************ Sermon on Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 35-36 ************
Doctrine: The Apostles' Creed; the virgin birth
By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman
This sermon was preached on December 25, 2000
Q & A 35-36
Luke 2:1-20
Luke 1:35; 2:6-7
"The Son of God Took On Our Flesh"
Introduction
The angel said, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus ..."
"How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"
The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God ..." (Lk 1:30-35).
"Gibberish, garbage, superstition, myth," says the unbeliever. "How can you anyone believe such nonsense in today's rational, scientific world? Test-tube babies? yes! Artificial insemination? yes! Virgin birth? never!"
But for the Christian this is an article of faith. "I believe," says the Christian. "I believe ... in Jesus Christ ... who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary."
Perhaps you saw the picture of two sculptors decorating a new post office in a suburb of Cologne, West Germany. Two giant hands, each two meters long, seem to be grasping for each other but in vain. One hand, the higher hand, juts right out of the side of the building toward the second hand rising from the ground.
I do not know the meaning of the mysterious sculptures for the sculptors, but to me they represent the hand of man stretched out for help and the hand, the almighty hand, of God, stretched out to deliver man from the pit into which he has fallen. This is essentially the Christmas story -- God reaching down to earth!
When we think about it, we have to admit that the whole history of salvation is the story of God coming down to man's level, in order to seek and save him from sin. Nowhere does the Bible suggest that man climbs up to God; rather, it is a case of God coming down to us. We see this coming down of God over and over again in Scripture.
Immediately after sin shattered the relationship between God and our first parents, what did God do? God came to look for Adam and Eve. "Where are you?" He cried (Gen 3:9). Or, remember the time God visited with Abraham? In the form of a human traveler the Creator of the world stopped to have lunch with Abraham: they had meat and curds and milk (Gen 18). Or, consider Israel's wilderness experience. God had a special meeting place, a "tent of meeting," where "the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend" (Ex 33:11). And, in Jerusalem God had a permanent address, the Temple, where He came down to meet with His people.
Today, Christmas Day, I want to remind you of the virgin birth that miracle by which the eternal Son of God became a human being through the operation of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary. This miracle is the climax of God's gracious coming down, in order to seek and save a lost-in-sin mankind.
In the beginning the devil fired the pride of humanity by saying, "You will be like God" (Gen 3:5). But in the fullness of time, God became like us.
So we see the road of redemption runs from heaven to earth and not from earth to heaven. God keeps coming down toward us. He gets off His throne and comes down to our level.
Topic: Christ
Subtopic: Incarnation of
Index: 720
Date: 10/1985.26
Title: Message of Love
There was a man in Wales who sought to win the affection of a certain lady for 42 years before she finally said, "Yes." In 1985, when both of them were 74 years old, the couple became "Mr. and Mrs."
For more than 40 years, the persistent, but rather shy man slipped a weekly love letter under his neighbor's door.
After writing 2,184 love letters without ever getting a spoken or written answer, the single-hearted old man eventually summoned up enough courage to present himself in person. He knocked on the door of the reluctant lady and asked for her hand. To his delight and surprise, she accepted.
Imagine God's dilemma. Time and time again He tried to get His message of love through to His human creation with little response. Finally, when there was no other way, He wrapped up His message in person.
(Lk 1:35) "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God."
(Lk 2:6-7) While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, (7) and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger ...
B In the virgin birth we see what we have seen so many other times throughout the history of salvation: God doing the humanly impossible to advance His redemptive purposes and accomplish His eternal plans. Take Abraham and Sarah, for instance: they got the child of the promise only after every human possibility was exhausted. This couple was childless for so long after the promise was first given they began to think God might want to count Abraham's descendants through the servant Eliezer (Gen 15:2). But about this God said, "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir" (Gen 15:4). After this Abraham and Sarah thought God's promise might mean a son through the maidservant Hagar. But about this God said, "As for Sarai your wife ... I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her" (Gen 17:15,16). Abraham and Sarah both laughed the laughter of unbelief when they heard this for they were well past the child-bearing years. But God achieved His redemptive purposes by bringing about the miraculous birth of Isaac. Other miraculous births we can mention by which God achieved His redemptive purposes are those of Samson (Judges 13) and Samuel (1 Sam 1). And, in the New Testament period, the story begins with the birth of John the Baptist from another couple who were too old to have a child.
The history of redemption from the birth of Isaac to the incarnation and birth of Jesus is overflowing with instances in which God does the humanly impossible to advance His purposes and accomplish His plans.
(Lk 1:35) "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God."
(Lk 2:6-7) While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, (7) and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger ...
C This incarnation of the second person of the triune God is an incredible act of love. "For God so loved the world," says John, "that he gave his one and only Son" (Jn 3:16; cf 1 Jn 4:9). This is an incredible act of love not just on the part of the Father but also on the part of the Son. He was always Son and always God; now He "took to himself ... a human nature," first that of a fetus, then of an infant, next of a child, then of a teenager, and finally of a mature man.
This, I say, is an incredible act of love. For in doing this, the Son emptied Himself; that is to say, He laid down for a time His glory as part of the triune Godhead. He "made himself nothing," says Philippians, "taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself" (Phil 2:7,8). And, in 2 Corinthians, we read, "though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor" (2 Cor 8:9). On the day that we share in the glory the Son had before He came to our rescue, we will know something of what He in love gave up for our sakes when He became man.
Christ's birth was the first step of His humiliation. No, He did not cease being God, but He did empty Himself for a time of the glory that was His from the beginning. Therefore, it took as much love to lie in the manger as it did to hang on the cross.
Christ, says Philippians, "being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped ..." (Phil 2:6,7a). How this ought to make us blush with shame. For, being human, we with Adam and Eve reached and grasped for equality with God (Gen 3:5). He "made himself nothing ... being made in human likeness," but we were not satisfied with that. No. We wanted to be like God and in shooting for that we marred our divine likeness. He chose to be made in human likeness, whereas we wanted to be more than human. What love on His part!
Topic: Christ
Subtopic: Incarnation of
Index: 720
Date: 12/1999.14
Title: Cot in Our Ward
Dr. John Rosen, a psychiatrist in New York City, is well known For his work with catatonic schizophrenics. Normally doctors remain separate and aloof from their patients. Dr. Rosen moves into the ward with them. He places his bed among their beds. He lives the life they must live. Day to day, he shares it. He loves them. If they don't talk, he doesn't talk either. It is as if he understands what is happening. His being there, being with them, communicates something that they haven't experienced in yearssomebody understands.
But then he does something else. He puts his arms around them and hugs them. He holds these unattractive, unlovable, sometimes incontinent persons, and loves them back into life.
This is what Christ did for us at Christmas. In an incredible act of love He moved into the ward with us. He placed his bed among our beds. Those who were there, those who saw him, touched him and were in turn touched by him and restored to life.
(Lk 1:35) "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God."
(Lk 2:6-7) While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, (7) and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger ...
II To Conquer Sin
A We all know why the eternal Son of God took on our flesh. We all know why He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. To be "our mediator," the bridge between man and God because He is both man and God. As Mediator "he removes from God's sight my sin mine since I was conceived."
You see, Christmas is only the beginning. What began at Christmas ends only at the cross and the grave. If all that we had was Christmas, there would be no salvation, no forgiveness, no redemption. If we do not see Christmas from the perspective of Good Friday and Easter Sunday, then it is just a sentimental and worldly holiday.
B As you know, some babies are unwanted. People destroy them before they are born. This horror degrades human beings the only species that annihilates its offspring before delivery.
We all prize the birth of a baby. Among us new life brings rejoicing. God gives us the awesome power to procreate children how we thank and praise Him for that. Our children are all special, but they are also all sinners. We and our children need to be saved for whenever a new human being is born, its whole existence lies in the shadow of the inescapable forces of sin and law and death.
On Christmas Day a special baby was born. A baby more special than all others. A baby Who from eternity was the Son of God. A baby Who took on our flesh in order to save us from our sin. Thanks be to God especially for the birth of the Baby Jesus Who sanctifies us and purifies us and saves us. Because of Him there is no condemnation for sin; because of Him there is hope and life.
Topic: Christ
Subtopic: Became Man's Substitute
Index: 3361
Date:
Title:
During the Civil War in the United States, a farmer named Blake was drafted as a soldier. He was deeply concerned about leaving his family, because his wife had died and there would be no one to support and take care of his children in his absence. The day before he was to leave for the army, his neighbor Charlie Durham came to visit him. "Blake," he said, "I've been thinking. You're needed here at home, so I've decided to go in your place." The farmer was so overwhelmed that a few moments he was speechless. The offer seemed too good to be true. He grasped the hand of the young man and praised God for this one who was willing to go as his substitute. Charlie went to the front-lines and performed his duties nobly. But sad to say, he was shot and killed in the first battle. When the farmer heard the news, he immediately saddled his horse and rode out to the battlefield. After searching for some time, he found the body of his friend. He arranged to have it buried in the churchyard near the spot where they had often stopped to talk after the services. On a piece of marble he carved an inscription with his own hands. It was roughly done, but with every blow of the hammer on the chisel tears fell from his eyes. He placed the marker on the grave of his devoted substitute. Many villagers wept as they read the brief but touching inscription: HE DIED FOR ME.
Christ came down at Christmas to take my place, to die for me!
(Lk 1:35) "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God."
(Lk 2:6-7) While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, (7) and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger ...
Conclusion
With the church of all ages you and I "believe ... in Jesus Christ ... who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary." You and I believe that God came down to our level in order to save us from our sins.
(Lk 1:35) "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God."
(Lk 2:6-7) While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, (7) and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger ...