Dec. 25, 2016 Birth Announcements by Pastor Josh Sheldon

You know one of the most famous speeches of all time, and I think if I asked for a tally or for some type of vote, many of you would come up with this as the greatest speech of all time.

But it would be the Gettysburg Address given by President Abraham Lincoln after that great battle was fought on that ground.

Now, Abraham Lincoln was preceded by a man named Edward Everett, and he at that time was the nation's most famous orator.

And we read that he spoke in his initial address, before Abraham Lincoln spoke, he spoke for about two hours with no notes.

One count said it was 13 ,000 words that Edward Everett spoke.

And then the president stood up and delivered his famous speech. Now as opposed to Mr.

Everett's 13 ,000 words and two hours of speaking, which had the people there enraptured as everybody came to hear this famous lecturer, this famous orator give his oration,

Mr. Lincoln stood up and in about two minutes delivered 272 words.

So Mr. Everett, the famed speaker, the Harvard scholar, the world -renowned horror historian, the student of classic literature, later he said to Mr.

Lincoln, I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes.

You know, oftentimes the brevity of a passage, of a speech, of a talk, belies its importance.

Now I'd ask you, had I not mentioned the name, and I want all smartphones down, how many of you have ever heard of Mr.

Everett? No, without a smartphone, okay, we have one. We have a Civil War buff over there.

He doesn't count. You see my point, though. We know who Abraham Lincoln was.

We know the Gettysburg Address, even knowing who Everett was. I wonder how many of us could repeat even a beginning phrase from his introduction, and we can all, when we hear four score and seven years ago, we know exactly where that's going.

The whole point here is the length of a passage will often indicate its relative importance.

It's one of the simplest keys we have to understanding the Bible. Look for where the volume is. Look for the text.

How much is dedicated to a particular thing? And that's often an indication of what the

Holy Spirit of God says is most important. The more volume devoted to a particular person, event, doctrine, whatever the case is, the more important it is.

Now this is, of course, not a perfect rule. It's not a perfect rule at all, but in general, it works pretty well.

It keeps us from focusing on obscure passages. It keeps us from building a great cathedral of theology on a foundation that ought to be more of a supporting beam.

It's a good rule, but it isn't perfect. And this morning we have a case in point.

Conley just read to you from Luke chapter 1 verse 57 to chapter 2 verse 14, and I did a quick count on it.

To compare it to these other speeches I mentioned a moment ago, what you just heard from Conley in the

New Testament portion of the reading was 27 sentences, 671 words.

It took about three minutes to have it read. Now compare that for a moment, just without flipping through your

Bibles because it would take too long, but compare that for a moment to, for example, the construction of the temple in the book of Exodus.

That covers roughly six chapters. And then after the golden calf incident, beginning at the last part of chapter 35 to almost the end of the whole book is dedicated to the construction of the temple.

Now that's a lot more than 671 words and would take even a good reader more than three minutes.

If the volumetric rule for a biblical study was inviolable, then the building of the tabernacle would rank higher importance than what was just read to you from Luke's gospel.

Luke 1 57 to 2 14. And this simply cannot be. This cannot be.

The text from this portion of Luke's gospel relays to us two of the watershed moments in all of redemptive history.

Really in all of history. Listen how plainly these two births are reported.

Of course, we're speaking of John, who in his adult ministry would be called John the Baptist. We're speaking of him and then we're speaking of Jesus Christ himself.

Think in terms of Mr. Everett, 13 ,000 words for two hours and was completely overshadowed by Mr.

Lincoln's 272 words and two minutes. For John, who would be the

Baptist, verse 57 in chapter 1, now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth and she bore a son.

Brevity, simplicity. For Jesus Christ, the

Son of the Most High, as we studied last week, I'll read two verses though we really need only one part of verse 7 to get the brevity of this across.

And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth and she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn.

And for that we could have just said, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. How simple. How clear.

How brief that is. And yet, this moment in this flow of redemptive history, going all the way back to Genesis chapter 3 and the first sin in the garden, it's a watershed moment.

Few can rank in importance compared to this. And as important as, for example, what

I mentioned a moment ago from Exodus, as important as was the building of the tabernacle and all its correspondences to heaven and the redemption that we would have in Jesus Christ, as important as that was and is, it has to pale to the birth of the

Son of God, Jesus Christ. I want to think a little bit this morning about what is said about this in the scripture.

You know, entire plays have been devoted to the nasty innkeeper who denies the poor couple a decent place for Mary's delivery.

And sometimes he's portrayed as a meanie who dumps them out back with the animals. Other times he's a compassionate man who did the best he could.

And we have, you know, all the children's plays always have to go back to the innkeeper. And we make so much out of these few words.

There is no room at the inn. Scholars and skeptics have driven themselves mad, proving or disproving the traditional date of December 25th.

They ask, would cold, efficient Rome have clogged the roads in bad winter weather?

That wouldn't be efficient. They wouldn't have done that. Wasn't it Constantine, they ask, who some 400 years later designated the date

December 25th? And isn't there evidence that it was merely overlaid on top of some pagan ritual?

And by the way, what were shepherds doing out at winter anyway? Now, William Hendrickson in his commentary on Luke, he cites another author, an author named

Lenski, who says, while December 25th is only traditional, it is at least traditional.

The questions just go on and on. And what I fear gets lost in all this is those few choice words out of 671 words.

And she bore a son, John. And just a little bit later, as she gave birth to her firstborn son,

Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the Son of David, the true

King of Israel, Jesus the Son of the Most High God, Jesus, the culmination of all that the prophets foretold for centuries with all the controversy, with all the points and counterpoints, let us not forget that our

Savior was born at a time in history, physically and literally,

Jesus Christ was born. And we know John's conception was miraculous. It was a work of the

Holy Spirit. The couple, Zacharias and Elizabeth, they were well past childbearing.

And God worked through them to become pregnant, and He did that through normal means.

It was miraculous, but the means God used were very normal. A man and his wife, acting as men and their wives do, she became pregnant, miraculously, but using normal means.

Jesus' conception was even more miraculous because we all know there was no normal means involved with Him.

Mary never had relations. She was a virgin. Her conception of Jesus was directly by the

Spirit of God. And it gives us a Savior who, being fully man, was like us, and being all the while fully

God, is nothing at all like us. Mainly, I shouldn't say mainly, but one of the big differences is, of course,

He is free from the inheritance of Adam's sin. So I want to set our attention this morning on important things.

And we're not going to get there by the textual volume. As I said, there's not much there in terms of sheer numbers, but when these two boys were born,

John, the herald for Jesus Christ, and then Jesus Christ a few months later, it brought

God's direct word to the occasion. God directly spoke into those two births.

First, when Zechariah followed the Holy Spirit, he prophesied. And then upon Christ's entrance, heaven opened up, and the angels explained what had happened.

So first we're going to look at Zechariah's prophecy in verses chapter 1, 68 to 79.

And we're not going to go through it in a whole lot of detail this morning. There are different ways to classify this section in terms of its genre, its literary genre.

One man I know calls it a psalm, which is how it begins, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which is found word for word in many psalms, and it's a thrust in many other psalms.

So yes, it sounds like a psalm, blessed be the Lord God of Israel. Some call it a hymn of praise, which it clearly is.

Well, I'm going to keep it simple. I'm going to call it a prophecy, which is what Luke says happened here.

Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied. It's a prophecy because it's predictive of what

God will do through what he had so recently done. It is prophecy in that the scriptures are cited as the metric that explains the event.

It is prophecy in that it was inspired by the Holy Spirit, as is all prophecy. And finally, it's prophecy because it fulfills the ultimate purpose of that mode of communication, which is to give glory to God, glory to God in the highest.

And the prophecy speaks of events as though they were in the past.

Did you notice that? In verse 68, Zechariah says, God has visited,

God has redeemed his people, using what sounds like past tenses of those verbs. God has indeed visited,

God has indeed redeemed his people. And the way of it is we know that Jesus Christ is a baby.

He can't have redeemed his people yet. But God's word is so certain that as we begin to see its fulfillment, as we begin to understand its direction, where it's going, how it's being fulfilled, it's as good as done.

And we can say when God started the process, though the cross wasn't yet there at Golgotha, he had indeed redeemed his people.

It hearkens us back to, for example, Exodus. Exodus chapter 4, verse 31, when

Aaron showed the signs to the people that confirmed that he and Moses had met with God, that God had visited.

And we read there, the people believed. And when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel, and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

Their redemption was at hand because of him whose word promised their coming deliverance. It was as good as done.

So even though the process hadn't been, in that sense, put into motion yet, they could say he has already accomplished it.

And Zechariah here is not just citing ancient history. He's applying what God had done before to what he was doing then.

Did God visit his people? Well, he certainly had visited Mary and Elizabeth, and the purpose was the same in both cases.

It was to begin this whole redemption, to bring to a close all this progressive revelation, all the shadows, all the clues, all the topologies, all those things coming to finality.

As John the Baptist would point to Jesus the Christ and say, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

This is great cause for us to join in blessing God. He's visited his people. The psalm says he condescends to even notice us.

Zechariah says more than notice, he's come here. He's visited us. It means he's drawn near to his people, and he has dealt with us according to our need.

And what need is being dealt with here? Redemption. Redemption is salvation.

We'll talk about that in a little bit. Zechariah says he's raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant

David. Now that cannot refer to his son John. It can't.

His parents, Elizabeth and Zechariah, they were descended, one of them from Levi, Zechariah, the other from Aaron, which was

Elizabeth. So a horn of David, that cannot be John, that's Jesus. Jesus is the one who came from David.

Matthew shows that in chapter one of his gospel. Luke will show that in chapter three of his. Jesus, not yet born, is the one who causes

Zechariah to bless God's name. He is Jesus who is the point of everything he said.

In verses 70 to 73 of his prophecy, there's a sort of recounting of the history of salvation that's led up to this point.

You see, Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, he didn't just happen as though God suddenly came up with a good way to bring about salvation.

No, you see, it had been revealed in stages for centuries. Some versions say the prophets who have been since the world began.

And so it behooves us to remember why salvation is necessary at all. If this whole birth, these miraculous conceptions were performed by God, by God's spirit, in order to bring something about, well,

God does everything with purpose. God never acts except he has in mind something to accomplish.

So let's remember for a moment exactly why salvation is necessary.

Take a journey back into history. We're only going to stay there a little bit, and only briefly, and then we'll return back to Luke.

So why is salvation necessary? Why does God go through all of this that we've read about these last few weeks and this morning to accomplish something?

It's because of sin. Salvation is necessary because of sin.

Sin first came to creation before there were any children born to Adam and Eve. The story is familiar.

Eve is tempted by the tempter to disbelieve God. He convinces her that the

Lord was holding back something good from her and her husband. She believes the lie. She eats the one forbidden fruit, the one thing out of the whole garden that she was to leave alone.

She goes for, shares it with Adam, her husband, and what had previously been foreign, which is sin, comes into the world and permeates everything.

And most especially, it permeated mankind, all their progeny.

Let me just give us two verses so we see how ubiquitous, how widespread sin is.

Therefore, writes the apostle Paul, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

And for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It's everywhere. It touches everything.

We get sick because of sin. We have fights because of sin. There's violence because of sin. The stars are not as bright and twinkly as they should be.

Because all creation is groaning under the burden that is sin.

Introduced way back in Genesis chapter 3. And this, brethren, is why salvation is necessary. This is why redemption is necessary.

This is why God put all this in motion. Well, back to the garden.

Of course, God immediately confronted the wayward couple. He heard their confession. He pronounced judgment on all the parties.

The serpent would crawl, would be despised, would be at constant enmity with Eve and her sons and her children to come.

Adam would contend with a now uncooperative earth. Eve would suffer in childbirth and would be subject to her husband.

And then this. Then, with all the judgment, all parties involved receiving their just recompense from a just God.

With all this, what we call the Proto -Evangelium. The first gospel.

Not that there's another gospel. But the first time we hear the gospel in Scripture.

The same gospel that saves today. Speaking to the wicked one, he said,

I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

Now, of course, the one who will bruise the serpent's head and who will have in turn his heel bruised is none other than the subject of chapters 1 and 2 of Luke.

Actually, the whole gospel. But the birth here. Jesus Christ. He's the one being spoken of here.

What Adam had done corrupted the very fiber of mankind. He was now unworthy to stand in God's presence and so he was expelled from the garden.

And we, as his descendants, carry that same unworth.

All creation, Romans 8, 19 tells us demands to be rescued from the effects of sin.

Adam as man sinned. Adam as a man, he sinned. Yet as man is unable to pay for his error.

And the reason why is because he owed God because of his sin. He was the one who brought it.

He is a sinner. And so if he presents himself to God, he's presenting a corrupted offering.

One that contains that very thing for which he needs to make the offering.

He had sinned against a perfectly holy God. His most fundamental nature, God's most fundamental nature is his holiness.

The thing he most jealously guards. What can man do to restore an insult of such magnitude against such a

God as that? So God in his mercy, Genesis 3, 15, he promised a redeemer, one who would pay the ransom price for his people.

The one who would bruise the devil's head, give him a mortal wound, and in so doing, the enemy's last grasp would be to bruise his heel.

Do we all know? Do we all believe? Do we all have faith and confidence? Are we very sure that what's being spoken of here is the

Messiah? Genesis 3, 15 speaks of Jesus Christ, the one who Luke says was born.

The time came for her delivery. She brought forth her firstborn son. That is the one promised in Genesis 3, 15.

The Messiah, Jesus, the one causing such praise to issue forth from Zechariah the

Levite. If we go back now to Luke and Zechariah's prophecy, there's kind of a pile of statements of purpose here.

What is God doing? What has God done in this one that was born to Mary?

Well, it's to show mercy, to remember his covenant, to grant us to be saved, and so forth.

And I want to just deal this morning with the last one of these. I promise you, we're not gonna go through them all in detail.

It would take way too long. Just verses 74 and 75. That we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

Delivered from our enemies. Now, who do you think the enemies are? Who could it be?

I don't think it's Rome. It's clearly, actually, I should say, strongly, it's clearly not

Rome. It's not any political or worldly adversary at all. This entire prophecy of Zechariah is spiritual.

And so, therefore, it must be enemies. What does he mean?

He means the forces of darkness that have enslaved men since the first sin. In Hebrews 2, verse 15, the apostle speaks of us as mankind is being enslaved because of our fear of death.

Death being one of the first results of sin coming into the world. The redemption that is coming in Jesus reverses all that.

Jesus Christ, the Messiah, God's Son, brings that to a halt. It actually turns it around.

He will redeem his people. What is redemption? Redemption is the price to be paid to free something, or in this case, someone, from where they are.

Where do we need to be redeemed from, of course, is our slavery to sin. We need to be redeemed from this world and transferred from here to the kingdom of God's Son.

That's redemption. Redemption is the price that needs to be paid. And what is the result of redemption?

In this context, it's salvation. This is what Jesus Christ came to provide, salvation to his people.

Zechariah gave us a great definition of salvation. It's to serve God without fear. That we should be saved from our enemies and from all who hate us.

To show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. The oath he swore to our father

Abraham to grant us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear.

A perfect love casts out fear, even the fear of death.

God's love, which devised salvation in the first place is this perfect love that casts away all fear.

Zechariah is saying the purpose of Jesus Christ here is to cast away our fear to bring us away from our enemies to redeem us from them.

Bring us to God who we can then serve without fear. Without fear of enemies and without fear of the wrath of God.

In his blessing to his son in verse 77 he says that John when he becomes the Baptist will give knowledge of salvation to his people and the forgiveness of their sins.

Now remember this is direct prophecy directly inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. John will give them knowledge of their sin and the forgiveness that God offers but he won't be able to do anything more than that.

Do you understand? He can make them aware of their sin. He can make them aware of forgiveness that God will grant by faith in his son

Jesus Christ. But beyond informing people of that I imagine he was

I imagine he was very persuasive very fiery man but beyond that he can do no more.

Ultimately he could do no more about someone's sin than you or I can do. But the one he will proclaim this one who was born after him just a few months this

Jesus Christ the son of the most high God he could do something about it.

He can do something about it. So I want to move ahead to his birth to the birth of Jesus Christ.

Now if we're reading Luke for the first time I think we'd be on pins and needles at this point. God's son is about to come.

The prophetic word going all the way back to the garden all of it from Genesis 3 .15 to Isaiah 7

The virgin shall conceive a son excuse me The virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name

Emmanuel Isaiah 9 The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light Micah 5 .2

But you O Bethlehem Ephratah who are too little to be among the clans of Judah from you shall come forth from me one who is to be ruler in Israel whose origin is from of old from ancient days and so much more so much more than just those few all of it is about to find its purpose its point its fulfillment all this in the child who would be truly

God and truly man The dark cloak that obscured

God's design is about to be removed and all the figures all the types all the anticipations are going to make sense in this one child we have two births recorded but it's the one the

Jesus the Christ he's the one who makes sense of it all

Jesus will be perfect man and as perfect man he will set himself to God as our perfect sacrifice he will be the only sacrifice that can once and for all make an end to sin we speak so much about the advent let us remember that behind all of this is

God's design to redeem sinful man sinful humanity to redeem them and grant salvation in his son

Jesus Christ this is why he came this is why the advent this is why he was born of a woman under the law he's a perfect sacrifice because he has no taint of sin upon him as we've said because he's the son of God he was conceived by the

Holy Spirit of God without input from sinful Adam now shouldn't there be some excitement

I mean shouldn't the world just stop whatever they're doing and fix all their attention on Bethlehem and see what's happening here

I mean a worldwide symphony should be playing it should be stirring our spirits to look over there shouldn't there at least be a drum roll or something now all we get is she gave birth to her firstborn son it seems so anticlimactic and if left there maybe no one would have known

I mean can you imagine how this could be explained here she is she's betrothed she's not yet married a virgin giving birth

I mean how could she or Joseph explain this well the fact is that they didn't the fact is that they couldn't neither of them but God did as God's spirit moves

Zechariah to explain by prophecy the true significance of the Baptist's birth so also

God did for his son born to Joseph and Mary but for Jesus heaven itself opened up and made the announcement it was very familiar territory for us but first there's the angel who appeared to the shepherds

I'll read it again I know you just heard it a few moments ago and the angel said to them fear not for behold

I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people for unto you is born this day in the city of David a

Savior who is Christ the Lord now this is good news indeed this is the gospel which in fact means good news and is good news for all the people no one will be denied a share of this

Savior national origin gained no special audience here wealth and power influence brains or looks none of this brings any preference of any kind before God the

Savior Christ the Lord has been born this is the one

God regards this is the one do we offer anything to God for our salvation only simple trust in this one in Jesus Christ and that's what's being announced here verses 13 to 14 have this one angel now joined by a host of angels an army of angels and suddenly there was with that angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising

God saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased as with Mary in the

Magnificat Zacharias in his Benedictus as his prophecy is called so there is but one who gets the glory here one focus for all the credit and that is

God God is glorious just by virtue of who and what he is he doesn't need to do anything to be glorious and worthy of praise but dear ones he did do something he sent his son the only one who could fulfill the prophetic word and the only one who could actually accomplish the salvation that that prophetic word promised and one of the things promised here is peace on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased biblical peace is something different than just the absence of conflict it means to be whole it means to be contented it is the absence of conflict in that sense but not conflict with an enemy you know the kind of peace we have here that is being promised or proclaimed is peace with God on earth peace with whom he with whom he

God the Father with whom he is pleased did you know you need peace with God are you aware that if you do not have your faith in Jesus Christ that you are at enmity with God do you even know that you are at battle with him if you were not why would this even be necessary it would make no sense

God is holding out the olive branch as we might say most people have no idea that they are struggling against him we go about our business most of us quietly minding our own affairs and not the affairs of others our children are fed our wives or our husbands are happy jobs are good retirement accounts are keeping pace with the inroads of inflation and age presidents come and go some better some are worse than others but in the overall scheme of things things just kind of roll along and we never stop and consider where did all this come from why is this world so hard why am

I in constant conflict within myself within others or with others things just go along life seems good seems peaceful so what is this peace that heaven proclaims how many of us would look and say

I'm doing okay I'm doing fine I don't need peace well you need peace with God you know if you don't have

Jesus Christ you're in enmity with God you are his enemy oh well

I don't believe in God that doesn't mean that God isn't it reminds me of little

Calvin in that Calvin and Hobbes cartoon where he looks up at the night sky and he sees nothing but stars and he says

I am significant said the speck to the universe the fact that we don't recognize

God doesn't negate his existence what's this peace why should

I seek a treaty with someone I'm not at war with well whether you know it or not you are at war and your declaration of enmity might not have been a formal one like nations do when they go to war

I mean only a few people actually do state that they are at enmity here I speak of being at war with God for while we were

God's enemies says Romans 5 -10 while we were God's enemies when were you God's enemy any time you were outside of Jesus Christ the one who takes away the wrath of God by nature we're all children of wrath we're all separated from God we're at war with him because of our sin this is who we need to be saved from from God some people think you have to be saved from the devil no no he's powerful more than us and that's not our subject this morning you need to be saved from God and his wrath this is the one

Jesus Christ came to make our peace with his father and so we have to ask with whom is he pleased with whom is

God well pleased well I'll give you the simplest answer I'll give you the shortest answer like Lincoln's Gettysburg Address we get right to the point like the account of Jesus birth he is pleased with those who take refuge in his son it's that simple he's pleased with those who put their faith in Jesus Christ Jesus will about 30 years after these events he will go to the cross and there he will endure the infinite agony our sins deserve in him

God's wrath will be exhausted and so in him there is peace with God in him in Jesus Christ in him alone it's a call to faith in this one who was born this

Christmas day this is why he came for peace between God and man to make all that possible

Jesus said it this way the night before he went to the cross if anyone loves me he will keep my word and my father will love him and he will come to him and make our home with him whoever does not love me does not keep my words and the word that you hear is not mine but the father's who sent me

John when he grew up to be the Baptist he said whoever believes in the son has eternal life whoever does not obey his son shall not see life but the wrath of God remains on him you remain at enmity with him so the advent advent

Christmas day Jesus was born he came into this world to bring peace if you but believe that you need a peacemaker and that he is the only one if you will repent and trust him

Jesus then this redemption this salvation this peace with God is yours this is the reason for the advent this is the reason he came this is the reason for the whole nativity story and for these miraculous births and conceptions if you don't know

Jesus his birth which is a matter of incontrovertible historical truth is an affirmation of all that has been preached to you this day preached to you for Sunday after Sunday this day should be a wake up call to you it's a wake up call this advent think of why

Christ came turn from your sin turn to Jesus Christ that's what

Christmas is for I don't mean the holiday that man has made it I don't mean

I'm even going to begin to unravel the credibility or not of this day and having even the celebration

I'm speaking of the advent so well documented in our gospels I tell you that Jesus Christ came into history

God the word became flesh and came here where we are and he lived as we live yet without sin and that was the purpose of all the things we put our minds on this season the second chorus chorus from what child is this speaks of not the advent

I mean it's an advent song we sing this during Christmas time don't we while child is this who laid to rest on Mary's lap is sleeping but go down just a few stanzas nails spears shall pierce him through the cross be born for me for you hail hail the word made flesh the babe the son of Mary the advent without the cross is meaningless

Christmas without Easter it's just a celebration it's just a set aside day close with a single verse only a few words but like the verses that relate the births simplicity belies its import the apostle