Born to Die — Mike Attwood

For us is going to be at the Believers Bible Conference down in Texas, where I have a couple of seminars. And then I have the privilege of preaching the gospel at that event. And so look forward to that.

And I certainly appreciate your prayers for that. Continue to have Zoom ministry ongoing every week. And as well, starting this Wednesday, I'll be starting another little series with the Christians in Malaysia.

So looking forward to that ministry as well. Anyway, this evening, I'd like us to, if we could, look at the gospel of Luke chapter 2. Now, I'm just going to read from this section. I'm not really going to dwell a lot on this portion.

Simeon's Prophecy and the Unique Purpose of Christ's Birth

I'm going to use it as a kind of a backdrop for what I want to speak on tonight. So we're going to begin in Luke 2 25. And it's to do with Simeon and his message concerning the Lord Jesus. And we'll read from verse 25 down to verse 35.

And so it says this. I'm going to be reading from the King James version. It says, and behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel.

And the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law, then took he him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now let us thy servant depart in peace according to thy word.

For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel. And Joseph and his mother marveled that those things which were spoken of him.

And Simeon blessed them and said unto Mary his mother, behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against. Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

And again, God always blesses the reading of his precious word. What I'd like to do this evening is I want to speak on seven links between the Lord's birth and his death. And we're going to see there's connections between his birth and his death.

And we want to look at these seven links. Now, some of you Bible students, you might even come up with more than seven. But I do want to remind you that seven is the number of perfection and completeness.

So it better be good if it's going to be included in this list. But as we consider this topic of these links between the Lord's birth and death, when a child is born, there's usually a lot of speculation concerning the child.

What kind of child will this grow up to be? How will this child develop? What mark will this child leave upon the world? And so there's a lot of thought about this new life that has come into the world.

And we find here that as Simeon sees the Lord Jesus, we see that obviously this child is different to any other child. First of all, he's been told that he will not see death until he has seen the Lord's Christ, the Lord's long-promised Messiah.

Tradition tells us that this man was at least 130 years old. That's what some scholars think. And so he had a long wait. But finally, the day came. And what does he say? He says, I have seen thy salvation.

I can go home now. I've seen your salvation, your deliverer, the one, the long-promised Messiah. And then we read about his impact both on the Gentiles and Israel. He'd be a light to lighten the Gentiles.

The glory of thy people, Israel. But then a very unusual thing to say to a mother. This child is going to be like a sword piercing your very heart. Usually, you wouldn't want to say that to a mom who's just brought a child into the world.

This child is going to be like a sword going through your heart. And so what we want to say is this, that the birth of the Lord Jesus was absolutely unique. Unique not only in the way he was born. We know the virgin birth and all of those things.

But the purpose for which he was born was unique. You see, we know that all children of Adam that are born into the world ultimately die. But that's not their ultimate purpose. Their purpose is hopefully they'll do something good in the meanwhile.

But when it comes to the Lord Jesus, he was born for the express purpose of dying. And so the shadow of the cross was hanging over the crib. And maybe you've seen that depicted, that here's this manger scene, and there's a cross, as it were, the shadow of the cross over the crib.

And so we want to look at the accounts in scripture of the Lord's birth and the Lord's death. And we want to see how there are certain things that link these two events together in the word of God. We're going to see seven of them.

Prophetic Fulfillment in Christ's Birth and Death

So we want to begin, first of all, with what I want to call the witness of prophecy. Although the Lord Jesus, we said that his birth was unique. And one of the things about the uniqueness of Christ was that actually, his whole biography was written in advance.

Usually, you don't write somebody's biography until after they're dead. But actually, you have the whole story written in advance in Bible prophecy. And so there's all this prophetic scripture that speaks about the coming of this one and speaks about his life.

But the greatest concentration of prophetic fulfillment from the Old Testament seems to surround his birth and his death. Many scriptures are fulfilled in connection with his birth and his death, the greatest concentration of them.

And some of these prophecies were given 700 years before his birth. Some of them were given 1 ,000 years before. So we're talking about, this is a long time, seven centuries, a millennium, 1 ,000 years written in advance.

This is unique. No other person has had such a prophetic biography written in advance like the Lord Jesus. And so as we think, and we know all these scriptures, I'm not going to tell you anything you have not heard before.

But concerning his birth, the sheer weight of prophetic scripture, the fact that we said it was a unique birth. And the prophecy of Isaiah tells us something very unique about this birth. And of course, we know it as the virgin birth.

Amazing. Isaiah chapter 7 and verse 14. We know it well. We've thought about it many times. But it says, therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel.

So this special child, virgin born. And then not only that, Emmanuel, God with us. This child is not just going to be a little baby, but actually is going to be God with us. Again, the word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.

We beheld his glory. So this idea of the fact that he actually, although fully human, is also fully God. Born of a virgin, named Emmanuel. Even the very place of his birth. And some people have this idea that the Lord Jesus had this messianic complex.

And he kind of felt that he was the Messiah and sought to kind of orchestrate his life to fulfill scripture. But you try arranging the place of your birth. It's a very difficult thing for somebody to do.

And of course, it tells us in Micah chapter 5 verse 2, but thou Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me. That is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

And again, even how we know the story. He came to be born in Bethlehem. A census is issued. Decree is issued. For taxation purposes, by the bureaucracy of the day, that has everybody go back to the place of their family origins.

And so of course, Joseph has to go to the place of his family origins, not where he lived. He's a carpenter in Nazareth. But he actually has to go to Bethlehem in order to fulfill this very scripture, that he would be born in Bethlehem, that he would be a ruler of his people.

Isaiah the prophet again, chapter 9, tells us this is no ordinary birth, no ordinary child. He is going to be the Messiah. And he's going to be the ruler of the nation. Isaiah chapter 9, and verses 6 and 7.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end. Upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it and to establish it with justice and judgment from henceforth, even forever.

And then it says this, and I love this. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. All the very zeal of the Lord of hosts is going to make sure this happens, that this child will be born. And he indeed will be not just a child born, but a son given, the eternal sonship of Christ.

The one who was ever lived in the bosom of the Father, coming into the world. The eternal son of God, born in Bethlehem. And even down to his sojourn in Egypt, that was prophesied in Hosea chapter 11, verse 1.

Out of Egypt I've called my son. And we could go on and on. And we're just given a smattering, a small smattering of the scriptures that were fulfilled in connection with the events surrounding his birth.

And then when it comes to his death, again, we have the same precision and exactitude about his death. Prophecy of Zechariah, one of my favorite books to preach on. I find it more filled with Christ than any Old Testament book other than Isaiah.

But the blessing of Zechariah is he does it in a lot less space. So if you want to preach Christ, there's no greater book to preach through in the Old Testament than Zechariah that's just filled with allusions to the person of Christ.

And it tells us, even down to concerning his death, the exact amount of money he would be betrayed for. In Zechariah 11, verse 13, the Lord said to the potter, a goodly price, that I was prized at of them.

And I took the 30 pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord. So again, we have this 30 pieces of silver prophesying. And again, all they had to do to get this whole thing, prove him not to be the Messiah, is that the Jews had all had to do is say, well, we're going to give you 29 pieces of silver or 31 pieces of silver.

But guess what? They actually gave Judas 30 pieces of silver. Isn't that incredible? Fulfilling the very prophetic word of scripture. This one who would die would be a shepherd who would be smitten. Again, Zechariah 13, 7, a way co-sought against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow, my fellow, my equal.

Say, for the Lord of hosts, despite the shepherd. Brother Kevin, can you mute yourself, please? Because your noise is coming through in the recording. Thank you. A way co-sought against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow, say, if the Lord of hosts smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.

And so again, Isaiah 53. And we won't take time to read all these. I want to just give you them. Isaiah 53, 12, he would be numbered with the transgressors in his death. He would be there amongst the transgressors.

Remember the two malefactors, either side, crucified with him. They would part his garments, Psalm 22, verse 18. Parting the garments of the Lord Jesus and even gambling for them. All of this given in exact detail.

He would be himself broken, but not a bone of his would be broken. We had a marvelous gospel message at our assembly given this morning by a dear brother, Tim McNeill. And one of the things that they illustrated was the nails going into the hands of the Lord Jesus and exactly where they went, that went right through the hand without breaking a bone.

It was nine inch nails. And again, the exact, not a bone of his would be broken. Exodus chapter 12 and verse 46. And so again, we just get all this, that he'd be pierced. They'll look upon me whom they have pierced.

Zechariah 12, 10. And all the details of crucifixion in Psalm 22 given before crucifixion was even invented as a method of execution. Now you can't get more precise, more exact, more incredible than this.

And so a link between the Lord's birth and his death is this plethora of incredible prophetic scriptures that were fulfilled at that time. A bit of a way of application for you and I, there's a lot of attention in scripture concerning the child of God and his birth and his death.

You see, to become a child of God, you have to have a new birth, right? Unless a man's born again, he will not enter into the kingdom of God. And so there's a great emphasis on our birth. But then if we're gonna be fruitful for God, there's a great emphasis on our death, our identification with Christ in his death.

I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live in the life I now live. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So it's just interesting. And for us, if we've never experienced a new birth and we've never grasped that we're crucified with Christ, we will never live a life of fruitfulness for God.

Those two things are absolutely essential. So that's number one. We've got another six to go through. And so these links between his birth and death. Number two, I wanna draw our attention to the crowded places connected with his birth and with his death.

Crowded Places at Bethlehem and Jerusalem

Two places that were crowded out at the time of his birth in the time of his death. In Luke's gospel chapter two, of course we know very well the story of him going to Bethlehem as parents taken him there because of this census.

Taxing verse two was first made Luke two verse two when Cyrenius was governor of Syria and all went to be taxed, everyone to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house of lineage of David to be taxed with Mary as a spouse wife being great with child.

And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be livid and she brought forth her firstborn son. Of course, we know the story well, that the crowds were such that there was actually no room at the inn.

And as a result of that, the Lord had to be born in what we consider to be a stable and all of those different things. And so again, if you think of it, the economy in Bethlehem, Judah was booming. It was the greatest homecoming in centuries.

Everybody that had ever had any kind of tribal lineage from Beth had to go back there. And so the crowds were there in great numbers. And then when we think of Jerusalem at the time of his death it was also swarming with crowds, wasn't it?

Because it was the Passover when he died. And every Jewish male, wherever they lived in the diaspora, it didn't make any difference. It was a requirement for them to make the trip back to Jerusalem for the Passover.

So you imagine the crowds. And what we find is in both of these crowded scenes, he was born outside of the inn of Bethlehem because there was no room. And he was crucified outside the gates of Jerusalem because there was no room for him in Judaism.

We want this one to be crucified outside the camp. And that's exactly what happened, wasn't it? Because of the crowds. The world had no place for the Lord Jesus at his birth. And you think of the crowds there, all busy making money, all the rest of it, doing what they were doing, but just oblivious in a sense of the fact that the Savior of the world was born right there in their midst.

And then the Savior of the world was dying in Jerusalem. And again, prophetically we read, is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see, is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me?

And so we see this, the crowds, despite the busyness, no time for the Son of God. And of course, by way of application for us, the religious world still has no time for the Son of God. We want to worship him.

We know where we've got to go, outside the camp, because that's where he is. Hebrews 11, we know it so well. Let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach because that's where he is. We've got to ask ourselves the question, what about our own lives?

Is busyness of life crowding out the Son of God? Both of these scenes, the Son of God was crowded out with human busyness. And this time of year, I want to tell you, it's a busy time of year, isn't it?

And it's so easy to get caught up with the activities and forget the center of it all, the Lord Jesus. So that's the second one. Crowded places associated with his birth and death. And now we want to think of a third thing, and that is the wrapped babe and the wrapped body.

The Wrapped Babe and the Wrapped Body

Again, Luke's gospel chapter two, verse seven, it says, she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger. Now, it's interesting that a lot of archeologists have discovered something very interesting in the land of Israel, that these feeding troughs, we have this picture, don't we, of a wooden structure, and it's kind of got a cross member and all the rest of it.

But actually, many of the feeding troughs in those days were actually carved out of stone. Made of stone and carved out, like you see a canoe that's been carved out, the old fashioned tree cut down in there, like that.

And then of course, straw put in, and then the animal would feed. And so it's kind of an interesting thing, isn't it, that the Lord is wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in this, if the archeologists are correct, this stone trough.

It's kind of an interesting picture, isn't it? Because the body of the Lord Jesus at his death, what did they do with it? Look with me, please, at Luke's gospel, chapter 23, and verse 53, Luke 23, verse 53, it says, and they took it down, speaking of his body, and they wrapped it in linen and laid it in a sepulcher that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.

I suspect that no baby had ever been laid in that manger before either. And now his tomb, nobody's ever been laid there. And so we see an interesting connection. Interesting too, isn't it, that at his birth, as far as we're aware, the only humans who were present at his birth were Joseph and Mary.

When the shepherds arrived, the baby was already born. When the wise men arrived, that's two years down the pike, he's in a house and all the rest of it. So at that birth, that event, as far as we know, the only people that were there were Joseph and Mary when he was wrapped in the swaddling clothes and laid in that manger.

And it's interesting too that at his burial in John's gospel, chapter 19, we read this, verse 38 through 40. And after this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus.

And Pilate gave him leave. And he came therefore and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pound weight.

And so again, it would seem that like the first act at his birth, the two wrapped him in, Joseph and Mary laid him in the manger. At his death, two people are involved, wrapping the body, laying it in the sepulchre.

The babe in a manger was a picture of extreme poverty. Yet almost immediately afterwards, as far as the text is concerned, now we realize that there's probably a gap of at least two years before the arriving of the wise men.

But the arrival of the Magi brought with them gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And so even though he's born in poverty, he's also associated with the rich at his birth. These kings come with their treasures and their gifts.

And at his death, he certainly died in poverty. He did not even have the clothes on his back. Remember, they were gambled for. They were divided up amongst the soldiers. He died naked. And yet it was with the rich in his death because these men took him to a rich man's tomb.

And then not just that, in both instances, there were sweet odors surrounding him. Remember at the birth, they're bringing frankincense and myrrh. And again, we just read about the sweet spices that were brought, myrrh and aloes, 100-pound weight.

And so again, we see definite links between his birth and his death. And again, as we apply this to ourselves, in a sense, when we got saved, what happened was we learned our spiritual poverty. We came to realize how bankrupt we were spiritually, and yet an amazing thing happened.

Eventually, we became aware of the incredible riches we now have in the Lord Jesus. All spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. In fact, it's gonna take all eternity for us to learn the exceeding riches of his grace towards us in Christ, but we had to recognize our poverty, our spiritual poverty before we ever became rich.

And yet too, were to take the place of the Apostle Paul who said, though I'm poor, I'm making many rich. And as far as the world is concerned, we may not be considered to be much, but we have the privilege of making many rich by sharing with them the message of Christ.

Wonders in the Heavens at Christ's Birth and Death

So number four, as we work through these links between the Lord's birth and death, I wanna think about the wonders in the heavens. See, at the time of Christ's birth, a star appeared in the east. This was something distinct, wasn't it?

From all the other heavenly bodies. So much so that these magi, these many say we call them wise men, we call them kings and all these other things, but good possibility that they were astrologers. And as they stood in the heavens, they saw this star which was unique and it was a moving star, they were watching it.

And so Matthew's gospel chapter two and verse two talks about the events in the heavens that were connected to his birth. It says in Matthew 2 ,2, it says, saying, where is he that is born King of the Jews?

For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him. And so there's this event in the heavens that is connected with his birth that arrest these magi, they leave their homeland, they make this long journey because they're curious about this star and they follow it and it leads them to the house where the Lord Jesus was.

And then when the Lord Jesus died, there was also some strange phenomena in the heavens, wasn't there? This one would really strike you as strange. Luke's gospel 23 and verse 44, in connection with his death, it tells us this.

And it was about the sixth hour. And there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. This time it's not a star shining in the heavens or an unusual star, but this time it's an unusual event, a heavenly event that we don't expect.

I don't expect it to be pitch black at noon in the Middle East. From noon till three in the afternoon, I don't expect that, it's pitch black. It's absolutely as black as night. And so we see that when the light of the world bore the sins of the world, it seems that the Lord just pulled the veil over that so that nobody could see.

It was an event that took place in those three hours of darkness. And God allowed the creation on both occasions to speak louder than any words could speak. The star of Bethlehem, the darkness over the face of the earth.

And so God allowed creation to speak. And of course, in our day, many a Gentile has been led to Christ by considering the heavens. When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, moon and the stars and all that thou hast created, what is man that thou art mindful of him and the sort of man that thou visitest him?

We had a friend and this lady had been brought up in an atheistic household. On Sunday, the parents would always go somewhere out into the countryside just to get away from church and religion. And as she was raised in Alaska and seeing the wonderful landscape, she came to the conclusion against her parents wishes, there has to be a God and I've got to find him.

Isn't that interesting? The very creation speaks to us of the creator. And of course you can see how the enemy wants to do everything within his power to nullify the witness of creation and its testimony.

Angelic Involvement in the Incarnation, Resurrection, and Gospel Witness

Number five, the angelic involvement connected with the birth of the savior and the death of the savior. First Timothy 3 .16, one of my favorite texts of scripture. It's a beautiful summary statement in a sense of much of the life, person, and work of the Lord Jesus.

Just an amazing scripture. So much in just a few words. And it says, without controversy, great, that word great is mega. We have to think of mega size. This is a mega event. Great is the mystery of godliness.

God was manifested in the flesh. Justified in the spirit. And what does it say? Seen of angels. Preached to the Gentiles, believed on the world, received up into glory. And so that is incarnation. There's this announcement from the heavenly hosts.

This, as it were, breaking the silence of heaven from the angelic hosts. And in Luke's gospel chapter two, we all know it so well, but the angels, as it were, break the silence of heaven. Says, there was in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And lo, the angel of the Lord shone round about them. And they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, fear not. For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angels a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill towards men.

And so again, very much angelic involvement connected with the incarnation. But likewise, in connection with the death and burial resurrection of the Lord Jesus, there's a lot of angelic activity again, isn't there?

Especially in connection with the resurrection. On the former occasion at his birth, they direct men to view the filled manger, to see the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. On the latter occasion concerning his resurrection, they direct men to see the empty tomb.

He's not here, he has risen. Aren't you glad that he's risen? We're not worshiping a savior still hanging on a cross on a crucifix. No, he is alive, he has risen. And the angelic announcement, not only of his birth, but his victory over death, the tomb is empty.

He's not here, he's risen. The shepherds saw the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes. The disciples saw the vacated linen clothes lying in the sepulcher. They knew he wasn't there, he was gone. And so our task as those that share Christ with others is to direct the minds of sinners to one who came down from heaven, who died on a cross and is no longer dead, but is risen and alive.

We also have that responsibility. Now I'm just gonna, we've got two more to do, but before I do the two final ones, what I want to do is just think about some of the things we've talked about in connection with his birth and with his death.

Parallels with Christ's Second Advent

And I wanna think about his second advent. Not gonna spend a lot of time on this, but it's kind of interesting that at his second advent, there's also gonna be wonders in the heavens. Just as there was at his birth and his death.

There's also gonna be a lot of angelic activity. A casual reading of the book of Revelation would tell you angels are gonna be really busy in the end times. Lots of activity, including angelic announcements, an angel pronouncing the everlasting gospel, flying through the heavens.

I mean, this lots of angelic, a lot of prophetic fulfillment. If there was a lot of prophetic fulfillment at his birth and at his death, two thirds of all prophetic fulfillment will occur at his second advent.

Wow, we're gonna see it fulfilled one after another, after another. Jerusalem will once again be crowded with people who are unified in their hatred for him, in their rejection of him. But they're gonna look on him whom they've pierced.

And then he'll be worshiped. Just as the Magi came and worshiped the Lord Jesus at his birth. And just as the disciples worshiped the Lord Jesus when they realized that he was risen. So even so, the Lord Jesus will be worshiped on this earth.

Gentile kings will bring their gifts to him once again in connection with his second advent. So just incredible to see these little parallels. So number six, and we've already hinted at it, the worship he received at his birth.

Worship of Christ at His Birth and Resurrection

Matthew's gospel chapter 2, 11. Matthew 2, verse 11, just a tremendous scripture. Matthew 2, verse 11. I love this scripture. It says, when they will come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down.

And notice the exactness of scripture here. And they worshiped him. And notice this, they didn't worship the mother and the child. They didn't worship Mary. They worshiped him because only God is to be worshiped.

And Jesus is God manifest in flesh. They worshiped him. When they'd open their treasures, they presented to him gold, frankincense, and myrrh. So at his birth, he's worshiped. And then Luke's gospel chapter 24, we mentioned in connection with his death, the links, of course, we're tying in that, his bail and resurrection.

But Luke 24 and verse 52, it says, and they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And we could say this, in the midst of all the activity surrounding the Christmas season, let us not forget the importance of worshiping him.

And I don't know about you, but I'm kind of excited that this year, Christmas, falls on the resurrection day. And we're going to meet together, at least in our assembly, and we're going to break bread on that day.

The Witness Borne to Christ at His Birth and Resurrection

We're going to worship him because he is worthy. And then number seven, the final one, connection with his birth and death, is the witness born to him. Luke's gospel chapter two, verse 16 and 17. Luke chapter two, verse 16 and 17.

We see concerning the shepherds, it says, and they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

The shepherds couldn't keep this message to themselves. In fact, they made it known abroad the events surrounding his birth. It was spoken of everywhere. They couldn't keep it to themselves. And then, of course, we think concerning the events surrounding his death and burial and resurrection.

What do we find? Mark's gospel chapter 16 and verse 15. We have this great command that is given. And it simply says this. He said to them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

And so the witness born to him. So seven links between the Lord's birth and the Lord's death. This is not by accident. You see, hanging, as we said at the beginning, over the Bethlehem manger was the cross.

This child was unique because he was born specifically to die. You see, Simeon says, my eyes have seen your salvation, but how is this salvation going to be accomplished? Well, it can only be accomplished one way, that a substitute could be found that would bear the sins of a rebellious human race.

And he had to be linked with them. He had to be connected with them somehow to be a kinsman redeemer. But he had to be without their sin or else he would need a savior himself. And so the wonderful truth of the virgin birth.

Yes, he's connected as a direct descendant of Adam in the sense of the humanity of Christ, but without sin. But he's also somebody who is very God of very God. And therefore his death is the equivalent of all creation in the sense that he is the creator himself.

And so what a wonderful thing it is this time of year to think about Christ's birth, yes. But you can't divorce it from his death. He was born to die. Oh, aren't we thankful that he rose again, that he's alive, that we serve a risen savior and he's alive.