the birth came about, of course, we turn to Luke's detailed account. In chapter one, verse 34, the Mary said to the angel, how can this be since I do not know a man? Of course, he told her you're gonna give birth to a son.

You'll call his name Jesus. He shall save his people from their sins. How can this be since I do not know a man? And the angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you.

Therefore, also, the Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Mary was brought to motherhood by the Holy Spirit of God. Just as at creation when the Spirit of God hovered over the waters and created life, so life was created within Mary.

As I said, the actual birth itself, like so much of the gospels, it's related to us so briefly, so simply. So it was while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered and she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, placed him in a manger because there was no room for them at the inn.

You know, when I said those last words there, we need to not have in our mind that image we often get of the stingy, hard-bitten innkeeper consigning them to be with the animals because he was too cruel or hard-hearted.

It's not like that at all. There was no room at the inn because everybody was in town. And everybody was in town because of the census that had been ordered. And so the use of the manger was actually an act of charity.

I'd more quickly see it as an innkeeper saying, let me see what I can do. I will do anything to help you out so that this woman doesn't have to give birth in the street. And he made the best accommodation he possibly could.

Of course, I tend to be kind of positive in my outlook on things generally, but there's nothing in Luke that allows us to think that there was anything cruel or unjust about what the innkeeper did. But again, thinking about the brevity of the account, there might have been more drama when you and I were born.

The announcement after the fact, once he was born with the angels telling the shepherds what had just happened and them hearing that chorus of the angelic multitude saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and goodwill to men.

Now that was a birth announcement like no other. But Jesus' actual birth, his actual delivery was quite routine. In other words, just like us. And this fits God's purpose in all this. Joseph and Mary were told that the reason for the name they were commanded to give him was he will save his people from their sins.

Call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. Jesus, which is the English for Christos in the Greek, which is for Messiah in the Hebrew, which means God saves. Call his name Jesus because ultimately it means God saves because he's going to save his people.

Christ Came to Save Sinners in the Eternal Covenant of Redemption

Galatians 4 .4 says,. Now we need to ask ourselves, what is this sin problem? What is this whole reason that Jesus Christ came? Why do people have to be saved from their sins? Why is the cost so high?

It was man who sinned. Man sinned in Adam and to Adam we all fell. That's what the scripture says. It was man who sinned and so it must be a man who resolves our sin. This is why Christ was born as a man, as we all were because as a man he would prove himself sinless, impeccable.

And by impeccable I mean it was impossible for him to sin. He cannot deny himself. Sin could not happen. Not in Jesus. I don't want to make a long excursus out of this. Was he peccable or impeccable? Theologians debate this.

Peccable means he could have sinned. Sin was a definite possibility but he didn't. Impeccable means not only did he not sin, sin was impossible for him for it's not his nature to sin. And that's where I land.

He was impeccable. Sin was impossible for him. He cannot deny himself. Christ was born as a man to live that impeccable life as a man. When he stands before God on behalf of we who have sinned, what that means is he doesn't answer for his own.

And all of his perfection, all of his moral beauty, all of his sacrifice on the cross is then attributed to others. Those whom God foreordained for it. So that's the first point is he was born. He was born, he came into this world as you and I came into this world.

Remember what we're heading towards. We're heading towards a God who in Christ we can relate to. A God we can relate to. A God who sent his son, the second person of the Trinity, the eternal son of God, who began his life exactly the way the rest of us do.

He came. He was first born, second he came. And this is different than being born. It's different. Babies are born every day and not one of them has or had anything to say in the matter. We don't get to look ahead and say, well, life looks very interesting, but I think I'll pass.

Thank you very much. I'll just stay right here, wherever here might be. We don't get that choice. We don't get that option. Jesus did look ahead. He's the eternal son of God who like God, he has life in himself.

He did look ahead. We speak of an eternal covenant between God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit for the salvation of sinners. The covenant of grace or the covenant of redemption. Ephesians 1 spells this out for us.

Verse 1 -4 says that the Father chose those who would be in his son. That is, he elected those who would receive the benefits of the salvation that he would win on the cross. That's God the Father. He elects.

Verse 1 -7 says that our redemption is in Christ, in Jesus. What he achieved when he died for our sins was his victory alone. There's no other name given to men by which we must be saved but Jesus' name.

You can't be saved by your works. You can't be saved by any other God. You can't be saved by anything. You can be saved by a person, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 1 -7 of Ephesians says that the redemption that we have in Christ is part of that eternal covenant.

And finally, verse 1 -13 tells us that our ability to believe all this is not something that we can conjure up in ourselves but is applied to us by the Holy Spirit of God. So this is the eternal covenant.

God the Father electing, God the Son redeeming, God the Spirit applying. Each person of the Trinity since time immemorial has by this covenant a role in the salvation of sinners. The Son's part entailed just what we've been talking about.

Coming as God in the flesh to save sinners. Jesus did this knowing what it would mean. He knew he would set aside the prerogatives of his Godhood for a time. That he would in some sense be limited. He knew that he would go about in this world facing the full force of sin.

He was tempted in all points as we are but for him it was all the more intense. The fact that he was impeccable doesn't mean that he saw sin coming out and the temptations of the devil in the wilderness.

This sort of thing. And say, well you know of course I'm part God. Well that's not what he is. He's all God, all man. He didn't say well because I'm deity and because I'm impeccable and it's impossible for me to sin this means nothing to me.

Because he was impeccable, because he's God it was all the more intense towards him. Because he, unlike us, when he saw sin, when he saw temptations he saw them for what they really were. He saw the ugliness of sin in a way that we can't even begin to imagine.

He was tempted at all points as we are. Don't brush past that too fast. It's so much harder, not harder, excuse me. Worse. Because he sees it for what it really is. And in all this he knew ultimately what sin's defeat would cost him.

As Conley said, or maybe it was Dale, I forget which one. Whichever one said it was right. Christmas without Easter is meaningless. Yet he came. He came willingly. Hebrews 10 verse 5 says it has Jesus actually saying sacrifice and offering you did not desire but a body you have prepared for me in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have no pleasure.

Then I said behold I have come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do your will, oh God. So many times in John's gospel he speaks of having, Jesus speaks of having come to do his father's will.

How many times does he say what the father told me to speak so I speak. The works my father gave me to do these I do. What the father has commanded me this I do. Over and over in that gospel more than the other three but the other three also have this.

That Jesus Christ came to do God's will. And there's nowhere better seen than in our redemption. Why was he born? I mean the focus of the season is his birth. His infleshing. What's the purpose for it?

Salvation. To do something about our sin. Something that nothing else can do. No sacrifice in the temple because he says sacrifice and offering you did not desire. Because it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.

Only Jesus Christ could do that and that's why he came. He came knowing what his life would be here on earth. He came knowing how it would end. When he finally at the cross answered sin. The purpose of all this is salvation.

The apostle says this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. The Lord himself put it this way in Matthew 20 28. The son of man did not come to be served but he came to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

Luke 9 56 for the son of man did not come to destroy men's lives but he came to save them. John 6 41 Jesus says I am the living bread which came down from heaven. You see you and I sort of appeared. When our parents found out we were coming they could only hope and pray for the best.

Jesus didn't exactly choose to come by the eternal covenant of redemption between him the father and the spirit his coming was never in doubt nor was the purpose. That's a good point good place to make a point.

I'll quote J .I. Packer to do it. He says the incarnation of the son of God was not a diminishing of his deity but an acquiring of manhood. When he came he didn't stop being what he is all that it means to be God he was before and during and after the incarnation.

And notice how he came. He came in total dependence on his father. How often he went to be alone with his father in prayer. Their relationship was not changed by his physical journey here. He came in sinless perfection which was maintained without the slightest digression.

And he came in a state of temptation and moral conflict exactly as we live. To compromise was impossible. To sin as we do would have been a denial of his deity and a failure of his purposes. But although he was God he faced the temptations we do yet without sin.

And he came to save sinners. He came knowing what it would take to save sinners. He came and faced everything we face. Hebrews 4 .15 tells us for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin.

I warned you I'm going to say yet without sin many times. We talk about Jesus' humanity we talk about how we can relate to God because of the man Jesus Christ. Before we get too chummy let's remember this.

Yet without sin. We can paraphrase what is said in Hebrews just a little bit and say for we do have a high priest who does sympathize with us. You know what this means to us as sinners? Think about what this means to us as fallen people.

It means that he understands how hard sin is for us. Not just in a cold academic way like a laboratory scientist he knows because in his humanity he himself felt the full force of sin. It means that he understands how hard it is for us to even admit that we are wrong.

Even when we know we did wrong how hard it is to confess it. How often we knowing we were wrong just can't say so. How we instead of saying what we know to be true defend the indefensible. We pretend we didn't know.

We have to prize that it was in fact wrong even knowing it was the whole time in a word too ashamed too proud to admit our wrongdoing. Take our lumps be done with it. You see when we come to our Savior when we come to Jesus Christ in repentance for our sins we come with our sins exposed our excuses torn away our pride is in shambles which is a really good condition to be in.

And when Jesus sees us like this he doesn't say well poor little sinner you just couldn't stop yourself again could you? How many times has it been for this same thing now? Okay whatever we're going to do with you.

That's not our Lord and Savior. That's not Jesus Christ who lived as we do. That's not our sympathetic high priest. How many times in the Gospels do we hear Jesus say your sins are forgiven you. He knows how hard sin is to resist.

He knows how hard it is to admit. He knows how hard repentance is for hard hearted men and women and children. And yet knowing all this having lived it himself as man and as God the two not confused, not mixed not turning on God when he needs it not turning on man when that's appropriate never the two confused and so God knows how weak we are how easily tempted we are how difficult sin is for us to resist because his Son lived through all of it.

Jesus Christ came willingly of his own accord in perfect harmony with and submission to his Father's will living as we do. He saw all the wickedness we do. Yet he faced it down. And now rather than saying as you and I would, hey I did it you can do it too.

What's the matter with you? I got through it. No he doesn't talk like that. He who came has a soft spot for sinners he sympathizes with our weaknesses because he came to live as we do. He doesn't tell us just to do better because he knows we can't.

He doesn't say just stop being sinners because he knows how hard that is. He doesn't do that because he's a loving Savior and he's our sympathetic high priest. And he came. God the Son in eternal covenant with God the Father came understanding knowing all that he would go through came willingly to save sinners.

The Son Was Sent by the Father to Save the World

And finally the incarnation of Jesus Christ the birth of our Savior is because he was sent. That might sound like a word that has no difference from him coming but it is different. He was sent. God the Holy Spirit created life in the virgin's womb.

God the Son willingly came in the form of weak and sinful humanity but it was God the Father who sent him. It was God the Father who sent him. Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3 .17 for God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved.

God the Father did the sending and with the same purpose for which God the Son came the purpose for which he was born to save sinners. What's Christmas all about? What's Advent season all about? What's the incarnation about?

It's the birth of our Savior. The incarnation of God in the person of his Son Jesus. It's about the purpose God has in all this which is our salvation. It's about God who came to live as a man so that men through him might be saved.

Well no man can see God and live. Not as we are. Not as God is. What Samson's parents said was absolutely correct as far as it goes. They did see God. The angel of the Lord isn't one of the countless multitude of angels though.

The angel of the Lord is the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. He's God. And just like Samson's parents who look upon the face of Jesus Christ as the apostle says but we see Jesus. We're looking upon God and we can look upon him and live because he became as us.

Isaiah rightly said when he was undone, ruined he said for his eyes have seen the Lord of hosts. Why didn't he die? If no man can see God and live and yet he did live why? Well for one thing in Isaiah 6 the atonement was made for him when the angel was commanded to touch his lips with a coal from the fire.

But more important is just how he saw God. In John 12 verse 41 we're told that when Isaiah looked and saw what he saw do you know what it says he was seeing? He saw the Lord Jesus Christ. He was looking upon Jesus.

He saw Jesus' glory. When he saw the Lord of hosts he was seeing God the Son. And you can look upon God when you're looking in the face of Jesus Christ and you're seeing God unvarnished. You're seeing God exposed.

And you can live. And we might say that only if you look upon God through the face of Jesus Christ can you live. You can know God. You can see God. You can do this and live. Looking to Jesus is looking to God.

He came that we might have life. He was born so that men might have a savior. He died to bring us to God. So what does the incarnation mean? It means that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son to enter into our experience and be a savior who knows us.

Who's experienced what we experience. To be a savior who can relate to us and bring us to his father. I said earlier he's not some far away deity. He's not cold and impersonal like the gods of the Gentiles.

That is so true. But also don't think of Jesus as some warm cuddly baby that is Think more that he is a man. He's working perhaps 15 years as a carpenter. He's strong. He's muscular. He's powerful. A man that knows you.

Not in a general way, but he knows you personally. He knows your weaknesses. Your temptations. Your failures. In a way some might prefer a cold and impersonal God. You can hide from a cold and impersonal God, but there's no hiding from Jesus.

I also said he came to save sinners. If you are his, if your faith is in him, the great Easter event, Golgotha, where Jesus, when he grew to be a man, went to the cross. If your faith is in the work that he accomplished there where he paid for your sins, then you are his.

Many of us know we are his. We know that our sins are forgiven. If you don't know this, I tell you that by fleeing to the cross of Jesus Christ, the place where 33 years after his birth, the baby Jesus ended up willingly.

He came for that purpose. He was sent for that reason. If you put your faith in him, and beg God for forgiveness for your sins by faith in him, in Jesus Christ, and what he did, and only in what he did, then you too can know your sins to be forgiven.

Do you know your sins? Do you know that you're forgiven? Do you know Jesus Christ? Well, if not, turn to him and rejoice in this season. Rejoice in the Advent. Rejoice in the Advent because of what it accomplished, which ultimately is only the cross.

Rejoice, yes, but repent, and then begin rejoicing now as never before, and a rejoicing that will never know an end. Amen? Lord God, we do thank you again for the day that you've given us. We thank you, Father, for a season when the world turns its thoughts in whatever way they do to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us pray, Father, that your truth would burst forth through all the interference, the commercialism, all the other things that we would complain about, and Father, that your Son, the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ, ever the second person of the Trinity, the Father, that he would be seen for it, that people would look to him.

Even so, Lord, we thank you. We have this chance to set aside to especially celebrate. Let's pray your blessing be upon all this in Christ's name. Amen.