I Believe: God Incarnate (Isaiah 7:10-14; Luke 1:26-38)

Hello, listeners.

This is Pastor Creighton.

Thank you for tuning into Newsong Church's Sermon Podcast.

At Newsong Church, we want to see Jesus lifted high in Port Perry, Ontario, as we worship, grow, and serve.

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Today we continue our sermon series in the Christian life with God, our Creator.

I believe in Jesus Christ.

He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts be always pleasing in your sight, O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Merry Christmas, by the way.

These are Christmas readings, aren't they?

Well, for the last uh three weeks, well, this week included three weeks, we've been journeying together as a parish through the Apostles' Creed.

This second century transit map, as it were, which gives us the doctrines of our biblical faith, pardon me, the neighborhoods of our biblical faith, the doctrines, the things we hold to, those things which we in Christ know to be true, that we proclaim, that moves us to worship and awe.

In our first week together, Trinity Sunday, we looked at the Trinitarian DNA of our creed, the Trinitarian shape of this transit map, these neighborhoods of doctrine.

God is Trinity, three relational persons in one communal divine being.

That means God is love because God is triune.

Our next week together, last week, we saw that God is our creator, and we asked two important questions.

We asked, who is our creator?

And we asked, who does that make us?

Our creator is Almighty God, sovereign over all things, who delights in creation, and who has freely created us, human beings, as his image-bearers.

But we ended last week on something of a minor key.

Because we witnessed the corruption of this good creation, this very good creation, in our fall from grace, our first parents' fall, the corruption of humanity that Psalm 14 witnesses to.

They are corrupt.

They have become abominable in their doings.

There is none that does good, no, not one.

Sin, estrangement, alienation, and even the power of death, temporal and eternal, have been introduced by our first parents, rebellion and disobedience.

We are those who need rescue.

We are powerless to help ourselves.

We need a rescuer.

And the Bible we saw is a rescue story.

Corrupt humanity needs rescuing, and our holy triune God is our rescuer.

The question is, how?

What's the means by which we are rescued from this state of sin and corruption?

Well, we began our service this morning with John 1.14.

The word became flesh and dwelt among us.

This word that was with God, this word was God.

This eternal divine word has become a human being, and we have seen his glory.

Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

God meets us in our corrupted, sinful state.

He takes on our corrupted humanity in Christ.

He is without sin, and yet he bears our corrupted humanity.

He meets our corruption with his grace and truth exactly where we need it, in our fallenness.

So the author of Hebrews can say in this morning's reading that Jesus partook of the same flesh and blood of his brothers and sisters, that same flesh and blood that we live with, that same flesh and blood that sometimes we have to deal with.

He is fully human.

In the person of Jesus Christ, the divine word became fully flesh and blood to rescue our humanity from corruption.

God with us in Christ to rescue us.

So the incarnation is not a flash in the pan.

Jesus didn't put on a flesh suit for a while, walk around, and then throw it off like an uncomfortable suit at the end of the day.

No, the divine word, which has eternally coexisted with the Father and Spirit, is now incarnate in our Lord Jesus permanently.

In the language of the church of the fifth century, Jesus' two natures, his divinity and his humanity, are united unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, and inseparably.

Means Jesus is going to change the game plan halfway through.

He is fully God and fully human for us.

In Christ, God is fully with us, unreservedly.

So the doctrine of the incarnation includes not only Jesus' virgin birth, but also his life, his substitutionary death, his resurrection, his ascension, and his second coming in glory.

God with us for all eternity.

The incarnation of God in Christ, God's enfleshment in Jesus means God is with us.

What I want us to look at this morning is two points.

I want us to look at promise and I want us to look at fulfillment.

I want us to see two implications that the incarnation has for us as Christians here at New Song Today.

Isaiah chapter 7 sees that the incarnation fulfills God's promise.

Isaiah 7 · chapter mention

God will accomplish his word.

And our gospel reading in Luke chapter 1 tells us that the incarnation displays God's power.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

God is capable of performing that which he has committed himself to.

This promise and fulfillment tells us that God is with us.

For us and for our salvation, Jesus came down from heaven, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man.

The incarnation is our sure hope of salvation.

So let's begin exploring this doctrine that God is with us, beginning with the virgin birth.

The incarnation fulfills God's promise.

Let's look at Isaiah chapter 7, verses 10 to 14.

Isaiah 7:10–14

See, God's word is a sure thing.

We can count on it.

We usually see this verse, or at least a section of this verse, from uh on Christmas cards, right?

Rosy-cheeked children and uh and beautiful Christmas scenes.

And it's a wonderful verse to meditate on and a wonderful hope to cling to, especially at Christmas time.

But the circumstances surrounding these words were far less than jolly.

There's a divided kingdom.

God has established his kingdom and promised that David would have a throne forever.

And now this kingdom is divided.

There's a northern kingdom of Israel, also called Ephraim later in verse 17, and a southern kingdom of Judah, over which King Ahaz rules, and he rules in the royal line of David.

Israel, or Ephraim, is making an alliance with a local power named Syria.

And this is giving King Ahaz a lot to worry about, because this superpower, this coalition could do a lot of damage to Judah.

So King Ahaz starts scheming.

He thinks that he can trust the local superpower, Assyria, for salvation, for some military and political protection.

See here's the basic issue going on in Isaiah chapter 7.

Isaiah 7 · chapter mention

When the pressure is on, who are you going to trust?

Are you going to trust in the power of man?

Are you going to trust in the power of God?

This is why God sends his prophet Isaiah to speak God's word to the king.

Isaiah says to Ahaz that he should ask the Lord for a sign, a supernatural pledge of God's commitment and capability.

But Ahaz pulls a little maneuver.

In his false piety and in his hypocrisy, he twists the words of Deuteronomy chapter 6, and he goes, I wouldn't dream of putting God to the test.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

I'm not going to do something like that.

And at the end of the day, he refuses to trust God.

Why?

Because he's put his trust in man.

He's put his trust in Assyria.

Therefore, verse 14, the Lord himself will give you a sign.

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel.

So notice a couple of things.

Notice that God meets Ahaz's hypocrisy with generosity.

God meets Ahaz's unfaithfulness with faithfulness.

Ahaz doesn't want to ask a sign like God is asking him to do.

Well, God's going to step in and offer that sign freely.

This is God's pledge.

I promise you that a child will be miraculously born.

And because God has addressed his word to the house of David in earlier verses and later on in Isaiah chapter 9, we can infer that this child will be a royal child.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

This child will preserve this promised throne of David.

This child will be such a remarkable provision from God that he will be called Emmanuel, which means God with us.

This Emmanuel will be God's guide and God's help for his people in need of rescue.

His people who've got enemies at the gates.

This Emmanuel is going to be their guide and help.

In Ahaz's day, this promise is a pledge of God's commitment to his wayward people.

Though you are corrupt, helpless, and even faithless, I will not leave you or forsake you.

I will be with you.

When we zoom out the lens and we see how this promise gets fulfilled, we see that the incarnation proves God's word to be true.

God keeps his promises.

Even beyond what Ahaz had in mind at the moment.

God is with his people in the fullest sense imaginable.

The incarnation is the assurance that God keeps his promises.

One of the things I really delight in is watching little children learn how to swim.

You ever just kind of stand back and watch this thing happen?

There's a terrific hesitancy that children have, even though they're just decked out head to toe in inflatables, right?

They're kind of standing out like this.

They're just so inflated.

There's nothing we know that can happen to that child, but it's still a very scary thing we know to ask them to jump in the pool, right?

It's a sort of chaos that is unfathomable for a two-year-old or however old they might be.

But so often it's their parent, maybe it's their dad, standing waist deep in the pool, arms outstretched, saying something like, I promise I'm right here.

I'm not going anywhere.

I promise I am with you.

What does that do to the child?

Suddenly, this fearful, timid child has the courage to take that leap.

Why?

Because they know their dad is with them.

This is the promise to Israel in such a moment of chaos and trouble.

I will be with you.

This will be a pledge, a sign.

I am with you.

I'm not going anywhere.

And it makes the difference.

So for us, I want to suggest that this passage does not mean we should go asking wild signs of God to see whether or not they come true.

It's actually Ahaz's unfaithfulness that prompts this.

Rather, we ought to be a people, as Christians, who go to where we know God's promises are to be found.

To go to God's word, to find his promises, and to cling to them with the kind of faith this small child has in their dad standing in the pool.

Because we know that these promises aren't just nice sentiments.

We can bank on them.

He will keep his word.

And though the enemies are at the door, we can take courage.

God's promises are surer still, and the incarnation of God is proof.

So now we can fast forward 800 years, and we meet the virgin mother to be of this promised Emmanuel.

Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, Luke chapter one says, you shall call his name Jesus, Yeshua, which means God saves.

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.

And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

In other words, God's promises to David, and God's promises delivered through the prophet Isaiah are going to be fulfilled in this son of Mary's.

But she has a reasonable question.

I think it's a reasonable question.

How will this be since I am a virgin?

This is what brings us to our second point.

The incarnation fulfills God's promise.

The incarnation displays God's power.

God is capable to perform his will even beyond what we can imagine.

So the question is how?

How is this going to take place?

And Luke chapter 1, verse 40 35, the angel answers her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Luke 1:40

So we need to get something straight at this point here, because from time to time I hear this objection.

This is not some kind of sexual union between God and Mary.

This is not exploiting this young woman.

This is the supernatural power of the Most High on display.

See, maybe in our minds we can recall the scene we saw last week.

See, since the Holy Spirit's very first appearance, he has been calling forth life from creation.

This is the marvelous, life-giving power of God on full display.

And Luke chapter 1 is something of a paired nativity account.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

Jesus and John the Baptist both are being presented to the readers.

John the Baptist, Luke has written, will go before Jesus in the spirit and power of Elijah.

That's what Luke has to say about John.

He's going forth in this power of Elijah, which is to say he's going to be a prophet proclaiming God's word to his people.

And yet, whose power is it that's linked to Jesus' conception?

It's not a prophet, it's not Moses, it's the power of the Most High.

Therefore, this child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.

Jesus, born of a virgin, is fully human.

He's born of a mother just like everyone else.

And yet, uniquely, he's conceived without a human father, but by the power of God.

And so therefore, Jesus can be called the Son of God, not just as an honorary title, but in very essence.

He's been conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.

He is God with us.

So the incarnation displays God's power, God's power in creation, God's power to accomplish his purposes.

It reminds us that nothing will be impossible for God.

So it strikes me as strange when I hear otherwise biblical Christians call the virgin birth into question.

It's okay to struggle with doubts from time to time.

We ought to wrestle with the doctrine that we confess.

But from time to time I hear otherwise biblical Christians who've abandoned this doctrine.

This sounds more like a folk tale, more like hero worship than it does something that could be true.

But I find that odd.

Why would we doubt God's capability to perform what he's committed himself to?

Why would we doubt God's power?

Has God given us reason to think he's not powerful enough to accomplish his purposes?

Has he given us reason to doubt the fulfillment of his promises?

The danger in abandoning the doctrine of the virgin birth, while we find it in our creed, is that if we let it go, we undermine God's promises, God's power, and we undermine the very essence of the incarnation, that God is with us in Christ.

If all this is true, if the incarnation displays God's power, if Jesus is God with us, our Emmanuel, then we have every reason to remain confident and steadfast even when life doesn't make sense.

Even when the task may seem impossible, if it is God's will, then he has the power to accomplish it.

We need only hand ourselves back over to him again and again to see him accomplish his will.

Mary is a terrific example of faithfulness.

To our shame, us Protestants, we often overlook Mary.

But her response here is so remarkable.

What does she say to this?

I don't know, God, give me some time to think about it.

This doesn't sound like my kind of thing.

The remarkable privilege of being the Virgin Mother of Emmanuel, God with us, the one who will save God's people and rule on David's throne, what is it that Mary says?

Let it be to me according to your word.

For us Christians, that ought to be the template of a faithful response to God.

When God makes that ask, when it doesn't make sense, when we have to step out in faith, when we have to jump into the pool, we ought to be those who say, Let it be to me according to your word.

Because the incarnation of God in Christ is proof.

God has the power to accomplish his purposes.

Now I guess here's where I want to land this morning.

There's one question that might remain for us, and the question is, why?

Why did God become human in Christ?

This is what Hebrews chapter 2, verse 17 says.

Hebrews 2:17

That God in Christ had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every respect.

That's not optional.

That's a must.

He had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every respect.

And why is that?

So that he might become a merciful, a compassionate, and faithful, trustworthy, and sure high priest in the service of God to make propitiation, to turn away God's righteous wrath for the sins of his people.

See, priests are those who stand with God's people and bear them before the Lord.

And they are those who stand with the Lord and speak the Lord's word to his people.

They stand in the gap, as it were.

We see that throughout the Old Testament.

And Jesus is called our great high priest.

He is the priest par excellence.

He is the priest.

He is your priest.

He's my priest.

He is the one who bears our corrupt humanity before a holy God and bears his wrath.

But he is the one who bears God's presence to our humanity and brings with him all of that grace and goodness and forgiveness that belong to the Lord our God.

See, we must not forget it, it is out of his overflowing love and compassion that God is with us in Christ.

Our Emmanuel.

This God has promised.

This God has power to perform.

God is with us.

Amen.