December 24, 2006

• John MacArthur Christmas sermons

  The following are condensed Christmas sermons by John MacArthur of Grace to You.  I have done this study for myself as an attempt to strip away the cultural baggage that we attach to Christmas, and if anyone else gains anything from these sermons, then to God be the glory.

  

  Illumination at Tama Center

  

  The Incarnation of the Triune God

  Philippians 2:6‑11

   At Christmas we are confronted with the sometimes very difficult task of separating the reality of Christmas from the clutter that surrounds that reality.  The great reality of Christmas, which is the glory of the Lord being revealed, is obscured by commercialism. Santa Claus really has become the focus of Christmas for most people. 

  One of the most incredible and blasphemous confusions of Christmas I ever read appeared in a recent issue of "The Episcopal News‑‑The Diocese of Los Angeles," written by a Reverend Bennison who is the rector of St. Mark's Church in Upland, California. "Santa Claus is God the Father, the creator of heaven and earth, in whose hand is a pack bursting at its seams with the gifts of His creation. Santa Claus is God the Holy Spirit who comes with the sound of gentle laughter with a shape like a bowl full of jelly to sow in the night the seeds of good humor. Santa Claus indeed deserves the exalted and enthroned place in the church, for he is God, Son, Father and Holy Spirit."

  Unbelievable! Santa Claus is the incarnation?  How far can you miss the real Christmas so far that you believe Santa Claus is the incarnation of the triune God? What confusion!

  Now, as we face the reality of Christmas, I want us to see the true story  not from the perspective of Bethlehem or Joseph or Mary or shepherds or innkeepers or wise men or Herod or Old Testament prophets.   I want us to see the Christmas story from the viewpoint of the Holy Spirit of God as revealed to the Apostle Paul.  In Philippians 2:6-11 we will see five steps in the Christmas story, five features as God enters the world, five great aspects to the incarnation.

  Number one, the Lord Jesus Christ abandoned a sovereign position.  Verse 6  "Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men."  The Holy Spirit establishes that sovereign position. "Christ Jesus who being in the form of God." Christ Jesus, then, is the theme of this passage.

  Now what does it say about Him? The first phrase is, "being in the form of God."  This is without question the heart of the Christian faith. The affirmation of the deity of Jesus Christ is the sine qua non of all that we believe. That is why it is always under attack. Christ is in the form of God.  It is the deity of Jesus Christ that is the substantive affirmation of the Christian faith.

  The word "being" is very important.  It denotes that which a person is in his very essence...that which a person is in his nature. In other words, that which is true of a person that cannot be altered, it cannot be changed.  That which someone possesses inalienably and unchangeably that cannot be removed. It refers to the innate changeless, unalterable character and nature of a person. For example, men may look different but they're all men‑‑that's their nature. They all have the basic same elements of humanness, the functioning of breathing and the heart, organs, mind, will, thought, emotion. These are the elements of humanness. You can change his clothes. You can do things to the physical form. But you never change the humanness. That is the being of man. And that is the meaning of this term. And it says of Christ that He is in the being of God. He is then unalterably and unchangeably God in His essence, in His essential being.

  In John 8:58, Jesus said, "Before Abraham was I am." And He used the "I am" because He lives as an eternally present God. He is eternally in the "I am" mode, in the present mode. He is always and will always be. He isn't was and will be, He is simply "I am." That is the basis of our faith. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." Hebrews 1, "He has spoken in these last days by His Son who is the brightness of His glory, the express image of His person." First Timothy 3:16, "Great is the mystery of godliness that God was manifest in the flesh." That is the substance of our faith that Jesus Christ is God. Colossians 1:15, "He is the image of the invisible God."

  So the word "being" then has to do with His essential nature.  Jesus Christ, then, has His being in the form of God. Now what do we mean by "form?" The English can't really help us with this Greek word.  It is not "form" in the sense that we think of a material shape or a resemblance. It is completely different than that. The word in the Greek is the word morphe and morphe has to do with a deep inner essential abiding nature of something. It is not the external. That is the word schema.  Schema means the outward, the passing, the changing, the fleeting, the external. And by the way, look at verse 8, schema is used in verse 8. "He was found in fashion as a man." We'll talk about that in a moment. But "fashion" is the external, the changing. "Form" is morphe, the unchanging, the internal.

  For example, if you traced the use of the term morphe in its various forms, you will find that that is exactly where the emphasis lies. There are places where they seem to be used in an overlapping sense, but the specific uses of morphe in very important texts of the New Testament lead us to conclude that it means the inner nature. For example, in Romans 8:29, "Whom He foreknew, them He predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son." And it's morphe. It is a new nature, an inner change. The inside of man is conformed to the image of His Son. It's talking about our nature.

  Second Corinthians 3:18, it says, "As we look on the glory of the Lord we are transformed into His image." Again, it's morphe. We are changed on the inside, an abiding change that affects our inner nature.  Galatians 4:19, Paul says, "My little children, I have birth pains until Christ be morphe in you," until literally He be formed in you. He isn't talking about trappings. He's not talking about externals, but that the image of Christ would be manifest in the inner nature of man.

  In Philippians 3:10 he uses it again, he says, "That I may gain Christ and become conformed unto His death." So, he's talking about a deep inner representation of the image of God.

  On the other hand, the word schema‑‑from which we get scheme‑‑ is something to do with a passing, fleeting external. For example, First Corinthians 7:31 uses schema this way: "The fashion of the world passes away." Second Corinthians 11:14, "Satan fashions himself as an angel of light." He isn't really, but he puts on that facade. First Peter 1:14 says, "As a Christian, do not fashion yourselves according to your former lust." In other words, you have a new nature, you are a new creation, don't put on the garments of the old life.

  You find both of these words brought together in Romans 12:2: "Stop being fashioned according to this world, but be transformed in your inner man through the renewing of your mind." So, one is deeply related to the internal, and one is to the external. And the one of the internal is used here. It is being in the morphe of God. That is being substantively and essentially in His deepest inner man and nature in the form of God. He is God. Don't let anyone deny that. That is the basic affirmation of the Christian faith.

  Consequently, look at the end of verse 6, "He did not think it was something to be grasped to be equal with God." Now what does that mean?  Satan was a created angel. Satan was created by God, he was inferior to God, he was less than God. But in Isaiah 14, he said, "I will...I will...I will...I will...I will," five times and the substance of what he was saying was "I will be like God."  Satan thought it something to be grasped at to be equal with God. He thought it something to seize, something to grasp at. Jesus didn't.  Why? He was already equal to God. There was nothing for Him to seek.  There was nothing for Him to grasp. He is in contradistinction to Satan.

  A second way to approach it, the verb that is used there means to clutch or to snatch or to grasp tightly. And it can also be interpreted this way, "He thought it not something to cling to," not so much that He didn't have it and He snatched it, but that He had it and He might lose it, so He clutched it. But Jesus didn't hang onto this thing fearing He would lose it. Why? Because He was essentially God and could never cease being God. So it wasn't something He had to snatch to get and it wasn't something He had to hang onto to keep. Do you see? It is a classic statement affirming that Jesus is God in His inner nature. So much so that He didn't seek it. And so much so that He never feared He'd lose it. He's God. That is the great heart and soul of the Lord Jesus Christ.

  But then this, verse 7, "But He‑‑the Authorized said‑‑made Himself of no reputation." The Greek says this, "He emptied Himself," kenoo from which we get the theological term "the kenosis," the self‑emptying.  He emptied Himself. The verb means to pour out everything until it's all gone. He poured out Himself. He emptied Himself. He divested Himself. He rendered up.

  Now what is this saying?  The Lord Jesus Christ abandoned a sovereign position. The sovereign position is affirmed in verse 6 and the abandoning of it is in verse 7. Now notice that I did not say He abandoned His deity. He did not give up His deity. He did not give up His divine attributes. He abandoned the position. He could never give those things up, they were His essential being. And if He ceased being God, He would be no one. And God could not cease, because He is eternal.

  Now what then did He give up? What did He pour out? What did He empty out? Some people have tried to say He emptied out His deity.  That's ludicrous because then He would cease to exist, that's who He was. He could never lose that. Some writers put it, I think, this way, He stripped Himself of His privilege. He gave up the insignias of His majesty and so forth.

  The New Testament tells us exactly what He gave up. First of all, He gave up His glory. He gave up the manifestation of His glory. He gave up the radiance of His eternal effulgence and brightness, the full manifestation of all of His attributes in glory. That's why in John 17:5 He says, "And now, Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." Give Me back the glory which I once had. Which means at that point He didn't have it. He veiled His glory in human flesh. He set aside the full expression of His glory.

  Secondly, He gave up His honor. He gave up His honor. Isaiah 53 says, "He was despised. He was rejected." The New Testament tells us He was hated, He was mocked, He was spit on. His beard was plucked. He was defamed. He was dishonored. He was discredited. He was accused.  He was murdered. He gave up His honor clearly. And the prophet Isaiah said in His despising and rejecting there was no beauty in Him that men should desire Him.

  Thirdly, He gave up His riches. Second Corinthians 8:9 says, "He who was rich for our sakes became poor that we through His poverty might be made rich."

  Fourthly, He gave up His favorable relation to the Father. And He did that only in a moment of time when He died on the cross and said, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" But He lived with the anxiety of coming to that point through all His life.

  He also gave up His independent exercise of divine authority. He said, "I will do only that which the Father shows Me. My meat is to do the Father's will. What the Father says I will do. What I see the Father I will do."  He gave up His very special relationship to God. He gave up His riches. He gave up His honor. He gave up His glory. He emptied all of those things out and yet He continued to be God. It wasn't that He lost any of His divine attributes, it is that He chose not to use them.

  Was He still God? Yes, that's who He was. It's a deep mystery, people, by the way, and I can't fathom it all. John Milton wrote, "That glorious form, that light insufferable He laid aside and here with us to be forsook the courts of everlasting day and chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay." He was God, but He gave up all His privileges.  Does that say volumes about His character? Does that say volumes about His love?

  A reporter was interviewing a successful job placement counselor who had put people in positions and they had succeeded so well. He had such a high rate of success that the reporter said, "What's your secret?  How do you evaluate people? How can you really find out what a person is like?"

  He said this, "If you want to know what a person is like, don't give him responsibilities. Give him privileges. You give him responsibilities and most everyone will fulfill responsibilities if you intimidate them enough or pay them enough. But if you want to find out the real character of a person, give him a privilege. A person with real character and real selflessness and real leadership will use his privileges to help others and to build the organization. A lesser man will use his privileges only to promote himself."

  Jesus had all the privileges of glory and He had no obligation to us. He was equal with God. And yet it says so much about His character that He chose to use His privileges to build the Father's Kingdom and to reach lost sinners.

  So, like a king who takes off his robes of majesty and puts on the garment of a beggar, the Son of God abandoned a sovereign position, second point, He accepted a servant's place. He accepted a servant's place. Back to verse 7, "He took upon Him the form of a servant." When He became a man He didn't become a king as a man, or a great ruler, or great leader, or great master, He became a servant. The moment that He divested Himself of His robes of majesty, He donned the servant's apron.  This is exactly as the Old Testament prophet had said, Isaiah 52 verse 13 said He would be a servant. Hebrews 10, "I'm come to do Thy will, O Father."

  And notice again in verse 7 that He wasn't just acting like a servant. He wasn't just pretending to be a servant. He wasn't just playing the part of a servant. He really became a servant. Verse 7, "And being...look at this...in the form, or having taken upon Him the form," and there's the word morphe, He took on Him the inner essential nature of a servant. He became a real servant, a true servant, a genuine servant. Luke 22:27, "I am in the midst of you as one who serves," He said. Mark 10:45, "The Son of Man is come not to be served but to serve and give His life a ransom." John 13, the disciples had dirty feet and He put on a towel and He washed their feet. And then He said the servant is not greater than His lord.

  We see Him in service all the time. And the ultimate act of service when He died on a cross to save sinners. He served His Father.  His Father invited Him to come into the world as a servant to work out the plan of redemption, and He willingly became that servant. So, truly He abandoned the sovereign position and accepted a servant's place.

  Thirdly, He approached a sinful people.  In His perfection He was willing to be a servant to the Father.  In His perfect harmony with the Father He was willing to be a servant.  That service meant that He had to approach a sinful people. He had to enter this sin‑cursed planet. He had to render His service here on this earth. He couldn't do it from outer space. He couldn't do it from the edge of heaven. He had to come into this world and He had to touch sinful man at his own level. So that abandoning a sovereign position and adopting or accepting a servant's place meant approaching a sinful people.

  Look again at verse 7. "He was made in the likeness of men and found in fashion as a man." That was the only way it could be done. He had to become a man. By the way, it says in the Authorized "was made in the likeness of men." The word "was made" is probably not the best translation. It is a participle of the verb ginomai, ginominos which means "becoming." He was becoming in the likeness of men. And the idea there is not that He was created then, but that He always was God but He became a man. He preexisted as eternally as God is eternal. He wasn't made then. He was then becoming a man. He had always been in existence. So the proper use of that verb indicates a change, becoming something. And it is saying that Jesus who always was in the form of God was becoming in the likeness of men. And it was a process. He was born and He grew in wisdom and stature. He was becoming in the likeness of men.

  By the way, the word "likeness" is so important. The first part of the word is the word homo which means "the same," homogeneous, something that is the same. And what it's saying is He was becoming the same as men. He was in every sense in the sameness as men. He was a genuine man. He had the essential attributes of humanness. He wasn't just God in a shell, He was fully man, in all parts and dimensions, a genuine man with real humanity. He had everything that all men have except for one thing, Sin. But that doesn't mean He wasn't a man. Adam was a man before he was a sinner. And you and I will be glorified men throughout all eternity when our sin is put behind us. And there are times in our lives when we're not sinning. So to be a man does not necessarily mean you must sin. And Christ did not. The Bible is clear, He was without sin, but He was no less a man. In fact, if I may be so bold to suggest, He was all that a man could be that we could never know a man to be because of His sinlessness.

  So, He was a genuine man. He was fully man in the essence of His humanity, at the deepest point. He was man.

  But go to verse 8. He also was found in the fashion of a man. Not only was He a genuine man and deeply and truly in His nature all that a man is, but He also took on the outward form of a man. And here's the word schema, the fashion of man. He didn't come into the first century with a twentieth century outfit, talking a twentieth century language.  He didn't drop like some visitor from outer space. He was born of a Jewish mother. He lived in a little village of Nazareth. He ate the way they ate. He talked the language they talked. He transported Himself the way they did. He wore the clothes they wore, took care of Himself the way they took care of themselves. He ate what they ate. He drank what they drank. In other words, He took on the scheme of their life, the customs of their culture.

  So by personal experience, He adapted to the outer manifestation of the time in which He lived. He was man at the deepest part of His nature. And He adapted to man in that climate and that culture and that time and experienced all of their experiences, fully God, fully man. The mystery of the incarnation and sinless all the while.

  Don't think of Jesus as less than fully human. He was fully human.  Did people come into this world through the natural process of birth, through the womb of a mother? So did He. Had others been wrapped in swaddling clothes? So was He. Had others grown up? So did He. Did others have brothers and sisters? He did. Did others learn a trade and work? So did He. Were other men at times hungry and thirsty and weary and asleep? So was He. Were others grieved and angry? So was He. Did others weep? So did He. Did others rejoice? So did He. Were others destined to die? So did He. Did others suffer pain? So did He. Were others loved and hated? So was He. He was a man in the form and the fashion.

  I think it's the Christmas carol "Away in a Manger" that says, "The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes, but little Lord Jesus no crying He makes." You mean to tell me that because He was God He didn't cry? All babies cry. It isn't necessarily a sign of sin. He cried when He was a man, why can't He cry when He's a baby? "Hast thou been hungry, child of mine? I, too, have needed bread. For forty days I tasted not till by the angels fed. Hast thou been thirsty? On the cross I suffered thirst for thee. I've promised to supply thy need, my child, come to Me.  When thou art sad and tears fall fast, My heart goes out to thee, for I wept o'er Jerusalem, the place so dear to Me. And when I came to Lazarus' tomb, I wept. My heart was sore. I'll comfort thee when thou dost weep till sorrows are all o'er." Sure He wept. He was human in all the fullness of humanness.

  So He abandoned the sovereign position. He took a servant's place.  He approached a sinful people. He became one of us. Paul Harvey tells a very beautiful story that illustrates this truth.

  It was Christmas eve in the midwest. There was a man who had been in a family where his wife and his children were Christians but he was not. And he rejected it. He sat home that Christmas eve in front of the fire. It was cold out and the snow was blowing. His wife and the little children had gone to the chapel in the nearby village for a Christmas eve service to honor the Christ they loved. He sat by the fire reading the paper.

  All of a sudden he heard a loud and repeated thumping. He thought someone was banging on the door. He went to the door and opened it but found no one was there. By the time he got settled back into his chair, he heard it again and again. And he was bewildered as to what was causing it until he realized that something seemed to be smashing against the window. And so he went to the drapes and he pulled the drapes aside and to his amazement, a flock of birds was flying into the window. A snowstorm, you see, had blown in. And the birds had been caught away from their shelter and they couldn't find their way back.  They couldn't fight the wind. They saw the lighted window and the warmth of the light had attracted them. And they were literally flying into the glass trying to get to the light to get warm. They would freeze to death, you see, if they didn't find some shelter.

  Well, the man who had refused to go with his family to the Christmas eve service because he had no interest in the Christ of Christmas was all of a sudden very compassionate for these poor birds.  And so he wondered how he could help them. And so he opened the door and went out in the cold and tried to chase them away so that they wouldn't kill themselves against the window. And then he ran to the barn and he threw the doors open and he whistled and he shooed them and did everything he could to get them to fly to the barn, they wouldn't do it. He even went so far as to take some corn and some bread and make a big trail from the window to the barn. And they wouldn't follow it.

  In frustration, he said to himself, "If I could just communicate with them. If I could just tell them that I don't want to hurt them, that there's warmth and there's shelter and that they'd need to stop beating themselves to death against the glass. But I'm a man and they're birds and we don't speak the same language. Oh, if I could just become a bird, I think I could tell them."

  And then it hit him. And in that moment, said Paul Harvey, the whole meaning of Christmas dawned on that man. Mankind had been beating itself to death against the barrier that kept him from the warmth of God's love until somebody became a man and told us the way.

  That's the Christmas story. He who was fully God, did not cling to His privileges but laid them aside, became a servant and approached a sinful people.

  Fourthly, having abandoned the sovereign position, having accepted a servant's place, having approached a sinful people, He then adopted a selfless posture...He adopted a selfless posture. Verse 8, "He humbled Himself." O, people, what a statement...what a statement! Do you ever think about the humility of Christ? I mean, I see Him and there He is as a little boy or a young man and He's helping Joseph make a yoke in the carpenter shop to put on some oxen that He had created. I mean, He's washing the feet of twelve disciples and He it was who designed their brains. He's hungry and it was He who created the universe. The place of humility. He adopted a selfless posture...utterly selfless.

  For us He did this, people. Humility is the theme of Christmas...humility. Filthy stable. Our family was in one this summer in the bottom of a barn, ankle deep in the mire and the filth where never the light of day or the sun shone, foul stench that nauseated you, almost gagged you...humiliation.

  St. Augustine wrote so beautifully of His humility, so beautifully.  "The word of the Father," he said, "by whom all time was created was made flesh and born in time for us. He without whose divine permission no day completes its course, wished to have one of those days for His human birth. In the bosom of His Father He existed before all the cycles of the ages. Born of an earthly mother, He entered on the course of the years on that very day. The maker of man became man that He ruler of the stars might be nourished at the breast, that He the bread might be hungry, that He the fountain might thirst, that He the light might sleep, that He the way might be wearied in the journey, that He the truth might be accused by false witnesses, that He the judge of the living and the dead might be brought to trial by a mortal judge, that He justice itself might be condemned by the unjust, that He discipline personified might be scourged with a whip, that He the foundation might be suspended on a cross, that He courage incarnate might be weak, and He security itself might be wounded, and He life itself might die."  Humility.

  And how humble? Look back at verse 8. "He humbled Himself." How far did it go? Well, certainly He became mortal but it went beyond that. He also became obedient unto death. You see, it was an act of obedience. He learned obedience, Hebrews 5:8 and 9, by death. The greatest act of obedience to the Father was in dying, that was God's will. And even in the garden when He said, "O Father, let this cup pass from Me," the humanness was crying out against dying, the deity was crying out against sin bearing and yet He said, "Not My will but Thine be done." He was obedient to death. He didn't just become mortal, He died. That's the worst that man can ever ever endure...all the way to the grave.

  And He didn't just die, either. Look at the end of verse 8, "Even the death of the cross." It's one thing to die, it's infinitely beyond that to die the death of the cross. The ancient writers used to say that to die on a cross is to die a thousand times before you take your last breath. The pain is excruciating, unimagineable. The suffocation of the organs when the body is suspended by four great wounds is more than you can believe. The pain, the fiery pain pulsing through the body is more than we can conceive. It was a painful death.

  And it was a shameful death. It was reserved for the vilest and most wicked of criminals. And you hung suspended in space, naked before the gaping gazing mocking throng. It was a cursed death. God Himself had said, "He that hangs on a tree is cursed." It was a lonely death.  There was no companionship, even God was gone. And I wonder so often as I hear the words "Still, O soul, the sign of wonder of all the ages see; Christ thy God, the Lord of glory is on the cross for thee."

  Incomprehensible humility. But what's so marvelous is that even in His dying, even in His dying, even in such abject depth of human suffering, He still wielded the power of God to redeem the human race.  In His dying He could do that.

  There was a battle fought long ago. The story came back to the king of one soldier who had a sword, who had single‑handedly destroyed the enemy. And the king said to one of his soldiers, "Bring me that sword. I want to see such a sword that can do such damage."

  The soldier got the sword and brought it in. Gave it to his majesty and he looked it over and he said, "Take it back. This is but an ordinary sword."

  The soldier said, "Your majesty, you should see the arm that wields it."

  You look at Jesus Christ and you see His humanness.

  So, what do we see then? What is the Christmas story? The Lord Jesus Christ abandoned the sovereign position, accepted a servant's place, approached a sinful people, adopted a selfless posture. That's the Christmas story.

  But there's one more thought. Fifthly, He ascended a supreme prince...He ascended a supreme prince. What was God's reaction to this?  And what should be ours? 

  God's reaction, first, in verse 9: "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name, or a title, or a position, or a rank that is above every other name, or title, position, or rank." God lifted Him up. That is a great classical spiritual truth. Jesus said it Himself in Luke 14:11, "He that humbleth himself shall be...what? Exalted." And that is the spiritual truth that we must learn. When we humble ourselves, God will lift us up and exalt us. And that's exactly what happened. He humbled Himself and He was exalted. He then becomes the supreme illustration of this Kingdom principle: you sink to the depths of selfless sacrificial humiliation and God will lift you to the heights of glory.

  We see that in the Beatitudes. We see that all throughout the teaching of Christ and the Apostles. Humility, then exaltation.  Humility, then exaltation. Jesus in His baptism is humbled. He's baptized by John. And in humility He identifies with the sins of His nation. But in exaltation, the voice of God bursts out of heaven, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."

  We see Him in the temptation. He's humbled 40 days without eating.  He's being buffeted by Satan. He's fasting in repentance, again identifying the sins of the nation. In humility, He trusts the Father to take care of Him and never uses His power to meet His own needs. And then in glorious exaltation, when the time is done, the Father dispatches the angels who come and feed Him. In humility, He publicly proclaimed to His disciples that He was going to die. And a moment later He's in a mountain with them and He pulls His flesh back and they see His glory. We see Him on the cross in humility and then He bursts from the grave in exaltation. And that's the pattern. Humility, then glorification. God exalted Him.

  That was God's reaction. God exalted Him and God gave Him a name above every name. Why? Verse 10. "In order that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow." Every knee...now we come to us and to all the other creatures. Every knee to bow. Every knee in heaven...who would that be? That would be the holy angels and the redeemed saints who have already gone to heaven. Everyone in earth...that would be all the living. And under the earth...the demons and Satan and all that host.  All the creatures in heaven, in earth, and under the earth, all of them are to bow to that exalted name. He is, says Ephesians 1, far above all principalities and powers, far above all other names, given a supreme place, the prince of God.

  Notice that He's given a name above every name. You say, "What is that name?" Very clear, in verse 10, the name of Jesus, that all that is embodied in that name, all that is embodied in who He is, He is unequalled, the Savior, the Lord of the world and the universe. And at that name every knee should bow.

  And you know something? Every knee will bow. That's right. Every knee will bow. If not in adoration, in judgment, right? If not in worship, in condemnation. Every knee will bow...even Satan will be cast into the pit forever. He'll bow the knee to the authority of Christ.

  But look at verse 11 and bring it to personal response. Verse 10 encompasses the broad picture‑‑every knee should bow. Verse 11 comes down to the individual‑‑"Every tongue should confess Jesus Christ as Lord to the glory of God the Father." Every living thing, every living creature in this world will confess Jesus Christ as Lord. The demons and the damned, the redeemed, the holy angels, all will bow, all will confess sooner or later. The issue is when. If you wait until the judgment, it's too late. But if now you confess Jesus as Lord, you enter in to His Kingdom, His salvation.

  Romans 10:9 and 10 says, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, believe in thine heart God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be...what?...saved." This is the message of the gospel.  Jesus Christ is Lord. That's what we're saying. He is God. He is in the form of God. He is God of very God with all the attributes of God, come into the world with all the fullness of humanness. He became the servant. He humbled Himself. He died, even dying on a cross. And in the midst of that death, purchasing our salvation. God approved and God lifted Him back up and exalted Him. And then God calls to all the created universe and says, "Bow the knee and confess His Lordship." And if you won't now, you will someday...but then it will be in judgment and condemnation. Now or later...the choice is yours.

  You can bow the knee now in adoration and love. You can confess Him as Lord now and enter into the joy of salvation forever. Or you can resist and say no and someday you'll bow the knee because you'll be forced and you have no choice and you'll be condemned. Our prayer is that you'll confess Jesus as Lord.  What greater Christmas gift than that? And to receive eternal life.  Why be a fool? What kind of fool would reject that? Incomprehensible.

  But is there a message for Christians here?  This passage was written for Christians. That's right. The passage was not written for unbelievers. It was written for Christians.  How do you know that? Because this whole passage is just an illustration of another principle. Go back to verse 5. The whole passage simply illustrates another principle. And what is the principle?

  Verse 3, "Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves." Don't look on your own things, but on the things of others. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being..." and then you go into the passage.

  What is Paul saying? Be humble. Be selfless. Be lowly. And if you need an illustration, then let this mind be in you which was in Christ who was something and became nothing that God might make Him something again. He is a living illustration to the believer. If you will humble yourself, God will exalt you.

  You know, people often ask around Christmas time, I guess, what is the Lord trying to tell me? What is the point of Christmas? I think the point of Christmas is right here. Christmas, there's no better time in the year than to teach us the illustration of the lesson of humility.  The character of Christ, He was unselfish. He was humble. He was condescending. And Paul is challenging the church to that perspective.  An attitude of a willingness to suffer, to be humiliated, to be selfless, to be sacrificing, so that God can lift us up. And the thing we need to learn is not to always be asserting ourselves, defending ourselves, pushing ourselves up, but to be humble and selfless. That is the message of Christmas to us.

  Listen to the words of Paul Reese. "For us Christians," says Paul, "there is no place where the principle of effacing self in behalf of others appears so impressively as it does in Jesus Christ. He is God giving Himself away, yet remaining God. He is God putting off a sovereign's vesture for a beggar's rags. He is God rising from His bench where He sits as judge and going to the gallows for the criminal.  He is God impoverishing Himself, beggaring Himself, exposing Himself to evil, spite and spittle, never sparing Himself until He has made the rude cross on Jerusalem's hill the sign and the sum of His utter self‑ giving." Great statement.

  And what is he saying to us? "Let this mind be in you." That is the message. Be humble this Christmas. Be selfless. Reach out to somebody else in need. Jesus did.

  Benjamin Warfield, the great theologian, said this: "We see Him among the thousands of Galilee, anointed of God with the Holy Spirit and power, going about doing good with no pride of birth, though He was a King; with no pride of intellect, though omniscience dwelt within Him; with no pride of power, though all power in heaven and earth was in His hand; no pride of station, though the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily; no pride of superior goodness, but in lowliness of mind, esteeming everyone better than Himself. He healed the sick. He cast out the devils. He fed the hungry. And everywhere He broke to men the bread of life though He Himself went without. We see Him everywhere offering to men His life for the salvation of their souls. And when at last the forces of evil gathered thick around Him, walking alike without display and without dismay, the path of suffering appointed for Him and giving His life at Calvary that through His death the world might live."

  Teach us, Father, to be selfless. Wherever men suffer, may we be there to comfort. Wherever men struggle, may we be there to help.  Wherever men fall, may we be there to lift them up. Wherever men succeed, may we be there to rejoice. Teach us that we cannot be self‑ consciously self‑forgetful. We cannot be selfishly oriented. Teach us to walk humbly as Christ walked, to walk the path of self‑sacrifice is to walk the path of glory. May we learn that. And know, Father, too, may those who don't know the Lord see in His humiliation the abounding love and be drawn to Him. We praise You, Lord, for the gift of Your Son. We echo the words of the poet who said, "Lo, in resurrection glory, Thou art throned in heaven above where Thou dwellest in the fullness of the Father's changeless love. Love bestowed on Thee unmeasured, ere the heavens were begun.  Love of God the everlasting to His everlasting Son. Now to ages of the ages crowned with honor, Thou shalt be. All the heavenly hosts' unceasing glory might ascribe to Thee. Fadeless this, Thy royal splendor, purchased by Thy precious blood, Thine the praise of every creature, holy Son and Christ of God our praise we offer to You." Amen.   

  

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  The Virgin Birth

  Matthew tells us, "The birth of Jesus Christ was in this way: When, as his mother, Mary was espoused 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 willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privately. And while he thought on these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary, thy wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS; for he shall save his people from their sins. Now 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 shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which, being interpreted, is God with us. Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife, And knew her not till she had brought forth her first‑born son; and he called his name JESUS."

  In Matthew 22, Jesus asks the Pharisees who they think He is.  The Jewish leaders believed the that the promised Messiah would be the son of David. They believed that from a human viewpoint He would be a member of the royal lineage of David, the royal family, the royal line. And frankly they weren't sure of much more. Ah, they for the most part seemed to reject the idea that the Messiah would be God in human flesh.They expected Him to be of the royal line of David but apparently not to be deity in human flesh.  It's all right to be the son of David, but not the Son of God.

  There may be people who deny the virgin birth and fight against the deity of Jesus Christ, but maybe even more subtle than that are the people who ignore the virgin birth. We cannot doubt it, deny it or ignore it because it is there in the Bible. Christianity is based on the fact that Jesus is God in human flesh.

  If Jesus had a human father then the Bible is untrustworthy, because the Bible claims He did not. If Jesus was born simply of human parents, there is no way to describe the reason for His supernatural life. His virgin birth, His substitutionary death, His bodily resurrection and His second coming are a package of deity, you cannot isolate any one of those and accept only that one and leave the rest. You believe all of those realities that are the manifestation of His deity or you do not. 

  Matthew gives us the human answer to whose son he is in the genealogy which we studied. He is Son of David, humanity and Son of God, deity. Both of those are essential to an understanding of the incarnation. Jesus is God in a human body. Humanly through the lineage of David He gains the right to rule the world, and from the standpoint of deity He gains the very essence of the nature of God by having been born without a human father through the agency of the Spirit of God Himself.  The genealogy of Jesus tells you whose son He is, David. And the birth of Jesus tells you whose Son He is, God.

  Matthew was writing to counter a slander that Jesus Christ there were some who accused Him or being the son of a Roman soldier who cohabitated with Mary, that Mary was an adulteress, and thus Jesus was an illegitimate child. Those kind of slanders were in existence at that time.  Any rejection of Christ's supernatural origin leaves His supernatural life, death and resurrection inexplicable. If Jesus wasn't virgin born, then the claim that He can save is highly questionable. So Matthew to begin with affirms the virgin birth.

  Let's look at five distinct elements appearing in the narrative: the virgin birth conceived, confronted: clarified, connected and consummated. 

  There was Old Testament evidence that the Messiah would be God, but it was veiled and vague, and it was not until the New Testament that it was clarified. Jesus was the Son of God, God in human flesh. No matter what the Jews may or may not have believed, no matter what the legends were, no matter what the critics said, no matter what the slander said, Matthew records the facts.

  First, the virgin birth conceived.  Here the Spirit of God through the writer Matthew tells us that Mary was impregnated by the Holy Spirit.  In Luke 1 you have a parallel account of the annunciation. And of course when Mary found out what the Spirit of God had done and what was going to happen, Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. She believed God and submitted to His word.  That kind of faith is characteristic of a righteous person, a person who submits to the authority of the Word of God and who lives by faith in that Word even when it makes absolutely no sense.  There was no questioning, there was an instant submission and an instant belief that this in fact was God's truth, and she went on to praise God for what He was going to do. 

  Second is the virgin birth confronted.  Mary was betrothed to Joseph. All we know about him is that he is described by a Greek term that can be translated carpenter or mason. He was an undoubtedly a hard working, righteous man.  They were probably very young, most likely older teen‑agers because we sense that because of the tremendous maturity of Mary.  Mary and Joseph were betrothed. There were two stages in Hebrew marriage, the Kiddushin and the Huppa.

  Now the Kiddushin was the betrothal and Deuteronomy chapter 20:7 tells you about it.  Two families would draw up a binding contract that promised marriage.  You were constituted legally married though there were no physical relationships whatever.  It was a normally twelve month period, and it was a period of protection for the would be husband and wife, so that there would be a period in which to prove a fidelity.  During that period, there was not a lot of social contact at all. They still maintained a certain distance, it was simply a promise that was made.  Now, at the end of the period, it could go as long as 12 months sometimes 6 months, the Huppa took place, that was the wedding, and weddings lasted approximately 7 days. 

  There was something called a mohar, a price that was paid at the point of betrothal.  It had several purposes.  The father would have to spend a great amount of money in order to marry his daughter off.  It was also to act as life insurance for the wife, and normally the Jewish father would hold it in trust and if the husband died he would give it back to the daughter.  It was also a divorce insurance, because the husband of course would have to give it up. It was a rather large sum of money and the groom had no hope of getting it back again unless he stayed married to the girl and received ig back by inheritance after the death of the father.

  The betrothal period then was the period prior to the Huppa or the wedding itself when the marriage was consummated physically. The betrothal period was a period of testing, a period of probation to insure the brides virginity and the fidelity of the husband and wife and so forth.  They used the term husband and wife, because it was as good as valid, just not consummated  It was in this betrothal period that Mary was made to be with child by the Holy Spirit.

  So that there would be absolutely no question about whether Joseph was the father, and Joseph was a godly man, a righteous man who would not have violated God's standard. You know God looks with great concern on purity, and virginity is of high value to God, it's a sacred thing, not something to be trifled with. Mary became pregnant, and she knew why.  Poor Joseph, he didn't know. When he found out it jolted him.  He knew the quality of her character, he knew the righteous standard by which she lived, he knew her, her stature before God. This was totally out of character. It made chapter no sense at all. And he knew when a woman became pregnant with a child outside of wedlock the punishment was death.

  A cloud of scandal soon hung over Mary. In all of human history there has never been a virgin birth. When people saw an unwed mother there was only one conclusion, except in this case. There was another conclusion, the Holy Spirit.  It was nothing new for the Holy Spirit in this sense, His was always a work of creation.  In Genesis 1 He brooded over the emptiness and the nothingness and He created everything.

  Joseph's first reaction came from his  righteousness, but his second reaction came from his concern. He was not willing to make her a public example. There were two routes open to Joseph, one was to make her a public example.  He would charge her openly in a public court with having committed adultery, she would be shamed, she would be brought to trial, she would be convicted in front of everybody, ruined in terms of reputation. 

  The other possibility was that they provided for a more quiet way, the two parties could get together before two or three witnesses and write out a private bill of divorcement.  There would be no judicial procedure or public knowledge.   You did not even need to write the cause for the divorce in the statement, so that she could go away without anybody ever really knowing what had happened. 

  Then we find the virgin birth clarified.  An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream; not a dream where what you see isn't real. The dream turns into something real, it was a real angel and he really saw that angel.  And the angel said to him, "You don't have to be afraid Joseph, that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit."  The Bible is very careful about never naming Joseph as the father of Jesus.  For example in Matthew 2:13 it says, "Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee to Egypt."Always the mother not your child and your wife. Virgin born, and His name Jeshua, Jehoshua, Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. 

  That's the reason He came. Acts in chapter 4:12 says, "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.・Only the name of Jesus, the one God man. It is God alone who saves.  Some trust in physical strength, in their knowledge, their reputation, their position, machinery, friends, whatever it is, education, but only Jesus can save. He shall save His people from their sins.  

  Fourth is the virgin birth connected.  It was planned from the beginning.  All through his Gospel, Matthew quotes the Old Testament, seventy‑six additional times he alludes to it. And this is a formula that he uses. "Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet," and whenever the prophet spoke it was the Lord, saying - and he quotes Isaiah 7:14, "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which, being interpreted, is God with us."  There is the virgin birth connected to the Old Testament. This is not an afterthought, this is not the pulling of a legend out of the air, this is the promise of God fulfilled.  They should have known. 

  Fifth,  the virgin birth consummated.  "Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife."  That must have been the best nap Joseph ever had.   When he got up and it was all clear.  He wasn't just marrying Mary, he was getting the Son of God thrown in on the deal. 

  He must have been a good man. Can you imagine the Almighty God of the universe depositing His only Son in the home of a man who wouldn't be a good father?  It's too bad that more is not said about Joseph.  He must have been dead by the time Jesus died, because he doesn't appear anywhere. And at the cross, do you remember what Jesus did? He looked down at John the beloved and He looked down at Mary, and He said, Mary behold your son, and He said, John behold your mother, and you see He gave somebody to Mary to take care of her.  He also must have been a wonderful man to deal with a perfect Son. Can you imagine fathers, the frustration of that?  "No dad, it's this way."

  Joseph took Mary and they had the wedding ceremony. But it was not consummated until after Jesus was born, He didn't know her till she had brought forth her first‑born son.  Mary had other children with Joseph, because John 7 talks about Jesus' brothers. 

  A Christian was asked, "If I told you that a child had been born today without a human father, would you believe me? To which the Christian replied, yes, if he lived as Jesus lived.  At the start of His life the Jews said Jesus was the Son of a man who seduced Mary, at the end of His life they said, the disciples stole His body and faked the resurrection. And Matthew begins with the answer to the first slander, and ends his Gospel with the answer to the last slander and spends the rest of the middle of it fighting all the other slanders, against the dear Lord Jesus Christ. 

  He was none other than God in human flesh, and Matthew tells us He came to the sick to heal them, to the with the demon possessed to liberate them, to the poor in spirit to bless them, to the care ridden to free them from care, to the lepers to cleanse them, to the diseased to cure them, to the hungry to feed them, to the handicapped to restore them, but most of all he says, that He "Came to dwell with the lost, in order that he might seek and save them."   Immanuel, God with us, infinitely rich, became poor. He assumed our human nature, entered our sin polluted atmosphere without ever being tainted by it, took our guilt, bore our griefs, carried our sorrows, was wounded with our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, went to heaven to prepare a place for us, sent His Spirit to dwell in our hearts, right now makes intercession for us, and will someday came to take us to be with Him. No wonder the Apostle Paul said, "Through his poverty we are made rich." 

  Prayer:  Father, what a wonder it is, that Jesus was thus born, the God man. Miracle of miracles that He should be man, and yet God. Thank You for the lesson too Father, that when You want to do Your special works, Your mighty works, Your supernatural works, Your miraculous works, You always find some humble, faithful, trusting, righteous people, like Mary and Joseph. Thank You, not only for the theology of the virgin birth but for the example of what happens when God uses two simple people. May we be so righteous, so useful for that which You would do today in our world in revealing Yourself. Thank You that You have chosen the weak things to confound the mighty. Thank You that we who have nothing to offer can be used by You.  I give You the praise in Jesus name, Amen.

  

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  The Amazing Child of Christmas

  Selected Scriptures - Luke 1,2

  Every child in the world fills the hearts of their parents with expectation. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, His parents already knew all they needed to be know because all was told as to who the child was, why He came, what He would do and how He would affect the world.

  What was said about Jesus Christ at His birth that is so astonishing, that left His parents with such amazement? In Luke 1:30. "And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for you have found favor with God. You shall conceive and bring forth a son and shall call His name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David and He shall reign over the house of David forever and of His kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee, therefore also that holy offspring shall be called the Son of God."

  First, Jesus is God.  Jesus us unique and great from the time of His birth.  He has the same life, the same essence and the same nature as God. "He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High." Now that is to say Jesus is God. There is none as high as He is. He is God above any other gods. He is God supreme.  

  Jesus is equal in works.  He says, "Whatever I do is exactly what God does. And if you're going to be accuse Me for breaking your Sabbath, then accuse God. He is the one working and I am the one working. And what He does, I do. Your argument is with God because we're equal in works.

  Jesus is equal in power. "For as the Father raises up the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life." He says I have the same power to raise the dead physically and spiritually that God does. We are equal in power.

  He says He has equal authority. At the end of verse 21 He says, "The Son gives life to whom He will."

  He is equal in judgment. "The Father judges no man but has committed all judgment to the Son."

  He is equal in honor.  "He that honors not the Son honors not the Father who has sent Him."

  So when the angel says to Mary He shall be called the Son of the Highest, she is saying this is the Son of God who is equal in every way with God. The child is God.

  Second, the child was also man. Luke 1:31 "And behold, says the angel to Mary, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son." Now it would be one thing for God to just come into the world, just sort of fly down and arrive and God could certainly do that. God came and went in the Old Testament without the need of a human mother, without human birth. But that was because God never before came into the world as man. And now when He comes He comes not only as fully God but as fully man and therefore must be fully born as men are born through a human woman. "And thou shall conceive and bring forth a son," is to emphasize His humanness.  Jesus was born in a normal human manner. And so this is fully man.

  Third, He was not only God and man but He was sinless.  This is a holy child.  There has only been in the history of the human race reproduction process one holy child born...only one. No one has ever produced a holy child except Mary by the power of the Spirit of God.  There was never a moment where Jesus produced any unhappiness. There was never a disobedient word, thought, act. There was never a bad attitude. There was never a thoughtless or unkind or selfish act.  There's no other such child.  He never needed discipline. He never needed correction. He never needed forgiveness. He never needed salvation.

  Not only God, man and sinless.  His parents were told the child would also be the sovereign Lord, that He would also be King.  He will have an eternal Kingdom. The Lord will give Him that throne. This little child, they hear, will receive the throne of His ancestor King David and rule in an eternal kingdom. What an announcement.  Philippians 2 says every knee will bow to Him, of things in the earth, under the earth, all creatures will bow in submission to the kingliness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

  Not only God, man, sinless, sovereign but fifthly, His parents were told that He would be the Savior.  "And you shall call His name Jesus." "Call His name Jesus which means God saves, for He shall save His people from their sins." The angel announcing to the shepherds says, "Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord."

  Hebrews 10:5-7 it says that since the blood of animal sacrifices couldn't take away sin, God formed a body for Christ that He might come into the world to take away our sin, to sanctify us, to remove our sin, to destroy our enemy, to bring us to spiritual perfection, to make us new creations. And we are complete in Him, he says. For by one offering He has sanctified us forever. Yes, this is the Savior, this is the one born to die for the sins of the world.

  It is what you do with Jesus Christ that determines whether you fall or rise again. Your eternal destiny, your falling into a pit of hell, your rising into the glories of heaven depends upon Christ.  Imagine being told that your child is the greatest influence in the world, so influential that the destiny of every living human being is dependent on their relationship to that child.  This is no ordinary child. "He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life." He is the determiner of every human being's destiny. Anyone who ever enters the heaven. does so because of the work of Jesus Christ in gracious provision for his sin. Anyone who ever goes to hell goes to hell because that work is not applied to them because of their unbelief.

  You say, "What about Old Testament saints before He died?" The Old Testament saints before He died had their sins covered by the death of Christ. If Jesus had never died, they would never have gone to heaven. You say, "Well, it hadn't happened yet." Well it had in the mind of God because there's no time with God. Everyone was redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. You say, "Well, they didn't even know about that." That's right. They believed God and in believing God, God applied that sacrifice to them because of their faith. Every person's destiny is bound to Christ.

  Yes, the most astonishing child that ever lived. Luke 2:33 says, "And Joseph and His mother were amazed at those things which were said about Him." I trust that same wonder and amazement is in your heart as you hear those great realities again.

  

   

  Mary's Worship

  What is the Christmas spirit? The best answer to that question is in the Bible, in Luke 1 and 2.  "When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she cried out with a loud voice and said, `Blessed among women are you and blessed is the fruit of your womb. How has it happened to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?'"

  Later we meet the husband of Elizabeth, the father of John the Baptist whom she was carrying. "And his father, Zacharias, was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied saying, `Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us and the house of David His servant.'"

  In Luke 2 we hear the angels. "And suddenly to the shepherds there appeared with the angel...who had made the original announcement...a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, `Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.'" 

  Here is the shepherds' response. "And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen."

  Matthew 2 tells us that the wise men came from the east and said, "We are come to worship." All of these had one response which is the spirit of Christmas. They worshipped God, and offered up praise, thanks, blessing, honor and glory.  Worship is a selfless attitude of praise and adoration from a heart  filled with wonder and gratitude at what God has done.  

  Jesus' mother Mary gives a song of worship, the Magnificat, her psalm of praise to God for the coming of Jesus Christ.  Luke 1 "And Mary said, `My soul exalts the Lord.'" She had the same response of worship, praise, adoration and gratitude. "My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior for He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave, for behold from this time on all generations will count me blessed. For the mighty One has done great things for me and holy is His name, and His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him. He has done mighty deeds with His arm. He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones and has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent away the rich empty handed. He has given help to Israel, His servant, in remembrance of His mercy as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his offspring forever."

  That is the worship song of the incarnation.  Mary had been told that she was to be the mother of the Son of God. "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Most High will overshadow you, for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God." She had been told that this offspring would be great , would be called the Son of the Most High, the Lord God would give Him the throne of his father David over which He would reign forever. Elizabeth even called her the mother of my Lord.

  Mary is a Christmas worshiper, and she teaches us how we are to worship.  First, we see in Mary's song her attitude in worship.  Mary said, "My soul exalts the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior for He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave."

  Her attitude is internal. Worship is not an outside performance. It is moral,  mental and emotional. It is in the mind, the will and the emotion.  External, shallow observance of the birth of Christ is distasteful to God and most of what goes on at the Christmas season breaks His heart. "They talk about Me, they put things about Me on their Christmas cards and they sing My carols but they do not honor Me."

  Mary's attitude is intense.  "My soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior." The word "magnifies" is the word megaluno which means to cause to swell or grow, or to crescendo as if starting at some point and extending and becoming larger and larger. Her joy is loud and uncontained, spontaneous, exuberant joy that bursts out in worship. It starts with revelation to the mind.  This is what's going to happen, here are the facts, and then the explosion in response. 

  Mary's praise was habitual. "My soul exalts," or magnifies, continuous action present tense. It isn't just related to an event or a moment. It goes on and on and on. It isn't just that you rejoiced when you were saved, it is that you started rejoicing then and never will stop. Changing circumstances do not affect true worship.

  True worship is fixed on God, who never changes. Christ never changes. Salvation never changes. His promises never change. His covenant never changes. Our future never changes. The Spirit never leaves. Why should worship rise and fall?  True worship doesn't.  It is the constant praise that comes from deep within the soul because that which is spiritually true is unchanging.

  It doesn't matter what goes on in life. And when you begin to ebb and flow in your attitude and your demeanor and your joy comes and goes, it is because you have attached yourself to another priority than the unchanging work of God and the unchanging presence of Christ. You have attached your joy to the changing circumstances of life which means your focus isn't on Him, your focus is on you. You can tell a true worshiper because they go through the circumstances of life with an unmitigated contentment and an unchanging joy.

  Mary's worship was humble.  A humble heart has no thought for itself.  Pride is the worship of self, and it competes with God. If you're not thankful, it's because your comfort level isn't where you want it because you're focused on you and what you thought you deserved.  Humility is being so focused on God that what may or may not be yours doesn't matter anymore.  Anyone who comes to worship must come in humility because that's being lost in God and that means that you are not an issue. How often we say, "My soul doth magnify myself."  Mary couldn't comprehend how God could possibly do this with somebody so common as she. That's the kind of attitude out of which worship rises.  Humility has no thought for itself and is surprised by any commendation.  Who are we that we should be so highly favored as to be made not the mother of God, but the children of God? Who are we that He should come to die for us?

  Second in Mary's song is the object of worship, God. All the glory, honor and worship are focused on God.  She worships God the Savior.  You don't have to beg God like you do pagan deities to be nice, God is a saving God by nature.  He initiated the whole thing.

  Thirdly is the cause of Mary's worship.  It is motivated by what God did for her personally.  Mary knew she was a sinner and that God was holy.  She knew she needed a Savior and that the Savior had come. Her sins were to be dealt with. The Redeemer was coming, the one who would bear her sin, the one who would fulfill all of the sacrificial imagery. Worship is motivated by a personal experience of the saving reality of Jesus Christ.  Mary's social status never changed, but her spiritual status changed, just like all who ever believed before and after Christ,

  And that's where it always starts. It has to start with what the Lord has done for you. And anything less is sort of meaningless and superficial. The Mighty One has done great things for me and what I need is to be saved from my sins.

  Praise rises not only for what God has done for her but for what He has done for others.  She has spiritual priorities, and is concerned about what is spiritual, eternal and soul saving. She was overwhelmed that God would provide for her own salvation and the salvation of others.

  She worshiped because of what God does for His own. Mary recites the wonderful things that God has done for his own people throughout history.  He's taken His own who were humble and lifted them up. He's taken His own who were weak and given them power.  That's cause for worship. Salvation personally, salvation of generation after generation and the faithfulness of God to meet every need of His people.

  The spirit of Christmas is worship.  We do it when we sing the carols.  As you go back through the history of the Christmases and you touch those Christmas carols, you touch the most brilliant poets and articulators of Christmas truth.

  Father, we thank You for this marvelous reminder of the focus of life which is worship. May it come from deep within us, directed toward You, our saving God, for what You have done for us, what You have done for generation after generation of saved sinners and the way in which You have kept every promise to Your people. We rejoice. And our rejoicing finds its focus in this great historic moment when You came into the world as a baby. Thank You, we praise You, we offer You our heart worship in Your Son's name. Amen.

  

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  Jesus is King

  Matthew's intent is to emphasize the kingliness and royalty of Jesus Christ.    The wise men who came seeking for Him, stopped in Jerusalem and asked, "Where is He who is born King?"  The writer of Revelation, John, says He is King over all kings and Lord over all lords.

  A king has a sovereign right to rule, is the final court of appeal, has the power of life and death and the right to make every decision.  The difference between Christ and other kings is in His surpassing royalty, regal character, Kingdom, dominion, authority and power.  Matthew wants us to understand that Jesus is King, and focuses on the royal aspects of the birth of Christ.

  First, in Matthew 1:1-17 we have His royal heritage, a son of Abraham and a son of David.  The racial line was promised through Abraham in Genesis 12.  The royal line was promised through David in 2 Samuel 7.  Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience that is tenacious about pedigrees.

  A knowledge of family trees in was essential to decide to whom the land to be sold or exchanged really belonged.  Israel was taken into captivity into Babylon from around the year 600 down to 586 B.C., and at the end of the 70 years when they went back into the land, Ezra tells that it was necessary for people to prove their descent in order to claim their land.  In Luke 2 all of the Jews in Palestine went to the place of their ancestry to register for a taxation being imposed upon them by the Romans.

  We should note, however, that today all of that has changed.  No Jew has any idea of his lineage, because all of the records were destroyed in 70 A.D. when Jerusalem was sacked by Titus Vespasian. The last verifiable claimant to the Messiahship of Israel, to the Kingship promised through David is Jesus Christ.   It was only a few years after His death that all the records were destroyed

  Matthew gives us His lineage through His father, Joseph.  Luke gives us His lineage through His mother, Mary.   It is then through Mary that Jesus is the real son of David for Mary was His mother.  Joseph planted no seed in Mary's body.  Mary alone was the source of His human birth.  Therefore it was essential that she also be out of the line of David or He would have borne no royal blood.

  Joseph's line is the line of the legal right to the throne.  It always comes through the father.  So He had to have a father who also was a son of David and not only a son of David but a son of David through David's son Solomon, for it was through Solomon that the reigning line came.  And so, Jesus received His royal blood through Mary and the legal right to the throne from Joseph. 

  Second is His royal character.  A king is the single sole authority and power over a people.  And by the way, that's the best form of government if you have the right king.  It is the worst if you have the wrong one.  

  The king was a supreme ruler.  He had the right of life and death.  Kings were then the source of grace and mercy.  The king who was a good king would be known for his mercy, his kindness, his love, his grace.  Jesus will be a King of grace to whom sinners can go for pardon, forgiveness, and favor. 

  The second aspect of His royalty that we see related to His graciousness, His character, His nature is shown in the grace extended to those in the genealogy.  Abraham, David, Solomon and many others mentioned were all guilty of sin, but all beloved of God and extended retroactive grace.

  This genealogy has three eras of fourteen names.  The first fourteen names include the patriarchs...Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and so forth and the judges, familiar judges in that first group.  The second fourteen names are the kings, the monarchy, David and Solomon and Rehoboam and Abijah and Asa and Jehoshaphat and Joram and Uzziah and Jotham, those are all kings.  The third fourteen deal with the captivity period. 

  Period number one, patriarchs and judges.  Period number two, monarchy.  Period number three, from the captivity in Babylon to the coming of Christ, that's a 600‑year period we know very little about.  The age of the patriarchs and judges was an age of sinfulness.  The age of the monarchy was an age of decline, degeneracy, apostasy, captivity and destruction.  And from the captivity to the coming of Christ was a time of evil, a time of deceit, a time of hostilities, a time of war in the land of Palestine.  One thing we see in all of these lists is these were all sinful men who lived in sinful times and yet they were chosen to be a part of the Messiah's line. All of them point to the grace of the King who even though He's not born yet shows His grace in the choice of His ancestors. 

  Thirdly is His royal birth.  He had a right to be King by lineage.  He had the character to be King, He was gracious.  And now we see He has the power to be King because of the unique birth.  "When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph," that means to be engaged. There was a legally binding promise made, according to Deuteronomy 20 verse 7.  This period of betrothal was nine months to eighteen months, at the most.  And the purpose of the period of betrothal was so that the bride to be could demonstrate her virginity. 

  In other words, the fear of a young man would be that he would enter into a relationship with a young woman, he would marry her and then discover her to be pregnant and realize that he himself was not the father but now he's in a binding marriage relationship.  And so in order for her to verify her virginity so that he would enter that relationship knowing her purity as well as the whole community knowing it, there was a period of nine to eighteen months for her to demonstrate her purity, to show that she was not pregnant.  And then would come the hoopa which was the ceremony itself that consummated the marriage.

  But in the case of Joseph, he was betrothed to Mary, "But before they came together," that is before the hoopa ceremony, the consummation physically of their union, "she was found to be with child."  He had his worst fears realized, the shock of all shocks, this young girl Mary must have been the most beautiful of young women in terms of character.  This would have been something Joseph never in a million years would have imagined to be true but in his betrothal period before they had come together he discovers that she in fact is going to have a child.  The child is placed in her womb by the Holy Spirit but initially Joseph doesn't know that. 

  And so it says in verse 19, "Joseph her husband being a just or righteous man, a man of integrity and not wanting to disgrace her, desired to divorce her secretly."   The law of God provided that in a case like this, divorce could take place.  The legally binding betrothal period could be broken.  And he was a just and righteous man and a just and righteous man had the right to do that when he had been violated by the one in whom he had put his trust and to whom he had given his promise of life and purity.

  But he loved her also.  And in the confusion of his love and disbelief that a woman like Mary would ever become pregnant by another man, he decides to opt out for a lesser option in terms of public disgrace and to divorce her secretly.  The law which was perhaps the law of that time which was perhaps a lax interpretation of Deuteronomy 24 permitted that he could put her away in a private ceremony, rather than in a public one.  He had ever right to publicly disgrace her, to publicly charge her with adultery, to sue her outright for divorce in an act of public dishonor that would label her the rest of her life.  But he couldn't bring himself to do that.  And so they allowed a private divorce secretly between two parties with just two witnesses.  And that would break it up and it would just never be said any further as to why.  And he decided to do that.

  But before he could go about doing it, verse 20 says, "When he had considered this, behold an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David," there's the emphasis of Matthew again to show you that if there had been a king in Palestine at that time it would have been Joseph.  "Son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit and she will bear a son and you shall call His name Jesus for it is He who will save His people from their sins."  Here you're going to be given some information that is absolutely so far beyond your imagination that you cannot conceive of it.  Your betrothed and beloved is pregnant, you are told by an angel in the midst of a supernatural dream that this pregnancy is a direct result of the implanting work of the Holy Spirit to produce in her a son whose name will be Jesus which means "to save" and He will save His people from their sins...that your betrothed beloved carries in her womb the Savior of the world conceived by God.  

  And so, the word comes to him that she will give birth to a Savior.  And just to give it a context, Matthew says, "All this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled."  This should be understood because this is what the Old Testament said, "Behold, the virgin shall be with child."  That's a physiological impossibility.  But the virgin shall be with child miraculously, shall bear a son, they shall call His name Emanuel which translated means "God with us."  And so, this should not have been something that shocked anybody because the Old Testament made it clear.

  "Joseph arose from his sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, took her as his wife and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son and he called His name Jesus."  He had no relationship to her at all until that child was born so that that child was never thought or assumed to be the child of Joseph.  She was a virgin until the child was born.  Christ has not only a royal lineage, not only royal character but definitely royal birth, born of God.  And it says in Isaiah 7:14, "His name shall be called Emanuel, which being interpreted is God with us."  God in human flesh.  He was born royally.

  Matthew says He's a king by royal heritage.  He is a king by royal nature.  He is a king by royal birth.  Fourthly, He is a king by royal worship.  "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king." And by the way, we don't know how long after, some time after though, perhaps by this time the young couple and the child were living in a house rather than in the stable.  They had found a place to accommodate them, some time has passed.  "And behold, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem." 

  At the time of the birth of Christ they were the ruling body in that part of the world.  They had ascended to the highest levels in terms of political power.  They had known that power ever since the Medo‑Persian Empire.  The Magi had been around since Daniel.  In fact, when the Jews were taken captive into Babylon and stayed for the time of the Babylonian Empire and into the Medo‑Persian Empire, these Magi were greatly influenced by those Jews...many devout Jews and no doubt Daniel himself who in his own prophecy is said to be the chief over the Magi.  No doubt he influenced them greatly.

  So, they had come to understand that there was coming a great king to that part of the world.  They no doubt were familiar with Daniel's prophecy and with the teaching of others of the people of Israel.  They had risen to power in the time of Nebuchadnezzar.  In fact, Nergal‑sharezer who is chief of the Magi is named in Jeremiah 39 in the court of Nebuchadnezzar.  So they were very very powerful, highly influential and elite men.

  They appointed the kings.  In fact they are called by historians "the king makers of the east."  They controlled also the judicial office.  We learn from Esther that the royal judges in the court were appointed by the Magi.  They appointed the kings, they appointed the judges, they dominated that culture in terms of authority.  They had vast knowledge of astronomy, astrology, natural history, architecture and agriculture.

  At the time of Jesus' birth, they really had wrapped up the control in that Middle Eastern Empire.  Their great enemy was Rome.  They had fought against Rome in 63 B.C., 55 B.C. and 40 B.C.  And they would like to have power over Rome.  One of the things they wanted back was the land of Palestine which Rome now occupied.  And so when the prospect of a great king rising in the Middle East came about, they were very anxious to come and see that king.  And if indeed that was a king, have that king rise to authority and take back the land of Israel and defeat Rome.  They had the absolute choice and selection of the next king for that Empire.

  You can only imagine what it was like when they rode into Jerusalem.  They probably came in on fine Persian horses.  There's no reason in the world to believe there were only three of them.  They brought gold, frankincense and myrrh but that doesn't have anything to do with how many of them there were.  Estimates go into the hundreds and some say they were probably accompanied by about a thousand men on horseback.  This is an army, folks, and it's little wonder that Herod was a little nervous when they arrived.  They were politically powerful and they were also honorable God‑fearing believers in Old Testament prophecy. 

  They come to Jerusalem saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?" "We're on a search for a king and we want to check this one out.  "We believe this to be the king we're looking for, we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him."  No king they ever saw in the past had His own star.  "When Herod the king heard it he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him."  He was frightened that another king would come along.  When he heard it, he was troubled.  And it says, "All Jerusalem was troubled with him."  If Herod was troubled, he started killing people and everybody else got troubled and feared that it might be them.

  "Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he began to inquire of them where the Christ was to be born.  And they said to him that in Bethlehem of Judea it's been written by the prophet Micah "and you Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah for out of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd My people Israel."  So Herod secretly called the Magi, ascertained from them the time the star appeared and he sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go make careful search for the child and when you have found Him, report to me that I may come and worship Him."  And you know the rest of the story.  He didn't want to worship Him, he wanted to kill Him.

  "And when they found the child, the Magi were warned by God in a dream to go back to the Persian Partheon Kingdom another way."  They never went back to tell Herod where he was.  Herod was so furious he massacred every male child under two years of age thinking he'd catch the king in the killing of all of the children.

  What I want you to notice particularly is that when the Magi arrived, they came into the house, saw the child with Mary His mother, they fell down and worshiped Him.  Now there is the indication that these non‑Jewish king makers from the east acknowledged that this is the promised Messiah.  They are non‑Jewish.  They are Gentile and they understand the words of Daniel and they realize that this indeed is the king.  The people of Israel missed what these Gentiles saw.  They worshiped Him.

  He is king by royal worship.  He was worshiped by the established king makers of the world.  And opening their treasures, they presented Him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.  Gold for a king; frankincense which is a pure incense rising speaks of deity, it was offered to God as a sweet fragrance.  Myrrh speaks of His humanity, it's a perfume to make life more bearable and life more pleasant...to push away some of the odors of life.  They worshiped Him.  God said the King would come born of a virgin.  It happened, the divine decree. 

  God said when the King comes He will be born of a virgin.  When He comes He will be born in Bethlehem.  When He comes He will come out of Egypt.  When He comes there will be a massacre that causes weeping of women for their killed children.  And when He comes He will take up His residence in a place called Nazareth in order to be called a Nazarene.  Jesus fulfilled every element of the royal decree of God.  He is King in every sense.  He is King by birth.  He is King by decree.  He is King by lineage.  He is King by character.  He is King by homage and worship.

  His kingdom is a spiritual kingdom.  He rules the hearts of those who love and believe in Him, of those who seek His gracious forgiveness for their sins.  He is King over those who accept His death and resurrection for their salvation.  And some day He will be King over the earth and the whole universe will submit to Him.  He is King now in the spiritual sense, He is to be King in the earthly sense and He is to be King in the eternal sense.

  He is not a king like any other king.  Pilate couldn't understand what kind of king it is who lets Himself be killed, whose subjects don't fight for Him, who possesses no earthly authority, no earthly power, no earthly sphere of domination.  He is a king and He rules over the hearts of all who love Him and serve Him and give Him their lives.  And one day He will rule over this whole world when the kingdoms of this world, says Revelation, become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and ever.  That spiritual kingdom will become an earthly kingdom and blossom into an eternal kingdom where He will reign forever and ever and ever and we with Him.

  Prayer:  It is not enough, Father, for us that Christ came, it is not enough that He was born a king if we do not bow the knee to His sovereignty, if we do not enter His Kingdom, if we are not passed out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Your dear Son.  It means nothing that Jesus came, God incarnate lived, died, rose again, ascended to heaven, lives forever, reigns forever, it is not enough, it has no meaning unless I personally open my heart to Christ to crown Him King of my life, to confess Him as Lord and sovereign master and ruler of my heart.  I pray, O God, for every person here that Christ born a King might be King in their life, that all of us might bow the knee and seek forgiveness and seek mercy from the gracious King, forgiveness of sin and that we might seek to be made subjects in His glorious Kingdom to know the blessedness of all that He bestows upon His subjects.  Those who looked closely saw His majestic birth, His majestic character, His majestic words, His royal power in the miracles He performed.  And we would put ourselves among those who crown Him King.

  We pray in His name.  Amen.

  

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  The Gracious King

  Matthew 1:1‑17

  At the time when Christ was born, Israel was under oppressive Roman domination.  The taxation system was cruel, relentless, and systematic. Two taxes were taken, the poll tax, (like our income tax) and the ground tax.  Wealthy Roman senators would buy the right from the Roman government to draw the taxes from the nation Israel for a period of five years, and they wanted to collect all of the money possible during this period. They were called the "publicani," and they hired  people or "publicans" in Israel to do the actual tax gathering. 

  The publicans were considered traitors, because here they were gathering taxes from their own countrymen to give to wealthy, gouging Roman capitalists.  They also collected extra money to put in their own wallets.  They were ranked with harlots, heathen, robbers and murderers.

  Around the year 33 A.D. there was a great financial crisis in Rome, and Rome collected even more taxes.  One of these publicans was a man by the name of Matthew. This man writes in Matthew 9:9, "And as Jesus passed forth from there, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the tax office: and he saith unto him, Follow me.  And he arose, and followed him."

  It's an amazing thing that Jesus would have anything to do with a man who was known in his society as a gouging criminal.  Yet Matthew got right up and left his table where he was collecting his taxes.   Jesus saw in him something that was useful, and when Jesus spoke to him he immediately followed, which leads us to believe that he was perhaps very familiar with Jesus.  He was wealthy and powerful, but he was willing to walk away from it.  He even threw a party to introduce his old friends to his new Master. 

  Matthew wrote his Gospel some time before the destruction of Jerusalem, between 5O and 7O A.D. He wrote to demonstrate the fact that Jesus is the Christ, the predicted Messiah, the King of the Jews who was rejected by His own people, who was accepted by the Gentiles and who someday will return to reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

  First, Matthew deals with the King revealed.  The person of Jesus is painted in royal colors. His ancestry is traced from the royal line and His birth is dreaded by a rival king. Wise men offer their royal gifts.

  John the Baptist declares that His Kingdom is at hand. Even in His temptation, you see the royalty of the person, because the temptation itself reaches a climax when He by Satan is offered the kingdoms of the world, and acknowledgment that He has a right to rule. His great message on the mount was the manifesto of the King setting forth the laws of the Kingdom. His miracles were His royal credentials. He makes a royal entry into Jerusalem and claims sovereignty. While facing the cross He predicted His future reign.

  Matthew also presents the King rejected. And as we study the Gospel of Matthew we're going to see that the people to whom He came, and for whom He sought submission, never gave it. Before He was born, his mother was in danger of being rejected by Joseph. At His birth, Jerusalem was troubled and Herod sought His life. On the plains of Bethlehem no angel choir sings but mothers are weeping in anguish as their babies are being slaughtered. He was hurried away for His life to live thirty years in the obscurity of a little no‑account village called Nazareth. His forerunner was put in a dungeon and finally beheaded. He had nowhere to lay His own head, His parables indicate that His Kingdom would not be accepted in this age, and even in His death He said, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" No penitent thief is praying, no word of human sympathy is spoken, those who pass by revile and mock, and they hire soldiers to lie even about His resurrection.

  Matthew is also a Gospel of triumph, or the return of the King.  In chapters 24 and 25 and you hear the fact that He will come in the clouds with great glory, you know that He'll ultimately reign.

  The King is revealed in Matthew 1, and it all begins with Jesus family tree. If a King is to have any credibility it must start with the proof that He comes from the royal line. There was a royal line in Israel and it came through David. In II Samuel chapter 7 God said through the prophet Nathan to David, that it would be through David that the King would come, who would reign in Israel and set up an eternal Kingdom. If Jesus is to be the King it must be established that He has the right to reign because He descends from the genealogy of royalty.

  The Jews were tenacious about their pedigrees. They needed to know their pedigree for the exchange of land, for their tribal location, and for their priestly identification when they returned from captivity.

  What is it that Joseph and Mary are doing? They're going down to be registered according to their own ancestry in their own place, because they were still identifying people in that manner. Everybody went to be registered, into his own city. And Joseph also went from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, to Judaea, which is the city of David, because he was of the house and lineage of David." Those identifications were still in existence at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ.

  Now all of this has changed today.  The Jews have absolutely no record of their tribal ancestry today, none.  No Jew existent in the world today could ever prove himself to be a son of David. Now I want you to know something, if anybody comes along claiming to be the Messiah, they'll never be able to prove it.

  In Matthew we have a genealogy coming down through Joseph, and a genealogy going back through Mary. One begins with Jesus, the other ends with Jesus. It just goes both ways, and it all comes out the same in the end. It's as if the Spirit of God says, anyway you cut it folks this is the one.

  Matthew is showing the royal, legal descent of Jesus as the King of Israel, and Luke is showing the lineal blood line descent.  The royal line always was passed through the father.  But Jesus had no human father, so in order to have the blood line to reign He had to be a descendent of David through His mother as well.  He is the actual seed of David through Mary, He is the legal heir of David through Joseph.

  He is a King, but most kings rule with an iron fist.  This King is a gracious King. God didn't have to do choose Mary, He could have just formed Jesus right out of the dust of the ground, just like He formed Adam and just plopped Him here.

  (editorial comment:  this may offend Catholics, but I found it interesting nonetheless.)

  Mary worship is not found in the Bible.  Catholics said that Mary was immaculately conceived, in other words, her, her mother also had a virgin birth. They say that Mary is co‑redemptrix with Christ, she is His equivalent in saving us. She is co‑mediatrix, that is, there is not one mediator between God and man there are two, Mary and Jesus. That she bodily assumed into heaven and never died because she was sinless, virgin born therefore she wouldn't die, she ascended, they literally mirror in Mary every single thing that is true about Christ. Unfortunately none of it is true about Mary. The worship of Mary cannot be traced to the Bible, it cannot be traced to the early church, it has to be seen as it evolves through the history of church councils and papal bulls that it kept being issued throughout all history, in fact the latest things about Mary came as late as 1800's. But let me tell you something, the real source of the worship of Mary is not the Roman Catholic Church, it's certainly not the Christian Church, the real source of the worship of Mary is the Babylonian mystery religions.

  We learn from Genesis that the founder of Babylon was Nimrod.  The first great idolatrous activity of man was to build a great ziggurat, an idol temple.  This anti‑God.  A false God system of religion was born there, and they wanted to build a tower to heaven and establish false worship.

  When God in scattered all those people in Genesis 11, they carried their idolatry with them, and that's why no matter where you go in the world you find idolatry. It has so much commonness in it, because it all was spawned out of the same evil system at Babylon. Nimrod was the grandson of Ham, one of the sons of Noah. And Nimrod had a very infamous wife by the name of Semiramis, and Semiramis was known as the high priestess of idolatry.

  So Babylon became the fountainhead of all evil systems of religion. In fact in the tribulation time when all these evil systems come back together again, they're called Babylon. In the 17th chapter of Revelation all of the systems come back again, and they are called Babylon, and he says, "When I saw the MYSTERY, BABYLON, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH, drunk with the blood of the saints, and the blood of the martyrs."

  In other words it's the same evil anti-God, anti-Christ, anti-Bible system spawned in Babylon, that in all different names and by all different forms has been persecuting the truth for years and centuries. So when Babylon was scattered so was false religion. Later Babylon was totally destroyed. And historians tell us that when Babylon was destroyed the high priest fled with all of his paraphernalia to Pergamus, and he stayed in Pergamus, a little while later fled to Rome and Rome became the center of the Babylonian cults, you can see this in Roman history. All of the weird polytheism that comes out of it, all the Roman gods, gods upon gods upon gods, all of this was brought to them by the Babylonians, and it became mixed with Christianity. Satan is really good at that, he corrupts the truth by admixtures of evil.

  Semiramis is a world wide known person as the high priestess of false religion, a very common name you can find it in the encyclopedia. In Assyria and Nineveh her name was Ishtar, in Phoenicia her name is Ashtareth, in Egypt her name is Isis, in Greece her name is Aphrodite, and in Rome her name is Venus. It's all the same.  Semiramis gave birth to a son who was conceived by a sunbeam, had no father, which is a counterfeit of the Virgin birth. The name of the son, by the way was Tammuz and Semiramis offered Tammuz as the world's deliverer.

  When grown Tammuz was killed, according to the story by a wild boar, and slain and he was dead, for forty days Semiramis wept and fasted, and Tammuz rose from the dead. You know where Lent comes from? Not the Bible. It comes from the mishmash of Babylonian systems with Christianity. Do you know where the mother child cult that is seen in Catholicism today comes from? Not from Jesus and Mary, from Semiramis and Tammuz. By the way, Tammuz's name in Phoenicia is Baal, Tammuz name in Egypt is Osiris, in Greece it's Eros, in Rome it's Cupid. It's all the same story. Satan's counterfeit.

  Mary was a sinner like any one of us and when it came to that issue Mary had to come the same way anybody else had to come, to be related to Jesus Christ had nothing to do with the fact that she was His mother, she had to do the will of the Father.  Mary needed the unmerited grace, given to sinners.

  Second, we see the Gospel of grace in the seed of two men. Both David and Abraham were sinners, but God extended his grace to keep His promises and include them in the family line of the Savior.

  And thirdly, we see the grace of God in the history of the nation of Israel.  The national genealogy of Jesus is one of mingled pathos and glory. One of heroism and disagreement, one of renown and obscurity. But all along even though the whole nation is going down the tubes, until finally they curse and spit on their own Messiah. It is nevertheless through that nation that the Messiah comes, and again I say to you, that is grace.  He's a King of grace. God's grace was given as evident in one woman, two men and three eras in the history of a decaying nation.

  Finally, the grace of God is seen in the inclusion of four outcasts. Tamar is the first lady in the genealogy. Her children, Perez and Zerah. What kind of a lady was Tamar? You can read her story Genesis 38.

  The next lady is Rahab, the harlot. Rahab was a Canaanitess. Unclean, outcast, Gentile, pagan, idolatrous.  But she came to believe in and serve God, and from her came Boaz, a godly man.

  There's a third lady here. "...and Boaz had a son named Obed, and Boaz was married to Ruth.  She was a Moabite Gentile, an outcast.  You can read of the Moabite's origins in Genesis 9, that they were a nation springing out if incest.  Ruth herself was a pure lady known for her faithfulness to her mother in law, Naomi.  She was the wife of Boaz, and became the grandfather of David.

  There is one more lady in the genealogy, Bathsheba.  You can read her adulterous story in II Samuel 11.

  Now what do you think the message is? God is a God of grace.  I think that this genealogy was a literal knockout punch by Matthew against the Jews.  He's the friend of sinners. And He Himself said it, I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." Let's pray.

  Thank You Father tonight again for thrilling beginning to a great, great adventure. Oh God, how devastating this genealogy is when we see it for what You intended it to be. You were just striking a blow in the face of legalism, a blow in the face of self‑righteousness, a blow in the face of a works righteousness system. Grace just pours from the pages. It's always been sinners that You identified with, through whom You came, to save sinners. We feel like Paul who said, "of whom I am chief." Thank You for Your gracious salvation. Thank You for being a gracious King who would forgive. We lift up Your name, Amen.

  

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  The Majestic Christ

  Selected Scriptures 

  John 8 is an account of Jesus and the Jewish leaders, and has something to tell us about Christmas. "Jesus said, 'Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps My Word he shall never see death.' The Jews said to Him, 'Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died and the prophets also and You say if anyone keeps My Word he shall never taste of death? Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham who died? The prophets died too. Whom do You make Yourself out to be?' Jesus answered, "If I glorify Myself My glory is nothing. It is My Father who glorifies Me of whom you say He is our God. And you have not come to know Him, but I know Him. And if I say that I do not know Him I shall be a liar like you. But I do know Him and keep His Word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day and he saw it and was glad.' The Jews therefore said to Him, 'You are not yet fifty years old and have You seen Abraham?' Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was born I AM.' Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple."

  The baby born in Bethlehem was the beginning of the incarnate God in human flesh. Jesus Christ said, "Before Abraham was born, I AM." This was one of the most shocking statements that Jesus ever made.  He was around well before Bethlehem, He just took on human form.

  When Jesus said that Abraham saw His day and was glad in verse 56, the Jews were absolutely shocked. They knew Abraham could not see into the future. They rightly thought, "If Abraham saw You it's because You're claiming You must have been alive then. How could that be if you are not yet 50 years old?"

  Jesus responds. "Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM."  That's the eternal present that indicates no beginning. To become is to pass from nothingness to existence.  It is a statement about everlasting life, no beginning, no end. And thus does Jesus attribute to Himself eternal existence in the absolutely divine sense. And even the word "before" is symbolic, it is a concession to human comprehension of time, for in the life of God there is no before and there is no after. Jesus says, "Then I Am the eternal existing one who eternally existed whereas Abraham at some point in time began." And thus is Jesus claiming to be the eternal God.  The Jews didn't miss it, and knew that they must either  worship Him as the creator God, or stone Him for blasphemy.  They chose to take up stones and He escaped.

  We need to go back to the Old Testament to understand the greatness of this name. In Exodus 3 God shows Himself to Moses  in a burning bush. God has told Moses to lead the Jews out of Egypt.  There were many false gods and they all had names. Moses said, "Now when I go to them and say I'm coming from the God of your fathers, and God has sent me to lead you out and they say to me, well what God? What is His name? What do I tell them?"

  "God said to Moses, 'I AM who I AM.' And He said, 'Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.'" I AM, that's His name.

  Now what is bound up in that name? Well certainly eternal existence. The ever-living One, the continual eternal present-tense, God has no before and no after and no past and no future, one eternal existence. But that's not all.

  Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?" What he's really saying is...Lord, You are overestimating my ability. Who am I to pull that off?  God said, "Certainly I will be with you." I AM is the eternal one who is present with His people. I AM, not in the distance sense, I AM in a near sense.

  God also tells Moses, "I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites... flowing with milk and honey." Here is a third element. I am the ever-present one near His people with the purpose of redeeming them." God takes us for his own and becomes our God to pour blessings upon us.  He is ever near to redeem, to form a people and to be their God for the sake of their blessedness.

  He is the I AM, the Savior, the Deliverer, the Redeemer, that is the essence of His name because that is His person. God is not just an eternal being, He is an eternal being who draws near to men because He loves them. He does not just draw near, He redeems them. Not just redeems them but makes them His own people and He their God and then pours out endless blessing upon them. That is who God is. And when you say I AM, all of that is summed up in that great name.

  Jesus was saying that "I AM the eternal transcendent God who has come to rescue His people from sin's bondage and to bring them in to an eternal relationship with Myself. I AM, He is saying, the One who will make them My people that they might enjoy My blessings in this life and in the life to come in the glories of heaven.  To know the meaning of that name is to understand God's redemptive purpose from the beginning to the end.  The Jews made the wrong choice when they picked up the stones.

  The apostle John loves that term. He tried to capture the essence of the I AM in the words of Jesus when Jesus said I AM the bread of life for hungry souls.  I AM the light of the world who leads sinners out of darkness. I AM the door through which man can enter heaven. I AM the Good Shepherd who protects his sheep.  I AM the resurrection and the life, I AM the way, the truth and the life, I AM the true vine through which we produce fruit for God's glory.

  The Jews should have made the right choice. They made the wrong one. That is the most serious crime to be committed in the universe.  Deuteronomy 28:58: "If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book to fear this honored and awesome name, the I AM your God."

  God says...If you don't honor the name I AM in its fullness, you sill be destroyed. He's done it before. When Jesus came into the world and said "I AM" and they would not fear this honored and awesome name, but they crucified Him on a cross, God destroyed them. A few years later in 70 A.D. came Titus Vespasian and the Roman horde and in the city of Jerusalem alone one million, one hundred thousand Jews were killed.

  To accomplish our salvation, our Lord had to exercise power over several elements.  One element is power over sin. Mark 2 is the story about.  four men who brought a paralytic to Jesus. The place was so crowded they couldn't get him in the door so they tore the roof off and lowered him down the roof in front of where Jesus was standing.

  And you remember when the man finally landed at the feet of Jesus on hard bed, Jesus saw the faith of these men and He said, "My son, your sins are forgiven."  This is shocking.  Who can forgive sins but God alone?

  They're faced with the same choice. He is either God who can forgive sins or He a blasphemer. Jesus knew what they were thinking and said "Which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven or to say arise and take up your pallet and walk?" It's a lot easier to say "your sins are forgiven".

  Then Jesus said "But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, I'll say the hard thing. So I say to you...Rise, take up your pallet and go home." That's hard to say. But Jesus said, "I just forgave the man his sins because of his faith and just to show you that I really forgave his sin, I'll do the hard part, get up and walk." And he got up and walked.

  They were all amazed. They went in to some kind of fright, panic and they were glorifying God saying, "We've never seen anything like this." You see, if He is the redeemer God, then wouldn't we expect that He could forgive sin because He'd have to forgive sin to redeem, wouldn't He? And He did. And to prove that He forgave sin, He did the hard part, He healed the man.

  If Christ is to be the sovereign I AM, the Redeemer God, He must also exercise power over spirits. Men are held in bondage to damning sin. They are held captive to demons and devils. He must have power over them as well.

  Luke 4 shows this power. "Now there was a young man in the synagogue possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon."  In the presence of Jesus the demon cries out in panic, because demons know very well that He's God. Jesus told the demon, "Be quiet, come out of him."  He is sovereign over demons. Yes, this is the I AM, no one else could do this.

  Jesus would also need to have power over Satan himself.  During the Last Supper, Jesus could feel Satan approaching.  Satan had been trying to destroy the Messianic line so no Messiah could be born and trying to destroy the Jews altogether so there would be no nation to redeem. Here he came again for the final major conflict. He's coming, Jesus can feel it this night. And then He says the most incredible thing. "And he has nothing on Me." I've lived 33 years and Satan does not have one single valid accusation against Me of any wrong thought, word or deed whatsoever. He is powerless over Me. He can kill Me there but he can't keep Me dead because I'm without sin. Through death He rendered powerless the devil.

  He must also have power over death. It was the fear of death that held men in bondage and doomed them to hell. Jesus said, "You will kill my body, but it will come out of the grave because Satan can't hold Me, he has nothing on Me. There can be no punishment because there's been no crime.  I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one has taken it from Me, I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, I have authority to take it up again."

  When Jesus said "Before Abraham became I AM" they knew He was claiming to be the God of redemption. They should have also remembered He had shown them His power over sin to prove He was the God of redemption. He had shown them His power over spirits over and over. His power over Satan. And if they hadn't seen that yet, they would soon see it on the cross and through the open tomb. They would see also His power over death. They should have made the right choice. They had enough evidence that this was the I AM.

  In John 18, Jesus is in the garden, the Romans, priests and Pharisees all come with their weapons to capture Him.  Jesus is not hiding. He knows they are coming, and goes to ask them, "Whom do you seek?" They answered, "Jesus the Nazarene." He said to them, "I AM." and they fell to the ground.  That's power. Just saying His name, I AM...crash goes the whole crowd into the dirt.

  What is the proper response? To fall down. They did that. They were terrorized. They were crushed by the force of His name. They should have stayed down. The proper response to the I AM is to fall down in worship. The tragedy is they got up, took Him prisoner, killed the I AM, failed to honor the awesome name and were destroyed as a people.

  How will you respond this Christmas to who it is that we remember and worship? You can cast stones at Him and call Him a blasphemer or you can worship Him as God...the God who saves His people from their sins.

  

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  The Miraculous Jesus

  As you look at the miraculous life of Jesus Christ, you see proof that He is God in human flesh. Everything about Him is miraculous and miracles speak of God.  Miracles have always been given to authenticate divine revelation. When God spoke in the Old Testament the written Word, He authenticated with miracles. When He speaks in the New Testament the living word, again He authenticates with miracles. And where you have miracles you have the mark of divine intervention. 

  Imagine that  you had a large layout of electric trains.  You could decide anything about the movement of the trains by moving the little dial back and forth. God basically has done the same in human history. There is a layout. There is movement this way and that way according to the track, everything moves along in accord with the way its laid out as God.  The man with the little train system sometimes wants to change something so he just reaches down and picks up the engine. Now if you happen to be a little tiny person riding around in that train you might be somewhat baffled by what had just happened. But from our viewpoint it's very simple to understand. He picks up the engine, moves it over here, attaches different cars to it, works out a different configuration, moves the track and we don't panic at that. If there is somebody bigger than the system, he can intervene in the system anytime he wants.

  God has done the same thing. God has set things in a track, He set them in motion. They are guided by His divine upholding of all things by the word of His power. Sometimes He just reaches down and does something that is totally unexplainable and impossible to understand from our viewpoint.  When God reveals Himself, He must reveal Himself in a way that you know He's God and not a man and so He has to do things that are supernatural. When you look at the life of Jesus Christ, you know that He's God because He does what no man could ever do and He says what no man could ever say. And there is no other explanation than the Jesus is God.

  And to say that He didn't claim that is the height of idiocy because that is precisely what He claimed. Look at John 5:8.  "Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him." The Jews wanted to kill Jesus and here it tells you why, "Because He not only had broken the Sabbath," here was the worse thing, "but said also that God was His Father making Himself equal with God." Now Jesus was making Himself equal with God, they knew it, they understood it and they resented it. He was making Himself equal with God. And in doing that He was either God or He was the ultimate blasphemer, He was either Christ or He was Antichrist, and there's nothing in between.

  Verse 23, He went further than just saying He was equal with God, He demanded equal worship. It says, "That all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He that honors not the Son honors not the Father who hath sent Him." He demands equal honor, equal adoration, equal homage, equal worship with God the Father and says you can't separate the two. If you worship the one you must worship the other.

  What evidence do we have that He is equal with God, that He is God in human flesh? Verse 32 of the same chapter. He says, "There is another that bears witness of Me and I know the witness which He witnesses of Me is true." He then discusses John the Baptist who was also a witness, buy the miracles are the supreme and final witness.  "For the works which the Father has given Me to finish, the same works that I do bear witness of Me that the Father hath sent Me."

  In other words, the miraculous life of Jesus was proof His divine nature. If He just did what normal people do there would be no reason for think He was divine. And so He did what people cannot do. He did the miraculous, the supernatural, the divine so there would be no question about His origin. And His miraculous works tell us exactly who He is.

  In John 10:24 we again find the Jews confronting Jesus Christ and they said to Him, "How long do You make us to doubt?" How long are You going to be revealing yourself in ways that are not clear to us? "If You be the Christ, tell us plainly." Give us a very plain word so that we'll understand without any question who You are. And He answered in verse 25 and here is the plainest statement He could make, "I told you and you believe not, the works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness." You want a clear testimony? Look at My life. Look at My works. How else can you explain Me but that I am divine.

  Now let's turn to the Word of God and look at the miraculous Jesus and just look at several elements of the miraculous life of our Lord. First, His miraculous birth, Matthew chapter 1:18.  "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this way, when as His mother Mary was engaged to Joseph," and "Before they came together, before they entered into a sexual relationship, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit." Now that's never happened before, or since. The Holy Spirit planted the seed in her without a man as an instrument.

  Joseph her husband was a righteous man and he did not want to announce the problem to the public. He could have dragged her out in front of the whole community and stoned her in front of everybody for being an adulteress. He wanted to do what was right so he decided to divorce her quietly.  This woman he imagined to be so pure and so spotless and a virgin of the very highest rank is now pregnant, he knows it isn't him, he assumes that it must be somebody else. He is shattered and shocked. He doesn't know what to do except to divorce her.

  And as he thinks about this, "An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and says, Joseph, thou son of David, don't be afraid to take unto thee Mary thy wife for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit." There wasn't any other man. The Holy Spirit did this. "And she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call His name Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins." Jesus meaning Savior. "Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophets saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call His name Immanuel which being interpreted is God with us. And Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had told him and took unto him his wife and knew her not...that is had no conjugal relationship with her...till she had brought forth her firstborn son and he called his name Jesus." That is a miraculous birth, a birth without a human father.

  You see, when John 6:38 says that Jesus says, "I have come down from heaven not to do Mine own will but the will of Him that sent Me," He was saying something very profound. Jesus did not begin to exist when He was born in Bethlehem. He was sent from God into that human form. He already existed. All the Holy Spirit did was plant the seed in Mary to give physical form which could be occupied by the second member of the trinity who had already existed from all eternity. That's why in John 1 it says of Him, "All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made." He was the very creator God Himself, He preexisted His own incarnation. That's why it says in verse 10, "He was in the world and the world was made by Him and the world knew Him not." John 1:14, "The Word was made flesh," the Word always was - it just became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory and we saw that it was the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. It was deity in human flesh.

  Jesus carried this to the point where the Jews literally became panicky. In John 8:56 He is talking about Abraham and He said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day and He saw it and was glad." And the Jews said, "You are not 50 years old and have You see Abraham? And He says, Before Abraham was, I am." You know what their reaction was? They grabbed stones to stone Him to death and He escaped from them.

  So that the man Jesus was God dwelling in human form. God made that embryo apart from Joseph and Mary, placed it in Mary's womb for care prior to birth. And when that child was born, into that body was placed the very God of eternity.

  Second is His sinless life. Look at Hebrews chapter 4, and it follows as a corollary to the first. If He was born conceived by the Holy Spirit, we would expect Him to be different than everybody else, and that in fact is the case. In Hebrews 4:15 it says, "We do not have a high priest which...who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities." In other words, we're not going to somebody who doesn't understand us. "But He was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin." He is sinless. No sin in Him, none at all.

  Two people who lived with Him for three years, say that He was without sin.Peter says in 1 Peter 2:21, "For hereinto were you called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that you should follow His steps who did no sin."  The disciple John says in 1 John 3:5, John says, "And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins and in Him is no sin."  Even Judas the betrayer couldn't find any sin in Jesus.   He couldn't find anything to soothe his own guilt, to relieve the pain of what he had done. And trying to get rid of the money and wash the blood off his hands, he cries, "I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood." Believe me, if he could have found some way out of that guilt trip he would have found it. Paul says, "He who knew no sin became sin for us."

  Even the Roman governor Pilate had to say to the crowd, "I find no fault in this man." Nobody ever did. The Romans couldn't. The Jews couldn't. The disciples couldn't. History couldn't. Nobody could because there wasn't any. And it wasn't only the absence of sin, it was the presence of ultimate utter righteousness and holiness.

  There's a third factor, His miraculous words. Luke 4:32 says, "They were continually amazed at His teaching." John 7:46, they...the temple police came back after they had been sent to get Jesus and they came back and they said this, they were dumbfounded, they said, "Never did a man speak the way this man speaks." When He gave the Sermon on the Mount at the end of Matthew 7 it says, "They were literally shocked because He spoke as one having authority, not as the scribes and the Pharisees." When He was twelve years old in Luke 2:46 and 47 He went into the temple and the leaders of Israel talking to a twelve-year-old kid were absolutely dumbfounded at His questions and His answers, the text says.  Nobody ever spoke like He spoke. Nobody ever taught like He taught. Nobody ever knew the wisdom that He knew.

  He taught about God and He knew about God. He taught about angels, heaven, earth, hell, sin and holiness. He taught about the past and interpreted it. He taught about the present. And He taught about the future and predicted it. And nobody ever asked Him a question He couldn't answer and nobody ever posed a problem He couldn't solve. He astounded people. He confounded people. There's no explanation for His words but that He is God.

  Fourth, His supernatural works.  There's no way to explain the works that Jesus did except that He is God in human flesh.  Sometimes His enemies wanted to say that the works were of Satan but that was impossible because His works were always morally pure and must have been from God.

  In Matthew 4:24 it says, "His fame went throughout all Syria. They brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with diverse diseases and torments and those who were possessed with demons and those who were epileptics and those who had palsy and He healed them all." He healed them all. As we've been learning in the gospel of Matthew, He banished disease from Palestine for the years of His ministry. It was an incredible display of divine power from one end of that nation to the other. How you going to explain that? He healed everybody. And He healed them instantly and He healed them totally. And it wasn't just for the sake of healing, it was for the sake of authenticating His Messiahship, authenticating His deity. That's why He did it.

  In John 2:23 when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover and the feast day, many believed in His name when they saw the miracles which He did, and that was the whole point. He didn't just heal people so they could be well, He healed them so they would believe that He was God in human flesh. He didn't just raise the dead so they could be alive, He raised the dead so people would see that this was God in action. He never did miracles to satisfy curiosity. In fact, when people came for those reasons He simply said, "I'll give you no sign." His miracles showed that He had to come from God.

  Think about how He controlled nature. He turned water into wine in John 2. He stilled the storm in Matthew 8. He was able to control fish in Luke 5 and John 21. He could multiply food indicated in John 6. He walked on water in Matthew 14. He took money from the mouth of a fish, placed there so He could have enough money for His taxes for He and Peter in Matthew 17. And the fig tree dried up when He cursed it in Matthew 21.

  Look at the control He had over disease. Just some samples. He healed a leper in Luke 5. He healed a paralytic in Mark 2. He healed Peter's wife's mother of a fever in Mark 1. He healed the nobleman's son in John 4. He healed a withered hand in Mark 3, deaf and dumb in Mark 7, blindness in John 9, ten lepers in Luke 17. Malchus' ear was restored in Luke 22. Cured another disease called dropsy in Luke 14. And those are only samples.

  The fifth element of His miraculous life and that's His miraculous influence. The only way you can explain the influence of Jesus Christ is that He must have been more than a man. His influence is really reduced to one simple statement marvelously in Acts 4:12, "Neither is there salvation in any other," in other words He can do something nobody else can do in the whole history of the world, "For there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be...what?...saved." Of all the people who have ever lived in the history of the world or ever will live, only one of them has had the influence He's had and that is to save men from their sin, from hell, from death, from Satan. He's the only one. Nobody ever like Him. Utterly unique, the only Savior.

  Jesus saved men from their sins and He's still doing it. And when He's done it, it's never been undone. Do you know that there's no such thing as an ex-Christian? Never one. Nobody ever wants out once they're in.  People today are rushing into the arms of Jesus Christ to receive the gift of salvation. After two thousand years, His impact is still going on, His influence is still going on.

  He influenced the world more than any human being who ever lived.  He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life and no man comes to the Father but by Me." He said, "The Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins." He said, "Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess before My Father who is in heaven." He said, "All things are delivered unto Me of My Father and know man knows the Son but the Father, neither knows any man the Father save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." He said, "I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in Me though he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever lives and believes in Me shall never die, believe this." He said, "Whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it." He said, "I am the light of the world, he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life." He said, "The Son of Man is come to give His life a ransom for many." He said, "Whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst." He said, "Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." He said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away but My Word shall never pass away." He said, "Before Abraham was I am." He said, "Upon this rock I will build My church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." He said, "I am the door...I am the shepherd...I and the Father are one...I am the bread of life," and on and on and on.

  Sixth is His miraculous power over death. In Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 14 it says that Jesus took upon Himself human flesh that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death...that is the devil...and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage. He says He took on human form in order to conquer death. And He did that. He controlled His death. He said, "Nobody takes My life from Me," in John 10, "I lay it down of Myself." And He did. He died on scheduled. He controlled His own burial, even though His body was dead.  He made sure everything was done on schedule. He made sure He came out of the grave on time. Even when His body was in the grave He was down with His Spirit proclaiming His victory over the fallen demons bound in the pit.

  Think of it this way. If God became a man, what would happen? Well, first of all, if God became a man we would expect Him to have a miraculous birth. Jesus did.

  If God became a man we would expect Him to be different than all of us, to be holy. Jesus was.

  If God became a man we would expect His words to be the most divine, the clearest, the most powerful, the most authoritative, the truest and the purest words ever uttered. And Jesus' words were.

  If God became a man we would expect Him to have supernatural power. Jesus did.

  If God became a man we would expect Him to have a universal and permanent impact on the world. Jesus did.

  And if God became a man we would expect Him to be able to conquer death. Jesus did.

  You know something? If God became a man He would be Jesus and He was. And that's the whole meaning of Christmas. That's the whole thing. And that's the whole point of the New Testament.

  Look at John 20:30-31.  "And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book. These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God." Why? "That in believing you might have life through His name." What kind of life? Spiritual life, eternal life, abundant life, real life.

  The message is simple. God came into the world in the form of Jesus Christ. If you believe, you have eternal life. If you believe and receive Him as Savior you have eternal life. If you've never given your life to Jesus Christ, that's His message to you, that's His gift to you.

  There's no way to explain Jesus Christ other than as God in human flesh. And if you refuse to do that, it is because you love your sin and you choose your darkness rather than light.  Your response to Jesus Christ is just that...your response. As the Spirit of God speaks to your heart, may you respond in faith.

  Gracious Father, we again have been reminded of the simple yet profound story of Jesus Christ. This is the truth, the truth, verified not only by history, verified also by the testimony of the Holy Spirit in our hearts for it is the Spirit who convicts us concerning Jesus Christ, concerning the Word of God. And so we ask, Father, that You would send the Spirit to every heart and life which has refused Jesus Christ entrance, which has not believed in the fullness of saving faith that the Spirit of God might bring that true faith, convicting of sin, turning the heart toward Christ. We pray, Father, to that end for every life.

  

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  Four Names of the Child of Christmas

  From Matthew 1: "And she will bear a son and you shall call His name Jesus for it is He who will save His people from their sins.  Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son and they shall call His name Emanuel, which translated means God with us.  And Joseph arose from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took her as his wife and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son and he called His name Jesus.

  Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem saying, Where is He who has been born king of the Jews?  For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship him.  And when Herod the king heard it he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him and gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he began to inquire of them where the Christ was to be born."

  I pray there would be nothing that would distract us from the awesomeness.  Christmas should be stripped of all of its trappings so that all that is left is the simplicity of God becoming man. That is the only element in the Christmas seasonal celebration that has in it any lasting power to effect life. 

  Jesus has four titles, Jesus, Immanuel, King and Christ.  What do these titles mean? 

  The name Jesus is the sweetest name the Savior knows.  It is a form of the Hebrew word Yeshoshua, Joshua, Jeshua, Jehosuah.  It means Yahweh or God will save.  Men are sinners and that sin is a damning reality from which man needs to be saved.  And Jesus came into the world to save you from your sins.  He came to save you from the ultimate damnation that sin requires.

  No judgment to us, because the judgment fell on Christ.  He will save His people from their sins.  He died the death that we would have had to die and He carried our sins so far away even God will never again consider their existence.  We will never pay the ultimate penalty for sin.  We will never die eternally, we will never spend a moment in hell, we will go from this life into heaven. 

  The second title is Immanuel. "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son and they shall call His name Immanuel, which translated means God with us."  What does Immanuel mean?  It means God becomes a man and lives among us.  God will be present with His people.  The child of Christmas is Emanuel, God with us.  That child that was born that day though fully human was also fully God.  In the Old Testament the presence of God was in the temple.  In the New Testament the presence of God is in a body in the person of Christ.  We are by nature flesh and blood, Emanuel was not.  But He became flesh and blood.  He added to Himself our nature to die our death to save us from our sins. 

   A priest is someone who goes to God for you.  How can He go to God for us and plead our case and ask God to help us if He doesn't understand us?  So a priest was always chosen from among men.  Jesus became one of us to represent us as our high priest before God.  He never sinned, but He still knew all the temptations.  This is not an indifferent cosmic.  He knows our hurts and our weaknesses. 

  When the wise men arrived and confronted Herod, "They said, Where is He who has been born king of the Jews?"  He is a King who came to rule the world.  The wise men have come a long journey.  They go to King Herod to find out about this other King.  King Herod is a maniac who is paranoid about about losing his position.  If he felt threatened he murdered the imagined threat.  He drowned the high priest,  murdered his wife, his wife's mother and  three of sons.

  He found all the most distinguished citizens in Jerusalem left orders that they be imprisoned and killed when Herod died.  When asked why he said, "Because no one will mourn when I die and when I die I want mourning in Jerusalem.    Then when he heard there was a little baby king born he set out to murder all the male babies all over. 

  That child was born a King.  The wise men brought fitting gifts for a king...gold frankincense and myrrh.  He was a King, not a very auspicious beginning for a King.  Through His life it didn't appear that He was the kind of King that they wanted Him to be.  And even the disciples were wondering when is He going to take His Kingdom?  Pilate said, "Are You a King?"  And He said, "Yes, I am a King."  But He said, "My Kingdom is not of this world, if it were of this world My servants would fight."  He said, "I'm a King but My Kingdom is a spiritual Kingdom." 

  He will return to earth as the King, and all the monarchs of this world will bow their knee to Jesus Christ when He comes in His kingly glory.  He is King in the spiritual Kingdom, He will be King over the world and the universe in the future. And as you look at that little babe in the manger, that is a Christmas reality.

   The fourth title is Christ, which means the Messiah, God's special anointed one.  It reflects His right to rule, as the promised Messiah of God.   When you have the great prophecy of Isaiah chapter 9 introducing the coming Messiah, it says that there will be a child, a son, and He will be wonderful, counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the eternal generator of life, the giver of life, the originator of life, the creator of life.  John 1 says, "In Him was life, all things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made."  God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  Jesus says that He is the way, the truth and the life.  He says that He is the resurrection and the life and that anyone living and believing in Him would never die.  He gave His demonstration that He was in charge of life by rising from the dead.   You who were dead in trespasses and sin has He made alive together with Christ.

  His name is Jesus because He saves us from our sins.  His name is Immanuel because He is our sympathizing strengthener, He is God with us.  His name is King because He's our king and king of the universe.  And His name is Christ because He is the source of our life.  And when you know, believe and confess that, then you have seen through the outer decorations to the simplicity of the birth of Christ.

  That will make your Christmas significant.  If you'll do what Hebrews 12:2 says, "Fix your eyes on Jesus, King Jesus, Christ Jesus, Immanuel" it ought to make it the greatest Christmas for you, too.

  Prayer:  Father, we worship thanking You for the gift of Jesus Christ.  Lord, help us not to waste our attention on meaningless things, but help us to fix our eyes on Jesus and all that He is. 

  

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  Who Were the Wise Men?

  Matthew 2:1

  Who were the wise men? Why did they come to Bethlehem?  Many traditions and can be found  in Christian art.  They were said to be kings and three in number.  Their names are given as Caspar, Belthizar and Melchoir and their bones are supposedly contained in a priceless casket in the Dreikoenigschrein in Cologne.

  Basically in there have been four major world empires. First was the Babylonian Empire in the fertile crescent area east of Israel in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates River.  The second great Empire that Daniel talks about and that was the Empire known as the Medo‑Persian Empire.  The third great world Empire was Greece.  When the Medo‑Persian Empire was conquered by Alexander the Great the world became Greek, as it were.  The fourth great Empire was the Roman Empire.

  Even while the Babylonian Empire was in existence there were still Medes and Persians.  Many trace the origin of the Medes all the way back to the time when Abraham was called out of Ur of the Chaldees, way back in the 12th chapter of Genesis.  They are people who appear in the Babylonian Empire because we see them in the book of Daniel.  They are people from the Medo‑Persian Empire and existed on through the Greek Empire and are still in existence in the Roman Empire when Christ is born.

  The magi were a priestly tribe of people from among the Medes.  They were preoccupied by astronomy and they were occultists in a way. They had of divination processed that were like sorcery and that's why the word magi was corrupted through history into the word magic, magician which is a synonym for sorcerer.  The study of the stars didn't make much of a separation between the superstition and the science.

  During the time of the Babylonian Empire these magi were dwelling in the area of Babylon.  During the Babylonian Empire they were very heavily influenced by the Jews.  One of the things that Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon did was take Israel, rather take Judah into captivity.  They also came into contact wit one very specific Jew by the name of Daniel who was elevated in the Babylonian Empiren and were made familiar with Jewish prophesy regarding the Messiah. 

  They were a hereditary priesthood tribe.  In other words they were like the Levites in Israel.  In Israel there were twelve tribes but one of those tribes was set apart as the priestly tribe and they were the ones who ministered in the rituals and the religious ceremonies of the temple and they were the Levites.  The pagan Medes had a similar thing.  Of all of the tribes within the Medes they had selected one of them to function as priests in their rituals, the magi.

  They maintained a place of prominence in all of the empires in the east.  Even when the Greek Empire was in vogue there was still certain eastern culture and power.  Even when the Roman Empire was in vogue there was certain eastern power.  In both of those periods the Magi were really the key people in the government of the easts, centered in the fertile crescent, the area around Babylon and Medo‑Persia.  They had tremendous political power.  They were the ones that were consulted by kings, rulers, nobles and princes.

  The principle element of their worship seems to have been fire which they saw as  the of incarnation of deity.  They were monotheistic, so they had that in common with Israel.  But they looked at fire as the principle element of their worship.  They believed that their perpetual flame was kindled by God from heaven.

  They had a perpetual flame altar.  They also had another altar on which they offered blood sacrifices.  They actually had a blood sacrificial system, and they lit the fire to burn the sacrifice with the flame off the perpetual altar.  And then when they had burned their sacrifice, this is interesting, the victim was then eaten by the worshiper and by the Magian priests. 

  These people had a hereditary priesthood.  They carried about small bundles of divining rods in their garments which they used for their little ceremonies.  Not unlike the Urim and Thummim of the priests, the high priest, by which the knowledge of God was sought.  They believed in the distinction of certain kinds of unclean animals.  Again, this is an interesting parallel to what God truly revealed to Israel.  They were also very ritualistic about touching and disposing of a dead body, another thing common to God's standard for Israel.

  As far as the Scripture is concerned we see the magi first with Nebuchadnezzar, who had elevated this priestly group from the Medes to the place of being the official advisors to the king.  And even when Babylon fell and the Medo‑Persian Empire came in and you have great rulers like and Cyrus and others you still have the high ranking officials of the Medo‑ Persian government being taken from this group called Magi.  They were unmatched in political power.

  In Daniel 2:10, we are in the court of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel is there, the Jews are in captivity in Babylon and it says, "The Chaldeans answered before the king and said, There is not a man on the earth that can reveal the king's matter: therefore, there is no king, lord, nor ruler that asked such things of any Magi or astrologer or Chaldean."  The magi were known as those who could interpret dreams.  Nebuchadnezzar had this bizarre dream and none of them could handle it, butthere was one man who could interpret it: Daniel.  Daniel 4:7: "Then came in the Magi, the astrologers, the Chaldeans and the soothsayers, and I told the dream to them but they didn't make known unto me its interpretation." 

  Daniel 5:11, "There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods, and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods was found in him:" talking about Daniel now, "Whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king I say, thy father made master of the Magi." Now how interesting.  Daniel was so adept at telling the dreams of the king that the king made Daniel the master of the Magi. 

  That put Daniel in the position of being able to dispense to these Magi all of his information about the Old Testament.  We know that Daniel was a man of God,  totally devoted to worship and expression of his faith because he wound up in a lion's den because of it.  (This plot was made by the political satraps in Babyon and not by his fellow magots.)  Daniel and the other godly remnant in the diaspore of the dispersion shared their knowledge of the Old Testament and their copies of the Scripture with these people in Babylon and additionally, when the final decree of Cyrus came that they could go back to the land the majority of the Jews never went back. 

  The majority of the Jews stayed in Babylon, intermingled, intermarried and throughout the remaining history of Babylon and Medo‑Persia there were people in the noble families, people in the high ranking offices, some say even monarchs in that part of the world who had part Jewish blood.  And certainly we would have to conclude that Daniel had a profound impact in the dispensing of that information. 

  In fact, do you realize that when Daniel was actually being thrown in the lion's den the king said, "Daniel, I know that your God will deliver you."  You remember the king actually said that?  He was so convinced of the power of God through the testimony of Daniel.  And I'm sure he just checked it as often as he possibly could to see that that anticipation was in fact a reality.

  The Magi kept their place of prominence, influenced, by Daniel, and by Godly Jews in the dispersion.  They were also influenced by the intermarriage and the constant exposure to Jewish culture that was imposed upon them in many ways.  And they became and maintained a position in the Medo‑Persian Empire of great power in the court of the king.

  In the sixth century B.C.  there was a great king of Persia by the name of Darius.  Darius the Great, this is in the Medo‑Persian Empire.  Darius said, "I am going to establish a national religion, Zoroastrianism," which has a lot to do with astrology.  So now the magi  have their own culture religion on top of which has been superimposed Judaism and on top of which has been superimposed Zoroastrianism.   The Magi was so anxious to maintain their political power and religious power that when the decree came from Darius that Zoroastrianism was the religion that was going to exist they just slid right in.  Some of them may have been leaning toward Zoroastrianism, some toward the ancient magianism and some, like these Magi that show up at the birth of Christ were really true seekers of the true God. 

  The Magi were so powerful that no Persian was ever able to become king except under two conditions:  He had to master the scientific and religious discipline of the Magi and he had to be approved of and crowned by the Magi.  They controlled the judicial office as well as the kingly office. 

  Anybody who was raised in a nobility in the East was raised in the law of the Medes and the Persians.  One of their special skills was interpreting dreams.  And when they failed to do that and Daniel moved in on top of it and became the chief as we saw in Daniel 5:11, the set‑up was made by God to set the scene from Matthew 2, six hundred years before Jesus was born. A great Hebrew prophet to ruled a group called the Magi so that one day when a baby was born in Bethlehem some of those Magi would find their way to the house where the baby was. 

  The syncretistic hybrid religion of the Magi was like Judaism, monotheistic and with hereditary priesthood, blood sacrifice, belief in supernatural revelation and prophesy.   these common things sort of made Judaism an easy thing for them to accept and apparently there were some God fearing Gentile Magi historically existing in that eastern part of the world who were waiting for Daniel's great hope to be fulfilled.

  Let's move to the time of Jesus and Matthew 2.  Politically speaking, Rome feared the eastern Empire.  But because of the distance across the Mediterranean, and across the blazing desert to get to the east, there was a certain isolation in the east which caused Rome anxiety.  Rome never really felt secure about the Parthean Empire which was made up of the Medes and Persians.  They were violent enemies, and fought in 55 BC and in 40 BC.  These battles took along the coast of the Mediterranean, Syria, Jordan, Palestine.  Israel was a little no‑man's land between the powers of the east and the powers of the west. 

  Rome was afraid of them.  Matthew 2:3 it says, "When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled"  When he heard that Magi, oriental, Parthean king makers had arrived in Jerusalem he was rattled. 

  At the time of Christ in the eastern empire there was a ruling body called the Megastones and they would be like the United States Senate.  And this ruling house ruled in the Parthean‑ Persian Empire at this time.

  It was composed of Magi whose duty it was to have choice for the selection of a king.nn  They had some real problems with the king that they had.  They wanted to fight and knock off Rome but they had a loser for a king, Freidas the Fourth and Freidas the Fourth had been deposed and listen, the Magi were looking for a new king, a new king for the east, a new king of the eastern empire who could come against Rome.  When they arrived in Jerusalem Herod knew what was going on.  They were king makers and when they wandered around town saying ‑ Where is this new king of the Jews? 

  Herod got panicky when suddenly these Persian king makers appeared in Jerusalem traveling in full force with all their oriental pomp on their they rode Persian steeds.  They didn't come alone, the estimates of history are they came with Persian cavalry.  These were powerful men and to make it worse his army was out of the country on a mission.  The Bible says Herod was troubled.  The word in the Greek is that he was agitated like your washing machine.  

  Herod's title was King of the Jews.  He got it from Caesar Augustus.  He realized the great dream of his life was to get that little buffer state under his power and here he was in the middle of two huge contending empires.  And all of a sudden this massive coterie of Persians arrive in the city and he is panicked and they say we're coming to find the new king.  At the time Herod was close to death, and Caesar Augustus was old and hanging by a thread.  Since the retirement of Tiberius the Roman army didn't even have a commander‑in‑chief. 

  They knew that this would be the time to bring about an eastern war against the west, so Herod was shaking.  What were the Magi thinking?  Maybe they had looked at it politically.  Maybe they thought ‑ Oh, man, here comes the king.  And I think that that's probably true but additionally I think they looked at it spiritually.  Because when they got to that little room in Bethlehem the Bible says they worshipped Him.  They saw more than just a king.  I believe they saw the Messiah they had heard about from the days of Daniel.  I think we have God‑fearing, seeking Gentiles.

  It was two‑fold.  I'm sure they were thinking maybe this is the Savior.  The Savior who is called the Anointed One which is a term describing a king.  And maybe He will not only be the Savior, the Messiah but maybe He will be the one who will gather all this people of the east together and go against the oppression of Rome.  The Magi knew that the people of Israel were on their side, not Rome's.  And so that's why they came into town and started asking the people where this new king was.  They thought the people of Israel would be just as excited as they were.  But you see the people of Israel were blinded by their unbelief.

  It is amazing that the first people in the world to recognize the arrival of the King were Gentiles.  "He came unto His own and His own received Him not."  Matthew follows that all the way through with the rejection of the King.  Could this be the invincible monarch?  The magi could could crown Him.  They could take Him back and they could make Him king and they could unify the east and with this great Messiah that Daniel had prophesied they could go against Rome with invincibility.  And so into Jerusalem rides the group of Magi.  King makers of the east on their fine Persian steeds escorted by mounted cavalry.

  The story will continue in the next installment.   Isn't it exciting to see how God controls history?  Matthew, all the way through his gospel is trying to tell the world that Jesus Christ is King.  To make sure nobody misses it he has the most famous king makers in the world come and bow down at His feet.  If Israel isn't going to acknowledge it then God is going to drag a bunch of people from Persia to acknowledge it.  He's king.  God has master‑planned history.  And the sad part of it is that the people who should have known, the people who should have known missed it and the people from way off who should have never guessed showed up and worshipped.  That's history.  Jesus came.  Paul said, To the Jew first, also to the Gentiles.  Jesus came and said, "I'm but come not/for the lost sheep for the house of Israel."  Israel turned his back on Christ and He called a people from a "no -  people."  He reached out to the Gentiles, Romans says, and grafted us in.  And the hint of that was right here in the beginning.  The Bible says if we don't praise Him the very rocks will cry out.

  When the king arrived, if His people wouldn't praise Him then God would make sure that there was somebody there to do it.  Next time we're going to discuss Herod, what kind of a man he was and why he panicked.  And I'm going to tell you what the star was that led them to Bethlehem.  Let's pray.

  Father, it's just really ‑ it's just beyond us to see how You work in history.  God, thank You for the wise men, the Magi, however many there were and whatever their names were who were seeking the King.  And I feel grieved in my heart for the people of the King who didn't want him.  And I would pray, Lord, tonight that in our fellowship there are some who have been like the people of the King and turned their back on Him and said ‑ I don't want Him ‑ we will not have this man reign over us, they said.  Father, I pray that You convict their hearts.  They be like those who came from afar and rejoiced with great joy and fell down and worshipped Him.  Thank You also that You planned us to be a part of the church that bows before Him in worship.  We'll give you praise, Lord, for all that You have done that shows us Your mighty hand in Jesus name.  Amen.

  

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  Fools And Wise Men, Part 1

  In the last lesson we saw the Magi as representing the first fruits of the Gentile nations, which shows us that God had really always had them in His heart.  Here we will explore the drama of Herod, which can be presented in five acts, arrival, agitation, acting, adoration and aviodance.

  First is the arrival.  "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod, the king, behold, there came Magi from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him."  Now Bethlehem is a quiet little town, about six miles south of Jerusalem.  The name Bethlehem is means "house of bread," a fitting name for the place where the very bread of life was born. 

  It was in that little village that the people of God had long expected their Messiah to be born, because it had been prophesied in the Old Testament. But when He was born there they couldn't bother to take note of it. The houses of Bethlehem are built all over slopes, and very frequently when a house would be built on the slope beneath that, because the limestone was not that hard and because there were some natural indentations anyway in the mountain, people would build out a hollowed cave which they would use for a stable. And it is very likely that it was in such a hollow cave that our Lord Jesus was born. Bethlehem of Judaea is not significant so whenever anybody thinks of Bethlehem they only think of the birth of Jesus Christ.  The place close enough to Jerusalem that it should have commanded the attention of the entire population when the King was born.

  The Romans had taken over the area, and people who wanted to gain something sort of played up to the Romans, and Herod was one of those kinds of people. During the civil wars in Palestine and during the time when Rome was trying to establish itself, prior to the birth of Christ, Herod Antipater played games with Rome gained its favor. He was made a procurator, and Herod his son was appointed as the tetrarch of Galilee. In other words, they needed one guy to handle Jerusalem and Judaea, and somebody else to kind of control the rural area, it was a lesser position in significance but none the less it was a position of honor among the Romans. So they put Antipater in Jerusalem and Judaea and they stuck his son Herod up in Galilee.

  Now seven years later in 40 B.C. that eastern Parthian Persian Median area from where the Magi came, started a civil war and attacked that area of Palestine and Syria, and Herod took a quick boat to Rome to inform Rome as to what was taking place.  He convinced the Roman Senate that he was pro‑Roman and knew now to handle situations in that part of the world. In 40 B.C. or about, the Roman Senate made Herod the king of the Jews, gave him an army and let him carve out a kingdom.  He did it in three years, and in 37 B.C. he won, and he became king of the Jews, a title that he maintained until he died. 

  The Magi asked, "Where is he that is born King of the Jews?"  That was enough to panic Herod, who had sought his position like a political plum. He had traveled all the way to Rome and played his game before the Roman Senate, he had gotten the right to be the king of the Jews took an army back and fought for three years to gain the right to make that a reality, and here comes a whole pile of Persian king makers, they come streaming into town asking all over the place, "Where is he that is born King of the Jews?" 

  These Magi based on information from Daniel, and other information that they had received from the Jews who were now living in their land since the captivity, and based on their own sense of faith in the true God, and based on their own expectation that God would fulfill His Word, and based upon what they saw in the sky which is called a star here, they came to Jerusalem. We don't know how many Magi there were or what their names were, but they had a reason for coming.  They said that they had seen the star in the east and had come to worship.  They must have been surprised by the dull looks that they got when they has assumed that these people would know their own king. 

  What was the nature of the star? What did the shepherds see shining in the sky? It was the glory of the Lord.  In the Old Testament the glory of God is manifest as light. God radiates His presence and transforms it into ineffable light. When the glory of God appeared at the daytime it was like a cloud of light, when it appeared at night it was a pillar of fire, when the glory of God descended on the tabernacle it was as light, when Moses went up into the mountain, and he said, show me Thy glory, God hid him in a rock and God showed him His glory manifest as light, and it was so much light that it got on his face and when he came down the mountain side and spoke to the people his face was lit up. The glory of God is blazing light. And when Jesus revealed who He was, and revealed His glory on the mount of transfiguration, He pulled back His flesh and they beheld His glory, as transparent light. And when Jesus comes the second time out of heaven, He will come in blazing light."  It was the glory of God is the thing that the wise men saw.  The Hebrew word for star can mean a real star, or anything that blazes or shines in an incredible way.  This "star" was meant a sign to point to Christ.  The nature of a sign is to be seen and to point attention.  Whatever this star was it went and stood over the house where He was born. A literal star could never do that. 

  If it was such a blazing magnificent glory of Christ's sign in the heavens, then why did only the wise men over there in Persia see it and no one else?  Why is God so selective? That's nothing new for God.  He can make everybody in the world blind to something if He wants to.  We see an example of this in Exodus 14 when the Israelites crossed the Red Sea.  God's pillar of clould moved between the Israelites and the Egyptians who were pursuing them.  To Israel it was a pillar of light, but to the Egyptians it was a cloud of darkness.  God reveals things to whom he wishes to reveal.  How did the ones who saw the Glory of the Lord connecte it with Christ's birth.  We really don't know, except that God made it obvious.

  Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the Magi followed the star to Bethlehem from Persia. They saw the star in the east, they knew the royal city was Jerusalem from which all of the Jewish kings reigned, they knew exactly where to go.  They didn't even ask a question, they got on their horses and went right to the right place.  

  Matthew doesn't give details of the journey of the Magi because this is not their story, it is Christ's. He tells that the Magi hac come to worship.  They knew that He was to be worshiped, and that there was no other one as worthy as this one, and these pagans who had nothing to guide them but smatterings of Old Testament prophecies and their own science mingled with its funny superstitions, (and yet they are the true seekers of God) were right. When the sign came with all of their misgivings and lack of knowledge, they enthusiastically embarked on a journey to seek long awaited king.

  But the Jewish hierarchy, with the Pentateuch in their hand, studying it everyday, with the prophecies in their hand, reading them everyday, ruled by a, a bitter and evil man named Herod were content to be totally indifferent to what was happening five miles away. We see Matthew's attitude of condemnation toward the officials of Judaism, and his sensitivity that God is opening the Gospel to the Gentiles. There always are prepared hearts, and here were some, who came to Jerusalem.

  Scene two is agitation. Herod's attitude is opposite to that of the Magi.  When he heard the Magi had arrived and were asking questions, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. He knew that the people of Jerusalem didn't like him or Roman rule.  His army was out of the country. He knew that the eastern empire posed a constant threat to Rome and that his job and life were in the balance and even though he was seventy years old he still wanted to hang onto every single thing he had, so he was troubled. He was panicky.  He was the king of the Jews in his own mind and there were rumors floating about the new King of the Jews and the kingmakers have arrived. He imagined the freedom riots that would take place and decided that radical steps were needed.

  He overstated his case because it doesn't appear from Matthew's account that the Jerusalem population was impressed by the Magi's questions. There isn't any stir at all, which is surprising considering that king makers from Persia.  They were more afraid of Herod than they were trusting in God. They figured that if the Magi upset Herod we are going to be in a blood bath.

  Let's look at Herod's good points. He was a very capable man, and usually diabolical people who rise to this level have some capability. While a young governor in Galilee he had a tremendous victories over the little bands of guerrillas in Galilee and he brought real peace there, he was very efficient in collecting taxes for Rome, so Rome liked him. He was a capable orator and a very subtle diplomat, history tells us he was a very decisive leader in battle and could turn the tide of a battle from defeat to victory.

  He was the only ruler in the history of Palestine who ever succeeded in keeping peace and bringing order. In times of difficulty he even gave people back their tax money so that they would have enough. In 25 B.C. there was a tremendous famine and he melted down the gold plates in the palace and gave the money to the poor. 

  He built a theater in Jerusalem, he built an amphitheater, and he built a hippodrome (race track) He also built a magnificent palace for himself, and he even began in 19 B.C. the construction of the temple, the great Herodian temple, and died long before it was ever done, and of course it was totally demolished in 70 A.D. when Titus Vespasian and his Roman army came and conquered Jerusalem. He restored Samaria from its depraved situation, he built the city of Caesarea which is a magnificent port city, he embellished cities like Beirut, like Antioch, like Damascus, Tyre, Sidon, Rhodes, and even made contributions to the buildings in Athens. He built the fortress at Masada, which was an impregnable fortress. He had a great welfare program. And when people had trouble getting clothes he imported clothes for them. So you know he did some things endear himself because he was a smart politician. 

  But he was also cruel and he was hopelessly suspicious of everybody. He was threatened by everybody and everything, and so he spent his entire life plotting the murders of his opponents.  He didn't like the Hasmoneans, who were a family of people so he plotted to murder all of them, they were the descendants from the Maccabees, and you remember that the Maccabees were a group of Jewish people who had fought for the freedom against the Greeks, and when the Romans came in, he was afraid that the relatives of the Maccabees might do the same against him and so he would rather just kill them all so none of them would have any hope of ever doing that.

  He had ten wives, and twelve children. And his most notable wife is a lady named Mariamne who had a brothern named Aristobulus.  Aristobulus was the high priest at the time and Herod became suspicious and decided to murder him.  So on a hot day he said, we're going to have a party down in Jericho. Jericho was like Palm Springs, you go down the hill Jericho was a great place, wonderful resort, beautiful palms, nice water there, and nice warm sun, it was a fabulous place. So on a hot day he invited him for a swim down in the Jordan River near Jericho and finally coaxed the young man to dive into the water and when he did of course he had other men waiting, pretending to play and have fun and they jumped in the water and while they were pretending to play with Aristobulus they held him under until he was dead. And nobody really knew what happened, and so Herod provided a magnificent funeral and went to the funeral and wept the whole time. 

  He even killed his own wife. Mariamne. He also executed her mother Alexandria because he didn't want her bothering him. He had two sons of his own that he didn't like so he slaughtered both of them cause he was afraid they'd want his throne. Five days before his death, he ordered his third son executed. When he was about to die he retired to Jericho and gave or­ders that a collection of the most distinguished citizens of Jerusalem should be arrested and imprisoned.  He said, the moment I die, slaughter them, because no one will mourn when I die and I am determined that when I die there will be mourning in this city. 

  Perhaps the contrast between the peace in the hearts of the Magi and the panic in the heart of Herod was because there were wise men and there were fools, and Herod was a fool. Everybody else was upset was because they knew the kind of man that Herod was.  They had a right to fear because it wasn's a matter of days until Herod sent his soldiers to slaughter every single baby in the land under two years of age, to make sure in his collection he slaughtered this potential King. 

  

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  Fools And Wise Men, Part 2

  Matthew 2:7‑12

  Herod was troubled to hear the Magi asking about a new King of the Jews, and  "When he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where the Christ should be born." Isn't that interesting? He demanded of them where who would be born? The Christ.

  Herod knew that this was more than a human king, this was the Messiah, the anointed one.  He was living in a day when the hope of deliverance through the arrival and work of the promised Messiah was in the hearts and on the lips of many.  He knew as the Magi did that there was deity here, but Herod decides to murder rather than worship.  He's too shrewd to kill the Magi and probably too impotent since there were probably a thousand Persian soldiers If he killed the Magi he would kill the source of his information about the child. So he hatched his plot and gathers the chief priests and the scribes of the people together.

  It must have been very disturbing that neither the leading politicians nor the leading theologians knew anything about this new King of the Jews either. They were upstaged by a bunch of Persians who arrived and announced to them that a King had been born who was none other than their Messiah. 

  Herod asks this aristocracy, this brain trust of theologians, he says, "Now where is the Christ to be born?"  Herod did not ask because he wanted to know where Christ would be born in order that he might take the knowledge of that truth and apply it properly, but that he might know it to use it for his own ends.

  He should have known without asking, as it had been prophesied and it was common knowledge that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.  Maybe Herod just wanted to be sure so as not to waste any time.  His advisors quoted Micah 5:2 saying that the Messiah would indeed be born in Bethlehem.  And yet even though the event had probably happened months before and been told of by the shepherds who saw the event, those who should have known paid no attention.

  Micah was a prophet who had bemoaned the false and evil rulers seen throughout history, but said that a true ruler, the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.  The voice of Micah is the voice of a prophet who uttered the sob of a nation that wept and wailed for its King, and Micah said, He'll come, He'll come and all the false rulers will be put aside and He'll be the true ruler, and He'll come in Bethlehem. And Matthew says, that the chief priests and the scribes said, "In Bethlehem of Judaea; for thus it is written by the prophet." And they go on to quote it.

  Matthew adds to, "And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah; for out of thee shall come a 'governor that shall shepherd my people, Israel.'"  The word "to shepherd" is not in Micah. When New Testament writers were quoting the Old Testament did not always quote the Old Testament exactly, because New Testament writers were equally inspired by God, and they had a right to alter those things in conformity to that which the Spirit of God was newly revealing to them at the time. So that they would take that Old Testament truth and then they would add to that special thing the Spirit of God wanted for the moment of the New Testament time.

  The priests said it was Bethlehem, the prophet Micah said it was Bethlehem, Matthew said it was Bethlehem. It was Bethlehem, and all history comes together to agree the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. Interestingly enough, God had to get the Romans to make a decree to get Joseph and Mary down there so He could be born there. He's got everybody working out His will.

  The chief priests and scribes, the orthodox literalists with perfect head knowledge were indifferent and never touched in their souls.  They did not remain indifferent for long, and later became hateful, plotting murderers by the end of the Gospel of Matthew.  Jesus even reminded them to check the scriptures about him in John 5:39.  They had all of the correct information and rejected it.

  Herod was afraid this little baby would interfere with his life and sought to eliminate Him. Some people still felt that way thirty three years later and they did it.  Some people feel that way today, Jesus is interference in their life. He bothers them, He upsets their plans, and if they had their choice they would eliminate Him.  The chief priests and the scribes were indifferent. They were so engrossed in their talk about theology, in their political intrigues and in making money in the temple that it didn't even matter to them that He was born, they were just indifferent.  It was the Magi who showed  adoring worship

  Now we have the acting.  "Then Herod, when he had privately called the wise men," this time he thought he ought to have a private meeting because if he had another public meeting the priests and scribes would really know something was up. And he, "inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared."  Here folks, I call this acting because this has got to be one of the biggest acts of hypocrisy in all the Bible. Herod is such a phony and the wise men don't know it.  Herod is subtle, and does not ask about the age of the child, but rather appeals to the Magi's interest in astronomy. 

  Herod asked "diligently" when the star appeared, so he would know how old the baby was.  Maybe he determined the time down to a window of six months, but he decided to kill all of the babies two and under to be sure on the basis of the information provided by the Magi.  Herod continues with his act, telling the Magi to come back when they found the King so that he could worship also.  He has a chance to fall at the feet of the majestic Son of God, but instead plots only to take his life.  He is nothing but a fool of fools.

  Next is  the adoration. "And when they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.  When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy." They had seen that thing in the east, it had gone away, they壇 come all the way to Jerusalem and they didn't know specifically where to go or what to do next and there was the glory of God again, and they knew they were on the track.

  An interesting note by the way in verse 9, the star which they, saw in the east literally in the Greek says, the star which they saw in its rising, the star which they saw in its rising. In other words, the star had never before existed and they saw it come into existence. It means much more than just appearing in an area. The star which appeared in its rising, and now the shekinah appears again.  I would say it wasn't be a real star cause it would be difficult for a real star to get down on top of a house, without burning up the whole earth. The shekinah glory of God is descends in the Old Testament many times.

  So the Magi came in, "they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, fell down and worshiped." They worshipped  Him and honored Him as a King. They did what you do only to gods. They fell on their knees and worshiped Him. And worship belongs only to Jesus Christ, only to God, to none other, for none other is worthy.  Worship is what is most important, and any job that we do afterwards at church or anywhere else would be out of overflow from that worship.

  This might be a shock, but I don't even prepare sermons for my congregation. I take the text and I approach it to see what can I learn about the glory of God. And after I've spent a whole week studying that and seeing God there, and I hope falling at His feet and bowing in praise, and bowing in worship out of the overflow of that a sermon comes real easy. We're saved to worship first of all. God doesn't want famous singers and famous workers. He just wants worshipers, who praise Him and adore Him.  We dishonor God by attempting to serve Him without really knowing Him.  Our service gets all fouled up. But as we serve out of the overflow of worship He is in control of the service, for His glory.

  So the Magi worshiped. And they worshiped in giving, and that's a great way to worship. It was an expression of praise; gold, frankincense and myrrh. Gold was a valuable thing, and used in the construction of the temple, as jewelry, and were wealthy you could use it as utensils. Frankincense is the sap from a certain tree that grows in Arabia.  The sap is white and is used in incense.  It sendsoff a fragrant scent. It was used in the meal offerings Leviticus 2, as the scent was symbolically rising to God. Myrrh comes from another little tree in Arabia and also gave forth a beautiful perfume.  It could be considered an early form of deoderant.  It was also used as an anesthetic, and in the preparation of Jesus' body for burial.

  The significance went way beyond the natural use of each gift. It is possible that the gifts were used to support this poor family, Joseph and Mary who had nothing, and Joseph was now removed from his job. Soon they would be sent by God to Egypt. They had no way to support themselves, and Joseph would have had a difficult time establishing himself in a foreign culture.

  Gold is a gift for a king.  Matthew is telling us that Jesus is King, and in this gift we meet Jesus in terms of His Kingship.  When you come to Jesus, you come as a subject to a King, to a Lord.

  Myrrh is the gift for a mortal. It's a perfume, to make life a little less odorous, to make burial a little less repulsive. Myrrh was the gift for a mortal man, and He was a man. In fact myrrh was especially the gift for one who would die, He was a man and He would die, from the very beginning it was clear He would die.

  Frankincense speaks of deity. Incense was always offered to God, it was a fragrance that rose to God. In the Old Testament it was stored in the front of the temple, up in a special chamber and it was taken and added to the offerings, it was sprinkled so that the sweet savor would rise to God. And in Exodus 30:34 it says, "the incense is for God, not the people." 

  Last is the avoidance.  God wanted these wonderful Magi, to take the message of the King back to Persia, the message of the new one, the Messiah, the anointed one, and so they were, "warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod," to tell him about the baby, "and they departed to their own country another way." And so God cares for the Magi, and God cares for the Savior. 

  Prayer:  I rejoice so much for those among us who are the wise men, the wise women, the wise young people, who are bowed low at those feet, no longer infant feet but pierced feet, and in their hands they bring their gifts, the recognition that He is the God-man, the King, and they submit to Him. Father may it be that we worship You most of all and out of that flows our service. In Christ's name, Amen.

  

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  The Ugliness of Christmas 1 Timothy 1:15

  "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst."

  A famous popular song about Christmas is "White Christmas."  Most people think only of the beauty of this time of year, but there's also another ugly side, man's sin.  Christ came into the world to save sinners. The real beauty of Christmas is to understand the ugliness that it cures. If there were no sin there would need to be no Christmas. 

  First, what is sin? Sin is breaking God's law, any violation of God's law.  It denies the reality of God's law.  It says God is not in charge.  It is living beyond the boundaries God has set.  It is thinking, and behaving in ways that are unacceptable to God and are in violation of His law.

  Second, what is sin like?  Sin is a defiling pollution.  It is to precious metal what rust is.  It is what scars are to a lovely face. It stains the soul and blots out the image of God. 

  Sin is also defiant. It is defying God.  Sin drives a nail in His hand.  Sin crushes a crown of thorns on His head.  Sin jams a spear into His side.  Sin spits on Him.  Sin mocks Him.  Sin says "I will do what I will do, I don't care what Your claims are or who You are."  Sin is God's would‑be murderer.  Sin not only would unthrone God, it would un‑God God.  If the sinner had his way, there is no God and the sinner is God. 

  Sin is ingratitude.  The Bible says, "In Him we live and move and have our very being." You were created by God, you live and breathe because God made you as He made the whole world.  Whatever you have is because God is a merciful and gracious.  Sin seeks to dethrone and destroy the one who gave us all we have. 

  Sin is humanly incurable. There's nothing humanly that can change that...not all the resolution in the world, not all the self‑effort, not all the religion, because sin is humanly incurable.  It can't be philosophized out.  It can't be wished out.  It can't be pushed out by self‑effort.  And so, Christmas is this, Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. There's no other cure.  Sin is a disease cured only by one thing, and that is the blood of the divine physician Himself.

  Sin is hated by God.  Sin is the only thing that God hates.  He damns no one except a sinner.   God does not resist a man because he's poor, ignorant or crippled or ill or despised by the world or limited. 

  Sin is hard work.  All it causes is pain.  Sin is hard work and people go after it with avengence. It is so perverse that ignoring the pain and the consequences, men go after evil and weary themselves in the process.  People go to hell sweating.

  How many people does sin effect?  The answer is in Romans 3, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.  For there is none righteous, no not one."  All of us are affected by it.  All of us.  Even when we are Christians, sin is still a reality.  And if you say you have no sin, you make God a liar.

  What are the results of sin?  Sin causes evil to overpower us.  Sin turns a person into a victim of evil.   Sin has dominated the mind so that its thinking process is overpowered with evil.  Evil also dominates the will. Evil dominates the affections. Their loves, their affections, their wishes, their wants, their desires, their longings are toward those things which are not right. 

  Sin brings us under the dominance of Satan.  People think that they're free to do whatever they want, bthe only free person is one who has had his sin covered and is free to do what is right.  A sinner is not free.  He is under the total domination of sin and the control of Satan. He is not free, he is totally controlled.  Satan works in him to accomplish his own will.  Only, Jesus said, if the Son makes you free are you free. 

  Sin makes a person an object of God's wrath.  It is sin that causes us to be condemned and damned.  It is sin that sends men to hell. 

  Sin subjects a person to all the miseries of life.  Sin brings the worst of all there is on the individual. It exposes men to all the ultimate misery.  The final result of sin is that it damns people to hell. 

  This is the ugliness of Christmas that brings us to the point of its beauty.  You see, the beauty of Christmas is that Christ came into the world to save sinners and to cure the ugliness of the world.   And no matter what warm feelings you might have about Christmas, unless you understand the ugliness of your own sin and embrace Jesus Christ who alone by His death and resurrection can save you from that sin, you don't have any connection with Christmas. 

  Prayer: Indeed, O Lord, we know that this is the truth, that Jesus came into the world to save sinners.  That is the beauty and glory of Christmas, not a tree or a decoration or lights or scenery, the beauty is that the ugliness can be cured by the coming of the Savior.

  While you're head's bowed for just a moment, if you don't know Christ, if you've not given your life to Him and received Him as Lord and Savior, you may do that now in your own heart.  Ask Him to come and cleanse your sin, wash you clean and He'll do that by virtue of His promise. 

  

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  The Child Who is God

  Colossians 1:15‑20

  The birthday of Jesus has become very useful if you can just keep Jesus out of it.  Nobody really wants to stop the celebration; the commercial world  wants the money and the party goers want the fun.  If we can just have the party without Jesus, everybody will be happy.

  The Apostle Paul explains in Colossians 1 who He is.  "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created by Him and for Him and He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.  He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything.  For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him."

  Let's start with Jesus in His relation to God. He is the replica, the iconium, He is the reproduction.   If you trivialize the birth of Christ, as I said earlier, that is a monumental form of blasphemy because it is a striking of a blow against the revelation of the eternal God in Christ.

  Jesus is the firstborn of all creation. That is not a reference to time.  It means is that of all of creation, He is the top ranking one.  In ancient times firstborn meant the heir, the superior one, the one with the right of inheritance, the one with the rights of privilege and prestige and honor.  He sits down on the very throne of God.

  His relationship to creation  We're dealing here not just with a great man, we're dealing here with the creator and the sustainer of the whole universe.  Whatever is in heaven and on earth, whatever is visible or invisible, it's all created by Him, it's all created before Him.  He is before all of it and in Him all of it hangs together. 

  God didn't just make the world and then walk away, He holds it together.  He's what keeps everything moving, keeps everything in orbit.  The bodies stay in their orbits because He keeps them there.  Do you understand that if the earth's rotation slowed down, we would alternately freeze and burn?  Who keeps all that stuff in place?  It is Jesus Christ, He is before all things and in Him cohere, all things hold together. 

  His relationship to the unseen world  He is the creator and the King over all the angels.  Thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities just talk about the strata or the ranks of angels. 

  His relationship to the church He is also head of the body, the church.  He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. The church is like a body and Christ is like the head which controls the body. He was born but He was raised from the dead, and His resurrection is the guarantee of the ultimate resurrection into eternal life of all men.  He is not a dead hero, He is a resurrected God - Man. And of all who have ever come from the dead, He is the supreme one, the superior one. You can't dismiss Jesus as some dead historical figure.  He is alive. 

  His relationship to all other revelations   All the powers and attributes of deity, the fullness of God's essence, God's glory is in Him and Him alone.  He needs no supplement.  He has no rivals.  There are no more revelations.  It's in Him and Him alone that God has put all the fullness of His own deity.

  Why did Christ come into the world?  To save sinners.  To go to a cross, and pay the price for sin so that he could present you to God holy and blameless.  He came to gather a redeemed humanity to take back to God.  He came into the world to save sinners.  He came to bring peace between sinners and a holy God.  He came to remove the curse of the universe and to restore it to its original intended created purpose.  He took our flesh in Him that we might become holy as He is holy.  This is the meaning of Christmas.  We need to take every opportunity to make sure that people understand what Christmas is really all about. 

  I'm not defending all of the stuff that goes on around Christmas, but I am saying if the world is going to focus on the birth of Jesus Christ (even for the wrong reason), let's help the world understand the true meaning.  Let's take the chance to worship and praise Him and to speak of Him to those who so much need to hear; foolish people who want to keep the party just get rid of the reason.  In their effort to gain the world, they lose their soul. We have a tremendous responsibility to them.

  Father, we thank you that you are our Savior because this is not something that comes from us but from You, this is a gift.  We can't even comprehend why You would be so gracious as to give it to us, but we thank You.  We pray for those who do not know Christ.  We pray that at this Christmas season, people's hearts might be turned toward the Savior.  And while the world is doing everything it can to cover up the reality of Christ, blurring completely the celebration of His birth, the concept of the incarnation, the truth of salvation, Lord, may we speak boldly.  As the attacks escalate, may the witness escalate as well.  Give us the privilege of leading people to the knowledge of Christ.  Amen.

  

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  Here is one last John MacArthur article:

  The story of the first Christmas is so beloved that singers and storytellers across the added myth, and  many don't know which details are biblical and which are fabricated. Christmas has become an odd mixture of pagan ideas, superstition, fanciful legends, and plain ignorance. Add to that the commercialization of Christmas by marketers and the politicization of Christmas in the culture wars, and you're left with one big mess.  The place to begin is in God's Word, the Bible. Here we find not only the source of the original account of Christmas, but also God's commentary on it.

  We can't know Jesus if we don't understand He is real. The story of His birth is no allegory. We dare not romanticize it or settle for a fanciful legend that renders the whole story meaningless. Mary and Joseph were real people. Their dilemma on finding no room at the inn surely was as frightening for them as it would be for you or me. The manger in which Mary laid Jesus must have reeked of animal smells. So did the shepherds, in all probability. That first Christmas was anything but picturesque.

  But that makes it all the more wondrous. That baby in the manger is God! Immanuel!

  That's the heart and soul of the Christmas message. There weren't many worshipers around the original manger - only a handful of shepherds. But one day every knee will bow before Him, and every tongue will confess He is Lord (Philippians 2:9-11). Those who doubt Him, those who are His enemies, those who merely ignore Him will one day bow, too, even if it be in judgment.  How much better to honor Him now with the worship He deserves! That's what Christmas ought to inspire.

  Luke 2:7 sets the scene: "Mary] gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."  That verse is explicitly concerned with a lonely birth. There were no midwives, no assistance to Mary at all. The Bible doesn't even mention that Joseph was present. Perhaps he was, but if he was typical of first-time fathers, he would have been of little help to Mary. She was basically on her own.

  Mary brought forth the child; she wrapped Him in swaddling cloths; and she laid Him in a manger. Where usually a midwife would clean the baby and wrap Him, there was no one. Mary did it herself. And where usually there would have been a cradle or basket for the baby, there was none. Mary had to put Him in an animal's feeding trough.

  When Christ entered the world, He came to a place that had some of the smelliest, filthiest, and most uncomfortable conditions. But that is part of the wonder of divine grace, isn't it? When the Son of God came down from heaven, He came all the way down. He did not hang on to His equality with God; rather, He set it aside for a time and completely humbled Himself (Philippians 2:5-8).

  Luke 2:8-20 describes the experience of the shepherds when Jesus was born. Think about that for a moment. Out of the whole of Jerusalem society, God picked a band of shepherds to hear the news of Jesus' birth. That's intriguing because shepherds were among the lowest and most despised social groups.

  The very nature of shepherds' work kept them from entering into the mainstream of Israel's society. They couldn't maintain the ceremonial washings and observe all the religious festivals and feasts, yet these shepherds, just a few miles from Jerusalem, were undoubtedly caring for sheep that someday would be used as sacrifices in the temple. How fitting it is that they were the first to know of the Lamb of God!

  More significant, they came to see Him the night he was born. No one else did. Though the shepherds went back and told everyone what they had seen and heard, and though "all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds,"(v. 18), not one other person came to see firsthand.  Scripture doesn't describe how the shepherds' search for the baby Jesus actually unfolded, but it's not unreasonable to assume that they entered Bethlehem and asked questions: "Does anybody know about a baby being born here in town tonight?"

  The shepherds might have knocked on several doors and seen other newborn babies before they found the special Child lying in the feeding trough. At that moment, those humble men knew for certain that the angels' announcement was a word from God. After their encounter with Joseph and Mary and Jesus, the shepherds couldn't help but tell others about what the angels had told them. They became, in effect, the first New Testament evangelists.

  The shepherd's story is a good illustration of the Christian life. You first hear the revelation of the gospel and believe it (Romans 10:9-10). Then you pursue and embrace Christ. And having become a witness to your glorious conversion, you begin to tell others about it (Luke 2:17).

  May God grant you the life-changing spiritual experiences and the ongoing attitude of enthusiasm and responsiveness that causes you to tell others that you, too, have seen Christ the Lord.

  

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