Sunday, December 8, 2024 AM

Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the day that you have made.

We thank you for arranging this in all the myriad ways that you provide, that you ordain and arrange, secure and sustain, to bring us together on this day and this place to hear this word from your word.

We pray that you would especially bless it so that we would honor you, that we would grow in our love for you, our joy in you, that we would fear you, thinking of you first and thinking of you most.

By this, that you would bestow to us the wisdom and knowledge and understanding that we need that are summed up in your

Son, Jesus Christ. We ask that you would help us to get a clear view of our

Savior here in this word, that you would do your transforming work, conforming us to the image of your

Son. We would look like him in this world. We are utterly dependent upon you for that.

It is to your name, to the glory of your name, that you would do these things.

It is to our good and it is our desire by your grace that you would accomplish these things.

So we pray in great confidence that you will answer and ask that you would bless us especially with your

Holy Spirit as we look to submit to your truth. We pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, the one with whom you are well pleased.

Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Matthew chapter 1.

We'll be reading Matthew chapter 1, verses 18 through 25. We will also be looking in Luke chapters 1, 2, and possibly a little bit from chapter 3.

So keep that in mind and be ready to turn to the gospel of Luke as well.

We're using the title of the Christmas carol, What Child is This?, to consider the glories of Christ.

It's an appropriate thing for us to do at this time of year, but to put our attention where the

Lord would have it all the year, but particularly to consider the miracle of the virgin conception and why that's an essential truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, why that is so important to the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Why did God include such an emphasis upon it in the

Bible? Obviously for us to believe and for us to rejoice. And so last time the question is what child is this who saves as the emphasis clearly in Matthew 1 and Luke 1 and 2 that this unique child is our

Savior. That's the most evident thing that we discover when we read these

Christmas passages is that Jesus Christ is unique.

He is special. And this makes Him our Savior. And as we're reminded, the

Bible is safe enough for a child to wade and deep enough for an elephant to drown.

The very clear message is that Jesus is our Savior. But even though that is easy enough for a child to grasp, it's time for elephants to drown.

Because this morning we're going to think about what child is this who awes, that we will come to the edge of mystery and behold the wonders and glories of Jesus Christ, the

God -man for us and for our salvation. God reveals to us the mystery of the incarnation so that we may adore

Him, so that we may be in awe of Him. I invite you to stand with me as we read

God's Word. We're going to read Matthew 1, verses 18 through 25.

This is the Word of the Lord. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows.

After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the

Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.

But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you

Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a son, and you shall call his name

Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. So all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the

Lord through the prophet, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall call

His name Emmanuel, which is translated God with us.

Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name

Jesus. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

You may be seated. The Christmas accounts, the

Advent accounts, the stories that we have at the beginning of Luke and Matthew that talk about the virgin conception, look back at Old Testament scriptures and say, this was to fulfill what was written in the prophets, that which the

Holy Spirit conveyed by the prophets to the people of God. So when we go back to Isaiah 7 -14, we have that famous sign given to wicked king

Ahaz, who was full of anxiety and fear about Pekah and Rezin, the kings of Syria and Israel, who were amassing their armies to attack

Judah and to conquer Judah. And king Ahaz of Judah was so focused on man, fearing man and fearing death, here he was in a snare, here he was a slave, but the prophet comes and says, why don't you fear

God and ask God for a sign? And Ahaz refused.

Fearing man and fearing death was too precious to him to give up. And so God says,

I'll give you a sign anyway. And so we come to Isaiah 7 -14, therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name

Emmanuel, means God with us. A little bit later on in Isaiah 9 -6 -7, this very same child is revealed again, more prophetic beauty to behold.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder.

His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end upon the throne of David and over his kingdom.

To order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever, the zeal of the

Lord of hosts will perform this. A little bit later on in Isaiah 11, this whole idea of the child, the promised one to come, is picked up again in a metaphor, an image of branch and root.

Isaiah 11 verses 1 and 2 and verse 10. There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse.

A branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.

The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the

Lord, verse 10 says. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse who shall stand as a banner to the people.

For the Gentiles shall seek him and his resting place shall be glorious. And so the

Messiah is both the branch and the root. What a mystery.

He is the child who is the king. What a mystery. He was conceived and born of a virgin.

What a mystery. What a mystery meets us here in the Scriptures concerning the person of Jesus Christ.

What wonder rolls over us as we read through and meditate on these classic passages.

All is to arise in us as we behold the incarnate Christ. The amen of the

Spirit is to be formed upon our hearts as we behold Christ as the yes of all of God's promises.

Much of modern and post -modern theology discards revelation or dispenses with truth altogether and seeks to use classically formed doctrinal constructs as tools to accomplish things.

What use is the incarnation as a concept? How can we use the idea of incarnation to solve problems?

We don't really care if it happened or not. That's the way theology is used widely.

The Christmas story becomes a tool or it becomes nothing. I think man's despair is profoundly expressed by the question, what's the use?

That's a ragged and beggarly approach to the Word of God. It denies that we were made in His image.

It denies that we were made for His glory. It bypasses the fact that the worship switch is hardwired on inside of us and that God's grace takes us by the shoulders and shakes us and turns our attention to His Son, Jesus Christ.

Now we are to behold Him in wonder. We are to adore Him in worship. 1 ,500 years ago,

Augustine expressed his wonder for the incarnate Christ. He wrote many poems about the incarnate Christ, about His conception, about His birth.

He wrote, maker of the Son, He is made under the

Son. Speaking of His humanity. In the Father He remains, that's

His divinity. From His mother He goes forth. There's His humanity.

Creator of heaven and earth, He was born on earth under heaven. Unspeakably wise,

He is wisely speechless, the babe in the manger. Filling the world,

He lies in a manger. Ruler of the stars, He nurses at His mother's bosom.

He is both great in the nature of God and small in the form of a servant.

This is presented to us in the scriptures for us to wonder at, not to fix, not to bypass, not to resolve, not to quantify, but to worship and to be in awe of our

God, to be in awe of our Savior. The virgin conception of Jesus Christ, wherein we first encounter the idea of the incarnation in history, is a manifest mystery supremely fit for our adoration.

So, rather than settle for amusement, let us recognize we are made for amazement.

And let us look at Christ, fully

God, fully man, two natures, one person, our

Savior. First of all, consider the wonder, the wonder of the incarnate

Christ as we find Him revealed to us in Matthew and in Luke. In the

Gospels, the nature and the nativity of the incarnate Christ are presented together.

The virgin conception is important because here we have the manifestation of Christ's deity and the history of His humanity together in the wonder of His person.

First of all, the deity of Christ is on display. Look at verses 21 through 23 of Matthew chapter 1.

And she will bring forth a son, and he shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

So all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying,

Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall call his name

Emmanuel, which is translated God with us. There's a looking back at the people that Jesus is saving from their sins.

The people that are immediately brought to Joseph's mind are His own people.

Israel. The Jews. That's immediately what's in His mind. And the covenant law simply stressed what was in creation lost.

And so we're going to find that the salvation is larger than just the Jews. It's for all mankind.

What was lost in creation was the favorable communion of the Creator with His creature.

That in sin we are cut off from God. The image of God without life.

There is death. Salvation for Israel addressed the separation from Eden and anticipates the substance of Jesus Christ God with us.

Emmanuel. That's the problem. Being exiled, we need to be restored.

Jesus conceived by the spirit of the virgin Mary is God with us.

God in the flesh uniting that which had been divided. In Luke chapter 1, in verses 31 through 37, we are given the story that miraculously, without consummating her marriage with Joseph, only by the life -giving, life -creating power of the

Holy Spirit, Mary conceived in her womb a son, Jesus, and that He's not a normal king, but an eternal king on a forever throne.

A forever throne. Verse 33 says, He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of His kingdom there will be no end.

An eternal kingdom. An everlasting kingdom which emphasizes

His divine nature. And verse 35,

The angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the highest will overshadow you.

Therefore, also that Holy One which is to be born will be called the

Son of God. The Holy One is the Son of God by the power of the

Spirit with an everlasting throne. When Mary went to be encouraged by the sign provided to her by the angel, and so she went and traveled to her relative

Elizabeth, and she comes in to behold that Elizabeth who was old and barren, yet she now was carrying a son.

When Mary walks in, John the Baptist preaches his first pulpit from the womb, and Elizabeth gives the amen.

And she says, The mother of my Lord has come to visit me. Another testament to the divinity of the unborn

Jesus Christ. Later on in Luke chapter 2, in verse 49,

Jesus as a child, 12 years old, manifests not only His genuine human development but also

His divine nature because in His incarnation He says, I'm about my father's business. His father's business was that of a carpenter, and yet Jesus was in the temple asking questions and answering and amazing everyone who conversed with Him.

He was talking about His eternal Father with whom He shares everlasting fellowship. Thinking of the deity of Christ, we may apprehend that He is divine and fully divine, but we do not comprehend.

We apprehend, we don't comprehend. The same is true of the humanity of Christ.

The name Immanuel obviously emphasizes us as much as it emphasizes

God, God with us, both. Immanuel.

Im, us, the plural us. Menuh, meaning with, and El, abbreviated from Elohim.

God and us. With us, meaning for us. God, truly

God. With man, truly man. And then when you look at what comes first in the

Gospel of Matthew, there's a genealogy. The genealogy stretches all the way back to Abraham and David, and thus is emphasizing the humanity of Christ, that He was truly humanly conceived, truly humanly born, truly humanly cared for, raised in a family, and He has this heritage, and yet He had no earthly biological

Father, but neither did Adam, and Jesus is the last

Adam. Fully human for us and for our salvation. Luke 1, verses 31 and 32 tells us that the human nature of the incarnate

Christ has an origin in the womb of Mary. Jesus has ancestry.

He has royal blood. Jesus is fully human. God the

Son has no beginning. Jesus of Nazareth does. His divinity is eternal.

His humanity comes into existence. Luke 2 shows that Jesus was carried fully to term.

He was an unborn child. He was fearfully and wonderfully made. He was knit together in the womb of Mary.

She had contractions. Her water broke. Jesus was born. They had to wrap Him up to keep

Him warm. When you read through the rest of Luke 2, you find that He was lying firstborn in a manger, circumcised the eighth day.

He grew up. He gained in strength. He turned 12 years old. One of my sons just turned 12 years old.

He increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. He was being fitted into that perfect high priestly role.

It was a full and genuine, real humanity. We apprehend that He was fully human, though we do not comprehend, because we have the deity of Christ and the humanity of Christ together in one person.

The incarnate Christ is one person of two natures, and each is fully appreciated and adored in the nativity and made manifest by the miracle of the virgin conception.

God the Son is the Christ. And God the Son was the Christ long before His incarnation, eternally begotten, not made.

And in His eternal glory as the one mediator between God and man, He took on human flesh, a flesh that did have an origin, a miraculous conception by the

Spirit of Mary, and the eternal Word of God became flesh and thus tabernacled among us, and mankind beheld

His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. We apprehend, but we do not comprehend.

It is something that we are witnesses to and that we are in awe of, but we do not master.

We cannot eliminate the mystery of it. Now, we have to remember, these stories about Joseph and Mary and baby

Jesus, the stories about the angel visitation and the shepherds and the wise men, these stories too often get tossed in with other kinds of stories.

And these are all just the ball of stories that we always tell around this time of the year.

And these stories get piled in with a bunch of other stories which may be historic or sentimental or traditional or apocryphal, and then all of them get treated the same.

The classic Christian cartoon version of first I'll tell you a story about Santa, then

I'll tell you a story about Jesus, and put them on the same level. And thus what is of immense weight is then treated as trivial, which is horrendous profanity.

The biblical nativity is not at all presented as a good little story to help good little children be a little more good.

It is a confrontation of all of humanity. Let us consider the work of the incarnate

Christ, how the incarnation comes about, and what it brings about.

The incarnation is brought about by the triune God, and the incarnation brings about transformation.

The incarnation is the doctrine of all doctrines. It's the key doctrine. The incarnation speaks to that which the world has never gotten past and never will.

The incarnation is the grounding of all truth. It is the key moment of all of history. It is the most wondrous of all miracles.

It is the mystery in chief. Creation, covenant, and consummation are all entailed here.

Revelation and reason rest here. The triune God is made manifest here.

The gospel lives here in the incarnation. And the virgin conception is the crack in the dam of history through which the oceans of eternity pour.

It is triune, and it is transforming. This we apprehend, but we do not comprehend.

The work of the incarnate Christ, the incarnation, is a triune work.

The work of God the Son taking on human flesh in obedience to the Father by the life -giving power of the

Holy Spirit, that's a triune work. That's what Matthew 1 tells us. That's what Luke 1 and 2 tell us.

And just to give it emphasis, when He comes forth in His public ministry at His baptism, what do we find but a triune amen to the incarnation?

That the heavens part, and the Father says of the Son, by the presence of the

Holy Spirit, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. It is the work of the triune

God that brings about transformation. Transformation in our salvation.

Think about the way in which John 3, in the gospel of John, think about the way in which

John talks about salvation. John 3, verse 16, we know it very well.

For God so loved, meaning in this way, for God so loved the world that He gave

His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Notice that He's giving His only begotten Son, but in which way did He give Him except by the incarnation?

Verse 17, for God did not send His Son into the world. You hear that? That sending

His Son into the world is speaking to the incarnation, to the virgin conception. Born of a woman, born under the law, in the right time, in the right place.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

What kind of salvation is that? The kind that Jesus just talked to Nicodemus about? The kind which, if you're not born again of the

Spirit, you don't live? So the Father through the

Son by the Spirit saves. And the incarnation is absolutely essential for our salvation.

Not only in our salvation, but indeed, in the revelation of God. 2

Peter 1, verse 16, Peter says, For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and the coming of our

Lord Jesus Christ. What is he talking about there except the incarnation?

Fully God and fully man. He says, we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.

When was that? On the Mount of Transfiguration. Verse 17,

For He received from God the Father honor and glory. When such a voice came to Him from the excellent glory, remember the

Shekinah glory cloud covering James, Peter, and John. And what did

God say? This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And we heard this voice which came from Heaven when we were with Him on that holy mountain.

And what is His conclusion? What is Peter's conclusion? Therefore, Scripture.

Watch what he says. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed which you would do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place.

Meaning, Peter says, Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. His glory was manifest to us on the

Mount of Transfiguration. Therefore, pay attention to Scripture. Put your attention there.

Because that's where the glory of God is manifest in the person of Christ. Put your attention there to the prophetic word until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your heart.

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. Why? Because it's of Christ's interpretation.

What did the Father say of the Son? Hear Him. Pay attention to Him. Listen to Him.

Prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Do you hear the triune work?

God has revealed Himself to us in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ manifests the

Father to us. How do we know who God is? Jesus Christ has come to reveal Him to us.

There was one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. That's for our salvation as well as revelation.

How do we know who God is? Jesus Christ has revealed Him, and the Spirit has revealed

Christ in the Scriptures. These words that we have in the Holy Scriptures are by the Spirit revealing the

Son, whatever the Father wanted to say about Him to us. And don't you just love it when it's all in one

Scripture? Acts 2 .33 Peter preaches, therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, speaking of Christ, therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, having received from the

Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see in here. Welcome to the new covenant.

Welcome to this side of the resurrection. Welcome to living under the righteous, powerful, life -giving reign of Jesus Christ.

So, do you hear the transforming work? It's a triune work, and it's a transforming work.

How are we transformed? By the power of the Spirit, by the giving of the Scriptures. We are transformed by the saving work of Jesus Christ.

It's a triune work. It's a transforming work. And it's a mystery.

It's not something that we comprehend. It's something that we apprehend. It's mystery.

Mystery is what God must reveal to us if we are to apprehend, and yet mystery is what

God conceals so we'll never comprehend. In the glorious space between these humbling wonders of apprehension but not comprehension, that's where worship resonates.

We are kept on our knees. We are kept in awe. I have no ability to fathom the depths of what

I'm looking at, but I know I'm looking at it, and it is wondrous. It is only when we want to remain in control that we reduce mysteries to systems.

It's when we want to be in control that we trade the adorable for only that which is testable. But now consider the worthiness of the incarnate

Christ. Consider the work of the incarnate Christ and the wonder of who

He is as expressed to us in the Gospels. But what about the worthiness of the incarnate

Christ? Is He worthy of this worship? Is He worthy of this opportunity for us to be stopped in our tracks, to not look for the usefulness of it, the utility of the season, to look for some way to make it to our own advantage, but to actually simply be stopped so that we may be worshipers of He who is worthy.

Consider the worthiness of the incarnate Christ in His full and perfect deity, in His full and perfect humanity, and in this union of the two.

He is divine in His attributes. When we speak of Christ, we do put apples of gold in settings of silver.

He is co -eternal, co -glorious, co -worthy. Divine in His titles.

He is Lord. He is God. He is the I Am. He is divine in His rule.

He is divine when He is worshiped. Divine in His works. And creation and providence are

His works. The beginning and the end are His works. He is the Alpha and the

Omega, and He holds the keys of death and Hades. And it was His wounded heel that crushed the serpent, which leads us to consider

His full humanity. His full and perfect humanity. He is the only

Savior for all men. He is our brother, our priest, our prophet, our king.

He alone is our trailblazing captain. The archegos of our salvation.

He has conquered death and hell, and He has suffered long for our righteousness. He has suffered fully for our forgiveness.

He has suffered death for our eternal life. And He suffers no rivals to His bride, or His crown, or His throne.

His righteous rule, His bodily resurrection, His faithfulness to God, His great love toward us, all of this manifests what humanity is truly all about.

If you want to know what humanity is to be, what humanity truly is, don't look at the humanity of Adam, look at the humanity of Jesus Christ.

He is the Son of Man. He is the fulfillment of mankind. He is what humanity is all about.

And He is sinless. He is sinless in His flesh, sinless in His soul, sinless in His mind, sinless in His will, and fully human in every fashion.

He is sinless and fully human for us and for our salvation. In His incarnation, in His conception, in His birth, in His life, in His suffering, in His death, in His resurrection, in His ascension, in His session, in His reigning, in His return.

Fully human, fully sinless for us and for our salvation.

Both the deity of Christ and the humanity of Christ together, two natures in one person for us and for our salvation.

The hymn says, come behold this wondrous mystery. And indeed we should. And not just in December.

For indeed, this is for every season.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see. Hail the incarnate deity. Christ the newborn

King. Think about the familiar phrases. Think about the familiar carols and hymns that we sing.

See what the hymn writers were about. What were they about? Here, come behold the child and be in awe.

Be in awe. Be in wondrous worship. Consider the adorable mystery of the incarnation.

Adore Him. Worship Him. And that really is what we're called to do.

To worship the incarnate Christ. This is simply preparation for heaven.

Preparation for resurrection. Preparation for all that which lies beyond. The worship of the incarnate

Christ. We apprehend, but we do not comprehend.

And in this we are led to the edge of what the Scriptures tell us. The revealed things are for us and for our children, but that which is concealed, the mysteries, these things belong to God, but it's not something that He doesn't want us to be aware of.

He takes us to the very edge of the chasm to the cliff and beyond the wondrous of His glory and He says thus far and no further, but He says just stop and look.

Stop and look. Don't try to reduce the mystery and get rid of the mystery, but stop and look and behold and be humbled and worship.

We are made for this. It is good that we remember how little we know.

And what we know is by God's grace. The total tonnage of what

God knows that we do not will stun us in our tracks for eternity. Again, Augustine writing his poetry about Christ, about His birth.

Man's maker was made man. That He, ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother's breast.

That the bread might hunger. The fountain thirst.

The light sleep. The way be tired in His journey.

That the truth might be accused of false witness. The teacher beaten with whips.

The foundation be suspended on wood. That strength might grow weak.

The healer be wounded. That life might die. We apprehend, but we do not comprehend this mystery.

It is not a riddle we solve. Not a doctrine we comprehend. This mystery by grace we apprehend.

But isn't it the truth? It's because He first has apprehended us.

Taken hold of us. Yes and amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank

You for the time You've given us in Your Word. Help us to stop and be in awe.

To offer up a stillness and stoppage in our own time.

The whirling of our own busyness and concerns. That we would offer to You our attention and our affection.

That we may adore You in all that You deserve. Thank You for revealing to us this mystery.