Word of Salvation – September 2017

 

From King to Babe

 

Sermon by Rev. John Zuidema on Lord’s Day 14

 

Scripture Readings: 1 John 4:7-21; Phil 2:5-11; LD 14 q35-36;

Suggested singing:

BoW 292 “All glory Laud and Honour”

RJ2: 295 “Be still, for the presence of the Lord”

BoW: 404 “From heaven You came helpless babe”

BoW:  532 “Now blessed be the Lord our God”

Congregation, many of us have marvelled at the miracle of new birth.  From the time of conception to the time when we can see the new born with our own eyes it is just an amazing blessing.  And we rightly see birth as the beginning of something marvellous and great.  And as Christians, we hope and pray that the new born will learn to love the Lord, grow to full maturity, receive a good education, get married, have a family of their own and enjoy a promising career.

Now consider for a moment the Saviour’s birth.  The birth and life of our Saviour, although glorious and marvellous for us, was for Him, the first step of his humiliation as the Son of God.  We need to remember that His birth was a mammoth step down and not the beginning of something marvellous and great!

We need to remember that the Son of God enjoyed perfect communion with his Father in heaven.  It couldn’t get any better! All the glory, honour and majesty were His!  And yet as we read in Phil 2, “he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”  When we remember that, then indeed we can and need to regard his birth as a humiliation.

The whole history of salvation for repentant sinners is about a condescending God.  It goes beyond our understanding that the Almighty Creator, in the person of His Son, would come down to seek us.  That is the first truth we need to recognize.

We didn’t climb to him!  Matter of fact after the fall we didn’t want to know him anymore.  But at that first moment after the fall, it was God who came down to seek us.   When Adam and Eve sinned, God came down to them, calling them, “Where are you?” That dear friend wasn’t a geographical question, but a relationship question.

And there are other instances recorded of God coming to man.  God visited Abraham, in the shape of a human traveller.   The Creator of the world came and had lunch with him.  God had a special meeting place, called the “tent of meeting” with his OT people while they travelled through the wilderness. There the Lord would speak with Moses face to face.  God had a permanent address in Jerusalem when Israel was finally established in the land, although he remained invisible to human eyes.

And now in the NT He is coming to us in the flesh.  The Apostle John recorded it, “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling amongst us.”  And, just in case you have forgotten, the Son of God didn’t come to dwell among godly saints, but amongst sinners.   Amongst those who had no one else to blame for their dire predicament than themselves.   But as Romans 5:8ff reminds us that while we were his enemies, Christ died for us.

And how ironic when you consider that man thought if they ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they would become like God. That was the devil’s ploy.  And now rather than us becoming like God, we have God becoming like us.   The road of redemption [salvation] runs from heaven to earth, and not the other way round.  Or to put it in more “biblical terms,” it is all of grace, therefore let him who boasts, boast in the Lord!  It is only when we begin to understand this that we will ever appreciate how great the love of God is.  And it’s precisely the fullness of God’s love that we begin to see at the birth of the Saviour that can also be seen throughout history.

Abraham and Sarah were blessed with a child when all other avenues were exhausted.  Hannah was blessed with a child when God opened her womb.  Zechariah and Elizabeth were blessed with the birth of John the Baptist.  But now humanity is blessed with the birth of the Son of God from a woman who was still a virgin.   However, let us not forget about the position of the Son of God.  The baby conceived in Mary’s womb, is the eternal Son of God, who is and remains true God. He is the God who comes to us, by taking to himself a truly human nature by being born.

The Son of God began by being a foetus, then a little baby, then a teenager and finally a fully mature man.  Scripture teaches in Phil 2:6-8 that the Son of God emptied himself, and became something that he was not, a human being and servant.  Why? Because the Triune God had ordained it that this was the way and only sinners would be saved.  2 Cor 8:9 says it so well, “though he was rich, for our sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might became rich.” The Son wished to be obedient to the Father and display His Father’s great love for us.   This side of the grave we will never appreciate that enough.  Yet, one day when we will see Jesus face to face, we will marvel at his richness and at what He relinquished to become one of us.   One day we will be in glory with him and we will be utterly amazed and perhaps slightly embarrassed that we didn’t take his call on our lives more seriously!

Now let us put the brakes on a little.  We should never suppose that the Son of God stopped being true God.  It took just as much love to lie in the manger as it did to hang on the cross.  The true and eternal God became a helpless babe.  He could have refused to come to us, to remain in his glory with the Father, but he didn’t consider equality with God to be grasped.

So unlike sinful man! Adam and Eve grasped for that which belonged to God, but Jesus took the nature of a servant, willing to become the least!  Adam and Eve were not satisfied to be made in God’s image, for they wanted to be like God.  Yet, Jesus who is very God of very God, condescended to be like us!

That’s love!  Jesus, the eternal Son of God coming to us, being obedient to death because we had incurred death by our disobedience.  He became one of us to change our hopeless course of death to life!  We were doomed for all money.  But this baby made all the difference, not with money or gold or barrels of oil, for they were his already, but through his broken body and shed blood.

And that is why everything revolves around this great act of love in history.  God’s nature and human nature wedded in one person.  That is why time is split from Jesus’ birth onwards.   Jesus’ birth, coming and dying and rising from the dead gives the human race a new beginning.  Before that it was only promised, mind you not forgetting who promised it for God keeps his promises, but now it is actually realised.

With the birth of Jesus and all he did, we have tangible proof that God can be trusted.   God in his sovereign wisdom chose the Virgin Mary to receive the miraculous work for our salvation.   That is, he used our own flesh and blood.   This baby Jesus was like us.  He grew in the womb, born by the usual painful way, but unlike us in that he did not have a human father.   The human birth not only emphasises the Saviour’s unity with the human race, but His fatherhood by the Spirit of God makes Jesus holy, sinless, and guarantees his divinity.  Here is God and Man in One person Jesus Christ!

Now before I move on, let me say a few things about Mary’s role.   In some churches Mary has been held up as a saint, a sinless one, the immaculate Mary.  Some say she did not die but went to heaven where she reigns as queen.  Well, the Scriptures do not make Mary a saint and do not idolize her at all.

Now in some ways we have tended to over react against this Roman Catholic teaching.   For let it be said, that no woman is richer or more blessed.   What did the angel say to her “… Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you!”   Sadly, man has changed the grace that came from God to Mary, into the grace that Mary now gives to others.  It’s just another sneaky way sinful man wants to maintain control!

However, Mary’s most famous Son, who loved her and cared for her, even when He hung on the cross, never encouraged Mary’s sainthood or blessedness.  On the contrary, when a woman shouted the words “…blessed be the woman that gave birth to you and nursed you” Jesus replied, (Lk 11:28) “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”  The Scriptures don’t make Mary out to be some second Saviour, rather, the Scriptures invite us to praise God with Mary, “My soul praises the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour”!

By the way, in some ways, Mary was twice blessed by the Spirit.  She and her other sons were part of the congregation that experienced the first Pentecost (Act 1:14).   That is where the Scripture’s place her, in the congregation of Jesus Christ, encouraging us to praise God with her. And yet the connection to humanity is real.  Through Mary and Joseph, Jesus becomes a true descendant of David.

I mention Joseph here, because we may be tempted to think that Mary was from the tribe of Judah and therefore a descendant of David. The Bible doesn’t say that.  However, the Bible does state that Joseph was a direct descendant from David (Lk 3:23).  The Jews would have understood that Jesus was the legal son of Joseph, hence also the Son of David.   The promise to Abraham has been realized, the greater Son of David’s kingdom has been inaugurated. In the birth of this baby, the human race has received a new beginning.

So what? How does this benefit us?   First, let me say that I am glad that this special baby born to Mary and Joseph was born when he was.  I am not undermining God’s plan and sovereignty in all of this, but it makes you wonder when you consider how many babies are aborted today, especially when conceived out of wedlock. Of course, all babies are beautiful, cute and smart in their own special way, but all our children are sinners.   We and our lovely children need to be saved.  Saved from the terrible wrath of God for our sins and no one can be saved without this little baby being their Saviour.

This special baby, whom Mary and Joseph called Jesus at the Angel’s instruction, was the start of a new beginning for repentant sinners.  For this little baby was God dwelling with us.  This little baby grew to become a man, lived an obedient and sinless life to the glory of his heavenly Father.  And yet, that alone wasn’t enough.  Though he was perfectly obedient and didn’t deserve to die, he showed still greater love by taking upon himself our sin and our punishment and when all his options ran out – he had to die!  The sin I was conceived in, and the sin I have done since that day, this perfect Saviour removes from God’s sight.

And now I have reason to live, not only today, but forever.  I can live because of this baby’s perfect humanness. Anything less would not have satisfied God.  I can live because of this Saviour’s perfect obedience.  I can live because this Saviour says before my heavenly Father, “I died to pay for John Zuidema’s sin – his debt has been fully paid.”  O what unimaginable love, what grace, completely undeserved.  Yes, death could not hold my Saviour and He rose and lives and reigns forever.   Not only that, He has sent us his Holy Spirit to dwell in us.

So what do we do in the mean time?  Well, we cannot repay him for his gift of life.  However, in the Spirit’s strength we can live for him from this day on in thankfulness.   We can be obedient to his command to love Him and our neighbour.  We can be obedient to his command to be holy. We can be a light in this dark world!  We can go and make disciples! How long?   Till that day when Jesus returns on the clouds.  O how we look forward to that day.

There is really one important question that each one of us needs to answer.  Is this baby, born of the Virgin Mary, who grew to live and die for sinners, your Saviour?  Is he your treasure, your number one in life?  If he isn’t, then think for a moment of the consequences of not having a Saviour.

No one to say before a holy God on judgment day, “I have paid the debt and he or she is clean.” That is what Jesus does!  Jesus means Saviour – he came to save people from their sins!   Believe in him and you are clean – you are in the eternal kingdom!  And that’s what we celebrate as Christians.  The King became a babe, paid the debt; made us clean and set us free to serve him with gladness!   I pray that each person here this evening may know him as Saviour.  Amen.