The Incarnation and Why It Matters: How? (Luke 1:26-33)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:05.879 Let's turn our attention to Luke Chapter One, verses twenty sixth through thirty three. 2 00:00:05.919 --> 00:00:17.910 Luke Chapter One, Verse Twenty Six, in the sixth month, the 3 00:00:18.030 --> 00:00:24.100 Angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to 4 00:00:24.179 --> 00:00:29.300 a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the House of David, 5 00:00:30.300 --> 00:00:33.659 and the Virgin's name was Mary, and he came to her and said 6 00:00:33.700 --> 00:00:37.850 greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was 7 00:00:37.929 --> 00:00:42.810 greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might 8 00:00:42.850 --> 00:00:47.570 be, and the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, 9 00:00:48.329 --> 00:00:54.359 for you have found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive 10 00:00:55.240 --> 00:01:00.960 in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 11 00:01:02.159 --> 00:01:06.109 He will be great and will be called the son of the most high, 12 00:01:06.909 --> 00:01:11.189 and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 13 00:01:11.750 --> 00:01:15.030 and he will reign over the House of Jacob forever and of this UN 14 00:01:15.150 --> 00:01:22.099 of his kingdom, there will be no end. You may be seated, 15 00:01:26.900 --> 00:01:32.700 but read this passage this morning for Luke one twenty six through thirty three, 16 00:01:33.090 --> 00:01:37.609 so that we consider that can consider the last of these questions that we've been 17 00:01:37.769 --> 00:01:42.650 asking and meditating on as it relates to the incarnation. This last question is 18 00:01:42.810 --> 00:01:49.640 the how of the incarnation. How is it that Jesus came to be incarnate? 19 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:57.400 The explanation for that is given here. To marry herself, she is 20 00:01:57.519 --> 00:02:02.549 told that she will conceive in her womb and bear a son. He will 21 00:02:02.590 --> 00:02:09.870 be called great and he will be this promised King. We read on in 22 00:02:09.990 --> 00:02:15.150 that same passage, in verse thirty five, that the Holy Spirit will come 23 00:02:15.229 --> 00:02:21.099 upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you. Therefore, 24 00:02:21.219 --> 00:02:24.620 the child to be born will be called Holy, the son of God. 25 00:02:29.180 --> 00:02:36.250 When we considered the what of the incarnation, we remembered that Jesus was fully 26 00:02:36.370 --> 00:02:43.449 God and fully man, one person with two natures, if you take your 27 00:02:43.490 --> 00:02:46.240 hymnals. Actually, if you don't mind, if take a turn to page 28 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:53.199 eight hundred and a seventy. Yes, a hundred and seventy, this is 29 00:02:53.240 --> 00:02:57.879 our shorter catechism, one of the confessions of our church, a good teaching 30 00:02:58.039 --> 00:03:07.629 tool. Question Twenty one. This question is asked and we hear about who 31 00:03:07.669 --> 00:03:13.939 it is that Jesus is and what he was and according to his two natures. 32 00:03:15.020 --> 00:03:20.340 For Question Twenty One, who is the redeemer of God's elect the answer 33 00:03:20.419 --> 00:03:24.340 is the only redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, 34 00:03:25.139 --> 00:03:31.210 being the eternal son of God, became man and so was and continue with 35 00:03:31.370 --> 00:03:38.969 to be God and man into distinct natures and one person forever. That sort 36 00:03:39.009 --> 00:03:43.120 of the WHO and the what. Right, who is the redeemer of God's 37 00:03:43.159 --> 00:03:47.199 elect his name is Jesus, as Mary was called told to call him. 38 00:03:47.240 --> 00:03:53.159 And the what is the what is nature is he became? He was always 39 00:03:53.199 --> 00:03:58.909 eternally, the in eternal son of God. He became man, and so 40 00:03:59.229 --> 00:04:03.550 was and continue with to be God and man in two distinct natures and one 41 00:04:03.629 --> 00:04:11.900 person forever. So one way of putting this is, Michael Horton said it 42 00:04:11.979 --> 00:04:17.339 this way. Jesus is neither hybrid in his two natures, a divinized man 43 00:04:17.860 --> 00:04:24.490 or a humanized God. Nor is he a two headed Hydra, being two 44 00:04:24.610 --> 00:04:29.569 persons and one person at the same time. No, Jesus is one person, 45 00:04:30.529 --> 00:04:33.850 but both God and man, distinct and fully so in both ways. 46 00:04:35.689 --> 00:04:42.120 So that's the what of the incarnation. That's who Jesus was, but of 47 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:47.360 course inquiring why. Minds want to know how can this be? Mary herself 48 00:04:47.480 --> 00:04:54.470 and another place asks this same question. How can this be? And it's 49 00:04:54.470 --> 00:04:59.709 a fair question and even a good question to ask for several reasons. One 50 00:04:59.790 --> 00:05:04.790 is the answer of the how gives support to the what God tells us a 51 00:05:04.949 --> 00:05:10.139 truth and we can say and we should believe it simply on the fact that 52 00:05:10.220 --> 00:05:14.379 he's told it. But God and his goodness reveals to us more. He 53 00:05:14.459 --> 00:05:18.060 explains how it will happen, and that how, the explanation of it helps 54 00:05:18.100 --> 00:05:25.730 us to understand and to believe in its strengthens our faith. Another reason that 55 00:05:25.930 --> 00:05:30.730 question of how is is a good question to ask is it's a really important 56 00:05:30.769 --> 00:05:35.160 question. As I mentioned early in the service. Hebrews to nine and ten, 57 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:40.959 or nine or sorry, ten, through a team, says that our 58 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:47.240 salvation depends on Jesus being made like his brothers. Even makes the point that 59 00:05:47.480 --> 00:05:51.430 Jesus didn't come like an angel because he didn't come to save the angels. 60 00:05:51.470 --> 00:05:57.990 He could have been he could have become something else, but he didn't. 61 00:05:58.670 --> 00:06:00.949 He became like us, he became a man, he became incarnate. Why? 62 00:06:01.790 --> 00:06:09.579 Because our salvation depends on it. The how is very important. One 63 00:06:09.620 --> 00:06:13.019 of the Church Fathers, Gregory of Nancy ends, has put it this way. 64 00:06:14.339 --> 00:06:17.930 That which he that is Jesus, that which he has not assumed, 65 00:06:18.930 --> 00:06:25.129 he has not healed, but that which is united to his Godhead, is 66 00:06:25.250 --> 00:06:30.449 also saved. Sometimes this is translated is something like that which he is not 67 00:06:30.649 --> 00:06:34.040 taken on, he is not redeemed. It's a little maxim that reminds us 68 00:06:34.079 --> 00:06:40.240 that how important these two things are to go together. Jesus didn't take on 69 00:06:40.720 --> 00:06:44.839 Angel, the nature of an angel, because he didn't come to redeem angels. 70 00:06:44.920 --> 00:06:47.910 He didn't come to save the angels, he came to save us. 71 00:06:50.149 --> 00:06:56.990 All this is to say that our salvation depends completely on whether or not Jesus 72 00:06:57.269 --> 00:07:05.180 was in fact God eternally who came to save and also a true man so 73 00:07:05.339 --> 00:07:12.060 that he might represent us who needed to be saved. So that's where we 74 00:07:12.100 --> 00:07:15.699 get to this question of how and this assurance to our faith of how that 75 00:07:15.129 --> 00:07:19.449 came to be. How did Christ, the son of God, become man? 76 00:07:19.610 --> 00:07:24.810 Well, that's the next question in our cateschism, question twenty two. 77 00:07:25.569 --> 00:07:30.000 How did Christ, being the son of God, become man? The answer 78 00:07:30.079 --> 00:07:33.480 is Christ, the son of God, became man by taking to himself a 79 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:40.319 true body and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy 80 00:07:40.360 --> 00:07:46.189 Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born of her, yet without 81 00:07:46.230 --> 00:07:50.949 sin. You see what the catechism says here, words directly from scripture, 82 00:07:51.069 --> 00:07:58.269 reminding us of WHO Jesus was. It says that Jesus became man by taking 83 00:07:58.389 --> 00:08:03.660 to himself a true body. This is a reminder, and and that Jesus 84 00:08:03.699 --> 00:08:11.180 didn't merely appear as human, or his body wasn't sort of partially human or 85 00:08:11.220 --> 00:08:18.449 lacking in humanity in some way. No, everything about Jesus in his incarnation 86 00:08:18.689 --> 00:08:22.649 was totally human. It was a true body, not a Phantasm, not 87 00:08:22.769 --> 00:08:28.800 a projection or a ghost, a specter. It wasn't an idea, a 88 00:08:28.040 --> 00:08:33.360 concept, it was a body. And not only did he have a body, 89 00:08:33.480 --> 00:08:35.879 but, as all humans do, he also had a soul, a 90 00:08:37.159 --> 00:08:43.830 reasonable soul, one that thought and made sense of things and and worked, 91 00:08:43.870 --> 00:08:48.309 as souls do. How did this happen? Well, he was conceived by 92 00:08:48.389 --> 00:08:52.870 the power of the Holy Ghost, as we read in Luke Chapter One, 93 00:08:52.950 --> 00:09:00.539 that God would that she would conceive in her womb through the overshadowing of the 94 00:09:00.659 --> 00:09:05.460 Holy Spirit. This word overshadowing is such a remarkable term because it's the same 95 00:09:05.659 --> 00:09:15.090 verb that's used in genesis to describe the Holy Spirit hovering over the waters, 96 00:09:15.730 --> 00:09:20.129 overshadowing things, this kind of brooding spirit, at the beginning of creation. 97 00:09:20.250 --> 00:09:26.200 And you know what happened then. The world came into existence as God spoke 98 00:09:26.960 --> 00:09:30.000 through his word and by the power of the spirit. And the same thing 99 00:09:30.039 --> 00:09:33.759 happens here, only it's not the whole world, it's it's really the new 100 00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:39.350 world. The new age is brought forth in all here in Mary's womb. 101 00:09:41.870 --> 00:09:46.149 What an amazing thing to consider. Just as the Holy Spirit at the beginning 102 00:09:46.190 --> 00:09:52.669 of the world overshadow to the world, brooded and hovered over the world and 103 00:09:52.860 --> 00:10:00.100 brought life, so here too, but now over Mary, over her womb, 104 00:10:00.139 --> 00:10:05.580 and by the power of God, the son of man and the son 105 00:10:05.659 --> 00:10:13.529 of God was conceived. And in this being born of Mary, through this 106 00:10:13.690 --> 00:10:18.570 conception that she has from God, we find out that she's no surrogate mother. 107 00:10:18.250 --> 00:10:24.000 God didn't implant a sort of God divine embryo, the son of God, 108 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:28.279 in her and then which she was just a vessel. No, he 109 00:10:28.559 --> 00:10:33.879 was of her, he was from her. This was his mother. You 110 00:10:33.919 --> 00:10:39.990 might think of it this way. Jesus had Mary's DNA, to put it 111 00:10:39.070 --> 00:10:46.830 in modern terms. He was fully, fully, fully human, and yet 112 00:10:46.870 --> 00:10:52.059 also fully, fully, fully God, and we see all of that in 113 00:10:52.220 --> 00:11:00.059 this how how did Jesus become incarnate? Through this amazing thing that is never 114 00:11:00.220 --> 00:11:05.730 happened before in history and is never happened again and never will, the conception 115 00:11:05.370 --> 00:11:11.929 of a virgin by God. Now this might lead to all kinds of other 116 00:11:13.049 --> 00:11:16.809 house I tried to consider some of them and came to a few dead ends 117 00:11:16.850 --> 00:11:22.799 and darkness and mystery, and that's okay. God gives us the House as 118 00:11:22.840 --> 00:11:26.279 much as we need to know, as much as is right for us. 119 00:11:28.039 --> 00:11:31.639 Our job is to make sense of things, to understand things as they are 120 00:11:31.759 --> 00:11:37.750 given to us, to be assured in our faith of these historical facts and 121 00:11:37.909 --> 00:11:43.029 things that God has given to us. But our job is not to master 122 00:11:43.269 --> 00:11:48.220 God, to make sure that we can understand him and everything that he's done, 123 00:11:48.179 --> 00:11:56.940 both hidden and revealed. It's true enough that when to humans conceive there's 124 00:11:56.940 --> 00:12:01.970 a lot of darkness and mystery and wonder that goes on in the womb of 125 00:12:01.090 --> 00:12:09.090 a mother, beautiful things. How much more so when she conceives by God 126 00:12:09.169 --> 00:12:16.799 himself. It is a wonderful thing. What kind of awesome power went in 127 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:22.559 to this conception. And yet God gives himself to us in this way, 128 00:12:22.639 --> 00:12:28.639 and he does so at least for this reason that we might never doubt. 129 00:12:28.759 --> 00:12:35.029 I think this is one benefit of focusing on the how. It encourages us, 130 00:12:35.110 --> 00:12:37.789 it assures our faith, it tells us who he is and what he's 131 00:12:39.149 --> 00:12:43.779 done for us. Let me think of just or or share with you three 132 00:12:43.899 --> 00:12:48.940 things as we close, as we think about who he is and what he's 133 00:12:48.980 --> 00:12:54.740 done for us in the how of the incarnation, consider these three things. 134 00:12:54.980 --> 00:13:01.169 First, consider the love of God in the conception, this virgin conception, 135 00:13:01.370 --> 00:13:05.409 and the incarnation of the Sun. The love of God we see in this 136 00:13:05.649 --> 00:13:15.320 moment is a very deep and very intimate love. Consider how close God comes 137 00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:20.679 to his creatures, how close God comes to the humanity that he is made 138 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:30.029 at this moment of incarnation. And God doesn't just come to us, he 139 00:13:30.950 --> 00:13:35.429 becomes us, not to say that we are all divine or that God is 140 00:13:35.470 --> 00:13:39.350 in everything, but you know what I mean. Using the language of scripture, 141 00:13:39.350 --> 00:13:46.299 he becomes man, he becomes flesh, this particular person. God doesn't 142 00:13:46.379 --> 00:13:52.419 just come alongside of us, he becomes us. That's what I mean when 143 00:13:52.419 --> 00:13:58.970 I use the word intimate, when I describe God's love, and to do 144 00:14:00.169 --> 00:14:05.889 so in this particular way, in the most intimate spaces of our humanity, 145 00:14:07.450 --> 00:14:20.200 the son of God was conceived. These moments of conception are some of the 146 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:28.710 intimate moments that humans experience. You might add to that the the gestation period, 147 00:14:28.870 --> 00:14:35.789 the growing of a baby in a mother's womb. What's more intimate and 148 00:14:35.990 --> 00:14:41.779 close than these kinds of things? This is how God loves us. This 149 00:14:41.820 --> 00:14:48.659 is how close he comes to us when a mother carries a growing child in 150 00:14:48.779 --> 00:14:52.250 her and is nourishing that child by the strength of our own body. Jesus 151 00:14:54.009 --> 00:14:58.529 was being nourished by the strength of Mary, upheld by the hand of God 152 00:14:58.730 --> 00:15:05.370 and the power of the spirit. God was not required to do any of 153 00:15:05.490 --> 00:15:09.159 this, he was not required to come this close. In fact, is 154 00:15:09.399 --> 00:15:16.159 justice and repelled him from us. In our sin, in our in our 155 00:15:16.360 --> 00:15:20.240 the ways that we had committed treason against God and the ways that we had 156 00:15:20.519 --> 00:15:24.070 not lived up to the things that he had called us to do, God 157 00:15:24.669 --> 00:15:30.950 was and had rejected us, left us alone. But in the incarnation, 158 00:15:31.070 --> 00:15:33.509 in the promises leading up to it. In the fulfillment of those promises, 159 00:15:33.870 --> 00:15:41.059 God comes close and he comes intimately, close and deeply, and it shows 160 00:15:41.100 --> 00:15:46.059 us his very deep love. That's what we see in the how of the 161 00:15:46.179 --> 00:15:52.889 incarnation, how much God loves us, and we also see, secondly, 162 00:15:52.009 --> 00:15:56.929 his deep grace, as I've just been applied. He came this way not 163 00:15:58.090 --> 00:16:03.480 because he had to, but because he wanted to, because in his the 164 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:10.799 greatness of his mercy, he came to save sinners. Christ was born, 165 00:16:10.840 --> 00:16:17.799 Christ humbled himself, Christ died for the sake of sinners, for ungodly people 166 00:16:17.879 --> 00:16:22.909 and righteous people, people who didn't love him and didn't want him, people 167 00:16:22.909 --> 00:16:26.149 who are too busy with the cares of the world to seek him. Those 168 00:16:26.230 --> 00:16:32.860 are the people he came to save. I'm one of those people and if 169 00:16:32.899 --> 00:16:36.139 you believe in Jesus and trust in him, lying you're one of those people 170 00:16:36.259 --> 00:16:41.019 too. You're a person who's recognized that God came into the world not to 171 00:16:41.379 --> 00:16:45.179 put a metal on your chest and say wow, you're a really amazing person, 172 00:16:45.899 --> 00:16:51.649 but he came into the world saying I loved him, and I see 173 00:16:51.649 --> 00:16:56.690 how broken you are and I see how unhealthy you are and I want you 174 00:16:56.769 --> 00:17:02.279 to be whole again, I want you to be righteous, I want you 175 00:17:02.360 --> 00:17:11.759 to be mine. This is grace, undeserved favor, D merited favor. 176 00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:18.829 God gives this deep grace to us in his incarnation, when he comes this 177 00:17:18.029 --> 00:17:23.190 close to us. It is love and it is grace. And finally, 178 00:17:23.190 --> 00:17:26.470 I want you to consider, in the how of the incarnation, God's awesome 179 00:17:27.029 --> 00:17:33.779 power. When we consider the hall of the incarnation, the creation of of 180 00:17:33.940 --> 00:17:41.859 this human body, added to the divinity of the son of God, may 181 00:17:41.940 --> 00:17:48.450 we never again doubt the power of God to accomplish things. God brings water 182 00:17:48.690 --> 00:17:57.130 out of rocks, he stops celestial bodies in their tracks, he divides waters, 183 00:17:57.170 --> 00:18:03.000 he stops waters, he casts out demons and he brings life out of 184 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:11.759 nothing. And he became incarnate too. The power of God is amazing here. 185 00:18:12.630 --> 00:18:17.109 When we consider him coming into the world and all that he came to 186 00:18:17.269 --> 00:18:22.829 do, we remember how awesome him he is. I mentioned this because this 187 00:18:23.029 --> 00:18:30.059 is so important as we come upon the new year, as you consider the 188 00:18:30.180 --> 00:18:37.619 circumstances in your life, your health, your finances, your relationships, all 189 00:18:37.740 --> 00:18:42.210 of these various things, remember the incarnation, remember the power of God as 190 00:18:42.250 --> 00:18:49.049 it's manifested in love and grace, and never doubt again the God will take 191 00:18:49.089 --> 00:18:53.529 care of you, that he loves you and that all the trials that you 192 00:18:53.690 --> 00:18:59.559 will face are being accomplished according to his perfect and good and holy will, 193 00:19:00.279 --> 00:19:04.400 that he works all things together for good for those who love him and are 194 00:19:04.519 --> 00:19:11.750 called according to his purpose. Look and consider the incarnation of God and wonder. 195 00:19:14.230 --> 00:19:18.509 Pull this treasure of God that he has given to us and revealed to 196 00:19:18.589 --> 00:19:22.990 you and hold it heights in your heart, ponder it and meditate on it, 197 00:19:22.109 --> 00:19:30.019 consider it, even as Mary did. The wonderful thing about preaching and 198 00:19:30.220 --> 00:19:34.259 the sacraments, as will enjoy in a moment too. Is it in these 199 00:19:34.380 --> 00:19:40.970 things God continues to be with us, he continues to reveal himself, he 200 00:19:41.369 --> 00:19:48.569 continues to come to us. One of the things I've been thinking about as 201 00:19:48.569 --> 00:19:53.319 we've been going through these is the the star of Bethlehem and how good sermons 202 00:19:53.400 --> 00:20:00.079 really should be like like that star right, always taking us to Jesus right 203 00:20:00.680 --> 00:20:06.440 fall. We should be always following, following to Jesus that we might bow 204 00:20:06.640 --> 00:20:12.789 down and worship and give him praise. That's my aim, not just this 205 00:20:12.950 --> 00:20:18.670 morning but all the time, and I do that because just because I like 206 00:20:18.950 --> 00:20:21.269 it, which I do, and not just because I love it, which 207 00:20:21.269 --> 00:20:26.660 I do, but because this is God working among us. He gives us 208 00:20:26.700 --> 00:20:30.980 himself through the preaching of the word, through the administration of the sacraments, 209 00:20:32.539 --> 00:20:34.970 and he continues to give himself over and over again, taking us to Jesus, 210 00:20:36.210 --> 00:20:41.089 taking us to Jesus, taking us to Jesus. And when he takes 211 00:20:41.089 --> 00:20:44.369 us to Jesus, he takes us not just to a story or an idea 212 00:20:44.450 --> 00:20:49.279 or concept or philosophy, but to the incarnate son of God who came in 213 00:20:49.440 --> 00:20:56.160 power and love and grace to save you. So treasure it in your heart, 214 00:20:57.279 --> 00:21:03.799 believe on him who came to save sinners, and worship at his feet. 215 00:21:06.190 --> 00:21:08.190 This is our savior. Let's pray to him.