The Fathers of Jesus

Good evening, everyone. It's great to be in church with you tonight. If I've never met

you before, my name is Stephen, senior pastor here at St. Paul's. And it is always great

to be at church with you, but particularly on, I think, Christmas time. I just love Christmas

time. I've got three young girls at home right now. They've gone to bed. Hopefully they're

asleep. And just excited. The reindeer food's been put out, attracting the possums and everything

else. But they'll think it's the reindeers in the morning. Just an exciting time of year.

And with three young girls, I noticed the youngest is seven at the moment. But when they're sort

of around four or five, the height of ambition for them at this time of year, because they're

girls and because they're too old to play Jesus in the nativity, the best thing is to be merry.

They all kind of line up. They want to be merry. If they're going to have any sort of nativity

play, every five-year-old girl wants to play merry. And each year, unfortunately, only one

girl is ever picked. As it turns out, mine never been picked. I don't know how that worked

out with the senior pastor thing. Because we don't play favourites around here. Each year,

only one girl is ever picked. And they've reached the theatrical dizzying heights of being merry.

And from these two central roles, if you're not Jesus, you're not merry in the nativity

play. It's descending order of importance from that moment on. There's the Magi, which is

fantastic. There's always a bunch of angels. They don't have to say too much. There's the

shepherds. There's the King Herod. He's the boo-his guy. There's the sheep, the donkeys.

Ironically, there was actually no donkeys actually in Bethlehem at the time. But for some reason,

we've always got donkeys in the nativity scene. There's cows. And somewhere, there's some poor

lad who gets the gig of Joseph. Doesn't say anything. Like most husbands at the birthday,

their children. Just there. Because we're meant to be. And so some poor lad's got Joseph,

and he really doesn't want to really say anything at all. And the scripts often forget that in actual

fact, as we've just read, an angel also came to Joseph. He has a fairly key role in this whole

nativity scene. In fact, there's at least one thing that the angel said to Joseph that he didn't

tell anyone else. He didn't tell Mary, didn't tell the shepherds, said it just to Joseph. Angel

tells Joseph in a dream that the baby that is to be born to his fiancee, Mary, is a fulfillment of a

prophecy from hundreds of years earlier. And it's a prophecy that God would come and dwell amongst

his people. And so in this interaction between Joseph and the angel, we have a very, very invaluable

treasure. And so tonight, I just want to look at that passage from Matthew 1 really quick.

Three main things to learn from the name Emmanuel. Only Joseph was told Emmanuel is his name.

Three main things. Number one, Jesus is God. Number two, that he is human. And three, that he is with us.

So I know it's a bit after 11, but three simple things to remember. Number one, Jesus is God.

There are several ways that Matthew drives home the core Christmas message that Jesus is not simply

a great religious leader. He's not just simply a great teacher or even some angelic being, but in fact,

the divine God himself. In verse 20 of what Nick just read out to us, the angel tells Joseph that the human

life that is growing inside Mary has come not from any human being, but from his heavenly father,

from God himself. And so Jesus, if you like, has two fathers and Joseph will be Jesus' father only in a

secondary sense. Mary is told in the text, is pregnant by the Holy Spirit. God is the real father.

However, the most direct statement of Jesus' identity comes in verse 23. Matthew quotes from Isaiah chapter 7,

Isaiah 7 · chapter mention

several hundred years before, and he says,

the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us.

Now, for centuries, Jewish religious leaders and scholars had known about that prophecy,

but they had not thought that it should be taken quite literally. Matthew is saying that this promise

is greater than even all the scholars imagined. Jesus Christ is God with us because the human

life growing in the womb of Mary was a miracle performed by God himself. This child, as we have just sung,

is literally God. Now, Matthew was a Jew, which makes this statement really startling for him.

You see, the Jewish had a distinctive view of God, which made them, the people on earth,

at that time, least open to the idea that a human being could be God. At that time,

Eastern religions believed God was an impersonal force permeating all things. And so it wasn't unusual

for them to say that some human beings were, if you like, particularly great manifestations of the

divine. Western religions at the time believed that gods would disguise themselves as human beings for their own purposes.

So you see this in Greek and Roman mythology and in their concept of deity.

Jews, however, believed in a God who was both personal and infinite.

God was not a being within the universe, but was instead the ground of its existence and infinitely

transcendent above the universe. So everything in a Jewish worldview was against the idea that a human

being could be God. Jews would not even pronounce the name of their God, Yahweh.

They wouldn't even spell it.

And yet Jesus Christ,

a Jew,

by his life, by his claims and by his resurrection,

convinced his closest Jewish followers

that he was not just a prophet telling them how to find God,

but that he was God himself

coming to humanity.

Now, Matthew is not the only biblical author to teach this.

John,

the apostle,

Paul,

another Jew,

a Pharisee,

the apostle Peter,

another Jewish man,

they all declared it.

Now, of course,

the opinions of these authors would not mean much if Jesus himself hadn't clearly declared his divine identity.

All through the Gospels,

every book,

history book about Jesus,

you see Jesus constantly forgiving sin,

which only God can do.

He also claims,

I'm going to come back and I'm going to judge all of humanity across every culture and generation

and only God can do that.

And at many times,

in many ways,

Jesus Christ,

a Jewish man says,

I am God.

And thousands and thousands of people came to believe him and worship him.

It's a claim that we've just sung.

Many in this world know the claim

and give it lip service at Christmas

without thinking about the implications of that claim

and what we have just sung.

If Jesus really is God,

what does it mean for us practically?

Well, firstly,

it's a intellectual watershed.

It's a turning point for us.

Some have argued that the supreme miracle of Christianity

is not the resurrection of Christ from the dead,

but the coming of God into the world as a human being.

Of all the things that Christianity proclaims,

this one is the most staggering.

A Canadian theologian, James Packer,

puts it bluntly.

He says,

God became man.

The divine son became a Jew.

The almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby,

unable to do more than lie,

stare,

wriggle,

make noises,

needing to be fed and changed

and talked to

like any other child.

The more you think about it,

the more staggering it gets.

Nothing in fiction is as fantastic as this.

The claim that Jesus is God

is an intellectual turning point,

but it also causes a personal crisis.

A crisis is a fork in the road.

And the assertion that Jesus Christ is God

is exactly that.

Whenever you see Jesus acting in the Gospels,

you see him putting people in motion

wherever he goes.

He's like this giant bowling ball.

Wherever he goes,

he breaks up old patterns

and he sends people off into different directions.

Jesus evokes extreme reactions from everyone.

Some are so furious with him

that they try to run him off a cliff and kill him.

Others are so terrified by him

that they say,

just depart from me, Jesus.

Get away from me.

And others fall down before him

and worship him.

Why the extreme reactions?

It's because of who he claims to be.

If he is who he is,

who he says he is,

then you have no alternative

but to center your life around him

as we have just sung.

He claims to be the God

who created all things,

the source of all life,

the one who defines all reality.

And so if he is not who he says he is,

then he is someone to hate,

he is someone to run away from

because he would have to be

the greatest fraud in history.

No other response makes sense.

Either he is God or he isn't

and so he's absolutely mad

or he's infinitely wonderful.

He's one or the other.

He's not just someone in the middle

that you can just admire.

So thirdly, the claim that Jesus is God

also gives us the greatest possible hope.

You see, the one who defines all things,

creates all things,

determines, defines all reality,

says that our world is not all that there is

and there is life

and there is love after death

and that evil and suffering will one day end.

But this is not just hope for the world

despite all its unending problems,

but hope for you and me

despite all of our unending failings.

A God who was only holy

would never have come down to us in Jesus Christ.

He would have simply just said,

you lot, pull yourselves together.

Pull your socks up.

Live a little bit more morally.

Make yourself holy enough

to merit a relationship with me.

A deity, on the other hand,

that was an all-accepting God of love

would never have needed to come to earth either.

This God of the modern imagination

would have just overlooked sin and evil

and just embraced us all

like a big jelly baby.

And neither of these gods

would have bothered with Christmas.

The biblical God, however,

is infinitely holy.

So our sin cannot just be

shrugged off and ignored.

It has to be dealt with.

But he is also infinitely loving.

And he knows that we could never,

ever climb up to him.

And so he had to come to us.

God had to come himself

and do what we could not do.

Christmas means then

that there is all the hope in this world,

in him.

That's the first thing.

Jesus is God.

Secondly, Jesus is human.

This interaction between Joseph and the angel

reveals that he's God,

but also that he's human,

that he is God with us.

Christmas tells us that Jesus was truly

and fully God

and truly and fully human.

But what,

I mean, who gives a rip?

What difference does that make?

That he is actually God

who's become fully human.

It means a life

of sacrificial service,

as Jake just read out to us

from Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

That passage teaches us

that when the Son of God became human,

he did not lay aside his deity.

He was still God,

but he emptied himself of his glory.

It's said there that it was something

that he did not grasp,

something he did not use

for his own purposes,

his own gain.

He laid aside his divine rights.

He became vulnerable and ordinary

in order to save us.

I'll quote Packer again.

He puts it like this,

for the Son of God

to empty himself

and become poor

meant a laying aside of glory,

a voluntary restraint of power,

an acceptance of hardship,

of isolation,

of ill treatment,

of malice and misunderstanding,

and finally a death

that involved such agony,

spiritual even more than physical,

that his mind nearly broke

under the prospect of it.

It meant love to the utmost

for unloving humanity.

And I love how Packer,

what he does with that

and what it means for us practically.

He says,

the Christmas spirit

does not shine out

in the Christian snob.

For the Christmas spirit

is the spirit of those

who, like their master,

live their whole lives

on the principle

of making themselves poor,

spending and being spent

to enrich their fellow humanity,

giving time,

trouble, care and concern,

to do good to others

and not just their own friends

in whatever way

there seems need.

It's a life of service.

The fact that God became human

and entered himself

of his glory

means that you should not want

to hang out with the people

just with power and glitz

who are well networked

who can open doors for you.

You need to be willing

to go to the people

without power,

without beauty,

without the money.

That is the Christmas spirit.

It is so ironic

that we spend billions on it

at Christmas time

and more often than not,

not for the needy

and for the poor.

God becoming one of us

also means infinite comfort

for the suffering.

A little bit later

in the New Testament

in Hebrews 2, verse 17.

Hebrews 2:17

It says that Jesus

was made just like us,

fully human in every way.

And the very next verse

tells us what this means

for us practically.

It says,

because he himself suffered

when he was tried and tested,

he is able to help those

who are being tried and tested.

You see,

when something bad happens to us

and real suffering comes to us,

the overwhelming feeling

we have is loneliness.

People around us,

they express sympathy,

but, you know,

you know,

in the midst of them

expressing their sympathy,

you know,

there's something about it

that doesn't help.

Then you meet someone

who knows,

who's been through

exactly what you've been through,

or virtually exactly

what you've been through.

They know what it's like.

And you pour your heart

out to that person.

They've got empathy for you.

You listen to them

and their opinions

because they've been through

the same thing.

And when they comfort you,

you feel comforted by them.

The coming of God

into this world

on the first Christmas

ultimately means

that God suffered

and that Jesus triumphed

through suffering.

And Jesus now

has infinite power

to comfort.

Christmas shows you

a God

unlike the God

of any other faith.

Have you been betrayed?

Have you been lonely?

Have you been destitute?

Have you had relationships fracture?

Have you felt abandoned?

Have you faced death?

So has he.

And he's triumphed through it.

Christianity says

God has been all the places

that you have been

and are potentially in right now.

He has been in the darkness

that you are in now

and even more.

You can trust him.

You can rely on him.

He knows suffering.

He has the power

to comfort,

strengthen

and bring you through it

because point number three,

Jesus is with us.

You see,

it would have been

astonishing enough

if the Son of God

had become human

and simply lived

temporarily amongst us

and left us

some really good teaching stuff

to follow.

Do this

and life will go well

for you.

His plans

were just so

infinitely greater

than that.

His plan

was always

to be with us.

He,

one of the first things

he did

when he went public

with his ministries,

chose 12 dudes

and,

to follow him

and appointed them

as his early apostles.

And he says,

I want,

you're going to be

with me.

What does it mean

that they are

with him?

It means being

in his presence,

conversing with him,

learning from him,

having his comfort

moment by moment

in their day-by-day life.

You see,

the purpose of God

coming into this world

is that we would

actually have

a relationship

with him,

that we not just

know information

about him

but have a relationship

with him.

In Jesus,

the unapproachable God

becomes a human being

who can be known

and loved.

And through faith,

we can know

this love.

And frankly,

it doesn't stun us

as much as it should.

See,

in the Old Testament,

anytime anyone

drew near to God,

it was terrifying.

Totally terrifying.

God appears to Abraham

as a smoking furnace,

to Israel

as a pillar of fire,

to Job

as a hurricane

and a tornado.

When Moses

asked to see God

face to face,

he was told,

yeah,

but it'll kill you.

So great

and so high

and so unapproachable

is this God.

And the message

of Christmas

means that through Jesus,

you can meet this God

and he won't kill you.

You can know

the unapproachable

personally

and without terror.

And when God

showed up in Jesus,

he was not a pillar

of fire,

he was not a tornado,

he was a baby.

Why would God

come to,

this time,

why would he come

as a baby

rather than a firestorm

or a whirlwind?

Because this time

he came not to bring judgment

but to bear it.

to pay the penalty

for our sin,

to take away

the barrier

that existed,

the wall of hostility

between humanity

and God

so that we can

be together.

Jesus is God

with us.

Every Christmas,

tonight,

millions of people

around this world

will join with us

and sing

Jesus,

our Emmanuel.

But are you

really with him?

Do you know him

or do you

just know about him?

Jesus literally

moved heaven and earth

to get near us.

What should we

be doing now

to truly be with him?

Well,

there's one

crucial trait,

one crucial step

that's necessary

for having

a personal relationship

with Jesus

and it's one

that Christians,

especially in

Western society,

we often

overlook it.

An intimate

relationship

with Jesus

always requires

courage.

I mean,

it's often

overlooked

Joseph

in this whole

story,

how much courage

he must have had

to wake up

from a dream

with an angel

and in his

society

to be

shamed,

to be,

for his

fiancee

to be pregnant

was an act

of shame

for him

or for her

or for both

of them

and then to go

home and tell

his mates,

well,

actually,

I'm not the

father,

God is.

That's plausible.

It required

an immense

amount of

courage

for him

to take

Mary

and for him

to adopt

Jesus

and it

requires

courage

of us.

We cannot

know Jesus

personally

unless we

have the

courage

to admit

that we

are sinners.

Jesus'

entire

mission

is summed

up in

verse 21

of the

text that

was read

out to us

from Matthew

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1.

He will

save

his people

from their

sins.

First

and foremost,

Jesus came

to forgive

us.

Every other

blessing that

we have,

the comfort,

the hope,

every other

blessing flows

from that.

Are you

willing to

say,

I'm a moral

failure?

I don't love

God with all

of my heart,

my soul,

my strength,

and my mind.

I don't love

my neighbour

as myself.

And therefore,

I am guilty

and I need

forgiveness

and pardon

before I need

anything else.

That takes

enormous courage

to admit

because it

means that

you throw

your old

self-image

that you've

spent your

lifetime

building

out,

you throw

it out

and you get

a new one

through Jesus.

And yet,

this is the

foundation

of every

other

blessing

that Jesus

wants to

bring into

your life.

All the

comfort,

all the

hope,

all the

joyful

humility

and everything

else.

So how

do we

get the

strength

to be

courageous

like that,

to admit

that we

are moral

failures

and we

need him?

By

looking at

him.

That's

how we

do it.

Because if

you think

it takes

courage to

be with

him,

consider

that it

took

infinitely

more

courage

for

him

to

be

with

us.

Only

Christianity

of every

world religion

and

philosophies,

only Christianity

says that

one of the

attributes of

the divine

God is

courage.

No other

religion has

a God who

needed courage.

God is

to

God is

to

save us

only by

facing an

agonizing

death that

had him

wrestling in

sweat

in a

garden

just before

he was

arrested.

He became

mortal and

vulnerable so

that he could

suffer and be

betrayed and

killed.

He faced

all these

things

for you

and for

me and

he thought

it was

worth it.

Look at

him.

Face

the

darkness

for you.

Look at

him doing

that and

that will

enable you

to face

any darkness

yourself.

You've

heard the

phrase,

hark the

herald angels

sing,

mild he

lays his

glory by.

What does

it mean

mild he

lays his

glory by?

He did

it voluntarily,

he did

it willingly

and he

did it

lovingly.

No one

forced him,

it wasn't

his duty,

he faced

unimaginable

pain and

death out

of love

for you.

Why did

Jesus have

the courage

to do

what he

did for

us?

Love.

No other

explanation

for it.

And how

do we get

the courage

to admit

that we're

sinners and

need his

forgiveness

and a

relationship

with him

exact same

way?

See him

doing all

that he

did for

us.

That will

draw out

of us

love for

him.

And then

we will

have the

courage to

put him

where he

belongs as

the God

of the

universe

in the

center of

our lives.

And then

he will be

with us

and you'll

be with

him.

Emmanuel.

Jesus

is God.

Jesus is

human.

And Jesus

is with

us.

Merry

Christmas.