Morning Sermon

December 21, 2008

A Savior Is Born

Text

In God's good providence, I had the privilege of being present at the birth of one of my children. I was there for the whole process, all of the labor as well as the delivery. When she was born, I was there to witness her first breath . It was such an incredible experience, nearly indescribable to anyone who has never had such an experience.

And yet, it really wasn't that momentous an occasion. It was important to me because it was my child being born. It was my wife giving birth. But to put that into proper perspective, women have been having babies for a long time, now. Ever since Eve gave birth to Cain. Day in and day out, month after month, year after year, century upon century, women give birth to babies. There is nothing the least bit unusual about it.

But there was something extremely unusual about the birth of the baby named Jesus. Actually, something unique. Something absolutely distinct about Jesus. He was, after all, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. He was, we know, the second person of the trinity, the eternal son of God who was with God in the beginning, through whom all things were made, "and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men."

I say that to emphasize that this holiday which we celebrate this week has the emphasis all wrong. It's not simply a birth that we recognize. But the incarnation. Not simply a baby boy born in a stable, but the eternal son of God made incarnate. God entering human history in the flesh. And that is why this text is so important.

In some ways, this text is among the hardest in all of Scripture to preach from, because you all know it. Probably by heart. It goes by that name, the Christmas story. And it is told over and over again every year. But what is it that should stand out as we study,

I. THE BIRTH OF A BABY. To start with the obvious, how about the time and the place? What was,

A. The time and place of Christ's birth. v.1-6

Let me warn you about the danger of reading those verses as if they were a fable. A mere children's story. A sentimental or traditional story that might fall into the category of "The Night Before Christmas" or "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."

Now, I enjoy those stories, along with "Rudolph the Red-Noosed Reindeer," and even "A Charley Brown Christmas." I enjoy the adult Christmas fare, as well, having frequently heard Handel's Messiah or Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. But this text before us this morning is in an entirely different category than all those other stories. For this story, from Luke's gospel, "is given by inspiration of God, and is [therefore] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."

This is not "the Christmas story." This is the word of God revealed unto men. And this text is not just a text you read at Christmastime. It is a text you should read anytime, Christmas or not.

So, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, what do we know about Jesus' birth? It came during the reign of Caesar Augustus, emperor of the Roman Empire. Caesar Augustus was a grand-nephew of Julius Caesar. His mother was a daughter of Julia, the sister of Julius Caesar. When Julius Caesar was murdered in 44 BC, he stated in his will that Augustus would be named both Caesar's son and his heir. And shortly after Anthony and Cleopatra were defeated and committed suicide, Caesar Augustus was named emperor in 27 BC.

We know from history that during his climb to power he was ruthless, but while in power, he was a wise administrator and famous organizer. He ruled well, respecting the customs and convictions of those whom he ruled. He was a great builder, and gave to the world a lengthy period of heretofore unknown peace. After fully 41 years of a predominantly successful rule he calmly passed away in the arms of his wife, in AD 14.

In the middle of those years, Jesus was born.

It came about when Augustus had ordered a census. Perhaps with a view toward taxation, as the King James translates it, but essentially a census. The first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria.

So when was that? Probably 5 or 4 BC, perhaps late in 5 BC or early in 4 BC. We don't know absolutely or infallibly, since the Scripture doesn't tell us a date, but in John 2:20 we learn that the temple had been in construction for 46 years, and history records that work was begun in 19 BC. That means that the first cleansing of the temple, at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, was in the year AD 27. Luke 3:23 tells us he was about 30 then, meaning he would be born about 4 BC.

We also know from history that the wicked King Herod I, who tried to have the baby Jesus killed, died himself in April, 4 BC. So Jesus would have been born just prior to then.

But that is all technical stuff, important to understand, but not the reason for these details. There are more important things to emphasize than merely dates. Most especially, the place. Bethlehem.

God so ordered even this decree of Caesar Augustus to that Mary would give birth not in her hometown of Nazareth, but in Bethlehem. The city of David. We've studied already the importance of the connection with David, for Jesus was to be the descendant of David who would rule upon David's throne. And, thus, the prophecy of Micah 5:2 makes sense.

Micah 5:2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting."

That prophecy was written hundreds of years before Jesus was born, is a clear indication that God is the God of all history. The God who orders every event of history so that his own purposes are brought forward.

In 1 Samuel 20:6, Bethlehem is called David's city. He was born there, tended sheep in the fields around the town, and that was the place were Joseph and Mary would be registered.

It was about 90 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem, not far by today's travel standards. And even then, for Joseph, it wouldn't have been too great hardship. But not willing to leave Mary alone in Nazareth, no doubt subject to ridicule and insult because of her unmarried pregnancy, Mary was forced to make the trip in what must been nearly unbearable conditions for a woman in the latter stages of a full-term pregnancy. v.6

It was God's appointed time, the fullness of time. For example, we read in, Mark 1:15 "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."

Also in Paul's writing, Eph. 1:9 "...having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth--in Him."

As a general principle, let this sink into your heart and soul. Jesus entered the world at precisely the time which God ordered, for God orders all the events of time and history. Take comfort in that, in the midst of your own lives, and the circumstances in which you live. God is in control of everything, from the most momentous occasion of Jesus' birth to the most seemingly insignificant aspect of your own life or mine.

Notice also from this text,

B. The manner of Christ's birth. And you know all this. He was born in a manger. There was no room at the inn. He was born in the stable, where the animals lived! v.7

One thing ought to stand out in your mind as you read that description, and you almost need to banish from your minds the thoughts of all the cute manger scenes displayed in our age. There was nothing cute about this. It was dirty, smelling, and utterly humiliating! This was the most visible element of what theologians call Christ's humiliation.

Though not the most intense, perhaps, of all the aspects of his humiliation, still the one that cries out the loudest with a visible demonstration. Jesus, the son of God, the second person of the trinity, became man. Now, that, in itself, is an act of humiliation. Even if he had been born with all the human, earthly splendor of a mighty king.

But he wasn't born with any of that splendor. And to emphasis his lowly condition, he was born among the animals.

This is how our shorter catechism describes his humiliation, what is called his estate of humiliation. "Christ's humiliation consisted in his being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross; in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time."

Christ endured unspeakable humiliation, didn't he? And that humiliation is what ought to be emphasized by the manger scene.

The book of Hebrews gives us an insight into the reason for such humiliation. Turn with me to, Heb. 2:10 "For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren."

And, Heb. 2:17 "Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted."

He was humiliated, and made like us, like the lowest of men, so that in his humiliation, in his suffering, he would be made a merciful and faithful High Priest.

Similarly, Heb. 5:2 "He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness."

And, Heb. 5:8 "...though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him."

And so Paul would write these astounding words, 2 Cor. 8:9 "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich."

Do any of you consider your own humble circumstances, and find yourself getting discouraged? Do any of you think that your own troubles are too overwhelming and overbearing? If so, then you need to think more deeply about Christ's humiliation. For he was rich. As rich as can possibly be. He was the son of God. But he made himself poor. For you. He humiliated himself, even unto the birth among animals, so that he could give to you the riches of his eternal inheritance.

And, dear friends, Rom. 8:18 "...the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."

So we have the birth of a baby. Let's move on to,

II. THE BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT. You all know what those look like today. Often accompanied by a picture of the newborn, friends and family receive a notice in the mail, with all the specifics. The date of birth, weight, length, and, of course, the name.

Jesus' birth wasn't announced by a letter in the mail. Instead, we read in our text about,

A. The messengers of the announcement. The angels! The unfallen, spiritual creatures who lived and existed in the presence of God in heaven. The angels of the Lord, they are called. First, one angel, then a whole host, or multitude. v.9 v.13

Rightly so, were the shepherds afraid. Rightly so were they terrified of the glorious spendour of God's presence reflected even dimly by the angelic creatures. The glory of the Lord shone around them.

Every fallen creature should have that sense of utter unworthiness when brought into the presence of the glory of God. Remember Isaiah, in,

Is. 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!" 4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 So I said: "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts."

That is the proper response. For God is not casual nor comfortable, and we ought not to be casual in his presence. As the writer of Hebrews puts it, "let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire."

So this baby's birth announcement was made by God himself, through his own personal messengers, the great angels. But notice,

B. The recipients of the announcement. Suffice it to say, the announcement came to the lowliest among men. Not to the high and mighty. v.8-9a

Shepherds were despised in that day. They were looked down upon, and even excluded from certain civil rights such as being allowed to give testimony in the courts.

But the first proclamation of the fact that the Messiah had been born was made to poor and downtrodden shepherds.

Remember Jesus' own words, in fulfillment of, Is. 61:1 "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn."

Jesus came to preach to the poor! And so we read in, 1 Cor. 1:26 "For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence."

There is no room for human pride in the proclamation of the gospel. Right from the outset, right from that first announcement of Jesus' birth to the poor shepherds, there is no room for any man to boast in himself. There is no room for any man to think highly of himself. For it is all of God. Salvation is all a work of God. "it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

As it is written, "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord."

I hope you all see the importance of this for you today. For consider your calling. Jesus did not come to you, and this gospel is not proclaimed to you, because you were someone important. The birth of Jesus Christ is announced to you, and proclaimed to you today, because you are poor, brokenhearted, captive, and imprisoned. You and I are among are among the foolish things of the world, that in us, God might put to shame the wise.

And whatever worldly importance you might claim for yourself, you must denounce. Again, remember Paul.

Phil. 3:4 "...If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. 7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith."

Whatever greatness in the world you might enjoy must be counted as rubbish! So that you might gain Christ.

Like these faithful shepherds, who, despite their lowly condition, knew of the coming Messiah and rejoiced to see his day! And they rejoiced because of what they were told in,

C. The words of the announcement. v.10-14

A savior is born. The Messiah, or in Greek, the Christ. Christ the Lord! This Messiah is Lord. He is God. And he was born in the city of David!

Now, I submit to you, those shepherds understood, as we'll see from their response, in just a minute or so, v.15

But notice, most of all, what was made prominent in this announcement. Not the weight and length of the baby, like we'd emphasize today. Not anything about his physical appearance at all. And not anything that emphasized the fact that he was a baby. The focus of this angelic announcement was the chorus of the heavenly host singing, "Glory to God in the highest."

Glory to God. Glory be ascribed to God. All of this is an outpouring of adoration. Indeed, nothing has glorified God in greater measure than the life and work of the incarnate Christ! It was to his father's glory that Christ came to earth. It was to his father's glory that Christ endured the humiliation of being born, and that in a low condition. It was to the glory of God that Christ endured all the afflictions of his life, even unto death. It was to the glory of God that Christ learned obedience through suffering.

And it was to the glory of God that God himself would establish peace among men. v.14

Now, there is a very technical point of grammar to make there, that does affect the translation. Is it, "peace, good will toward men," or, "peace among men with whom he is well pleased." The difference is simply whether or not one letter exists at the end of the word for "good will" or "pleasure." If the letter is not there, it is translated the traditional, "peace, good will toward men." If the letter is there, it becomes "peace toward men of his good pleasure," "peace toward men with whom he is pleased." Personally, I believe the second translation is more accurate to the original, for I believe that letter is there in the original, but either way, the point is that God brings glory to himself by establishing peace with men on earth.

And he establishes peace with men on earth through the work of his own son Jesus Christ. God establishes peace with men by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross. And as we'll be studying in the future from,

Romans 4:25 "[He] was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification. 1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

The glory of Christ's birth is not simply "peace." That is to say, "peace" apart from the meaning and message of the cross. Peace with God comes to you only through faith in Jesus Christ.

With that great announcement of Jesus' birth, let's look somewhat more quickly at,

III. THE RESPONSE TO THE BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT. What did the shepherds do? In simplest terms, they worshipped Christ! They ascribed to him glory and honor and praise, the worship that is due God alone, for he was God. v.15-20

First of all, in delightful obedience and eager devotion, they went to see Jesus.

A. A personal visit. And it was a visit made in faith. Not with any doubt of what they had been told. Not in any sense to try and validate or prove what they had been told. Not to see if it was true. There was no mere curiosity, nor any sentimental or superficial devotion. But they went to Jesus because they believed it was true! v.15b

"Let's go see him!" And, of course, they did! Then they made,

B. A public proclamation. v.17

That's exuberant obedience! They made him known. They talked about Jesus, for they had seen the Messiah. And they proclaimed the very things which they had been told. No embellishments or human exaggerations. They didn't make anything up, they just told others what the angels had told them! With great effect. v.18

We ought, again, to note the godly humility and gentle spirit of Mary. v.19

Finally, let the emphasis lie on the final verse of our text, v.20

This was,

C. A public declaration of praise. They praised God for all the things they had heard and seen.

That's what worship is, and that is what we are all about this morning. That is what this text is all about. It is about worship. About a deep and total commitment to adoration. It is that which is so well emphasized in the familiar Christmas hymn,

"O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem. Come and behold him born the king of angels, O come let us adore him. O come, let us adore him. O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord."

Today, we don't worship him by going to Bethlehem, in a literal or physical manner. Our worship doesn't require us to try and find the church of the nativity over in the middle east. But by faith, in spirit and in truth, we are required to come to Jesus and offer to him sincere and genuine expressions of adoration.

Not as a Christmas celebration, but as a lifestyle.

You can be quite sure that Jesus wasn't born on December 25, for we don't know what day it was, and however you choose to celebrate Christmas, or even choose not to celebrate it, be sure that you learn to worship Christ the Lord along with these lowly shepherds.

And as a church, let us together glorify and praise God for all the things that learn about Jesus as they are revealed to us in Holy Scripture. "O come let us adore him. O come, let us adore him. O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord."

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