Intro: -Read John 3:16-18
-Sometimes it is true that we remain insensitive to how much someone else loves us, until we have failed them. Only then, to discover that it makes no difference at all in their love for us. Their love, therefore, becomes a kind of love that is neither deserved nor owed. Yet, it immediately and unceasingly sets itself to the task of healing the violated relationship caused by our failure.
Such were the circumstances through which we were made aware of how much our Father in Heaven loves us. The continuing level of our unfaithfulness served only to accentuate the continuing intensity of His love, until that love became incarnate. Incarnate is a word that describes the element of being “embodied in the flesh; in human form.”
In relationships, a point arises when it no longer works to tell a person you love them. In Jesus of Nazareth, God came among us to woo us away from our unfaithfulness, by loving us with a love that had to be made flesh for that love to be made known. And so John says in the first chapter of his Gospel, “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14). The Word became Flesh
We have recorded in the Bible two accounts of this Word becoming Flesh. Onne account is written by Matthew and the other by Luke. Let’s read the birth stories together. Go ahead and turn to Luke 2 and when you have marked that, turn to Matthew 1 and we will read Matthew’s articulation first. (Read Matt. 1:18-2:1-12 then Luke 2:1-20).
You may or may not have noticed that these two birth stories are somewhat different. Matthew, for example, records an angel of the Lord visiting with Joseph. While Luke highly illustrates how the angels visited with the shepherds. Luke offers names such as the Christ and Lord, while Matthew stresses the name Immanuel. And there are many other differences that we could make note of, but instead, I would like to draw your attention to another aspect of both the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke.
Both of these Gospels place a genealogy immediately before the birth account. A genealogy? Have you ever read a genealogy, especially one that did not pertain to you or your family? They can be rather boring, unless you have a specific agenda for reading and researching one, but these two genealogies are quite different from the typical genealogy that we may think of today. And despite that these two genealogies concern the same person, Jesus Christ, it is interesting that there exists a few substantial differences between the both of them:
1. When you read them, you will notice that Luke’s genealogy is in reverse order of Matthew. Luke begins with Joseph and traces back to Adam, while Matthew begins with Abraham and comes up to Joseph.
2. Luke relates Jesus’ connection to all of humanity. Matthew relates Jesus’ connection with the Jews.
Keep those differences in mind for a moment and we will come back to them in just a moment.
We need to be aware that there was no insufficiency in Christ’s Humanity or Deity. There was no insufficiency in Christ’s Humanity, 1 Peter 2:22 states, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in Him.” And there was no insufficiency in Christ’s Deity, for John 14:9 relates the words of Jesus Himself as saying, “....Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father...”
Therefore, if Christ was totally sufficient in all purposes in His humanity and in
His Deity, then maybe we can draw something of major importance from the genealogies of Matthew and Luke. And what we find I shall present to you in two words:
1. Ordinary
2. Extraordinary
Let’s first talk about this concept of Ordinary. How many of us would say that
are ordinary citizens, with normal, ordinary jobs. We are just like the average joe. We drive an ordinary automobile, eat ordinary food, we never see anything out of the ordinary. And that suits us; we are comfortable talking about the ordinariness of our lives. However, can we affix the term ordinary in relation to God and keep that same degree of comfort?
It seems that we one attempts to bring God into the ordinariness of life, this is difficult for people to accept. 1 Corinthians 1:18 proclaims, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.....” In other words you mean to tell me that God Almighty was executed on a cross in the early first century. Wasn’t that the ordinary form of capital punishment of the Roman Empire and many other kingdoms. Listen to this observation Malcolm Muggeridge explained with the speculation of the scenario of Christ’s birth in our post-modern world, “.....in our day, with family-planning clinics offering convenient ways to correct “mistakes” that might disgrace a family name, “It is, in point of fact, extremely improbable, under existing conditions, that Jesus would have been permitted to be born at all. Mary’s pregnancy, in poor circumstances, and with the father unknown, would have been an obvious case for an abortion; and her talk of having conceived as a result of the intervention of the Holy Ghost would have pointed to the need for psychiatric treatment, and made the case for terminating her pregnancy even stronger.” It is difficult for us to picture the God who created the Sun that gives us heat, the seas that give us boundaries, the air that fills our lungs with life, that this God is ordinary. Although listen to what Philip Yancey, in his book, The Jesus I Never Knew, says, “.....it seems that God arranged the most humiliating circumstances possible for his entrance, as if to avoid any charge of favoritism. I am impressed that when the Son of God became a human being He played by the rules, harsh rules.....”
Maybe our God does have an element of ordinariness in His existence. And if He
does, then maybe this ordinary element can be found in the birth of Jesus Christ. And if this is so, which I believe it is, then the ordinariness of Christ’s birth says two things:
1. God hears and understands
Luke traces Jesus lineage all the way back to Adam, who was the first human being. Luke connects Jesus to the human existence; to the human experience. One author puts it like this, “The God who roared, who could order armies and empires about like pawns on a chessboard, this God emerged in Palestine as a baby who could not speak or eat solid food or control his bladder, who depended on a teenager for shelter, food, and love.” On a more spiritual plateau the fourth chapter of Hebrews in verse 15 confirms this idea. Listen as I read this verse from the Hebrew author, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are.....”
God hears and God understands The Bible says, “See to it that no one misses the grace of God.” God offers grace through our Jesus Christ, for it is through Jesus Christ that God is able to relate to you and I.
2. God gives hope
In chapters 1 and 2 of Luke there are three songs. The Song of Mary, often referred to as, The Manificat. The Song of Zechariah and The Song of Simeon.
In the Song of Mary, we have what is called the Divine reversal. Verses 52-53 read as follows, “He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” You see God gives hope to the hopeless The world is tilted toward the rich and the mighty, although God is tilted toward the underdog The ministry of Jesus is a clear indication of His sensitivity to the poor, the powerless and the oppressed. Isn’t it an amazing thought that God orchestrated the conditions in which He was to be born? He chose to be without power, wealth and rights, so maybe that suggests to us that He does indeed have a preference for the marginalized. And that should encourage us for this proclaims that God extends hope to those in need
This shows that the birth of Christ has an essence of ordinariness. And this ordinariness extends to us the message from God that, He hears, He understands and He gives hope.
Remember the genealogy in Matthew? Matthew traces Jesus in the reverse order of Luke. Matthew begins with Abraham and concludes with Joseph, the step-father of Jesus. In this way Matthew connects Jesus with the Jews. This leads us to our second word: Extraordinary.
If you were drowning, you would need someone who meets two requirements:
First, that person must be willing to save you. Second, the person must be able to save you.
Paul told the Romans that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
And the Bible teaches that we are drowning in the tainted waters of sin. If we are left to our own ability, we may be able to keep our heads above water for a time, but unless we are rescued by someone who is not bound by sin and can reconcile us to God, then we will drown We need someone who is both willing and able to bring us up from this tainted water of sin. We need a Savior. We need the one whom Simeon spoke of when he said to the Lord, “... my eyes have seen your salvation.”
What qualifies our Savior to do this rescuing? If Jesus had been an ordinary man like Adam, He would have also been a sinner, and thus would not have been able to save us. So there must have been something extraordinary about Jesus’ humanity.
St. Anselm, an 11th century Theologian, offers great insight to thisextraordinary feature of Jesus. He says:
1. God could be the solution because He is holy, but He cannot be the solution because He is also the offended party. Man should be the solution because he is the offending party, but he cannot be because he is the offending party.
2. It had to be God because only God could solve the problem. It had to be man because only man should solve the problem.
3. It has to be someone who is both God and man, thus the God/Man Jesus
And where do we find One who meets these criteria? The One who is born of a virgin. (Read Matthew 1:18 and Luke 1:34-35)
The result of the virgin birth is that a sinless savior was born. The virgin birth and Christ’s mission as Savior are linked in the narrative of Matthew 1:21–“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”
Invitation:
