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FBC Travelers Rest sermon from December 24, 2023 by Pastor Rhett Burns
It's a Christmas miracle.
That's a phrase that you might hear this time of year. Maybe you've said it yourself. Now, sometimes you might say it with a little bit of humor, like, ha, you're on time.
Or the rolls aren't burnt.
Or despite staying up late on Christmas Eve and visits to both sets of grandparents' houses and being hyped up on sugar cookies, all the kids are still in a good way and in good humor. It's a Christmas miracle.
Or maybe you said it in response.
To one of those strange acts of providence. I read a story like this from a magazine. It was about Christmas 1958. This was back in the days when people would still put up their Christmas tree on Christmas Eve.
And so that Christmas Eve, a couple closed up their bakery and their two sleepy children, ages three and four, to whom they had promised a big, beautiful Christmas tree. And they headed home, only to realize on the way home, whoops, we forgot to get a tree.
And so they stopped at a couple of places and they were out of trees for that year. And so they got about a mile from home. They're sitting at a red light and there's this big gust of wind and a thump on the front of their truck.
Husband gets out and goes, look, a tree. It just kind of fell over onto the truck, put it in the back of the truck. There's a store nearby, so he went to it and asked the proprietor how much he wanted for the tree and the guy said, I'm not selling Christmas trees this year.
And so he didn't know where the tree came from. They never found out where the tree came from, but it was the most beautiful one that they ever had. It's a Christmas miracle, they said. You see, Christmas is a time of year when people seem to be looking for something just a little bit out of the ordinary.
Maybe even something supernatural. Some call it Christmas magic. Now I'm not going to argue for magic as popularly understood or some secular version of Christmas miracles and I'm certainly not going to extol the cheesy Hallmark movie version of Christmas magic.
I simply want to note that it is fitting that we associate the supernatural and the miraculous with Christmas because it is at this time of year that we celebrate the greatest of all miracles, the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
And so you want a Christmas miracle, I have one for you today. The world was in its winter, cold, broken, barren. Sin had done its destruction and wreaked its havoc. Wars had been fought, plagues had gathered their dead.
The poor had been oppressed. Women and children had been abused. Brother had risen up against brother. Long lay the world in sin and error pining. And then, then one starry night in Bethlehem, as shepherds kept watch over their flocks by night, there was born in the city of David a baby, a Savior who is Christ our Lord.
Why don't you turn with me to John chapter one. Gospel of John chapter one. We're going to look at verse 14. John chapter one, verse 14. And the word of God says this, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Amen, this is God's word to us today. The word became flesh and dwelt among us into a world of sin and sinners, a Savior was sent into a world of darkness, the light shone.
And the word of God became flesh and dwelt among us.
God became man.
This is the original Christmas miracle. We call this the incarnation. And this morning, as we continue our Advent series on knowing Christ, we're going to focus our hearts and focus our minds on the incarnation of the Son of God.
And from John chapter one, verse 14, I want us to see the miracle of the incarnation, the meaning of the incarnation, and the marvel of the incarnation. The miracle, the meaning, and the marvel of the incarnation.
First, let us see the miracle of it. And here I want to emphasize from John 1 .14, I want to emphasize the word became flesh, the word. Now, to understand the significance of that part of this verse, we need to really go back to the very beginning of John 1 in the first few verses.
What is the word?
Who is this word that became flesh? Well, John chapter 1 .1 says, 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 were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. So what we see here at the very beginning of John's gospel is that the word is eternal.
In the beginning was the word. In the beginning, there was never a time when this word of God was not. The word is eternal. His word is in eternal relationship with the Father. It says in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God.
The word is co-equal and co-eternal with the Father. Then we see in the next bit that this eternal word, that is this in eternal relationship with the Father, is God Himself. It says, and the word was God.
And then this eternal word that is in fellowship with the Father that is God Himself is Creator. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. Then we see that this eternal word is life and light, and so I want you to think about this this morning, the eternal, co-equal with the Father, Son of God, who is very God Himself, the fountainhead of life, who is the light of the world.
That word, that God became flesh, became man. Herman Babbitt said this of the miracle of the incarnation, said it was, it's eternity in time, immensity in space, infinity in the finite, immutability in change, being in becoming, the all, as it were, in that which is nothing.
This really is a miracle.
And we have a hard time comprehending just how great the incarnation is that God became man. I want you to think about the difference.
Between man and an ant.
I want to illustrate this difference between us and God. Think about the distance that there is between a man and a tiny little ant. I mean, first there's the difference in size, right? I mean, from the ant's perspective, we're all giants,.
And I'm not even that tall, right?
But we're giants compared to ants, but it's not just size, there's the difference in intelligence and competence. I mean, can an ant do advanced mathematics? Can an ant build a bridge over water or turn that water into electricity?
Could an ant have painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel or composed Bach's cello suites? Could an ant have sang the height of music in Western civilization? It's Amarillo by Morning by George Strait, by the way.
Well, it's also Accept Anything by Johnny Cash there. There's a difference in intelligence and competence.
There's also the question of morality.
Can an ant do righteousness? Can an ant do justice? Can he judge between good and evil, determine guilt or innocence? Can an ant serve on jury duty? Can an ant love or die for his countrymen or worship the triune God in spirit and in truth with reverence and with awe?
And of course, the answer to all of these questions is no.
Of course not. Ants are ants, they're not men.
And so there's this huge gap between us.
But here's the truth.
We are much closer to the ants than we are to God by nature. The gap between us and ants is not nearly as wide as the gap between us and God because God is creator and us and the ants, we are part of the creation.
We are created. And so God is eternal, infinite, uncreated. The source of everything, the source of life. We are finite, created, and our lives are in his hands. And so the miracle of the incarnation is that Jesus bridged that gap that is so great such that we could be close to God, God would be with us, Emmanuel.
Christ stooped that low and he became flesh and dwelt among us. He gave up the glory of heaven for the dirt of earth. And though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God as something to be grasped, but rather he emptied himself and made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men, Philippians chapter two.
This is the height of God's work. There's one Irishman said of the incarnation, the incarnation is the highest pitch of God's wisdom, goodness, power, and glory. That Jesus bridged this gap is so great that the incarnation can only be described as a miracle, a Christmas miracle.
Second, let's consider the meaning of the incarnation. We might say the reality of it. What does it mean that God became man? And here I want to emphasize the part of John 1, 14 where it says the word became flesh and dwelt among us, became flesh.
This has often been misunderstood throughout the history of the church, especially in the early centuries after Christ. This was a hotly debated topic. Some of the misunderstandings were, one of them was that you have a divine spirit of the word and then the human body, but they're not united in any way.
Another one was that you had this divine Christ spirit that had come among the man Jesus at his baptism, or that Jesus was a created being, or that he appeared like a man, but he wasn't really a man. These are some of the various misunderstandings, misinterpretations of who Jesus was.
And all of these misunderstandings either deny Jesus's divinity on the one side, or they deny his humanity on the other side. But the answer from the Bible and the answer from the church has been this, Jesus Christ is the God-man.
He is truly God and truly man. Very God of very God, very man of very man. This is what the church has confessed throughout the centuries. The eternal Son of God, the word, assumed a human nature when he became flesh.
That is, Jesus has two natures in one person, divine and human. Now, his human nature didn't have some sort of independent existence from him, that Jesus didn't subsume another person into himself, for that would be, what, two persons.
Rather, he assumed humanity into his person, having both a divine nature and a human nature. And thus, Jesus, he took on both a human body and a human soul, that is to say, humanity, because we are body and soul.
And this humanity existed in one person with his divinity in unity. John Gill, who preached at the same church as Charles Spurgeon, but about 100 years before him, said it like this, said, Christ remained what he was and became what he was not.
Nor are they, talking about two natures, nor are they confounded and blended together so to make a third nature, nor are they separated and divided so as to constitute two persons, a divine and a human, but are so united as to be one person.
And this is such a union as can never be dissolved and is the foundation of the virtue and efficacy of all of Christ's works and actions as mediator. The meaning of the incarnation is two natures in one person.
According to his divine nature, Jesus possesses infinite knowledge, power, dominion. He is eternal, he's the fountainhead of life. According to his human nature, Jesus was tempted and tried, he walked, he ate, he got thirsty, he needed to take a nap or to sleep at night.
Jesus obeyed in the flesh, he died in the flesh, and he rose again, all according to his human nature. And so when we speak of Jesus, we speak of all of this, both the divine and the human, because he is the God-man.
And if all that sounds a little bit technical and complex and mind-blowing, it's because it is. The meaning of the incarnation is the miracle and the magnificence of the incarnation, that God truly became a man.
And Jesus will be a man forever. He has a human body and a soul right now and will forevermore. But this leads to the question of why. Why did God become a man? And the answer to that is what I refer to as the marvel of the incarnation.
It's a marvel because of the genius and the wisdom of it. So think about it this way. If you didn't have a Bible, and you were just hearing this story of the world for the first time, you might think that God kind of got himself into a pickle.
Because on the one hand, you have God's love and his mercy and his desire that all men be saved. And on the other hand, you have God's justice and his wrath and his holiness and his unwillingness to just simply look the other way from sin and sinners and just kind of sweep that sin underneath the rug.
No sin must be dealt with. And so how in the world can we reconcile these two things? God's love and his mercy with his justice and his wrath. How can we reconcile the grace and the truth? And God's answer is the incarnation.
Where the word becomes flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, what does John say? Full of grace and truth. The incarnation is not something we would have come up with on our own.
I mean, think about it.
If you're hearing this story of the world and God was to ask you to come up with a solution for the problem of sin and sinners. If he had asked one of us to make a plan.
For the redemption of the world,.
To overcome our own wickedness,.
Who among us would have thought up.
Or even dared to say, you know what, I've got it. I got an answer. The Son of God, eternal before all things, maker of everything, beloved of the Father and the Spirit, he should take on humanity, become one of us forever.
Be born as a baby, nurse at his mother's breast, have brothers and sisters, maybe even share a room, have childhood friends, grow up, learn and grow in wisdom and stature before God and man, grow from boyhood to manhood, live as a man, live under the law, be tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin, be despised and rejected by men, men whom he created, be arrested, tried, sentenced to execution in the most shameful manner possible, hang naked on a cross, be spat on, cursed at, mocked, and then bleed out and die.
And he should do all of this in our place so that his perfect obedience is counted to us and our sin is put on him and we go free. Therefore, God's love can forgive sinners and redeem them and welcome them into heaven to live in forever fellowship with the triune God and God's justice can be upheld and that he doesn't let sin go unpunished and his wrath is satisfied.
Who among us would have thought that up? And if, in some stroke of pure genius we had, who among us would have dared to actually suggest it? Not one of us. This is the pure genius and wisdom of God and this is the pure love of God.
Anselm was a medieval theologian who wrote a book called Why God Became Man. And in it, he provided an answer to this question saying that the incarnation was necessary to satisfy the justice of God. That is, because it was man who sinned and did injury to God's honor, a man had to satisfy God's wrath.
This would uphold justice. But a son of Adam would not do because all sons of Adam are fallen and sinful. The one who would uphold justice and satisfy God would have to be sinless and thus divine. And so the incarnation, the God man, was God's wise answer to the problem of sin and sinners.
And not only did the incarnation uphold God's justice by paying for sin, it also upheld his love by redeeming sinners. And so we're just left to marvel at what God has done. We're left to marvel at the wisdom of God in the incarnation for in the God man, Jesus Christ, justice and mercy kiss.
They meet.
And not only that, but as Mark Jones notes in his book, Knowing Christ, the incarnation opens up the possibility of communion with God. For communion between God and man, which would otherwise be impossible because of that immense gap that exists between us and because of our sin.
But because of that gap, God had to condescend to commune with man. Don't you think about it this way. And again, I'm gonna quote Jones, who said, if Jesus were in all things only a man, he would be at an infinite distance from God just as we are.
In the same way, if Jesus were in all things only God, he would be at an infinite distance from us. As mediator, however, he bridges the gap between infinite God and finite man. All that belongs to God, Jesus possesses, and all that makes one truly human, Jesus possesses.
Because of the incarnation, God and man can dwell together. We can commune, we can communicate, we can have fellowship with God because of the God man, Jesus. Because of the mediator between us and God, the man, Jesus Christ.
And there is no other way. Jesus is the way, the truth, the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him. This is the marvel of the incarnation. And so we've seen this, the marvel, the meaning, the miracle of the incarnation.
But so what do we do? What do we do with that? Well, I want to encourage you this Christmas to behold the glory. It's what 114 says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
I want you to behold the glory of the Son of God. Behold the glory of God's wisdom in the incarnation. Behold the glory of the sheer magnificence of the gap that Jesus bridged in becoming man. Think on it, turn it over in your mind, really take it in.
But also behold the glory of what Jones calls the effects of the incarnation. Behold that the incarnation is forever, that Jesus will never relinquish and put away his humanity. He was raised the Son of God in power, Romans chapter one, verse four.
He was raised the Son of God in power with a human body and a soul and he will always be the God man. And so heaven will be one day, will be a fleshly place. Won't be free floating on the clouds, disembodied, but we will have resurrected bodies like our Savior does.
First John three, two. And there without sin, for sin will be permanently abolished, dealt with, defeated. There without sin, we will be truly human. We will be everything God designed us to be, truly human, unhindered by sin.
And because of this incarnation, we know that heaven will be forever. Again, Jones explains it like this. He says, because we, both body and soul, are united to Jesus Christ, our husband who possesses body and soul, heaven can never end.
Heaven can never end. That's because for heaven to end, one of two impossible things would have to happen. One, Jesus would have to pass out of existence, which is impossible, for he is eternal. Or Jesus would have to sin in divorcing his bride, the church, which is impossible, for he is holy and righteous.
Thus, our union with Christ cannot be broken and heaven, united with Christ, will be forever. I hope this comforts you this Christmas, that Jesus will never leave us or forsake us, even into eternity.
And lastly, I would encourage you to behold the glory of the word become flesh, because you become like what you behold. You become like what you behold. You become like what you worship. And so behold the humility of Christ, who left heaven to dwell among us.
And let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, Philippians 2 .5. Right after that verse in Philippians, Paul goes on to talk about how Christ did not count equality with God as something to be grasped, but he emptied himself, becoming of no reputation, to come in the likeness of men.
Be humble like Jesus who came in the likeness of men. And then behold the obedience of Christ. Paul goes on there in Philippians 2, saying that he became obedient to the point of death,.
Even death on a cross.
Behold the humility of Christ. Behold the obedience of Christ. And be obedient like Jesus. And love like Jesus. Pastor Gary read those verses at the very beginning of the sermon about God's love demonstrated for us, manifested for us in the God-man Jesus Christ, who while we were yet sinners, died for us.
Love like Jesus. And by the Spirit of God within you, be full of grace and truth. And may the grace of God and the truth of God overflow from you to everyone around you this Christmas.
Let's pray.
Our Father, let us behold Christ and become like Christ. Let us be humble and obedient and full of grace and truth. Father, we thank you for the miracle of the incarnation. In His meaning and reality, we find our salvation, where your justice and your mercy kiss, where they meet, where we can be redeemed and saved.
Yet your justice is upheld, your wrath is satisfied in Christ the God-man. And we marvel at your genius and wisdom in sending your Son. And so this Christmas, we celebrate Christ. And we give praise to the Father.
We give praise to the Son. We give praise to the Holy Spirit for the glory of the incarnation. And we pledge our lives to live for the glory of Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.
