What Child is This?
How many pictures of Jesus have you seen this last week?
Praise God, among all the Santa Claus’s and tinsel and advertisements and
reindeer and presents and cards we still see some reminders of the reason for
the season. But what do those pictures show? Probably most of the pictures
you’ve seen are of the crèche: Jesus as an infant, in the manger or held by
Mary, possibly with shepherds and wise men looking on; despite His stable
surroundings the baby is plump and healthy, perfectly clean and comfortable.
I’m glad you’ve seen such pictures. They are good reminders
that tomorrow we celebrate the birth of a baby, rather than celebrating Santa
Claus. But who is this baby? Who is this child, held by Mary, worshiped by
shepherds and wise men?
This morning we’ll give five answers to that question; to
aid your memory, the answers will follow alphabetic order, B through F:
·
Jesus as Baby
·
Jesus as Creator
·
Jesus as Dying Savior
·
Jesus as Empowering Lord
·
Jesus as Final Judge and Returning King
Jesus as Baby
Please turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 2; we’ll
read the first seven verses:
Now it came about in those days that a decree went
out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth.
2 This was the first census taken while
Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And
all were proceeding to register for the census, everyone to his own city.
4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee,
from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called
Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, 5 in order to register, along with Mary, who
was engaged to him, and was with child. 6
And it came about that while they were there, the days were completed
for her to give birth. 7 And she gave
birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a
manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:1-7 NASB)
Look at verse 7: “She gave birth.” Mary, a young girl, a
virgin, a woman who had never had sexual relations with a man, gave birth.
The conception was a miracle – but there is nothing here in the text to
indicate that the birth was anything other than the normal process of labor.
Mary gave birth just as many of the women here this morning gave birth: her
water broke, she began to have contractions, she felt overwhelmed by the
process going on inside her body; her back hurt, there was pain and effort and
sweat and pushing and stretching and burning – and then, finally, amazingly,
this new little creature came forth from her body; a new creature covered with
mucous and amniotic fluid and blood and vernix – hair (if any) plastered to his
head, that head possibly misshapen from hours of pushing, his skin bluish in
color until the first breath, and first cry. Mary gave birth – and the baby,
Jesus, came into this world just as you and I, through His mother’s strong
efforts, bloody, slippery – and yet beautiful.
The point of all this? Jesus was a baby – a normal baby,
born in the normal way. Jesus was really human. Jesus was a baby who soiled
himself, spit up, cried when He was hungry; He was completely dependent upon
his parents for meeting His every need. He could do nothing for himself. With
His little hands, he grasped fingers held out to Him. He couldn’t communicate
at first except by crying. He took months to learn to crawl, and more months to
learn to walk, and to speak. Jesus was a normal, human baby.
Secondly, Jesus was born to a poor family in especially
difficult circumstances. While I am sure Mary and Joseph did their best to make
their newborn comfortable, safe, and clean, no stable is a sanitary place. How
far were they from water? How did they clean Him up after the birth? What did
that manger look like – that manger that for years had been the repository of
grass and hay falling out of the mouths of cows?
Third, Jesus was born with the appearance of illegitimacy.
Few believed Mary’s story of the angel Gabriel; surely most of those who saw
her pregnant assumed she became that way through the normal process. Indeed,
this stigma of illegitimacy followed Jesus all his life; the Pharisees allude
to it in John chapter 8.
Such was the baby Jesus. Fully human. A humble baby from a
poor family. In most eyes, illegitimate.
Jesus as Creator
But the Bible tells us that Jesus was much more than a human
baby. That normal human body contained the Creator of the world.
Please turn with me to the gospel of John; we’ll read the
first three verses.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the
beginning with God. 3 All things came
into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come
into being.
John here purposefully echoes the first words in the Bible,
in the book of Genesis: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth.” John 1:1 actually takes us back before Genesis 1:1, before
creation – telling us that the Word already was, the Word was with God, the
Word was God. But who is “the Word”? What does John mean by this expression?
John makes this perfectly clear in verse 14:
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and
we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of
grace and truth.
The Word is Jesus. Jesus was God. Jesus was with God in the
beginning. Now take a deep breath, and think about this as if you had never
heard this concept before. That little baby, that child unable to take care of
Himself, was God Himself. As Charles Wesley writes,
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see!
Hail the incarnate
Deity!
Pleased as Man with
men to dwell,
Jesus, our Immanuel!
So Jesus is God incarnate. But there is more! John tells us
that this same Jesus, this same one clothed with humanity, is the creator of
everything! “Apart from Him, nothing came into being,” or as it reads in the
NIV, “Without Him, nothing was made.”
Imagine this now: Those same infant hands which grasped
Mary’s finger were the hands that created the myriads of stars; that same voice
that cried out moments after birth was the voice that named each of those
stars.
Let me tell you about one of those stars. The Pistol Star,
near the center of our galaxy, emits in 6 seconds as much energy as our sun
emits in a year. Its mass is more than 100 times that of our sun. Its diameter
is about 200 million miles – in other words, if positioned at the center of our
sun, the Pistol Star would more than fill our earth’s entire orbit.
Those infant hands of Jesus fashioned and made the Pistol
Star.
Do you see? Do you comprehend? Oh! I want you to see the
tremendous truth of the incarnation! We get so used to the words “Immanuel, God
with us, God incarnate, God in the flesh” they role off our lips and we don’t
begin to fathom what they mean. Think, now think! The One who made the Pistol
Star became infinitesimal compared to it. The One who had all glory and power
and purity and praise became despised, poor, needy, helpless; the One who was
before the world began became – a tiny, seemingly insignificant speck in that
world.
So Jesus the Baby is also Jesus the Creator. But there’s
even more.
Jesus as Dying Savior
Let’s keep reading in Luke 2, beginning with verse 8:
8 ¶ And in the same region there were some shepherds
staying out in the fields, and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood
before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were
terribly frightened. 10 And the angel
said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a
great joy which shall be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a
Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12
"And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in
cloths, and lying in a manger."
A little of the majesty of heaven – only a little –
frightens the shepherds. So the angel tells them not to fear. Why? He has come
to bring good news, not bad news! And this is good news not only for the
shepherds, not only for the people of Israel, but for all people. What
is the good news? “Today . . . there has been born for you a Savior, the
Messiah, the Lord!”
Centuries and centuries before, the prophets proclaimed that
God would send a Messiah to save His people. Now, at long last, that Messiah
has been born! And that Messiah is not a political king, as so many expected,
but instead is a Savior!
Footnote: After that proclamation, where do you think the
shepherds expected to find this long-awaited Messiah? Probably in a palace
somewhere, or among the rich and wealthy. So verse 12 must have been even more
shocking than the first appearance of the angel: The Messiah, the Lord – lying
in a feeding-trough for cows? This humble, poor baby – the Savior of the world?
So what does the angel mean when he says he brings good news
of the birth of a Savior? This newborn baby will save us – from what? Please
turn with me to 1 Peter 2:24:
[Christ] Himself bore our sins in His body on the
cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds
you were healed.
Jesus died on the cross. He bore our sins. Our sins were put
on Him; His righteousness was put on us, was credited to us. So by His wounds
we are healed.
So you see that baby in the manger did not grow to be a man
who simply went around doing good deeds. He did not grow to be a man who simply
healed a few hundred people from physical diseases – people who eventually died
anyway. That baby did not grow to be only a great teacher, who had penetrating
insight into human nature, and told us how to live. He did all those things –
but much, much more. That baby, that human child, with all the cuteness and
difficulties shared by all babies – that very person lived a perfect life, and
then died terribly, cruelly, painfully on a Roman cross. And every pang of pain
from the nails driving into his hands; every drop of blood caused by the thorns
pressed into his skull; every stripe on his back from the whips of the floggers
was caused by You and Me. And even more, God Himself, the second person in the
Trinity, who was One with God from before the beginning of time, felt all the
wrath of God, all the hatred of God for sin, fall upon Him. So the pain was
physically excruciating, but also much more than physical. All the punishment
we deserve for every evil deed we have ever done was laid on Jesus. The Babe in
the Manger, the Creator of the World is the Dying Savior, dying that we might
live.
Jesus as Empowering Lord
Can there be more than this? Praise God, there is even more.
Jesus not only saves us from our sins, but He enables us to become His beloved
people. Please turn with me to Galatians 2, verse 20. Paul writes:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no
longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the
flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up
for me.
Jesus not only died on the cross; he rose from the dead. And
now He takes up residence in the hearts of all His people, loving us,
empowering us, enabling us to live righteous lives before Him.
So if the One who made the Pistol Star loves us – why should
we worry about money for retirement?
If the One who created the Sun and the Moon, and knows the
number of stars in the universe and the number of hairs on my head -- if this One lives in me – why
should I worry about missing out on life, or losing my job, or about taking
care of my family? The living, empowering Lord within us frees us from worries
and frets, thereby allowing us to trust Him to provide for our every need –
allowing us to be radically devoted to Him, and to live lives different from
the world around us. He enables us to love the unlovable, to do the impossible.
Oh, there is so much more we could say here! But let us move
on. We have seen that Jesus is:
·
The Baby in the Manger
·
The Creator of the World
·
The Dying Savior, and
·
The Empowering Lord
Jesus as Final Judge and Returning King
But the story does not end there. This same Jesus, creator
yet infant, crucified yet risen, will return. And when He returns, He will come
not as a weak, helpless infant, but as the Final Judge of all mankind. Please
turn with me to Revelation chapter 19; we’ll begin reading with the 11th
verse.
11 And I saw
heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called
Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon
His head are many diadems; and He has a name written upon Him which no one
knows except Himself. 13 And He is
clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed
in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. 15 And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so
that with it He may smite the nations; and He will rule them with a rod of
iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.
16 And on His robe and on His thigh He
has a name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."
Who is the author talking about? He tells us in verse 13:
“The Word of God.” The same Word we read about in the book of John: Jesus
Himself.
But this is a very different picture of Jesus, isn’t it? Oh,
He is glorious, and almighty, and all-powerful – more powerful than anyone ever
has been or will be. We saw all that in John chapter 1. But here we see a
different use of that power. Verse 11 tells us He comes judging and waging war.
The same eyes that looked with love at Mary, the same eyes that wept over
Jerusalem – those eyes now flame with fire as He comes in power and might to
smite the nations, exhibiting the fierce wrath of God on all unrighteousness.
Now, you may wonder: Why is He coming in wrath? Didn’t we
just say that He Himself bore the wrath of God, taking upon Himself all the
sins of His people? Didn’t we just say that every cut of the whip, every rip of
flesh in His hands served as punishment for our sins? So why is there any
reason for God to display wrath, to judge sin? Didn’t Jesus pay the penalty for
all the sins of the world?
Turn your page and let’s read from chapter 21.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the
first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.
2 And I saw the holy city, new
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned
for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud
voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men,
and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself
shall be among them, 4 and He shall
wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death;
there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things
have passed away." 5 And He who
sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." And He
*said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true." 6 And He said to me, "It is done. I am
the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who
thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. 7 "He who overcomes shall inherit these
things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.
This is lovely! What a promise! He wipes our tears, He makes
all things new, He brings an end to pain! But, my friends, we need to read the
next verse.
8 "But
for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral
persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the
lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
Everyone will not be saved. Everyone will not share in the
great joys described in the earlier verses. Thus, everything depends upon your
being among the people in verses 3-7, and not among the people of verse 8.
Everything. Nothing else matters in the end: Your education. Your job. Your
income. Your house. Even your family.
Think now: Suppose you had a choice: poverty and suffering
in this life and then life with God for all eternity as described in verses
3-7. That’s one choice. The second choice: having all the riches and pleasures
the world has to offer, with everyone and everything at your beck and call –
but at death you end up with the people of verse 8, in the lake of fire. What
would you choose? Would anyone in his right mind choose the lake of fire?
So I say again, everything depends on this. It is absolutely
vital for us to know how we end up with God wiping our tears away versus
throwing us into the lake of fire. What is the difference between these two
categories of people?
The answer is found throughout the Bible, but we’ll find it
in this very text. Look again at verse 8: Who are these people whom God
punishes? The author gives us a long list of sins, but foremost among them is
the sin of unbelief! The unbelieving! The unbelieving are thrown into the lake
of fire.
Now what about verses 3 to 7? Who are these people who
become the bride of Christ, delighting in Him as a husband delights in his
wife? Who are these people, who delight in God and become His people?
In contrast to the list of sins in verse 8, do verses 3 to 7
tell us “God brings to Himself those people who have never committed sin”? If
that’s the message, we are all in trouble; for all of us are sinners.
But praise God, that is NOT what it says! What does it say?
What is the requirement for being among these glorious people of God in verses
3-7?
Read verse 6 again: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the
Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to . . .” To whom? This is the key. “I will give TO THE ONE WHO THIRSTS!” And do
we pay God anything for the water? No! He gives to us “from the spring of the
water of life WITHOUT COST!”
So the requirement here is not sinlessness. The requirement
is thirsting!
John Piper puts it this way:
If we only knew it, every one of us is stranded on
an ice face in Greenland, and the wind is blowing fiercely. Our position is so
precarious that even if we inhale too deeply our weight will shift and we will
plunge to our destruction. God comes to us and says in that moment, “I will
save you, and protect you from the storm. But there is a condition.” Your heart
sinks. You know you can’t meet conditions. Your face is flat against the ice.
Your fingernails are dug in. You can feel yourself giving way. You know that if
all you do is move your lips you’re going to fall. You know that there is
nothing you can do for God!
Then he speaks the gospel command: “My
requirement,” he says, “is that you hope in me.” Now I ask, Is this not good
news? What could be easier than to hope in God when all else is giving way? And
that is all he requires. That’s the gospel.
Our God is a God who loves to save. He will never turn away
the desperate people who call upon Him. Indeed, He displays what He is like –
He glorifies Himself – when He bestows His great mercy on undeserving, weak,
helpless sinners such as you and I.
Conclusion
So who is this Jesus whose birth we celebrate tomorrow?
- He is the Baby in the manger: a real, human baby.
- He is the Creator of the world: God Himself become Man; the one who fashioned the Pistol Star in human flesh.
- He is the Dying Savior, taking all the sins of His people upon Himself, so that the penalty is paid for all those sins.
- He is the Empowering Lord, living in the hearts of His people, empowering them to overcome the Enemy and become like Christ;
- He is the Final Judge and Returning King, coming in majesty to destroy and throw into the lake of fire those who oppose Him; coming in love to create a new heavens and a new earth for those who long for His appearing.
My friends, in the end there are only two categories of
people: Those who see Jesus as most precious above all else, the only source
for satisfying their deep thirst – and those who don’t. Jesus offers you the
greatest satisfaction imaginable: the opportunity to become what your Creator
intended you to be, to fulfill all your potential – and most of all, the
opportunity to delight in God and have Him delight in you for all eternity.
This Christmas Eve, even today, will you hope in Him? Will you thirst for Him
and Him alone? Will you turn your back on all the pseudo-pleasures this world
has to offer and trust Him completely to watch over you and satisfy you and
please you? Will you ask God to give you the greatest Christmas gift imaginable
– the gift of an eternity of joy in His presence?
For Jesus is coming back. That is certain. For you, His
return will either be the greatest delight imaginable, or a certain terrifying
expectation of judgment. Which will it be?
Comments
Post a Comment