Living Way Church
The Birth of Jesus

      • John 14.6ESV

  • Noel
  • O Come All You Unfaithful
  • Joy Has Dawned/Angels We Have Heard on High
  • Christmas Morning
  • Good morning and Merry Christmas! Today is for the Christian church one of our highest Holy Days. Today we gather together in order to celebrate a baby. I can remember early on in my Christian walk thinking that when we gather together and celebrate someones birthday. Which is what we are doing. We have gathered together today in order to celebrate the Jesus’ birthday. But when we do this for any other person we don’t celebrate the fact that they were once a baby. Like, we don’t get together and remember the baby Garey. In fact that seems a bit odd doesn’t it. But today we’re not celebrating the adult Jesus. We are celebrating the baby Jesus. And I can remember ages ago wondering isn’t this a bit strange that we do this. Now some of you have never considered this because it is just what we do. And so we just keep going along with it with no second thought. And that’s fine. I wish I could do that more often.
    So, why are we gathered together today to celebrate Jesus, but in that time of celebration we celebrate him as a baby. Today I want us to walk out of here today with a better understanding of why we celebrate not only the birth of Jesus, but more importantly the baby Jesus.
    Ok, so there was another thing that always made me scratch my head and I never asked why? and I should have was this crazy question. Why does Jesus have like two different names at his birth? There is the name that we use most of the time, Jesus. This is the name that the angel Gabriel gives to Mary as to what the name of the child is to be. And then an Angel appears to Joseph and tells Joseph that his name is to be Jesus, and then just a few verses later the angel while quoting from Isaiah seven says, and they shall call him Immanuel.
    And I can remember thinking well which one is it? Look if you have at any point in your walk thought the same thing I am here to tell you. That it is Ok. Now, I am probably only saying that because I thought that. But, here’s the importance of this whole process of questioning these things. It is when we really dive into trying to figure this out that we find that we celebrate the baby Jesus today and not the adult Jesus because he does bear the name Immanuel.

    Immanuel

    First let me just explain this to help our minds a bit. Jesus didn’t have two names. He has many names. Now I need to make sure you hear clearly what I am saying.
    How many of you have heard of what is called the Names of God. They are names that God uses in the Old Testament in order to help better understand him. And to help us to grow in our relationship with Him. He is not simply a God who heals. No. He takes the name Yahweh Rapha. To show that it is a part of what defines who he is, and more importantly who he is in relation to us. That is what the names of God do for us.
    And so the name of greatest importance for us today that we need to remember when we think of Jesus is that He is Immanu El. El is the Hebrew word for god and immanu is Hebrew for with us. It’s that simple. And so Jesus is the God who dwells and lives with His people. He is not far off from us. He wasn’t then and He isn’t now. He is here present with us and within each of us in the person of the Holy Spirit. At all times.
    This was such an important reality for the Apostles to grasp and it is one that perhaps, I believe, they didn’t fully understand until he was gone. The Jesus is Immanuel.
    John in fact found it so important that it is this truth that shapes His entire gospel, the book of the Bible that we today call John, after its author. It is this foundational idea that he begins with when he writes the introduction of His gospel. And in chapter one verse fourteen he writes.
    In the first two verse John is moved by the Holy Spirit to give Jesus the name the Word. And he says that the Word was with God. Declaring that the Father and the Son dwelt together. And then he declares that the Word is God. And so in this chapter John declares that there is a Father and that there is a son and that the two are separate individuals. And yet the two are the one true God. And then here in verse fourteen he declares that the Word who was with the Father came from the heavenlies and dwelt among men. And in the moment that Jesus was birthed into this world the glory of the Father was revealed to all those who looked upon Him. Because the glory of the Father and the glory of the Son are one and the same. Why? Because they are the one true God.
    This is what it means for Jesus to be Immanuel.
    But why does that lead us to celebrate the baby Jesus rather than the Adult Jesus.
    The reason that we celebrate the baby Jesus is because of this little thing that we call the incarnation. We use the word incarnation to reference the union for the divine Jesus with human Jesus. Jesus is 100% God, there is nothing about him that is not God. He is fully and completely God. At the same time Jesus is 100% Human, there is nothing about him that is not Human. He is fully and completely human. How all of that works and that is a divine mystery unfortunately. And if God chose to reveal to us how all of that works, I honestly don’t believe that our human minds would have the ability to comprehend fully what was revealed. This is a truth that we accept as it is revealed through the scriptures. And it is this human divine union that makes the baby Jesus so unique.
    The all-mighty creator of all things chose to come to us in the form of a baby boy.
    Now there are two others camps out there that deny this divine human union. The first of these believe that Jesus was born human and took on a divine nature at his baptism when the Holy Spirit descended upon him. If this position is true then we have a problem. Then Jesus divinity is less than complete, and in fact could be denied completely. I’ll get into this a bit more as we look at his conception and the virgin birth. Because both of this actually answer this position. The second of these believe that Jesus was born fully divine but held no human element to him. He was simply divine. The problem with this is that then he is not able to take on the mantle of what is biblically called the second Adam. The Bible says that the first Adam brought sin into the world through the first sin and through Him all of humanity is fallen. But, the beauty of the story is found in what the Bible calls the second Adam who must be fully human in order to offer himself on behalf of humanity as a sacrifice for our sin. If the second Adam is anything less than fully human then His sacrifice can not bring forgiveness for our sins. And the Bible identifies Jesus as what we call the second Adam.
    I hope that all of this isn’t getting too heady for a Christmas message. But it goes to the very core of why we celebrate this baby. It speaks to the reason that the baby Jesus is so important to the church. So, I am going to briefly look at two important point concerning Jesus birth as a baby so that we can better understand why it is that we celebrate the baby Jesus rather than the adult Jesus today.
    The first of these is the supernatural conception of Jesus.

    Supernatural Conception

    This is not what is called the immaculate conception by the Catholic church. That is a reference to the sinless nature of Mary, which has no foundation within the scriptures. Mary sings of the salvation she will receive through Jesus for her own sin. So, this is not what I am speaking of. And I would say is an incorrect theology. And is completely unnecessary.
    What I am speaking of and is a very important reason for our celebration of Jesus as baby today is the supernatural means by which Mary conceived the baby Jesus.
    In Luke chapter one Mary is visited by an Angel who says that she is going to give birth to a baby boy, and of course Mary says how is that possible when I am a virgin. We read the angels response in Luke chapter one verse thirty-five. It reads.
    Luke 1:35 ESV
    And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
    What this says is that Mary is going to become pregnant with a child and that the pregnancy is completely the work of God. The work of conception within the womb of Mary is supernatural. Here is exactly what happened. The Holy Spirit came upon Mary and now look this isn’t some sexual thing that is being discussed here. Some people want to say that. That’s not what this is. This simply means that the presence of the Holy Spirit filled the person Mary. No different than you and I are filled by the person of the Holy Spirit when we believe on the name Jesus as our savior. And so the Holy Spirit comes over Mary and the power of God then causes a baby to begin to develop within Her womb. This is completely the supernatural work of the Father through the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of Mary.
    No other conception throughout history is similar. And it is this supernatural conception within the womb of Mary that can cause the baby within her womb to be both divine and human.
    This is a piece of the puzzle as to why we celebrate Jesus as a baby. This is why the baby Jesus is so important to us. It is through His supernatural divine conception that Jesus is born into this world fully human and fully divine at His birth.
    He is born the Son of God. He is raised by Mary and Joseph. But, he is the Son of the Most High, from birth.
    When Mary first looked into the face of the baby Jesus, she was looking into the face of the one who spoke all of creation into existence.
    This is why we celebrate the baby Jesus. Tied to Jesus supernatural conception is the virgin birth.
    There are many in the church today that are saying that maybe this isn’t all that important. Maybe we don’t need to believe in the virgin birth anymore.

    Virgin Birth

    But this is completely impossible to do. It is completely impossible to separate Jesus supernatural conception from His virgin birth. Look if Mary had had intercourse prior to giving birth to Jesus then His supernatural conception is simply unbelievable. I hate to put it this way. But her virginity is kind of like the proof of Jesus supernatural conception. And as a result, His divinity. These are all like little dominoes and if we give up just one of them then the rest must by association fall as well. I like to put it this way. There are doctrines that we hold on to with a clinched fist that there can honestly be no discussion or disagreement on for one to call themselves a Christian. And then there are doctrines that we don’t hold on to as tightly. We hold on to those with an open hand and an open heart. And there is charity in the discussion and the disagreement concerning those doctrines. That is not true of those doctrines that we might call closed fist, that we hold on to tightly.
    Jesus supernatural conception and His virgin birth are two doctrines that we must as believers hold on to with closed fists. Because if we don’t then His divinity can be appropriately questioned. And that is not something that is up for questioning. Jesus was born into this world fully human and fully divine at His birth.
    Now there are those that deny that the scriptures state that Mary was a virgin.
    However Matthew chapter one verses twenty through twenty-three read.
    Matthew 1:22–23 ESV
    All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
    God ties the birth of Immanuel in these verses to the virginity of Mary. Now, this is an Old Testament Quote from Isaiah chapter seven verse fourteen. And in the Hebrew the word used can mean either a young woman or a virgin. And in that context it does appear to refer to a young woman. However in the quote here in Matthew the greek word used is a clear reference to a young woman who is a virgin.
    We celebrate the baby Jesus because at the moment of His birth He was called Immanuel. God with us. Jesus held God incarnate within her arms. She nursed God almighty. Joseph wiped God Almighty butt when he pooped. I’m not trying to be crass here. But Jesus as a baby was just a baby, even though at the same time he was the creator of all things. And it is this amazing reality that we celebrate today. We celebrate the baby Jesus because he was God incarnate. The God who took on Human flesh.
    And Jesus had to be born into this world just like you and I so that hi might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God. And this baby would grow into the man Jesus who knew no sin. And so the baby would grow into the God-Man Jesus who would take upon Himself the sins of the people and have the full wrath of His father towards those sins poured out upon Himself in our place. This baby born in a manger, at His birth, was on mission for His people. And in that mission this baby would grow into a child and eventually into a man, just like each and every one of us in this room. But, unlike us, even though he was tempted to sin in every way that we are, He knew no sin.
    And so today we celebrate the baby Jesus because he is human just like us. And at the same time God so unlike us, and in His divinity He was able to offer himself to the father in our place.
    And we celebrate the birth of this unique amazing baby. Because the Father chose to give to us His one and only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
    And so yes today we celebrate the baby Jesus.
    We celebrate that the baby Jesus, God almighty, became flesh and dwelled among us. And we have the opportunity to see His glory. The glory of the only Son from the Father. Our Lord. Our King. Our Savior, Our Sanctifier, Our Healer, Our soon coming King. Our Jesus who is full of grace and truth.
    Amen.
    Amen
    Closing Prayer
    Benediction
    Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
    ​

      • John 1:14ESV

      • Luke 1:35ESV

      • Matthew 1:22–23ESV

  • Joy to the World (Unspeakable Joy)
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