Over the past several months I have come to realize a great appreciation for the miracle of birth. As Cora was going through her time of pregnancy I don’t know how many times the amazement hit me that she actually was carrying a human being inside of her. That was no potbelly. It was no unusual swelling of her stomach. A little girl was being formed inside of her womb. It’s incredible.
And then came the time for us to make our way to Methodist Medical Center. And as I stood there and as I held Cora’s hand I witnessed the birth of a child. And not just any child, but it was our child; the child that we had brought into existence. We had a part in creating life. I stand in awe, this morning, of the miracle of child birth. It’s no wonder that birthdays are such a big event for most of us. Aside from the cake and the parties and the presents, birthdays are a time for celebrating life. Birthdays are a time for commemorating the day that we found our spot among the throngs of the human race. They’re a time for celebrating the miracle of birth.
Likewise Christmas is a time for commemorating the day that Jesus was born. The question I have is why is His birthday so important? Why do we take time off work and time off of school and play special music and get together with family to celebrate the birthday of a man who lived 2000 years ago?
I mean, how often do we do that? Sure, we get together with our family or our friends to celebrate with them when they turn a year older. We may throw a huge party when someone hits sweet 16 or the magic number of 18 or the big 4-0. We may even visit the final resting place of loved ones on the day that would have been their birthday. But to make it a holiday? To make such a big deal of someone else’s birthday every year? The only time we do that is on Christmas. So why is it such an important day? Why is the birthday of this Jesus guy so significant?
We could sit here and philosophize for hours on this topic and probably answer the question fairly well. But I think the best answer for the question of Christmas’ significance can be found in one simple verse in the first book of the New Testament. Matt. 1:23 gives what I believe to be the whole reason celebrating Christ’s birthday is so important, why it has become such a big day to the entire world. Listen to these words and see if you can catch the significance of Christmas. Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, "God with us."
Did you catch those words, “God with us?” Have you ever really thought about that? It’s so easy to say… Emmanuel; God with us and sing the songs. We talk about it all the time, but do we really understand the significance of that? Do we really understand the depth of what we mean when we say that?
If not, I want us to take some time to think about it today. The angel said “They shall call His name, Jesus’ name, Emmanuel, which is translated, “God with us.” What does that mean? It simply means this… God became man.
Many would like to disregard Jesus as simply a good teacher or a prophet. Many people credit Him with goodness and great character. But they cannot and will not accept the fact that He was so much more than that. They say, "I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God."
But as CS Lewis wrote in his book, Mere Christianity, “That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
To think Him to be no more than a mere man is foolish. He wasn’t just a Rabbi. He wasn’t just a good teacher. He wasn’t just a martyr. He wasn’t just a prophet. A good moral teacher or a true prophet would not claim to be deity. For them to do so would be blasphemy. If Jesus was not God, because He claimed to be so, His death was the most deserved punishment ever administered. As awful as that sounds, it is true. But the fact is this morning, whether you are ready to confess it or not, Jesus was God. If we cannot believe that then the rest of our faith is worthless rubbish.
But the other side to Jesus is that while He was all God, He was also all man. It was Martin Luther who said, “The mystery of the humanity of Christ, that God sunk Himself into our flesh, is beyond all human understanding.” And he was right. It’s very difficult for our human minds to comprehend the concept of God becoming one of us, especially while remaining God at the same time. God, while maintaining His divinity, while holding on to His deity, became a person just like you and me. The Almighty Creator of the galaxies confined Himself to a teenager’s womb. The One who had been spirit took on the form of a breakable, pierce-able body. The One who invented man put Himself through the human process of being born, being weaned, and learning to walk and talk.
Max Lucado puts it in an unforgettable way. He writes, “Jesus may have had pimples. He may have been tone-deaf. Perhaps a girl down the street had a crush on Him or vice-versa. It could be that His knees were bony. One thing’s for sure: He was, while completely divine, completely human. For thirty-three years He would feel everything you and I have ever felt. He felt weak. He grew weary. He was afraid of failure. He was susceptible to wooing women. He got colds, burped, and had body odor. His feelings got hurt. His feet got tired. And His head ached.”
That is mind-boggling to us, isn’t it? In fact, it almost seems irreverent to think of Jesus that way. We want to clean up the stable where He was born. Like Lucado says, we want to keep the sweat from running in His eyes. We want to pretend that He never snored or blew His nose or hit His thumb with a hammer. We feel uncomfortable picturing Him anyway other than with a clean robe of white and a halo of light around His head. To think of Him otherwise just doesn’t seem right. But we must see Jesus as Jesus was; He was God becoming a man.
God had to deal with our issues. He had to work through our struggles. He had to endure our hardships. He had to cope with our frailties. He took on flesh. He became a man. It’s incredible to think that Jesus would step down from His mighty throne in heaven to make a manger His bed. It’s incredible to think that He would exchange the worship of flawless angels for that of a bunch of poor shepherds. It’s incredible to think that He would trade in the security of being spirit to put on a robe of flesh and feel our pain and face our temptations. It’s incredible to think that God would ever choose to make Himself a man. But He did.
So, this morning, as we celebrate the arrival of God in the flesh, what does it really mean to us that God became a man? What really is it about God becoming man that is so momentous for you and me today? Let me share with you three ways in which I think that the coming of Emmanuel bears such great connotations for you and me today.
I. In Emmanuel We Have A Perfect Model
I believe that first of all, in Emmanuel we have a perfect Model. In my short life-time I have come to look up to several role models, people who have had some quality or qualities that I wanted and I still want to be present in my own life.
When I was a kid it was people like Rickey Henderson. Rickey Henderson was a great baseball player that played for the Oakland A’s in his prime and in their prime. He wasn’t known for his great hitting. He wasn’t a big homerun hitter. He was a great base-stealer. If he were to get on base you had better watch out because when you’re not looking he was going to be on second before you knew it. Over 1400 times in his career Rickey safely stole a base. The closest person to him is Lou Brock with somewhere around 900 stolen bases. I loved Rickey Henderson when I was a kid. I collected his baseball cards. I bought his biography and read it too. I wanted to grow up and play baseball and steal lots of bases just like Rickey. He was a role model.
When I got a little older I began looking up to other kinds of people. When I was in high school I had much respect for my principal, Mr. Marshall. And it wasn’t just because he was a cool principal, but he seemed to me to be a very cool dad too. My parents were great, but my dad didn’t play a lot of basketball with me. He didn’t seem to kid around with me very much. Maybe it was because at that point he was more my dad than he was my friend, and at that point I probably needed the authority of a father than I needed the friendship of one. And please don’t go from here thinking that I grew up an underprivileged kid. I love my parents and have never doubted that they loved me, have never had reason to doubt. But Mr. Marshall was always playing sports with his kids. He was always joking with them. And for some reason, when I looked at him I wanted to grow up and be a parent just like him. He was a role model.
In college I began looking up to preachers. I had been called into the ministry and as I began observing different preachers there would be those that really made an impact on me. Bro. Mac, who preached at camp this summer, and Bro. Faye, who has done a youth revival here, were pastors that always seemed to be smiling and loving people. They just had a way about them that could win people over. They walked into a room and you knew it, not because they were rambunctious, but because they were just so friendly and kind and caring that they attracted multitudes to them.
Bro. Stetler, HSBC’s president, and Bro. Snider, my college professor, were remarkable preachers. Both have different styles, but when they preached you stayed on the edge of your seat. Bro. Stetler could write down four words on the back of a napkin and preach a masterpiece of a sermon from it. Bro. Snider was like me, he wrote down his sermons word for word, but he had such a way with words and such an ability to communicate that whenever he preached I was spellbound. In both of these men there was just an amazing amount of power in their preaching. Rarely were there times when the Spirit did not move when they preached.
Bro. French was the theologian. I had some classes with him. I sat under his preaching. Neither of those were just flat out awesome. But when he spoke you knew that what he said was true. He had a profound knowledge and grasp of Scripture. Probably one of the greatest theologians and thinkers of our time.
Pastor Pierpoint, my pastor in Florida, was one of those pastors who was just very good at leading his church. He pastors a church that runs probably about 6-700 in the summer and 850-1000 in the winter. People from all walks of life and all stages of conservative or liberal mindsets. And he is just so capable of leading that diverse crowd.
All these men were role models to me and are still today. They are people that I wanted to and want to be like in some way or another. You have people you look up to as well. They may be sports stars, they may be preachers, they may be politicians, they may be family members. I don’t know who your role models are, but you have them.
The thing about role models though is that, because they are human, they are flawed. They are not perfect. They fail sometimes. Even in what they are good at, and what we look up to them for, they aren’t spotless. Because they are human. They have faults.
But this morning, the babe in the Christmas manger is Emmanuel, He is God with us. And because Jesus was, while at the same time human, completely divine, He wasn’t flawless. He never had any faults. He was perfect. He was God. And because of that, this morning, we find in Him the perfect Role Model.
Listen to the words of the Hebrew writer, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus was a man who experienced our physical limitations. He knows what it feels like to smash your finger and stub your toe, to be hungry and thirsty and dirty and cold. He knows what it feels like to need a bath. He experienced our ever-changing emotions. He knows what it feels like to be joyful and to be angry, to be sad, to be betrayed by a friend, to be frustrated in your purpose. He even experienced our spiritual battles. He faced discouragement. He faced temptation. Because He was a man He faced what we face. But because He was God He was able to face all of these things perfectly. He never sinned. He never had a bad attitude. He never said a hurtful word. He was perfect. And because of that, because of the fact that He faced everything we face without sin, He is our perfect Example, He is our perfect Model.
When the wife of missionary Adoniram Judson told him that a newspaper article likened him to some of the apostles, Judson replied, "I do not want to be like a Paul...or any mere man. I want to be like Christ...I want to follow Him only, copy His teachings, drink in His Spirit, and place my feet in His footprints...Oh, to be more like Christ!"
This morning, the greatest Role Model you could hope for is found in Emmanuel. All your other role models are great. It’s good to find godly people to look up to. But when it comes down to it, what I really want is to be like Jesus. “To be like Jesus, to be like Jesus. All I ask, to be like Him. All through life’s journey
From earth to glory all I ask- to be like Him.”
Do you need someone to look up to this morning? Do you need a role model? I’m glad to be able to tell you that you can find the perfect Role Model in Jesus Christ. If you need an example of how to love people, you can find that Example in Emmanuel. If you need an example of how to defeat temptation, you can find that Example in Emmanuel. If you need an example of how to live a godly life, you can find that Example in Emmanuel. If you need an example of how to forgive, you can find that Example in Emmanuel.
He had no flaws. He made no mistakes. He committed no sin. He lived a perfect life. Jesus, Emmanuel, is our perfect Model.
II. In Emmanuel We Have A Perfect Messiah
Not only do we find a perfect Model, but in Emmanuel we also find a perfect Messiah. The meaning of the word, “Messiah,” is Anointed or the term most commonly used throughout the New Testament, which is Christ. This is a name used to designate the One promised of God as the great Deliverer. For centuries the Jews had been looking forward to the day when the Messiah would come. Scholars tell us that over 456 prophecies pointed the Israelite nation to the time when the Deliverer would be present among them. A Deliverer who would be elevated above Moses and above the angels. A Deliverer who would redeem and restore Israel and judge the Gentiles. A Deliverer who would come and set up His eternal kingdom. He would set them free from their Roman captors. He would restore the national glory back to Israel. They looked for the day He would come. They longed for that day to come.
But they misunderstood the real purpose for the Messiah. We see that in the way that those who listened to Him understood Jesus’ purpose. Luke 19:11 tells us that Jesus had to teach them otherwise because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately. Even His disciples, up to the time of His ascension misunderstood His purpose. In Acts 1:6 it says “when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"”
The Jews misunderstood what the Messiah was all about. He hadn’t come in order to conquer the Romans. He hadn’t come to free the Jews from their physical captivity. He hadn’t come to set up some earthly kingdom. What was His purpose? His purpose was to come and conquer the power of Satan. He had come to free the Jews and the Gentiles alike from the oppression of sin. He had come to set up a heavenly kingdom that would have no end. His purpose was to be the ultimate sacrifice that was required for sin.
Someone once said, “If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer. But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.”
Man has stood in need of a Redeemer from the time of Adam’s fall in the garden. What was created perfect became blemished by sin. The fellowship Adam and Eve had shared with God was broken by their disobedience. And from that point on man has stood at odds with his Maker. Man had become a creature of sin.
Because of God’s holiness He cannot have any communication or contact with sin. Something so unholy cannot come in contact with something or Someone so holy as God. God’s daily walks with Adam and Eve came to an abrupt end. They were cast out of the Garden of Eden. They were forced to begin toiling for survival. Instead of childbirth coming easy, Eve had to experience the pain and hardship of bearing a child. Instead of simply plucking the fruit off of trees throughout the garden for substance, Adam was forced to begin working the hard ground and producing food through his sweat and labor. And the first couple’s sin had brought with it the promise of death… spiritual, physical and eternal.
Seems like a rather hopeless picture for man, doesn’t it? Man forced to fight for survival and banished from the presence of God forever. Rather bleak and unpromising. But God is not a God who leaves the ones He loves in a hopeless state. He is not cruel and uncaring. He instituted the sacrificial system. We don’t see it laid out in detail until the time of Moses, but from the time immediately following the fall of man, God had made it possible for man’s sin to be covered. Animal sacrifices were made on a regular basis for the purpose of seeking God’s mercy. Not something that appeals to us, does it? But as the writer of Hebrews says, “without the shedding of blood there is no remission for sins.” Sin demanded for something to die.
And time after time, year after year, throughout the books of the Old Testament we see the people of God building their altars of rock or making their pilgrimages to the city of Jerusalem in order to offer their sacrifices. They would find the perfect lamb. A crippled one would not do. A spotted one would not do. A blind one would not do. It had to be spotless and without blemish in order to be acceptable to God. And that lamb would take the punishment that belonged to man.
As the sacrificial laws were put into place during the time of Moses, the annual day of atonement came into being. On one day of the year, the day now recognized as Yom Kippur, the high priest would go through a number of ceremonies. That was the one day that he was allowed to enter into the holy presence of God to burn incense. That was the day that he would offer an animal sacrifice to seek God’s forgiveness of sin for another year on behalf of the entire nation. And after the sacrifice was made the priest would lay his hands on the head of a goat, the scapegoat, and would confess their sin to God. The goat would then be sent away into the wilderness, bearing away with it the sins of the people.
Year after year this process would be completed. Each year the sacrifice would be made taking away the sins of the Israelites. Each year the sacrifice was needed again in order to yet again wipe the slate clean. God had made it possible for man to be forgiven of sin and to be relieved of the fear of the penalty for it.
But these yearly sacrifices were only a temporary fix. In truth they were only a symbol of God’s true remedy for the sin problem. They only pointed to the day when the Messiah would come. When He came He would be the ultimate, perfect, unblemished sacrifice for sin. Jesus was that Messiah. He was that Sacrifice. And as He willingly laid down His arms on that cross He took upon Himself the sins of the whole world. He bore our punishment. He took our blame. He paid our penalty. He died our death.
I read about a small boy who was consistently late coming home from school. His parents warned him one day that he must be home on time that afternoon, but nevertheless he arrived later than ever. His mother met him at the door and said nothing. At dinner that night, the boy looked at his plate. There was a slice of bread and a glass of water. He looked at his father’s full plate and then at his father, but his father remained silent. The boy was crushed. The father waited for the full impact to sink in, then quietly took the boy’s plate and placed it in front of himself. He took his own plate of meat and potatoes, put it in front of the boy, and smiled at his son.
This morning, I realize that this story is really so trivial in comparison to the story of Christ. But I think you can see the comparison. Man has rebelled against God. And there is a punishment that must be had for our sin. We deserve hell. We deserve death. That penalty had to be handed down. But Jesus, our Emmanuel and our Messiah, was willing to come down to this earth in order to take that punishment that we deserved and put it upon Himself. He took my blame. He paid a debt that He did not owe, but that I owed. He died on my cross.
And so today we don’t have to make our pilgrimages to Jerusalem on the day of atonement. We don’t have to find a pure lamb to kill somewhere. We don’t have to offer sacrifices on our behalf. Because Jesus Christ, once and for all, paid that price for our sin.
Listen to these verses from the book of Hebrews… “Not with the blood of goats or calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.” “By one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” “Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.”
This morning, Christmas has a lot of meanings for a lot of people. But I would contend that the greatest meaning Christmas has ever had or can ever hope to have is that it’s the birthday of the Messiah, the One who was sent to make a way for us to be saved. The One who was born for the single purpose of dying. And this morning, you can be forgiven of your sins, you can find peace with God, you can obtain the hope of heaven, you can regain fellowship with the Holy King of the universe all because Jesus, the Son of God, was willing to come on Christmas so He could die on Good Friday and rise from the dead on Easter. There is hope for you today because Emmanuel, God with us, was the perfect Messiah.
III. In Emmanuel We Have A Perfect Mediator
Lastly, this morning, let me just quickly tell you that not only do we find a perfect Model and Messiah in Jesus Christ, but in Him we also find a perfect Mediator. What is a mediator? A mediator is somebody who works with two separate parties in an attempt to bring them together. In a dispute he is someone who works with both sides in order to help them reach an agreement. A mediator is basically a moderator. He is a go-between.
I need not tell you again that our sin has created a deep chasm between us and our Creator. We are banished from His presence forever. The only thing we can ever expect to anticipate that we have is that of eternal damnation. Our sin has made it impossible for us to ever have fellowship with God again. God has a great dispute with us. We have disobeyed Him. We have rebelled against Him. We have sinned and fallen short of His glory.
But I’m glad that I can tell you this morning that through the blood of Jesus Christ it is made possible again to have a relationship with the Father. Because He became our Messiah the certainty of an eternal hell can be replaced with a hope of an eternal reward. Because He put His hands beneath the nails that belonged to me we are now welcomed into the presence of Almighty God. And like the song says, “There’s a cross to bridge the great divide. A way was made to reach the other side.” That spacious gorge between us and God has been bridged. And that bridge is Jesus Christ. He is our Mediator. He is our Go-between.
Romans 8:34 says, “It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” 1 John 2:1 gives us the hope that “if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Yes, God has a worthy dispute with us. But today Emmanuel has volunteered to be our Mediator. He has volunteered to be the one who will work with both sides in order to help us reach an agreement.
And who better to take that job than Jesus? Who better to be our Mediator than Jesus? He’s a Mediator that is sympathetic towards us. He knows what we face. He knows what we struggle with. He understands our humanity. He’s been there. He’s done that. He’s experienced all that we’ve experienced. And He sympathizes with us. Better yet, He is able to empathize with us. He understands us. But He also understands God as well. After all, He is His only Son. He is Emmanuel. There is no better Mediator between God and man than the One who was all God and all man.
And this morning, as we stand and as Lottie comes and plays a song you can find on pg. 193, His invitation is extended to you. He has lived a perfect model life before you. He has walked in your shoes and faced your struggles and fought with your temptation, and He did all that without ever sinning.
He has paid the way for your salvation. He has made a way to escape the flames of eternal damnation. His blood is enough this morning. His sacrifice is enough today. He took the beating that belonged to you. He wore the crown of thorns that should have been on your head. He lost the blood that should have been flowing from your veins. He opened His hands to the nails that should have been driven into your wrists. He died the death that you should have died. All because He loves you. All because He desires to have fellowship with you again. All because He wants you to spend eternity with Him.
And today Emmanuel is sitting at the right hand of the Father ever pleading to God on your behalf. He’s bridged the gap. All you have to do is make a conscious commitment to walk across that bridge. My question to you this morning is… are you willing to make that step? Are you willing to accept the Gift of Christmas? If you are, what better time to receive it than now?
