Sunday Morning, December 22, 2019 AM

The Risen Christ, the Gift of Christmas, and the Need for Worship

As the children have sung your praises, and as the choir has echoed them, you've given us opportunity to rejoice in who you are and what you have done. We thank you for a Sunday not only to, once again, as we do every week, rejoice and give praise to the risen Christ, who is King of kings and Lord of lords, who is ruler of the kings of the earth, at your right hand, our Lord, our Savior, our Master.

We rejoice in his resurrection, but also today, because of the season, we also rejoice in remembrance of his birth, a great gift to us, that because of Christ's birth, because of you giving your son, sending forth your son in due time, born of a woman and born under the law, that we are incredibly blessed.

And I pray that you would lead us in praise and thanksgiving today for those blessings. Lord, we ask these things, looking for your grace, your help, for we are needy people. We are not gathered here because we are experts at worship, but that we are made in your image and created to worship you and in need of your word.

So, for the sake of your son, with whom you are well pleased, we ask that you would bless us this morning and pray these things for Christ's sake. Amen. I'll invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Galatians chapter 4, Paul's letter to the Galatians, chapter 4.

We'll be looking at verse 4 again, Galatians 4 and verse 4. Some may rightly wonder why we have communion at Christmas. It is not because of an overwrought sense of devotion to any kind of tradition, but it is to remind us the reason for which Christ came.

That from the very beginning, when the arrival of Christ, the arrival of the promised seed is connected to his atoning work, that we hear in Genesis 3 .15 that the seed's heel would be crushed, but that he would crush the head of the serpent.

There would be suffering for the seed in his victorious work. The promised seed to Abraham prefigured by Isaac. Where was Isaac? Where do we find Isaac in his seminal moment? But on the altar. Isaiah writes of Emmanuel, who was born for us.

A child born for us, also the same would die for us, bearing our transgressions. The very same Emmanuel, the very same promised one. Isaiah chapter 7 and 9 and 53. We hear from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke that the child of the Virgin Mary, Emmanuel, would save his people from their sins, and it would happen in such a way it would pierce the heart of Mary.

And indeed, we hear John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, who as a baby leaped in the womb of his mother at the arrival of the Messiah himself, in the womb of his mother. This same John the Baptist beholding Christ, singling him out as the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

And anybody who knows anything about that context knows what happens to the Lamb who atones for sin. And so, there's all sorts of reasons, all sorts of biblical reasons for us to celebrate communion at Christmas, and it should also anchor us for we are going to celebrate communion again on Good Friday.

What we do here at this point in time, we will do again in the Lord's good grace on Good Friday to remind us of the purpose of the life of Christ, what he accomplished. Now we've been in Galatians chapter 4, in verse 4.

I'll read for us verses 1 through 7 this morning, and I invite you to stand with me as I read. Let us hear the words of our King Jesus Christ through his Apostle Paul. Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave, though he is owner of everything.

But he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who are under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying Abba, Father. Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. This is the word of the Lord.

You may be seated. We've been focusing in on Galatians 4. As we've talked about, it would be a very, what makes for a bad Christmas is not if our plans fail and if people get sick and if we don't get to have the traditions that we normally do.

That's not what makes for a bad Christmas. What makes for a bad Christmas is if we miss the point. Everything can go wrong with our traditions and plans and our health and our income and everything else.

But we'd have an awesome Christmas if we just remember the reason why we're celebrating. And Galatians 4 .4 is a great job of reminding us the point of the whole thing. That in due time, that in due time, when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law.

And it is important for us to remember the timeliness of God sending forth his son. We spent a couple of weeks thinking about all of the aspects of the timeliness of God sending forth his son. And now we're going to continue thinking about how it was that he sent forth his son, born of a woman, meaning he sent him of the flesh, but also under the law to save.

I want us to apprehend the truths of Christmas so that we will appreciate the gifts of Christmas. If we do not apprehend the truths of Christmas, we will not appreciate the gifts of Christmas. And the gifts of Christmas are many.

In our context, just four mentioned are redemption, adoption, communion, and inheritance. And that's just this passage. So I want us to spend some time thinking about the truths of Christmas. So God sent forth his son in time.

You notice that in verse four, but when the fullness of the time came, but he also sent forth his son of flesh, born of a woman. When we hear that God sent forth his son, born of a woman, we are immediately necessarily confronted with the central fact of history, which is the incarnation.

This is the central fact of all history. We are confronted with the doctrine of the incarnation, the reality of the incarnation, and all of its adorning lights. Says in verse four, God sent forth his son.

The grammar is in such a sense that God sent forth from himself his son. He sent forth from himself his son. Who is his son? We know that the son of God is co-eternal, co-glorious, co-worthy with the father that he has always been.

There was never a time when he was not. And this eternal second person of the Godhead, God the son, is sent forth in time, born of a woman. This is the doctrine of the incarnation. In a single verse. And he comes forth fully God and fully man.

Fully God and fully man. This means that he is unique, of course. He is unique in his person. He is unique in his conception. He is unique in his mediation. But it also means he's common to us. He's of our stuff.

He is common to our humanity. His birth was just like ours. And his mediation is not distant from us, but he reaches not only all the way to God as God, but he reaches all the way to us as man. He is fully God.

He is unique in his person. One must only need read John chapter 1 to be reminded of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. And John chapter 1 in verses 1 through 4, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him. And apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being in him. In the word was life and the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. But then who is this word? Who is this word who was always before the beginning through whom everything was made? Who is this word?

Verse 14, John 1, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the father, full of grace and truth. John testified about him and cried out saying, this is he of whom I said, he who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me.

For of his fullness, we have all received in grace upon grace, for the law was given through Moses, grace and truth are realized through Jesus Christ. Who is this word who became flesh? Jesus Christ. And why is that so vital for us?

Because no one has seen God at any time, but the only begotten God who was in the bosom of the father, he has explained him. How is it that we even can know God? How is it that we can be in relationship with God?

How is it that we can commune with God? He sent forth his son in the fullness of time. When the fullness of time came, he sent forth his son from himself, born of a woman, fully God and fully man. He is unique in his person, unique in his conception.

He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, sent by the father, conceived by the spirit. The son took upon human flesh. And so we see that the mystery of the incarnation is inextricably tied with the mystery of the Trinity.

I say mystery. I say mystery. I do not say contradiction. I do not say impenetrable, confusing fog. I say mystery. We are told things that we know for sure about God in his triune nature. We are told things that we know for sure about Christ's person and his two natures.

We are told things that we know for sure, even though at the same time we cannot possibly come to the end of it. We cannot possibly fully comprehend it. And so he is fully God. He is unique in his person, in his conception, and in his mediation.

He is unique in his mediation, unlike the mediators of old, whether they be king or priest or prophet, who would mediate the authority of God or the holiness of God or the truth of God. He is all the offices in one.

The kings and priests and prophets of old who were anointed are all encapsulated in the one anointed one. The king of kings, the great high priest, and the great prophet, Jesus Christ himself. Christ, the term Christ, meaning anointed one.

He is unique in his mediation, for he combines all the offices into one. He is unique in his mediation, because he is perfect in his mediation. There is nothing lacking in Christ. His righteousness is the very righteousness of God.

He is unique in his mediation, because he not only stands between God and man, he is God and man, the two in one for us. This is his unique, perfect position. If Christ is not all the way God, fully God, he does not bring us all the way to God, to be fully with God.

And now there is the distinction of natures. Is there not in the person of Christ, there is a distinction of natures that he is fully God and fully man, but there's also, but this is no divorce of personhood.

There is a separation of the natures that he is God and man, but there is no severing of his person. He is the one person, Jesus Christ. He is fully God and he is fully man. And so it means he is common to us in our humanity.

He was born of a woman. He's common to our humanity. He's common to Adam's state in his original righteousness. He is the upon the belts of Adam and Christ hang all of humanity. Are you hanging on to Adam or are you hanging on to Christ?

Romans five sets before us Adam and Christ, the two men. They're just two men in all of history, Adam and Christ. He is common to our humanity. He's really of our stuff. He got hungry. He got tired. He got dirty.

His feet needed to be washed. He was looking for a place to lay his head. And so he is common to us. He knows our groaning under the curse. He knows what it's like to suffer and to sorrow. He is common to us in our humanity, our full humanity.

Church father was right when he said that what was not assumed is not saved. Christ is fully human, not a lack. There is no deficiency, no lack of humanity in Christ. He is the most man of all men. He is the most full human of all humanity for us and for our salvation.

He is fully a man. We see this in his birth. You know, we sing lots of carols about the birth of Christ. There may not have been anything directly miraculous about the birth of Christ. Now, surrounding the event, angels singing, a star in the sky, wise men coming from long ways away, beginning their journey.

What was miraculous was his conception. What was miraculous was his origination and the Holy Spirit conceiving him in the womb of Mary. But his birth, his birth was a natural birth. It was nine months in Mary's womb.

It was labor for Mary. He did not, as some traditions teach, just phase out of Mary with some sort of ghostly apparition. He was a real human baby. It was real labor, real pain, real suffering on Mary's part, real terror in the child who came out.

Physical needs. He was wrapped in. Why? Because he was a real baby. And he was born outside. And he was laid in a feeding trough. And so, yes, he got bundled up because he was a real human baby, fully God and fully man, fully man and his mediation.

I was reading and I really love coming across these phrases that are invented by people who are, you know, squish about the Bible. And they were writing about the need to get beyond in Christianity, right, for the good of Christianity.

We need to get beyond the gendered Jew. Yeah. In the name of preserving Christianity, let's get beyond that gendered Jew in the biblical text. I wouldn't talk about Jesus Christ that way. He's ruler of the kings of the earth.

And he's male. And he's a Jew. Praise God. Well, he's the man for all men. He's the true Jew. He is both fully God and fully man. But he is no third kind. He's no mixture of the two as if they bleed into one another.

There's no halfway here. He is the two parties in one person, fully God and fully man for us and for our salvation. And I do not pretend in the least that we can get to the bottom of that. Herman Bavinck about the incarnation writes, How utterly the mystery of the union of the divine and the human nature in Christ, how utterly this exceeds all of our speaking and thinking of it.

All comparison breaks down. It is without equal. But it is the incarnation. It is accordingly the mystery of godliness, which angels desire to look into and the church worshipfully adores. And that's really our position, isn't it?

When we come up to the doctrine of the Trinity or the doctrine of the incarnation. Indeed, the doctrine of the atonement. How is it that we come? We're like beggars coming for bread. And what glorious bread!

We come to worship and adore. We're not the masters. We're those who have been redeemed from slavery. And this is what he came to do. Yes, penultimately, yes, he comes to glorify God in everything. But what is it specifically?

He was born. He was born of a woman. Born under the law. Born under the law. Now, indeed, the whole world is born under the law. Romans 3 makes it clear that there is none without excuse. That actually the law condemns all men, whether they are Jew or Gentile.

For even if a particular people group has not received the law and the prophets or the entire scriptures. They still have the law of God written upon their hearts. And the law of God silences all of our excuses so that we have no excuses.

Shuts all of our mouths, Romans 3. But specifically in the context, it says that he was born under the law. And the law in Paul's mind here is the law that God gave to the Jews. The law out of which God birthed the nation of Israel there at Sinai.

Jesus Christ was born under this law. The special revelation of God. The exact explanation of the character of God in the law applied to human beings. That we would worship God supremely. Love each other rightly.

Steward the creation responsibly. All these things gathered up are in the Ten Commandments. All of these things gathered up are in the very first things that God ever said to Adam and Eve. We're all born under the law.

Well, Christ was born under the law. Why is he born under the law? Well, he keeps the law. And he interprets the law. And he fulfills the law. But why is he born under the law? Why is that important to us?

Why is that necessary for our salvation? It says he was born under the law so that he might redeem those who are under the law. Well, there's a flaming sword whirling at the east of Eden. And none may go back without encountering the holy justice of a defended God.

The same image, the cherubim with the flaming sword, was woven into the veil in the tabernacle in the temple, which also faced east. There's a flaming sword whirling east of Eden. We read in the scriptures of torrential rains or tectonic geysers flooding the earth.

We hear about smoke billowing from Sinai. And none can come close or even touch the mountain lest they die. That's what it means to be born under the law. To be born under the law is to flop out pink and wrinkled before the specter of damnation.

Now what? There's a law to keep. And this law is deeper than any of us can comprehend. And this law, unless something happens, just keeps trucking because God is immutable. He does not change. He is righteous and he is holy and his character does not alter and his law does not change.

But Christ keeps the law. This is the testimony of all the four gospels and the praise of the apostles and the promise of the prophets that Christ keeps the law. From the very first wound to the very last wound, from circumcision to crucifixion, Christ kept the law.

No wonder God says in him, I am well pleased. Perfect obedience, actively and passively, perfect obedience, Christ keeps the law. And it's not him keeping the law on the level that we might interpret the law.

The tendency of human beings is if I have to keep a law, then I'm going to interpret it in a way that makes it able for me to do so. I'm going to make it manageable. Here's the law I've got to keep. Okay, well, I'm going to read it in a way that is easier on me.

But when Christ interpreted the law, we find out it was far more detailed and involved than the most lawfully minded law-keeping lawyer knew. You have heard it said, but I say to you. You have heard it said, but I say to you.

And he says, your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees or you're not getting in the kingdom of heaven. He said, Sermon on the Mount. So when Christ comes, he keeps the law, but he does so interpreting it in God's own standards.

The way that it was originally intended to the absolute depths of keeping the law. He keeps the law, which means, of course, that he fulfills the law. He fulfills the law. Romans chapter 10 has some very good news.

Verse one of Romans 10. Brethren, my heart's desire, my prayer to God for them. Meaning Paul says, Paul is talking about his fellow Jews. People he he grew up with, the people he was went to school with, the people he was was in arms with.

Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. You see, we're ready. We're ready to purposely declare anybody with a zeal for God saved.

You're zealous for God. So I you're saved because I can see you have a zeal for God. Paul is saying they have a zeal for God, but they need to be saved. They have a zeal for God. He says that it's not in accordance with knowledge.

What kind of knowledge is this? Notice verse three. For not knowing, not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.

How they would howl and protest at that statement. Oh, yes, of course we know God is righteous. Of course we submit ourselves to his righteous law. He's not talking about that. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God is revealed, being manifested by the law and the prophets, Paul says, Romans 321.

The righteousness of God, apart from the law, is made manifest. How? In the person and work of Jesus Christ. Notice verse four. For Christ is the end of the law, the telos of the law, the fulfillment of the law, the culmination of the law, for righteousness, for righteousness, to everyone who believes.

To everyone who believes. Believes in what? Believes in who? Believes in Jesus Christ. His person and his work. What is, well, who is he? Well, in the fullness of the time, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem, to save.

I was talking with the brother of one of our neighbors. He stopped by last night to take a look at our Christmas lights. And he was very impressed, but he was slightly inebriated, so I didn't take that.

I didn't take it too seriously, although it's nice to get compliments about your Christmas light work. And so we talked for a little while. He was coherent. His name was Chewy. And we talked about his real name was Jesus, Jesus.

And he said the reason why he was named that was because he was born on December 24th, and his mother decided to name him Jesus. Christmas Eve, right? So we talked for a little while. And he kept on going on and on about how, you know, he had a lot of bad things in his past.

He's trying to do better. He's trying to get right with God. In fact, as he's at work and he's talking to God and praying to God all the time, and he feels better that he's praying to God and thinking about God.

This man has a growing zeal for God. But do I embrace him as my brother? No. We had a conversation about Jesus Christ. Because you can have a zeal for God, but if you don't know Jesus Christ, whom God sent for us, for our sake, you're without hope in this world.

Christ fulfills the law. The thunder of Sinai is muted in him. The flood is swallowed up in him. The flaming sword has been plunged into him. He suffered on the cross what we deserve, and raised from the dead to give us the life that he deserves.

And so if we understand the truths, if we apprehend the truths of Christmas, we will appreciate the gifts of Christmas. We appreciate the gifts of Christmas. And certainly as we come to the Lord's table, as the second Adam bids us eat of the fruit of his tree, let us consider the blessings, the gifts of Christmas.

We notice the very next verse in Galatians 4, verse 5, says that this was so that he might redeem those who were under the law. Redemption. Redemption. This is what Paul started off by saying. In Galatians chapter 1 and verse 4, he said that the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins, that he might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore.

Amen. By his blood, by the shedding of his blood, the Lamb of God was slain. It is Passover completed, that God the Father looks upon the Lamb and is satisfied in him, and that we look upon the Lamb and we are satisfied in him.

By this blood, we are redeemed. We are purchased. We are rescued. We are set free from the guilt, from the power of sin. And adoption. Now it says, so that he might redeem those who are under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. We are redeemed so that we might be adopted. Our sins are forgiven. Our persons covered with the righteousness of Jesus Christ himself, the righteousness of God, so that as God looks upon us who are in Christ, he says, my children with whom I am well pleased, that how he feels about Christ is how he feels about us who are in Christ.

That is what it means to have the righteousness of Jesus Christ covering us, a righteousness apart from the law, by faith. It is by the merits of his Son, Jesus Christ, that God looks upon us and calls us sons.

And also the gift of communion. Verse six, because you are sons. OK, so redemption, adoption, and because you have been redeemed and adopted because you are sons. Notice the gift of communion. God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

You know, God doesn't listen to us pray to him because he's just that way. Why would God commune with us and listen to anything that we would have to say? Because of his Son, Jesus Christ, because of the merits of his Son by whom we are redeemed, through whom we are adopted.

And he sends forth his Holy Spirit into his temple. Those who are in Christ, those who have been redeemed, those who have been made righteous in his sight. And so he sends forth his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, into our hearts by whom we cry, Abba, Father.

How do we know God is Father? How do we know that we are born again, that we have new life? How is it that we know that we're in good fellowship with God? How do we experience that? The Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who intercedes for us with groanings that cannot even be uttered.

Well, these are gifts of Christmas, redemption, adoption, communion, and inheritance. Verse 7, Therefore, being the case that you have been redeemed and adopted, and you have communion with God directly.

Verse 7, Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir, an heir through God. Meaning that there is inheritance. There is something ahead of us. There is something that God will bestow to us and give to us.

And what is this except eternal life? Eternal life. Everlasting, everlasting salvation. Forever and ever with God, in his glory, to his glory. Well, these are the truths and the gifts of Christmas. May they help us to rejoice and truly worship this morning.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the time you have afforded us in your word. I pray that it will resound in our thinking, in our hearts, as we partake of this supper. Bless this meal. Help us to truly know.