Be small

 

Last week before I preached on the virgin birth I struggled to think how to best apply this wonderful truth.  It was actually only just before the service that I realised that this is a call to ‘be small’.  The second person of the Trinity, who has enjoyed the love of the Father and the Holy Spirit for all eternity, and has been the subject of angels’ praise, becomes an embryo in a virgin’s womb.  What a picture of choosing to become small!

The creator of this universe enters his creation through a fallopian tube.  He becomes a baby born in a backwater of the Roman Empire, with no beauty that we should be drawn to him, belonging to a poor family, having his parenthood questioned, being misunderstood and despised, opposed and mocked, and having his naked body spat upon as he is crucified on a Roman cross—a death so humiliating that it could not be mentioned in polite company.

He did it to demonstrate the goodness of God.  He did it for us.  He did it in love. 

Now he calls us to follow this example and make ourselves small.

1.       The way of smallness is the way of grace

Jesus was one of those men who was good with children.  He was safe and pure.  He was welcoming and warm.  Children were drawn to him.  Parents brought their infants to him that he might bless them.  The disciples thought that this was wasting Jesus’ time.  You see, in those days people did not idolise children.  Children were considered insignificant people.  Jesus teaches that, ‘to such as these belongs the kingdom of God’ (Luke 18:16). 

What is it about the infants that teaches us about entering God’s kingdom?  Helplessness.  Helpless dependence (Kent Hughes).  ‘No child can survive its early years without the help of others.’  No child can boast of great achievements.  No child can offer to pay their way.  Every child needs the protection of someone.

The way of smallness is the way of grace.  It lives in helpless dependence.  It gladly sings, ‘nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling.’  It trusts in the truth that God does not treat us as our sins deserve but according to his loving kindness.  We continue to acknowledge our failing as we pray ‘forgive us our trespasses every day’.  In fact, daily confessing our sins should fill us with both humility and gratitude as we acknowledge how we fall and rejoice in the fact that his mercy is renewed every day.

Some of you will know the name Billy Graham.  He was one of the greatest people of the twentieth century.  Billy Graham entered the kingdom of God not be because he had personally preached the gospel to more people than anyone in history; not be because he remained impeccable in his finances when so many have failed; not be because he remained a faithful husband; and not because he was humble and kind.  Billy Graham entered the kingdom because he came to Christ as a helpless child (adapted from Hughes).  He acknowledged the great evil that he saw in his heart and trusted the mercy of our gracious saviour.

I am reading a book on the Nuremburg trials.  This was the trial after World War Two of some of the leading Nazis.  These men were among the worst human beings that have ever walked this earth.  Yet a chaplain was commissioned to share the gospel with them.  That chaplain could speak of a mercy in God that is greater than the worst of human sin.  Some of those war criminals denied that they had done anything wrong.  They claimed that their consciences were clear before God.  Some of those war criminals admitted their guilt and came to Christ like children, admitting their helpless dependence, and they were welcomed into God’s kingdom.

The same grace that saved a sinful man like Billy Graham saves sinful war criminals.  None are so good that they are not in desperate need of grace, God’s grace is sufficient for those who see ourselves as the worst of sinners.  The grace that saved us is the grace that we depend on him every day as we bring him our daily sins and remember he ready mercy   

2.      The way of smallness is the way of gratitude

My friend Brenda is a lecturer in Maynooth University.  She did her doctorate on the mental health effects of gratitude. 

She told me that gratitude influences mental health through increasing the levels of happiness (positive emotions and life satisfaction), and reducing stress, depression and anxiety levels.  It has a protective effect, in the fact that it strengthens us to face future stressful events.  It improves our relationships with other people.  Consciously practicing gratitude changes your brain activity, and even improves your physical health.  By pausing to say thank you, you strengthen neural pathways and make it easier to see the good in life.  Over time it will become a healthy habit.  It even improves the quality and duration of your sleep.  She pointed out that in order to benefit most you must not only seek to feel thankful but express thankfulness.  When you feel thankful for someone, you should actually thank them.

It is a gracious command of God when we are told to ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His love endures for ever’ (Psalm 107:1).  Like all of his commands this is for his glory and our welfare. 

I would add another benefit to Brenda’s list of good things gratitude does for us.  Gratitude should keep us small.  We thank God as people who are helplessly dependent on God.  We thank him for his daily mercies remembering that we do not deserve them.  We thank God for his people remembering that though our Christian brothers and sisters he is fulfilling his promise to place the lonely in families.  We thank him for his love knowing that he loves us infinitely more than we love him.  We thank God for the cross where Jesus took the punishment our guilt deserves.  We thank him that he has been with us in past storms and will be with us as we pass through future fires.

Can we be boastful and thankful at the same time, I am not sure?  The way of smallness is the way of gratitude.      

3.      The way of smallness is the way of glory

Jesus repeatedly tells us not to draw attention to ourselves, and yet he also says that we are to not to hide our light under a bushel.  How do these two things fit together?  Maybe the answer is found in thinking about what shining for Jesus looks like.  Shining our light is about making ourselves small not big.

Shining our light involves genuine humility, a virtue that was not valued in the ancient world.  We rejoice in what Jesus has done for us for more than in anything we have done for him.  We acknowledge that he is changing us in ways that we were helpless to change ourselves.  He has enabled us to will and act for his good purposes.  We serve not in our own power but with the grace of God in us.  Maybe we could say that our light is to shine like a floodlight that casts it glow on the beauty and work of Christ.

In this life we may be looked down on for our faith in God.  In some countries Christians endure rejection and violent opposition.  But Christians focus on Jesus who endured the shame of the cross looking ahead to the glory that he would experience when he sat down at the right-hand side of God.  We look forward to when they will share Christ’s glory.  That glory will be rooted in our smallness. ‘God has poured out his love on us so that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus’ (Ephesians 2:7).  For all eternity people will marvel at the fact that God has brought insignificant and failed people like us into his kingdom!

Conclusion

The creator of this world becoming an embryo in a virgin is such a picture of God embracing smallness.  But how are we at living small? 

What about when someone criticises us?  I remember listening to someone hotly criticise me, and while it was a little unfair and very unpleasant, I was also aware of the fact that I am a far more sinful person than even they were saying.  I took their criticism badly, but how much better I might have taken it is I was glad to be small.  No-one can knock you off your high horse if you are already bowed in the posture of humility.

How are we about asking for help?  Are you ready to admit your struggles?  Do you think it honours God when you pretend that your family has got it together?  Do you think that it is beneath you to open up and ask people to pray for you?  Only weak people would go to the prayer room after church, but only weak people understand the grace of God.

In a world of self-made men and independent women, where children are driven to pursue excellence and success, let your light shine as you follow one who entered our world as an embryo in a virgin’s womb, and who would set his face towards a shame-filled cross, where he would die in love for us and now is seated in glory.  Let us be small to the glory of God! 

Light in your darkness (Is. 9:1-7)

 

What darkness are you passing through?  This year may have been one where you travelled through the valley of the shadow of death.  Maybe you have struggled with the darkness of depression and despair.  Maybe you feel that uncomfortable feeling of guilt for some sin that haunts you.  Jesus has come to shine His light into your darkness!

Isaiah means ‘God saves’

The key to understanding the book of Isaiah is found in the prophet’s name.  Isaiah means ‘God saves.’ 

It is the eighth-century before Christ.  God’s people had been divided into two kingdoms—Israel/Ephraim in the north and Judah in the south.  Isaiah is speaking to the southern kingdom, whose king, Ahaz, is a descendant of the great king David.

The super-power of the day is the Assyrians.  Ephraim/Israel had formed an alliance with a place called Aram to protect themselves against the Assyrians.  Now Ephraim and Aram are threatening Judah: ‘if you do not join with us we will invade you.’  Rather than trust God, Ahaz forms a pact with the Assyrians.  The Assyrians had no plans to do them God.

In short, Ahaz and his people are not trusting God, and the result is going to be disastrous.  But God saves.  He is going to rescue a people who will be guided by His words.

Light from a surprising place

The light is going to come from the region around Galilee—Zebulun and Naphtali were in the north.  When Israel and Judah were attacked this was the first place to be toppled.  The Galileans knew plenty of slavery and despair.  But God loves to turn things on their head.  From this place of darkness and oppression comes the light of freedom.  Matthew picks up these verses as he introduces the ministry of Jesus (Matthew 4:15-17).

This light will bring joy and celebration (3).  A king will rescue His people.  The reference to Midian goes back to the time of Gideon, where God reduced Gideon’s troops to three hundred, and all they did was blow trumpets and hold up torches.  In that battle God caused his enemies to turn on themselves and slaughter each other.  The point being made is that the victory belongs to the Lord, no one else can take credit for it. 

In fact, God’s king is going to put an end to war.  Every boot of trampling … and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for fire (5).  Jesus comes as Prince of peace offering us peace with God.

A unique king

For unto us a child is born … This is what we are celebrating at Christmas.  Ahaz would have a son, Hezekiah, but what is been spoken here goes beyond any mere human king.  As one commentator points out, ‘It is manifestly impossible to associate these words of majestic prophecy with any other than the Messiah Himself’ (Fitch).

His name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor—that is one who can lead His people well.  Mighty God—this was a title for God in other parts of the Old Testament (e.g. Deut. 10:17).  Everlasting Father—human fathers die but God can be your Father for ever.  The words are literally, ‘father of eternity’—Jesus is the One who in His own being gives eternal life to others.  There will be no end to the expansion of His kingdom of Peace.  ‘The empire of grace will expand forever, and every moment will be better than the last’ (ESV Study Bible).  He is the promised king from the line of David, for God is faithful. 

Conclusion

So, what is the darkness you are in at the moment?  It might be something that you have messed up, or it may be something that has been done to you.  Jesus offers to be our light in the darkness.  His kingdom is still a now and not yet.  The people of Isaiah’s day looked forward to the coming of that king from Galilee, we can look back and say that He is here.  He shines His light on us, but there are still dark shadows.  At this very time those trust Him can celebrate His full and free forgiveness.  At this time those who trust Him can be comforted that He guides us and fathers us in love.  But we too look forward.  For one day he will return.  He will bring judgement on all who have refused to live for Him.  He will wipe away all tears from those who have trusted Him.  He will be the very light of our existence.

John 1:1-14 ‘The Grand Miracle’

 

At various times since the seventeenth-century certain theologians have shown a great embarrassment about all the miracles in the Bible.  Some came up with clever explanations to get rid of these miracles.  For example, take the feeding of the five thousand.  There were theologians who said that what happened here is that the gathered crowd saw the generosity of the young boy who offered his pack lunch and they were inspired to share their own lunches.

The virgin birth seems to be a particular embarrassment to some.  I was listening to the radio a few years ago and heard a friend from my Christian Union days, a guy who had studied theology, taking it for granted that this was made up.  I must admit that his attitude confused me.  He is not an atheist, as far as I know, so I assume he believes that God created the world.  If God created the world, is it too much that to believe that He could get a young woman pregnant?

Without the incarnation Christianity makes no sense

C. S. Lewis writes that miracles are essential to Christianity in a way that they are not to other faiths.  If you take any mention of miracles out of the teachings of Buddha, you would still have Buddhism.  If you take any talk of miracles out of the teaching of Mohamad, you would still have Islam.  But if you take the miraculous out of Christianity, it no longer makes any sense.  For example, the apostle Paul says that we are to be pitied above all people if Jesus has not been raised from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:14).  Lewis calls the incarnation—by which he refers not only to Jesus’ becoming a man, but also His resurrection and ascension—as ‘The Grand Miracle’.  Everything else depends on it.

Jesus is the divine creator

In 1961 the Russian astronaut, Yuri Gagarin, became the first man in space.  The space race was really part of an ideological war between the atheistic Soviets and America.  Gagarin couldn’t resist making an anti-god comment upon his return.  He said that when he went to space he found no god.  C. S. Lewis came to the rescue of faith with a brilliant response.  He said that going into the physical heavens expecting to find God is like Hamlet going into the attic of his castle to find Shakespeare.  God is not a part of His creation, He is the creator.  He is not a character in the play, He is the playwright.  As John writes, all things that were created were created by the Word, Jesus (John 1:3).

The playwright becomes a player

During the year we watched Alfred Hitchcock’s film, North by Northwest.  In forty of the fifty-three Hitchcock films we have, he writes himself in as a minor character.  In North by Northwest you get to see a small cameo of Hitchcock as a background character who misses a bus.  It is just a bit of fun.  God the divine playwriter, the creator, steps into the story.

There are certain things that we can know about God the creator and playwright from His creation.  The heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1a).  We can see that He is great and majestic.  He is a good God who has compassion for all that He has made (Psalm 145:9).  

There certain things we can know through the way God has made us.  He has set eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11).  We rebel against death, often feeling that this cannot be the end of the story.  We search for meaning in a way that none of His other creatures do.

But there are certain things we can only know because Jesus the creator has stepped into His creation.  He reveals grace and truth.  Jesus doesn’t step into the story for a Hitchcock-like cameo role.  He comes as the main character.  He comes as the hero who lays down His life in order that we could become children of God (John 1:13).  Living life without Jesus is like being in a movie where the main character has been removed.

The true fairy-tale

C. S. Lewis’s friend, J.R.R. Tolkien, explained that the good news about Jesus is really a true fairy-tale.  Fairy-tales move us because they speak about several human longings.  In fairy-tales death is defeated, a curse is lifted, little people become significant, a hero comes to the rescue, loved ones are for ever reunited and evil is defeated.  Tim Keller points out that in fairy-tales, ‘there is a beauty who will kiss you in all your beastliness and transform you.  There is a prince who will save us for ever.’ (Keller).  The Jesus story is a true story that should keep thrilling our hearts.

Wise men still seek Jesus (Matthew 2:1-12)

 

The carol, ‘We three kings of orient are’, was written by John Hopkins in 1857.  It contains a number of factual inaccuracies.  To start with, there is no mention of three kings.  There were three gifts, but that does not necessarily imply three kings.  Then the carol gives symbolism for each of the gifts, but there is no reason to read anything into the gifts other than they were very expensive.  Indeed, in the providence of God these gifts may have been used to support the young family as they sought refuge in Egypt.  Finally, these were not kings.  They were magi—astrologers and learned men.

Yet despite all the misrepresentations of this story there is a lot to learn. We learn that the gospel has a ring of truth.  We learn that Jesus is the wisdom of God.  We learn that Jesus calls for a response.

1.       We learn that the gospel has a ring of truth

There are things about this story that the Christmas-card versions make it hard to believe.  I always struggled to understand how a star could hover over a stable.  But then the Christmas-card version is misleading.

The idea of a star being associated with the birth of a king was not unusual.  Around the time of Julius Caesar’s murder, in 44 BC, there was a lot of comet activity.  It became known as ‘Caesar’s Comet’.  It was said to be associated with Julius Caesar becoming divine.  Stars in the sky and events in the life of a king became associated in the minds of the people.

At that time, in that part of the world, there was a rumour that a great king was going to come out of Judea.  Pagan historians mention this.  So, when the star event appears it is natural for the magi to go to Jerusalem in Judea to enquire.

The chief priests and teachers of the scriptures pointed them to Bethlehem.  Apparently, the Greek of the text does not imply that the star stopped over a manger but the town.  That, I will admit, is pretty extraordinary.  Of course, there is no mention of a manger here, the young family are in a house.  The magi may have found where a baby boy was through discreet enquiry.

This Herod, Herod Archelaus, died in 4 BC, so the church’s later dating of the birth of Jesus is a few years out.  What we read here, and in the rest of Matthew’s account of this Herod, rings true.  This Herod was a paranoid man, who murdered his favourite wife and two sons.  When it says, in verse 3, that all Jerusalem was disturbed about the star, it was not because of their love for Herod, they would have been glad to see him replaced, but they knew that the ailing man could become cruel if he thought there was a rival to his power.

As it happens we know that there were a number of significant star events in that year.

But perhaps the most striking mark of authenticity is found in what these men are.  They are ‘magi’.  Magi from which we get the word ‘magic’.  They are into things like astrology (think horoscopes).  Any time such practices are mentioned elsewhere in the Bible they are condemned.  These are things that God’s people are not to do.  If Matthew, a Jew, was making up this story he would never have included such people.  This story is so open to misunderstanding.  So why does Matthew include this event?  The best answer is because it happened!

 

2.       We learn that Jesus is the wisdom of God

Matthew is writing for Christians who have come from a Jewish background.  He wants to show the link between Jesus and the prophecies of the Old Testament.  Indeed, how Jesus fulfils prophecy is another evidence of the Bible’s truthfulness.

He also contrasts the unbelief of the Jews and the belief of outsiders like the magi.  On one hand, be careful not to close your mind to Jesus.  On the other hand, never think that you could not become one of His people.

He also wants to show us God’s wisdom in Jesus.

In our society we think of astrologers as quacks.  Things like horoscopes are foolishness at best.  But in that day these men were considered the most learned in society.  They were a picture of the world’s wisdom at that time.  These wise men bow down before Jesus—who is the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:18).

Think of the beautiful wisdom of God. 

How can a God who is perfectly holy and inapproachable in His perfection come and live among sinful people like us?  He does so as Jesus, God the Son, takes on human flesh.  This is what we celebrate at Christmas.  

How can God Himself save His people, and yet the punishment for wickedness be paid by humankind?  The answer is the one mediator between God and man, fully God and fully human.  Jesus dying on a cross for us.  We celebrate that at Easter.

How can God change natural born rebels so that we delight to follow Him?  The answer is in Jesus sending the person of the Holy Spirit, and where the Spirit is He is there too.  Christ in us the hope of glory.  We celebrate this at Pentecost.

What the world considers wise changes all the time.  We no longer consider astrologers to be learned.  Our generation have rejected much of what previous generations thought was self-evident.  It is called chronological snobbery—every generation believes it knows better than the ones that went before it.  Future generations will mock many of our considered opinions.  But the truth of Jesus will always ring true!

3.      We learn that Jesus calls for a response

Finally, whenever we read a gospel story we should look at the various responses of people to Jesus.

Here there is the response of the religious teachers and leaders.  Their response is apathy.  They point out that a ruler will be born in Bethlehem, but they have no interest in going to see Him.  Like so many people in our world, Jesus is someone that doesn’t really matter.  In fact, at Christmas time in our culture Jesus is notably not a priority.

People only remain apathetic towards Jesus when they can keep Him at a distance.  If you tell yourself that Jesus is merely a good teacher then He will never disturb you.  But He comes as a king.  He comes to rule your life.  He comes to take control.  Herod knew that there was a new king in town and he responded with hostility.  The truth is that our lives will never feel whole until we stop putting ourselves at the centre and we ask Jesus to be our king.

That brings us to the magi.  Those learned and apparently wealthy men—after all look at their gifts.  They saw Jesus as having worth.  Much more they saw Jesus as the end of their search.  Look at verse 12, ‘they rejoiced greatly’.  It is literally they ‘rejoiced with great joy’.  G. K. Chesterton, ‘meaninglessness does not come from being weary of pain, meaninglessness comes from being weary of pleasure.’  When all the gifts are open the emptiness will still be there.  You can have all the learning and all the wealth in the world, but there is still a sense of emptiness and boredom.  Jesus was the end of their search.  He is the only one who can offer true purpose.  He causes His people to rejoice.  So, we must not forget the wonder.    

‘What is in a name?’ (Matthew 1:20-21)

 

Caroline is the female of ‘Charles’ and means ‘free woman’ (do with that what you may).  I used to tell my children that ‘Paul’ means ‘courageous warrior’ but they knew that it means ‘small’.  ‘Jesus’ is the Greek form of Joshua, and means ‘Yahweh/Jehovah saves.’  It is a name loaded with significance.

What does it mean to be saved?

The angel addresses Joseph as ‘son of David’.  Like all Jews at that time Joseph was looking for a king from the line of King David.  But the hope of that people was not a king who would free them from sin, but free them from the occupying Romans.  No one seems to be thinking of rescue from sin, even though the Old Testament had pointed to it in so many ways.  The angel’s words echo Psalm 130:8, ‘He Himself will redeem Israel from their sins’.

The online dictionary, Merrion-Webster, defines ‘sin’ as ‘an offense against a religious or moral law’.  That is inadequate!  Sin is primarily an offense against a person: God.  Sin comes from within, and it shows that there is something wrong with our hearts.

Sin is rooted in rebellion, ‘I will not live under the loving rule of God.’  Sin is rooted in pride, ‘I know better than you how to live my life.’  Sin is rooted in ingratitude, ‘I will not thank God for all that He has done for me.’  Sin is rooted in self, it is self-righteousness, selfish and self-centred.  Sin is rooted in apathy, ‘I do not care about the death of Jesus.’

Sin has cut us off from God.  Sin leaves us condemned, and the objects of God’s holy anger.

Yet, in His incalculable love, Jesus came so that we can be forgiven and free from the condemnation and power of sin.

That is what it means to be saved!

How does Jesus save us from our sin?

In chapter nineteen of this gospel, a young moral man approaches Jesus.  Without any sense of shame or hypocrisy he can talk about all the religious laws that he keeps.  Like everyone in our society, he bases his hope before God on the idea that ‘I am a good person.’ Yet his conscience is uneasy.  In his heart he does not believe it.  Jesus bursts his self-righteous bubble, ‘no-one is good but God alone.’  There are no amount of rules that we can keep that will put us right with God.

Yahweh/Jehovah saves people from their sin because we are completely incapable of saving ourselves.  Tim Keller points out that while traditional religion says, ‘obey God and he will love you’, Jesus teaches us to accept God’s free gift of Love and you will want to change.  If you have lost the desire to become more like Jesus it is probably because you have lost the wonder of the gospel. 

But how does Yahweh/Jehovah save us in Jesus?  Matthew records Jesus’ words, ‘even the Son of man [Jesus] did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many’ (Matthew 20:28).  A ransom is a price paid to set some one free—like paying a price to free a slave.  What price was paid for our guilt?  Jesus Himself!  On the cross of Calvary we see Jesus taking the punishment we deserve.

Who are His people who will be saved?

‘For He will save His people from their sins’ (21).  Remember Psalm 130:8, ‘He Himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.’  As a Jew Joseph might first have thought of His people the Israel.  But while God worked through that people in the Old Testament, you will see that many of that people were not in a loving relationship with God, there were people who were not Israelites who were found by God, and God repeatedly spoke of His desire to bless people from all over the world.

When a Roman centurion shows faith that was sadly lacking among the Jews of that day, Jesus declares, many will come from east and west, and will take their place at the feast with Abram, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 8:11).  At the end of Matthew’s gospel Jesus commissions His disciples to go to all the nations with the good news (Matthew 28:20).

Then there is another surprise about His people, which I will mention tonight.  By and large the traditionally religious people didn’t want Jesus.  In their pride they wanted to earn a place in heaven.  The so-called thugs and scumbags flocked to Him.  Jesus outlined His mission statement saying, ‘I have not come to call the righteous but sinners’ (Matthew 9:12).

I remember talking to a friend of mine, Ronnie.  Ronnie told me that his wife and his son were Christians.  I asked him whether he had thought of becoming a Christian.  He replied, ‘I am not the type.’  I think Ronnie would have been surprised to see who were Jesus’ type.

Climax:

Tim Keller writes, ‘The gospel says that you are simultaneously more sinful and flawed than you dared believe, yet more loved and accepted than you dared hope.’  The thing that I find interesting is that quote is taken from his book on marriage.  You see this gospel is to have a profound affect on how we relate to other people.

You might be able to give me a really good definition of the good news of Jesus, but is it being lived out in your relationships?

Are you defensive?  Do you keep people at arm’s length?  Do you struggle to forgive?  Are you easily insulted?  Are you critical and demanding?  Do you hurt people with your words?  Then our problem is a gospel problem. 

When we see God’s love in Jesus, we will become more loving.  When we experience His kindness and patience, we will become less critical.  When we know His forgiveness, we will have the power to forgive.  When we see that He reaches the least and the last, we become less proud.   When we rejoice in His mercy, we will be kind.   

We never move on from the gospel.  We simply grow deeper in it.

'God with us' (Matthew 1:18-25)

 

In one church where I served I asked some of the small groups to give me lists of the characteristics of God.  As you could imagine, all of the groups included love.  To my surprise none of them mentioned holiness.  God is love.  He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in kindness.  But He is also separate and holy.

Up to this point in the Bible there has been an emphasis on the fact that God is inapproachable.  He appears in a pillar of fire and a whirlwind.  Get too close to Him and you will fall down dead.  So how amazing that we now read that in Jesus we have Immanuel, ‘God with us’.  The God of love and holiness has found a way to dwell with people.

Jesus is God

In the New York Times there was a review on a book about Jesus.  The reviewer was Jewish and he made the following observation: ‘the big question is actually, why did Jesus’ first disciples worship Him?’  

The Jews of that time were hoping for a Messiah, they wanted a political leader who would free them from Roman occupation, but they were not thinking in terms of God becoming man.  They were the last group of people who would have thought like that.

Yet Jesus acts like God.  In the book of Job, we read that God treads the waves (Job 9:8), in the gospels we see Jesus walking on water.  When Jesus forgives a man all His sins, Jesus’ enemies rightly ask, ‘who can forgive but God alone.’

Our God is mysteriously, one God and yet three persons within the God head: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Here is God the Son!

Jesus is God with us

How can God, who is infinitely holy, live among people who are not holy.  The answer lies in part in the carol, ‘Hark the Herald’, which includes the line, ‘veiled in flesh the godhead see.’  When God the Son becomes a man, His glory is somewhat revealed.  Yet at the very same time, Jesus in human flesh reveals the glory of God.  In Jesus we see His compassion, we witness His love, we hear His truth.

The surprise of us

But why would God have had a problem dwelling among people?  Why had people feared to be in God’s presence?  Well, ask yourself, ‘what are my attitudes like?’  ‘What are my thoughts like?’  ‘Would you want everyone to see and hear what you think and feel?’  The truth is we are not holy.  We are not like God.  We are not pure and good.  That is why people could not dwell with the perfectly pure God.

So, you might expect that when the Son of God walked amongst us, it would be the religious and respectable that came close to Him and that those who had made a mess of their lives stayed well clear of Him.  Yet just the opposite happened.  The religious hated Him and people like the sexually immoral flocked to Him.

Why was that?  Because the ‘good’ are bad, and the bad know they need to be forgiven.

One day, a respectable and ‘good’ man came to Jesus to talk about eternal life.  Jesus told that man that ‘there is no one good, but God alone.’  We are all selfish, bitter, self-absorbed and proud.  It is when we realise this that we rejoice in the words, ‘He will save His people from their sins’.  Through His death He offers full forgiveness.  Through His resurrection He gives us the power to change.

Climax:

I want to finish by pointing out that ‘God with us’ even becomes ‘God in us’.  The risen Jesus offers to dwell in our hearts.  With Him there we can experience the power to change.  You will not be perfect in this life, and if anyone claims to be you can be sure they do not know God.  But you can change.  Jesus gives us new desires and new loves that show themselves in compassion and truth.  The Christian is someone who is both humble and growing—humble because we know that we have done nothing to deserve His love, and growing because He is making us more like Himself.

(The idea for this sermon and the illustration from the New York Times are taken from Tim Keller).

‘Is it better to be just or merciful?’ (Matthew 1:19-20)

In 2019 Joe Humphries wrote an article in The Irish Times entitled, ‘Why humans need mercy more than justice.’  It began, “’Is it better to better to be just or merciful?’  This is a question that has troubled politicians and preachers down through the ages, but in recent times the hammer of justice has been banging particularly loudly.’ 

He explains that ‘by recent times’ he means since the enlightenment – when the Christian virtue of forgiveness started to drift out of fashion in political theory.  He quotes on Oxford University professor, who wrote that ‘it is the fact that other people do not exercise their power of harm to the full that allows us to survive from one day to the next.’  This professor even states that when the robots take over we had better hope they are merciful.

1.       The justice and mercy of Joseph

Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly (19).  Joseph faced a dilemma: he wants to respond to Mary’s situation with both mercy and justice.  

Betrothal in that culture was like engagement, but it was more binding.  Joseph would have been between eighteen and twenty.  Mary between twelve and fourteen.  The engagement would have been arranged by their parents, but with their consent.  Promises would have been made before two witnesses.  It would be a year before they marry.  In Galilee they were strict about the pair being alone together.  They might never have been alone in private.

If a person cheated in betrothal it was considered an act of adultery.  Under the Old Testament law that could be punished by stoning.  That fact made me think of the Oxford University professor’s remarks—we owe our existence to the fact that others do not do us the full harm they could.  Joseph could have fought to have Mary killed.   

However, in Joseph and Mary’s day this death sentence was rarely carried out.  What Joseph would have been expected to do was divorce her publicly, and expose her to great public shame.  But Joseph is merciful.  He can divorce her quietly and save her as much condemnation as possible.

2.       The justice and mercy of Jesus

When I read the story of Joseph I think of two other occasions of women accused of sexual immorality.  The first is in Genesis 38 where Judah accuses his daughter-in-law Tamar.  Thinking that she had been a prostitute he had slept with her.  When he finds out that she is now pregnant he wants her to be burned to death.  Until his own guilt is exposed.  Judah wanted justice, but he had no place for mercy.  Justice was self-righteous and hypocritical.  Self-righteous people are often the least merciful of people.  If we lack mercy it might be because we have forgotten about the mercy that God has shown to us.

Then there is Jesus in John 8.  A woman caught in the very act of adultery is brought to him.  The people who brought her care neither for justice or mercy.  They are just trying to put Jesus in a difficult situation.  Jesus refuses to condemn her.  But he warns her to leave her life of sin.  He is merciful.  But there will be a day of justice.  Justice and mercy kiss in the life of Jesus.

3.       Justice and mercy in the Old Testament

How can Joseph, who is faithful to the law, show mercy?  How can Jesus, who is upholds the law, show mercy?  The law shows us what we deserve, but mercy seeks our forgiveness!

In the book of Zechariah, we see a High Priest by the name of Joshua (Joshua is the Hebrew form of the name Jesus).  The High priest stood between God and His people.  In particular the High Priest acted out God’s mercy and justice on the annual day of atonement.  That day of atonement pictured God’s desire to remove the people’s sin, and the fact that sin required the shedding of blood.

But as Joshua stands before God his robes are covered in excrement.  In his sin he is unworthy to carry out his duties.  Then God puts clean robes on him saying, ‘see, I have taken your sin’ (4).  How does God do this?  He does it by exercising both mercy and judgement.  ‘I will remove the sin of the land in a single day’ (9).  There was a greater day of atonement where Jesus was sacrificed fulfilling the need for justice, and where in mercy our sins were taken from us.

Climax:  Which is better, mercy of justice?

It is not really a good question.  We need both mercy and justice.  But in His justice God has not forgotten mercy.  He offers us mercy now, and there will be some justice now.  But he warns us that we need to be ready for a future day when there will be justice without mercy.

Tim Keller writes, ‘mercy isn’t the job of the Christian, it is the mark of a Christian.’  The Christian is someone who knows that a just God has found a way to show us infinite mercy.  Therefore, like Joseph we should be people of mercy.

Think of the Dublin riots.  Yes, we want to see justice done.  We want to have a society of law and order.  But so many of the reactions lacked mercy.  Everyone was looking for someone to blame.  It began with a merciless act of violence.  Before long tweets were circulating pointing out that the Irish citizen who had done this was from another country.  There was an attitude that stirred by hatred to the migrant, in contravention of the Bible’s teaching to welcome them.  Then there were the looters, young men mostly.  Even our Ministry of Justice called them ‘thugs and scumbags’.  That is hardly language wants mercy to people, many of whom come from socially deprived areas.  Then there was the lack of mercy shown to that Minister of Justice, a young woman who has endured much pain in her life.  Then there is the demonizing of a who variety of groups labelled as the ‘alt-right’.  Yes, we want justice to be done.  But surely, we want guilty people like ourselves to be transformed by the mercy of Jesus.  Surely the first thought of a Christian (and I am not sure it was my first thought) is ‘Lord have mercy’.  

The Son of Larry can't save you from your sin

A number of years ago a pastor wrote a book in which he asked, ‘what if Jesus had an earthly father named Larry?’  What if Larry’s tomb was found and samples from his body proved that he was the father of Jesus (I don’t know how they could do that).  Would it make any difference?  This pastor didn’t think so.  But he was wrong.  I want to give you three reasons why the virgin birth (or more precisely the virgin conception) matters so much.

Firstly, if the virgin birth was made up then Matthew and Luke’s accounts of Jesus’ life can’t be trusted.  They both clearly teach that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born to a virgin.  If Matthew and Luke lied about Jesus’ birth, how can we trust anything they say about his life?  They would be unreliable witnesses.  Yet I challenge you to read through any of the gospels and not hear the ring of truth.

Secondly, if Jesus was conceived by two human beings then he could not offer an acceptable sacrifice for our sins.  Right throughout the Old Testament there are sacrifices for sin.  These sacrifices couldn’t actually save people, but they pointed ahead to the one who would.  They taught the truth that sin would be removed by the death of a substitute.  There was a repeated emphasis on the idea that this substitute must be perfect or unblemished.  But if Jesus was the product of two human parents he could not be unblemished.

You see the church has always affirmed a doctrine called original sin.  It’s a doctrine that is not very popular to the modern ear.  It goes back to verses like that in the Psalms where David declares, ‘for I was born a sinner—yes, from the moment my mother conceived me’ (Psalm 51:5).  Can you remember the first time you did something that was wrong?  I can’t!  Oh, you might remember some particularly wrong thing you did when you were young, but that was not the very first wrong thing you did.   I can’t remember any time before I was selfish and self-centred, because I have always been that way.  In fact as I have grown older I have become more aware of the wrong things I do and feel.  No sinful person could offer an unblemished sacrifice for sin. 

Yet Jesus was born without this bent towards doing evil.  The reason he did not have our sinful nature is because he was conceived through the Holy Spirit.  Because he was born of the Holy Spirit he did not inherit our sinful bent.  He was like us in every way, yet without the tendency to sin.  Jesus was tempted in every way, yet he never gave in.  He alone was able to be the unblemished or uncorrupted sacrifice that is needed to take the punishment for the sins of his people.

Thirdly, if Jesus was not conceived through the Holy Spirit then the cross would be a terrible act of injustice.  I do not know how the pastor who writes about the son of Larry could also have that son be the unique son of God.  The angel Gabriel links the virgin birth to the fact the Jesus is to be seen as the unique Son of God.  Without the virgin birth we don’t have the unique son of God..

If Jesus was simply the son of Larry then it seems dreadfully unfair that this son of Larry would be chosen to pay the price for my sin.  Why punish him instead of me?  How could God take the credit for saving me from my guilt if it was the son of Larry who died in my place?  How would sacrificing the son of Larry demonstrate God’s love for the world?

The fact that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit to be called Son of God shows us the Father’s amazing love for a rebellious world in the fact that he is giving his One and Only Son for us.  The fact that Jesus is born to a woman, becoming fully human, means that he can stand as our representative before God and take the punishment for our sin.  The fact that this is the Son of God, one person of our triune God, dying for us means that God takes the credit for rescuing us.  In fact the apostle Paul tells us that in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself (2 Corinthians 5:19).  Only the God-man, Jesus, could be the one mediator between God and people (1Timothy 2:5).

Finally, do you ever wonder how one person could pay for the sin of many?  Indeed, how could Christ’s suffering, which lasted for only a few hours, pay the weight of all his people’s sin?  The answer lies in the infinite value of the one who is being sacrificed.  Francis Turretin wrote in seventeenth century that ‘Christ alone ought to be estimated at a higher value than all men together.  The dignity of an infinite person swallows up … all the infinities of punishment due to us.’ The son of Larry could not have offered a sacrifice for the eternal weight of your sin.  Yet Christ’s death is of sufficient to save to the uttermost.  No matter how awful your guilt, Christ’s death is sufficient.  And it was only possible because of a virgin birth.

(I was helped in writing this post by a book of Kevin DeYoung’s on the Heidelberg Catechism).

Who is it that came to rescue us? (Philippians 2:6-11)

There was a tribe in a dry part of Africa that dug a deep well for water.  This well went a hundred feet into the ground.  Tribesmen climbed down alternating slits in the wall of the well to reach that water.  Only the strongest men could go down and emerge with a skin full of water for the whole tribe.

One day the man carrying water out of the well shaft slipped and broke his leg.  There was only one man in the tribe who was strong enough to carry a man out of the well.  That man was the tribe’s chief.  So the people went and called him.

The chief customarily wore a massive headdress and ceremonial robe.  However, in order to rescue the man in the well he had to remove both.  He descended into that well, put the injured man on his shoulders and removed him to safety.  He did what no-one else could do.  When that chief took off his headdress and robe to rescue the injured man, did he stop being their chief?  Of course not!

In the same way, when Jesus put aside all heavenly honours and came down to rescue us by taking the weight of our sins upon his shoulders, did he stop being God the Son?  No!  Our divine brother, made himself nothing, becoming fully human and yet remaining fully God, and came to our rescue.

Though he was God … This is God the Son who comes from heaven to rescue us.  The second person of the mystery we call the Trinity.  (A few years ago my son asked me to explain the Trinity, so I responded, ‘your mum will explain that one and in a few years I will tell you how babies are made’) 

The evidence is clear for Jesus’ divinity.  Job says that God marches on the waves of the sea (Job 9:8), and then Jesus comes and walks on water (6:44). The Psalms tell us that God stilled the storm to a whisper (Psalm 107:29), then Jesus says ‘be still’ and there was complete calm (Mark 4:39).  At the burning bush God tells Moses to tell the people ‘I am has sent me to you’ (Exodus 3:14) then Jesus angers his opponents by explaining that ‘before Abraham was, I am’ (John 8:59).  Doubting Thomas meets the risen Jesus and declares, ‘my Lord and my God’ (John 20:28).  God declares to Ezekiel, ‘I will search for my sheep as a shepherd’ (Ezekiel 34:11), then Jesus comes as the good shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep (John 10:11).  And God declares through Isaiah that every knee will bow before me (Isaiah 45:23), and the apostle Paul now writes that ‘every knee will bow’ before Jesus (10).  Forgive me for going on about this.  It’s just that in every generation there have been those who deny this truth, like the Jehovah Witnesses who say that Jesus is only the Archangel Michael.

He was born as a human being.  That’s what we remember at Christmas.  When Jesus was born in Bethlehem he didn’t stop being what he was (God the Son), but he did become something that he had never been before (a human being).  The creator of the universe becomes a foetus in a womb.  The one who causes mighty cedars to grow was placed in a manger made of wood.  He who hung stars in space and as a carpenter would learn how to hang doors on their frames (I don’t remember where I read those last two sentence before).   He was born in controversial circumstances that made him the subject of vicious gossip.  He knows what it is to be tempted, yet he was without sin (Hebrews 4:15).  He became hungry and tired.  He had an ordinary job where he worked with his hands.  He was misunderstood by his family, who that thought he was insane.  While foxes have holes and birds of nests, Jesus had nowhere to lay his head (Matthew 8:20)—he knew what it was like to be homeless.  He was let down by his closest friends.  He was sold for thirty pieces of silver—the price paid in compensation for a dead slave.  He was spat on and ridiculed.  The flesh on his back was sliced open by a whip that had sharp bones sown into it.  As one who endured far greater pain than we will ever imagine, he is sympathetic to all our weaknesses. 

Yet the greatest moment of agony came when he died a criminal’s death on a cross.  The cradle led to a cross.  Christmas works its way to Easter.  Jesus lived around 1,700 weeks, yet the four gospels spend a third of their time on just one of those weeks.  Nine of John’s twenty one chapters focus on the week of his death.  The apostle Paul can sum up all his preaching by saying, ‘I preach Christ crucified’ (1 Corinthians 1:23).  ‘There is nothing more important in Christian theology than our theology of the cross’ (DeYoung).

His was the most amazing act of humility the world has ever seen.  It was also the very definition of love.  In the Roman world where Jesus lived, crucifixion was an unmentionably shameful way to die.  No-one with Roman citizenship was allowed to be crucified.  The Jews thought it was a terrible thing, for death on a tree was a sign of God’s curse (Deuteronomy 21:23).  But Christ bore the curse for our sin so that we could be adopted into God’s family (Galatians 3:13).  From that cross Jesus cried, ‘My God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Matthew 27:46).  He was forsaken so that we never will be (Hebrews 13:5). 

Conclusion

Therefore God has exalted him to the place of highest honour and given him the name that is above every name.  One day every knee will bow before him and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father.  For all eternity God’s rescued people who are gathered from every nation on the earth will praise the lamb that was slain (Revelation 5:12).

Can you doubt God’s love for you?  Jesus promises that he will never drive away anyone that comes to him (John 6:37).  He invites each of us to know him.  If you know him you should marvel at what he has done for you.  He has done so much more than that chief taking off his robes and going down that well to rescue one of his people.  The Son of God was in heaven enjoying perfect love with the Father and Spirit and yet he took off his royal attire to come into the world to rescue you.  He became Jesus (meaning ‘God saves’).  He was man of sorrows who was familiar with grief.  He descended to the horrors of death to bring us up to eternal life.  He remains in heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father, in a glorified human body, bearing the marks of his crucifixion and praying on your behalf.  Could anything humble us more and fill our hearts with joy and gladness?