Classic Friday: A Week of Christmas Past: A Christmas Hymn - [1 Timothy 3:16]

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Several years ago, some parents in Missoula, Montana, objected to their children singing

Christmas carols in public school because they said it was a form of bullying.

The parents, the article said, who declined to be identified, are threatening to sue

Missoula County Public School District unless songs like �Joy to the World� and �Good Christian Men Rejoice� are replaced with secular tunes about Frosty the

Snowman and Santa Claus. One parent said anonymously, �When the children are singing about the

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, public school is just not the place.� They don�t like their children singing about the

Lord. And then I found this the most interesting thing. Superintendent Alex Apostle told the

Missoulian that he takes separation of church and state seriously.

I wonder if you feel bullied this morning as we sang some songs about the Lord Jesus Christ.

We love to sing old Christmas songs that remind us about truths, truths that we need to rehearse because when trials come and issues come up in life, sometimes we forget about who the

Lord is as we're walking by faith. Today we're going to look at a song and it's a great song.

It's a Christmas song. It's a song that every person here should learn to sing, should memorize.

I'd like you to take your Bibles and turn to 1 Timothy chapter 3. I probably preached this eight years ago or something and it was just so impactful in my life and I was thinking about it all week.

I thought I want to make sure we go over this truth again, this song that we're going to learn to sing from 1

Timothy chapter 3. And the good thing about it is you don't need to really learn how to sing it with your voice, but just with your heart.

You don't need to know about tempo or accompaniment or acoustics of the hall. You don't have to just sing it in the shower where you think you sound good.

You don't need to worry about chromatic tunes or resonance or tone. That's all immaterial.

But this is a song about Christmas and much more that every Christian loves to sing or should love to sing.

And if you don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, this is a good song for you to understand because this is what the

Christian faith is. This is who Jesus is and you will have to recognize Him sooner or later.

I read this week that the red -eyed Virio bird can sing 20 ,000 songs in a day.

I'm only asking you for one today. It's this one, 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16.

And it reads this way, great indeed we confess is the mystery of godliness. And you can even see probably by the indents in your

Bible, the extra white margins there that something's going on. It's a poem or a song or a creed or a confession.

It's different. Great indeed we confess is the mystery of godliness. He Jesus was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

Could be my all -time favorite song ever. Some people love the Psalms to sing. That is great.

I love 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 and I hope by the end of the message today you'll say

I understand the Lord Jesus better, I understand this passage better and I want Him to receive all my praise and honor and thanksgiving.

Now whenever you come to a book it's good to know the context and it's easily found in just the previous two verses.

So if you look at 1 Timothy chapter 3 verses 14 and 15 in what we call a pastoral epistle,

Paul writing to his legate, his understudy, Timothy, he says this, he gives the purpose in the letter,

I hope to come to you Timothy soon, 1 Timothy 3 verse 14, but I'm writing these things to you so that if I delay you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, specifically, which is the church of the living

God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. If I don't make it,

Timothy, I'm writing these truths so that you understand, so that you know, so that you can believe these things, so you can say to yourself, these are weighty matters, these are important, if I can't be there

I want to make sure you still understand because the gospel is at stake. And then he gives this great hymn.

And what I like about this hymn, what I like about the pastoral epistles, what I like about 2 Timothy and Titus and 1

Timothy, he says, Paul does to Timothy and Titus, that the gospel of Jesus, the good news of Jesus, it's worth protecting and it's worth proclaiming.

It's something that we have to stand up for because there will be people assailing it and contradicting it and attacking it, so we have to protect it, but we also have to proclaim it, we have to tell people, go tell it on the mountain if you will.

And what I like about this book is even though it's a pastoral epistle, everything centers around the

Lord Jesus. Now if you talk to pastors, maybe they need to know things about business and economics and parking lot repair and other things like that.

They need to know administration, they need to know how to work all these issues behind the scenes.

At the front center, you talk to any pastor worth their salt, they'll say to you, you know what, all these other things, if they function great, if we did things well, if we lose track of the gospel, the centrality of Jesus Christ, the risen

Savior, none of the ministry matters. If Jesus leaves this church and we function as usual, something's wrong.

So he highlights in this book the Lord Jesus in the pastoral epistle. It's not just be a good elder, it's this is who

Jesus is. And he starts off the very beginning of the book. Just before we get into this passage in verse 16, just turn back to chapter 1 and I just want to show you a few places in 1

Timothy sprinkled with the gospel of the historical Jesus Christ. He's not a thought, he's just not an idea.

If you're a person who wants to study the Bible, Machen said you better be a historian because there's a real

Jesus on the real earth who really walked, who really was crucified, who really obeyed God's law.

And you need to understand, unlike modern readers who say, I just am after the essence or the nugget or the thought or the love behind the person.

No, no, Jesus really lived, he really died. And you need to make sure you're a historian. After all, good news is news about history.

And so do you notice in chapter 1 verse 1, everywhere you look in this book, it's about Jesus.

Paul, an apostle of Christ, that's the Messiah, Jesus, the savior by command of God, our savior and of Christ Jesus, our hope to Timothy, my true child in the faith, grace, mercy and peace from God, the father and Jesus Christ, our

Lord. This is a book about Jesus, his salvation and the centrality of Jesus in a church.

Chapter 1 verse 12. There's more of this emphasis. Paul saw

Jesus on the Damascus Road and he never forgot it. And everywhere in his books, it's permeated by and punctuated by with the thought that Jesus Christ is the risen savior, the only sin bearer.

First Timothy 1 verse 12, I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus, our

Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service. Though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor and insolent opponent, but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief and the grace of our

Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world, think incarnation to save sinners of whom

I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason that in me as the foremost,

Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

And then he just has to praise him to the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God be glory and honor forever and ever.

Amen. Everything about this book is punctuated by the Lord Jesus. Chapter 2. It's the same thing.

You can't run very far when you read Pauline truth without contacting, experiencing, reading about, hearing from the

Lord Jesus chapter 1, excuse me, chapter 2, verse 3. The pastoral epistles are books about the

Lord Jesus and therefore his church, how to operate his church. First Timothy 2, 3.

This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God, our savior who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and man or God and men rather the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

Everything about this book is Jesus, his life, his resurrection, his ascension.

We'll look up one other passage before we settle in our passage today and that is first Timothy 6, verses 13 through 16.

Pastoral epistles talk about the Lord Jesus because it's his church and he's the one to be extolled in the church.

What's the purpose for the church except to extol and praise the Lord Jesus for what he's done?

Everything about first Timothy, second Timothy and Titus is about Jesus and his church. First Timothy 6, 13.

I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession.

The Lord Jesus, he made his good confession and we're going to learn about our confession in just moments, but then verse 14 says, to keep the commandment unstained and free from approach until the appearing of our

Lord Jesus. He's coming back, which he will display at the proper time. He who is the blessed and only sovereign

King of kings and Lord of lords who alone has immortality, who dwells in inapproachable light or unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to him be an honor and eternal dominion, amen.

Everything about Paul, he thinks about the Lord Jesus and then he just kind of goes off on this extolling of the

Lord Jesus and praise him. So today we're going to go right to the center of the book, back to chapter 3, verse 16 and settle in on this mighty creed, this mighty confession, this song that we want to sing that unites all

Christians, no matter what their race is, what their background is. When I say race, I even have to autocorrect theologically.

Do you ever do that? You know, you're trying to type something and it autocorrects to something wrong. Well, I need to autocorrect this to right, because there's only one race, right?

Okay. Theological autocorrecting. I thought that was pretty funny, but you didn't, obviously.

Okay. What do you preach on Christmas on the day we celebrate incarnation, at least on the

Sunday? Well, you preach about the Lord Jesus and something about the incarnation and that's what we're going to do today, thinking about his incarnation and then what else he did.

But before we get to the six lines in this song, this creed, this hymn, there's a good little prelude, we'll call it, a little introduction.

Prelude is Latin for pre and play. You play before. You play beforehand.

And here's the prelude to our song. Great indeed. First Timothy 3 .16.

We confess is the mystery of godliness. We confess.

It's simple. It means we agree. It means there's no controversy. Why? Because we're all agreeing.

Actually, some translations say without controversy. We're all saying the same thing. What unites

Christians? Their social background. Remember what was going on back in those days and our days.

You've got Jew, Gentile, women, men. You've got slave free. How can they all worship?

How can they all agree? Well, on these truths about God, they all can. And so he says, we confess this.

And by the way, it's an ongoing confession. It's not we just used to confess it, our parents confess it.

No, generation after generation says these same truths about the Lord Jesus. And what the writer is wanting you to do, what

I want you to do, is to confess these same things. So as we walk through these six lines of this song,

I want to know, do you believe these things? I want you to ask yourself the question, do

I in fact believe? I didn't ask you if you were baptized or you were catechized or you're a good person.

I'm asking you, do you believe these things? Because in Jesus Christ Church, this is what you must confess.

I was reading this week Spurgeon, and he said, Now all this I put before you in simple language.

Spurgeon was an English Baptist preacher over a hundred years ago in London.

Now all this I put before you in simple language, believing what I say. And trusting that if I describe your case, you will know that it was meant for you.

I'm preaching to you, he says, those in London. I have heard of a preacher who was so fearful, lest he should be thought personal, that he said to his congregation,

I mean, he didn't really want to offend anybody. This is what Christians believe, it doesn't matter what you believe. Instead of saying, you must believe this.

You feel Nathan's finger coming at you by the power of the Holy Spirit. You have to believe these things or you can't be saved, you can't go to heaven.

This is what the one pastor said who was afraid to confront the congregation. Spurgeon says of that pastor,

Lest any of you should think what I have said was meant for you, I would observe that the sermon

I'm preaching was prepared for a congregation in Massachusetts. Spurgeon, I can plead nothing of the sort.

I refer to you my here in the most pointed manner. I will attend to Massachusetts if the

Lord ever sends me there. But just now, I mean you. Well, without being too mystical or charismatic, the

Lord has sent me to Massachusetts and I mean you. This prelude is so wonderful.

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness. This truth of the gospel is undeniable and what does the text say?

It's great. It's mega, that's where we get the word great. It's large, it's wonderful, it's good.

And by the way, for those of you that love figures of speech, is Dave Smith here today? Dave is not here.

Alright. Elders, would you make sure you call him after. Well, this is a figure of speech anyway.

When you take a word out of order and transport it to a certain place to make it kind of unusual, but for effect, that's what's here.

Great is this confession. He doesn't say the confession is great, although it is.

But he's saying something so you get your attention. This technically is called a hyperbaton.

It just means a word order that's different. Great is the mystery of godliness.

Great are my kids. Great are the patriots. Great am I. Great is my religion. Great is my spirituality.

Great is my faithfulness. No, here it's great is this confession. What's this confession contain?

Notice, it's the mystery of godliness. Mystery is something that's very simple in the

Bible. It's not mysterious. It's not kind of, oh, it's kind of spooky. Mystery simply means this.

There's a truth that was unveiled in the Old Covenant, in the Old Testament, but now we know it's truth.

There was a sheet over this truth, and it's no longer a mystery anymore because the sheet's been taken off.

So it's a truth that was not disclosed, but now disclosed, previously hidden.

That's what mystery is. So you think about the Old Testament and all the types and shadows and things that were kind of, were like a mystery.

Who is this Jesus? When will he come? What will he do? Well, we saw types and shadows in the

Old Testament. It was like a mystery to us, but now that our eyes are open with the New Testament revelation, it's no longer a mystery.

And this mystery, by the way, is of the godly person, Jesus, and it will lead to godliness.

And it's great. Every one of you should say of these next six truths, they're great because he, the

Lord Jesus, is great. You must confess these truths. Now, let's look at these six in just a moment, but I want you to see the first word of the first phrase, and that is he.

And that is he. This is, in Greek, it's a relative pronoun. It's referring to Jesus.

It's who was manifest in the flesh. It's all about who Jesus is.

This is not new for us with Paul's writings. He says, Him we proclaim, Colossians 1, verse 28.

1 Corinthians 2, verse 2, I determine to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ. Paul is always harping on speaking about the

Lord Jesus. One writer said, The motto of true servants of Christ must be,

We preach Christ in him crucified. A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it.

Know Christ in your sermon, sir, then go home and never preach again until you have something worth preaching.

The same writer said, Leave Christ out? O brethren, better leave the pulpit out altogether.

If a man can preach one sermon without mentioning Christ's name in it, it ought to be his last. Certainly the last that any

Christian ought to go to to hear him preach. A sermon without Christ as its beginning, middle and end is a mistake in conception and a crime in execution.

However grand the language it will be, it's merely much ado about nothing if Christ is not there.

And I mean by Christ not merely His example and ethical precepts, but His atoning blood and His wondrous satisfaction made for human sin.

If one who said, I was always on one string in my sermons and He would come and hear me no more, but if I just preached a sermon without Christ, He would come.

Ah, He will never come while this tongue moves, for a sermon without Christ in it is a Christless sermon.

And that's what's going on with Paul. He just can't stop. Even in a pastoral epistle, it's all about Jesus.

I actually read this week. I couldn't believe it. I won't even tell you who said it because I would hate to give him shame.

Here's what one pastor said. A woman who visited our church several years ago said on our way,

It was nice to hear a sermon about God. I thought at first she meant she was fed up with man -centered preaching.

But she explained, Everywhere I go, I hear preachers talking about Jesus, but not too many talk about God.

Dear friends, Jesus is the eternal God. He is the eternal God. We even sang today,

He's not created, He's begotten. And so when you want to hear a sermon about God, I present to you the one in whom all the fullness of deity dwells, the

Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what Paul did beginning, front, and end in the book of Timothy. And now right here in chapter 3, verse 16, six stanzas with six key verbs.

Manifest, vindicated, seen, proclaimed, believed, and taken up. Six key verbs.

And by the way, they all have the same sound at the end in the Greek. It's a T -H hard A.

Thay. And so I won't pronounce every Greek word, but as you might have alliteration on the front end, every, you know, you might have a song that starts with the same letter or sound.

Here we have a song that ends with the same sound. It's got this flow. It's got this rhythm. It's easy to memorize.

It's easy to grasp. It's easy to teach your children. It's all about Jesus.

Line number one for the song is that Jesus was manifested in the flesh.

How many points are we going to have today? It's simple. Manifested, vindicated, seen, proclaimed, believed, and taken up.

Six lines of this hymn that every Christian loves to sing. He was manifested in the flesh.

What's that mean manifested? It means to be made known, to be revealed.

This is talking about the incarnation. Where do you start with this song? Well, we could have started in eternity past, but that's hinted here, is it not?

He was manifested in the flesh means he existed before the flesh, and now he shows up in the flesh.

Remember, Jesus regularly and often, he doesn't say, I was born. He says,

I was sent. We're talking about the preexistent Jesus now manifest in the flesh. Regularly, you'll see this word manifest referring to the incarnation of Jesus.

For instance, 2 Timothy 1, in which now has been manifested through the appearing of Jesus Christ, our

Savior, abolishing death, bringing life and immortality to light through the gospel.

This is talking about the incarnation. What's the first line of the song Christians sing? We sing it during Christmas time.

That is, Jesus came and he added human flesh. Does not

Matthew 1 .23 say, Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name

Emmanuel, which means God with us. The eternal Son, truly

God, perfectly God, adds a real human nature to himself, so that he might be our representative and substitute.

The same language is used in 1 Peter 1. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times.

He's wanting you to want to sing this song about the incarnation. And by the way, when you say to yourself,

He, Jesus, is great because of the incarnation. He's great. He's great. He's great.

He's great. Paul is writing to Timothy. And where is Timothy, by the way, when he receives this letter?

Ephesus. Any song do you think the people at Ephesus are singing? What's Casey Kasem playing at Ephesus?

The young people have no idea who Casey Kasem is. I don't think you want to know. Kind of top 40 songs, top hit songs.

What's the number one hit on the chart that's been at the top of the charts for a long, long time at Ephesus?

When they heard this, they were enraged, Acts 19. Remember, Paul was putting an end to their silver business, selling false little gods of Diana of Ephesus.

And when they heard this, they were enraged and they cried out, Great is Artemis of the

Ephesians. Great is Diana of Ephesus. Great is Diana.

But when they recognized that he was a Jew for about two hours, they all cried out with one voice, confessing,

Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. Great is Artemis of the

Ephesians. And Paul says, listen, Timothy, Pastor Oli, centrally must the gospel be.

And here's a confession. While they chant great, so do you. But it's a different kind of greatness because it's a different person.

And this person is not a made -up idol. The preexistent Son of God adds humanity and enters into earth.

Whitefield said, Jesus was God and man and one person, that God and man might be happy together again. 1

John 3 uses the language of made manifest. It says, you know that Jesus appeared in order to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin.

1 John 3, whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

The reason the Son of God appeared or was manifest or was revealed or became incarnate was to destroy the works of the devil.

This is why Christians sing during Christmas. Because we were slaves to sin, we had

Satan as our father, and Jesus comes to rescue. And how can He rescue humans? He has to become one.

Romans 8, for God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. By sending

His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin He condemns sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.

How? By Jesus' perfect obedience. It's amazing.

And did you know, dear Christian, if you deny that Jesus added humanity, if you deny that He's not perfectly man and truly man, if you say, well,

He's just some kind of ghost, our spirit, our thought, our perception. Here's what

John, the disciple of love, says for people that deny stanza line 1 manifested in the flesh.

Here's what John says. Do not believe every spirit, beloved, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.

For many false prophets have gone out of the world. But by this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the

Antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is already in the world. This is the central fact of Christianity, the

Incarnation, so much so that if you say, I don't believe in the Incarnation, that's Antichrist kind of talk.

It's amazing. The hub of Christianity and the hub of this book, 1

Timothy, is talking about the Lord Jesus. Remember Micah chapter 5? But you,

O Bethlehem, you are too little to be among the clans of Judah. From you shall come forth for me, one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose comings forth, our goings forth is from old.

I think that refers to Jesus' many visits to earth before he finally and ultimately takes on human flesh, when he shows up to Manoah, Samson's father, when he shows up in the fiery furnace in the book of Daniel.

Here, the great, the final time, he's manifest in the flesh forever. God with us.

No wonder Paul says in Galatians 4, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under law to redeem those who were under the law.

He had to take on flesh, why? Because we're flesh. Angels can't save us.

They're not human. A human has to save humans, because a human has to obey the law, and a human has to die for lawbreakers.

What does incarnation even mean? If I say to you, have you ever had carne asada, what would you say?

Well, those that have just been, you know, traveling from south or from California, you might know more about carne asada.

Maybe some here do, I bet you do, if you ever go to that burrito place, the name we don't mention.

It means flesh, it means meat. Meat incarnate, in flesh.

Flesh, he had real flesh. Why? Because God says you've got to perfectly obey the law as a human, and we can't, so He does in our place.

And God says if you disobey the law, you've got to pay in your flesh, and so then Jesus does. The Eternal Son becomes a

Jew. He had to, to be our mediator, representative and substitute.

So I sure hope you sing that with your heart, and you say, I really sing that with my soul.

By the way, Alistair Begg said, the sure sign that a man is converted is that he sings with his whole heart.

Songs that he doesn't even know. It's sure going to be loud with our last song.

Because, you know, guys aren't really singers, but when you get saved, you just want to say, great indeed is the mystery of godliness, and we want to confess that Jesus was manifest in the flesh.

There's a second line to this song that you need to sing. He was manifest in the flesh, vindicated by the

Spirit. Or maybe your translation says justified. It's the same word. Vindicated.

I wonder if Jesus' life was perfect. I wonder if God accepted the sacrifice of the

Lord Jesus. I wonder if Jesus really did have human flesh, really did obey the

Ten Commandments and every commandment that we were supposed to obey. And I wonder if He really did die for sinners and if God would accept the sacrifice.

Remember the Old Testament? Some sacrifices God didn't want, because they didn't offer them properly.

Maybe think Nadab and Abihu and Leviticus 10, or maybe their heart was far from them and they didn't offer them in faith.

Think Cain. The sacrifice that the high priest Jesus Himself gave, that is

Himself. Will the Father accept the sacrifice? Was it pleasing in His eyes? Was it a soothing aroma?

The answer is, we all know, because Jesus has been vindicated by the resurrection.

He's vindicated by the Spirit. Now, the Father, regularly in the Bible, says He raises

Jesus from the dead. Jesus says, I lay down my life and I take it up of my own accord, John 10.

But here the focus is on, of course, the triune God, all three members would be involved.

But here, vindicated by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit. He proves the life of Jesus.

He proves the teaching of Jesus. He gives affirmation by what? Leaving Him in the grave?

Letting Him rot? No. Vindicated by the Spirit via the resurrection.

Listen to what Romans 1 says. And Jesus was declared to be the

Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead.

Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 8. If the Spirit of Him who raised

Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Paul is saying to Timothy, I have a song for you to sing. He was manifested in the flesh, incarnation.

Of course, everything in between. He lived, He taught, He was tempted and tried even though He didn't fail.

He did miracles, fed the 5 ,000, walked on water, cast demons out, raised people from the dead like Lazarus.

He, in fact, was the bread of life. He was the true life. He was the true vine. He was the way, the truth, and the life.

He was the resurrection and the dead. Everything Jesus ever said, I'm God. He's vindicated by being raised from the dead because if Jesus sinned once, said one wrong thing,

He would still be in the grave. But we know this is not true because He has been raised from the dead.

Vindicated. He's not just the substitute. I mean, the representative,

He's the substitute. So, I could ask you the question, Do you believe that Jesus added human flesh, lived a perfect life, died on a cross, and was then raised from the dead?

That is an amazing concept. I regularly, when I go to a funeral home, and I'll see a dead body there, I'll say to the kids,

Kids, you just have to kind of, just look for about 10 seconds, and here's what I want you to remember. Every single time when you look at a dead body, number one, that's not the real person anymore because the soul's gone.

Number two, you'll be in that box one day. Number three, what kind of person can walk over to that box?

Every one of the millions of cells in that body is dead and cold.

And that man doesn't have to touch that body, that man can just say, Get up.

What kind of man is that? Who could do that? And that's exactly what Jesus did to many people, including

Lazarus. Lazarus arise, and all of a sudden, just like the world began,

God creates out of nothing, He recreates and makes alive, and resurrects. And this, in fact, is the power of the resurrection, and Jesus, in fact, has been resurrected as well.

There's another line to this song. Manifest in the flesh, vindicated by the

Spirit, seen by angels. Well, we've got to have a testimony to this, we've got to have two or three witnesses, do we not?

Who would you like to have for your witnesses? These are the witnesses of the Lord Jesus, angels. Impressive.

Very impressive. Seen by angels. Manifest in the flesh, vindicated by the

Spirit, seen by angels. Listen to Matthew 28. Now, after the

Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the

Lord had descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone, and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.

And for fear of him, the guards trembled, and became like dead men. And the angel said to the women,

Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who is crucified. He is not here, he is risen, as he said.

Come see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee, there you will see him.

See, I have told you. Not only in Matthew's account, but also

Acts. And when he had said these things, that is Jesus, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

And while they were gazing into heaven, as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes.

Why does that happen? Because they see things, and they need to have their sight informed by truth.

What if they think it's some kind of mystical thing, or it's some kind of astral phenomenon.

Now revelation from the angels confirms what's going on. Two men, white robes, they're gazing into heaven.

What do the angels say? Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.

Angels have seen the Lord Jesus. They're the ones who give testimony of his life, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension.

That is amazing. These same angels that were there helping Jesus with the temptation, the same angels that were there with Mary and Elizabeth announcing births, are there proclaiming

Jesus is real. Every time I sing Hark the Herald Angels Sing, I keep thinking about seen by angels.

Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king, peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.

Joyful all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies with the angelic host proclaim.

They've seen it and they proclaim it. That's the truth. Well, there's another stanza.

Manifest, vindicated, seen and proclaim. And I ask you the question. You have to believe, do you not, in the incarnation?

Do you? You have to believe in the vindication, resurrection by the spirit. Do you? You have to believe that Jesus was seen by angels.

Do you? And now number four, if I've got good news, what do I do? You proclaim it. Proclaim it among the nations.

You can just see how this kind of flows. Manifested, vindicated, seen and now proclaim. I remember singing songs with the kids around the dinner table and we'd always, when we had our family

Bible time, I'd read some scriptures and then every kid got to pick their own song. And I don't know how many times we sang songs like Father Abraham and sang songs like Jesus loves me and sang songs like hide it under a bushel.

Right? Hide it under a bushel. What's the response? No. The kids, they had more enthusiasm when they, they're never really allowed to tell us no.

Right? For the most part. And so I think that was their time when all four of them just wanted to shout out,

No. Hide it under a bushel. No. You've got this truth. Dear friend, how would you like to be reconciled to God?

How would you like to be forgiven by a God who loves you and knows every sin that you've ever committed and he says,

I will gladly forgive you because I've given my son and you can be a trophy of my grace. Repent and believe in the gospel.

You can be forgiven. Put down your weapons of war. I offer you clemency at my expense.

Who's like this? Who's like our God? No wonder Psalm 2 and 110 are so glorious.

Proclaimed among the nations. You want to know the results of his ministry? Proclaimed among the ethnos. Of course the

Jews heard, but now we're telling the Gentiles as well. This is Ephesians 3.

This is the mystery that Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus to the gospel.

And looking around at you, I don't know if any of you are Jewish or not, most of us are probably Gentiles and we get to be saved too by Jesus the

Jew. Ephesians says, this is according to the eternal purpose that was realized in Christ Jesus.

He saves all kinds of people. And how does he save? Through preaching. Notice what the text says.

It doesn't say through miming. It doesn't say through drama. It doesn't say through art.

I don't care about drama. I don't care about art. I don't care. Well, I do care about mimes. I don't like them at all.

But the others, I don't care. This is a proclamation. I tell you, in a long line of Elijah and Elisha and John the

Baptist and Ezekiel, every one of those people in the Old Testament called the prophets, they foretold the truth.

And so we proclaim, I have good news for you. I have an announcement. War is over. If you know this truth, then you tell people.

Remember Penn and Teller, the magic act? You know Penn and Teller? Years ago, when

Kim and I were dating, I took her to Penn and Teller and I was like in the front row, because you know when you're first dating, you get the front row, then when you get married, you like get the nosebleeds.

And so, I tried to impress her with front row and I got called up on the stage with Penn and Teller. I thought they were going to take me to the guillotine or something.

I didn't know what that was. I didn't want to do it. But anyway, I was on stage with Penn and Teller. But remember Penn? Penn said, when asked, don't you hate it when these born -agains and other people come up and preach the gospel and say, if you don't believe this, you're going to go to hell.

But if you do believe it, you can be forgiven. You can have the hope of heaven. Don't you hate that about these evangelicals?

Because it's a pretty stupid message. It's an obnoxious message. It's an exclusive message.

And he said, you know what? I don't mind at all. Because they really think that's the message.

And how unloving would they be if they didn't come to me and tell me, you can be safe from your sins and you can go to heaven.

So he said, I like it. And as my friend says, if you have the cure to cancer and you don't tell people.

So we're to tell. And every one of our favorite people in the Bible, that's what they did. Paul, Peter, John, Jesus himself, proclaimed among the nations.

To anyone who will listen. To everyone that will listen. So that the fullness of the Gentiles could come in.

And there's two more lines. We've got to wrap this up. And as you know, when you preach, the first ones take a long time. But it's

Christmas for point one. And now these other ones, we go fast. Believed on it in the world. What's the response? There's the preacher.

Now there's the believer. What's the response? I'm going to give up something for Lent. I'm going to deny myself.

I'm not going to have food. I'm going to do what Jesus did. And He's going to be tempted out in the wilderness. I'll go in the wilderness.

I'm going to go to a monastery. What's the response to this gospel? The response is, take God at His word and just believe

Him. That's all. Look what the text says. Believed on in the world. The one word response to the powerful gospel is believe.

That's it. To trust. Acts 16, 31. Believe on the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved.

I'm talking to everyone here who's not a Christian. This is your response. Romans chapter 4, verse 24.

It's counted to us who believe in Him who raised Jesus from the dead. Romans 10, 9. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is

Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. Jesus answered them.

John 6. This is the work of God that you believe. And then finally, our last stanza is taken up in glory.

What a great way to cap all this. From the lowly manger to the infant there to glory.

Taken up in glory. This is talking about the ascension. This is talking about what theologians called ascension and session.

The court is now in session. What does session mean? It's old English for sitting. To be seated.

Jesus is enthroned and He's seated. We hear a lot about that in Hebrews, have we not? He's seated at the right hand of power and glory and honor.

What happens at the end? He's taken up in glory. Luke 24. While He blessed them,

He parted from them and was taken up into heaven. Acts 1. Until the day He was taken up.

Acts 1. Verse 11. This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven. Acts 1.

Verse 22. He was taken up from us. Taken up. His exaltation.

His ascension. His session. And how was He taken up? By a donkey.

Any kind of lower caste, poor kind of thing that Jesus was involved in in His life.

The job is done. And when you do the job well, there's a promotion.

There's an exaltation. There's an ascension. And He completes the Father's work. The eternal

Son who had communion with the Father says, I'll add humanity to myself forever. And I'll live among the men and women.

And they'll spit on me and mock me. And I will receive your wrath on the cross. And I'll be raised from the dead.

And angels will be there to prove it. And other people will say, you better hear this message. Some will believe.

And then when the job is over, the exaltation received up into, what's that say? Glory. Into this fiery, glow, effulgent glory.

That is amazing. When I think of glory, I think of brightness, splendor, majesty, glory, dazzling.

Up to His seat as our covenant head. The first Adam's work was awful.

And now the last Adam's work is wonderful. And He undoes all that Adam did. And He's exalted to the right hand of God, Acts chapter 2.

No wonder David said in Psalm 110, Sit at my right hand until I make enemies a footstool for your feet.

The Father says to the Son. The exaltation of Jesus. It's simple, dear

Christian. And unbeliever as well. You want to know what kind of song to sing to summarize

Christianity? To summarize the truth of the Gospel? To know what's central in the heart of a ministry at a local church,

Jesus' church? It's simple. Manifest in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

And He's up in glory, but we're waiting for Him, Titus 2. Waiting for our blessed hope. The appearing of the glory of our great

God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, who are zealous for good works.

I have good news for everybody here. Dear Christian, here's my good news for you.

You say to yourself, well, I've done a lot of things this week, and I don't even know if God likes me anymore.

I don't know if God loves me anymore. How could God love me, knowing what I know? I give you some encouragement through Jerry Bridges.

We don't have to feel guilt -ridden and insecure in our relationship with God. We don't have to wonder if He likes us.

We can begin each day with a deeply encouraging realization that I am accepted by God, not on the basis of my personal performance, but on the basis of the infinitely perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, who is manifest in the flesh, vindicated by the

Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed in the world, and taken up in glory.

And I have good news for you if you're not a Christian. Come, the table's set.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for this great little song, this great poem, so packed full of truth, and a good reminder.

A good reminder that Christmas is about Christ. A good reminder that the ultimate gift, you sending your

Son. I have one son, and I wouldn't send him for sinners. But I don't love like you do, so we're thankful for that.

Because without that love, we have no hope. Thank you for the most conspicuous demonstration of that love.

While we were yet sinners, you sent your Son, Jesus, and He died for us. I pray that you would help us to remember this truth in the few days that are soon coming, and then into eternity.

In Jesus' name, we pray. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.