The Mysteries of Christ’s Birth

I want to approach the uh the message perhaps in a bit of a different way and um praying that the Lord will help me as he did in the first service to convey to you all the things that are in my heart but as a starting point if you would open your Bible to the gospel of Matthew and the 11th chapter I want to read the opening six verses as kind of a foundation for our look to scripture together Matthew 11 veres 1 through6 when Jesus had finished giving instructions to his 12 disciples he departed

from there to teach and preach in their cities now when John that's John the Baptist while imprisoned heard of The Works of Christ he sent word by his disciples and said to him are you the expected one or shall we look for someone else this seems like a bizarre query from John the Baptist we read ear earlier the Annunciation to Zacharias and Elizabeth of the coming of the greatest man who ever lived up until his time John the Baptist the great prophet and Forerunner of the Messiah the one who would straighten out his paths for

when he arrived we are very familiar with the fact that John introduced Jesus personally with these words Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world it was John who fulfilled his calling to be the Forerunner of Messiah by introducing Messiah to the the people of Israel here we are well into the ministry of Jesus and John is asking a question that may surprise us he wants information from Jesus and so he sends some of his disciples and his question is this in verse are you the expected one or shall we

look for someone else how could he possibly even ask that question well he did he wasn't sure he was confused about the very one whom he had introduced as the Lamb of God the very one about whom he said he must increase and I must decrease well Jesus send him back an answer in verse four he said to the Disciples of John go and report to John what you hear and see the blind receive sight and the lame walk the lepers are cleansed and the deaf here the dead are raised up and the poor have

the gospel preached to them and blessed is he who does not take offense at me that ends with a mild rebuke you you shouldn't take offense at what I'm doing but the idea that Jesus was giving sight to the blind giving physical capacity to the lame cleansing lepers giving hearing to the deaf and raising the dead and preaching the gospel was not what John the Baptist expected him to do that was the problem it wasn't consistent even with John the Baptist view of Messiah the Old Testament is a mosaic of prophecies about the Messiah and

they are diverse and they are enigmatic they are paradoxical they sometimes appear contradictory so much so that even John the Baptist the greatest again who ever lived therefore the greatest Prophet struggled to understand whether Christ was in fact the Messiah and what we all know when you look at the Old Testament sometimes the Messiah is introduced as a coming king and a coming conqueror in other passages he is introduced as a man of sorrow a man of loneliness and rejection some prophets tell of the Messiah as the king of glory the king of Heaven the

Eternal savior desire of all Nations and others describe him as having no beauty that we should desire him that he is a slave bloody suffering crucified dead victim there are paradoxical perspectives all through the Old Testament prophecies on the one hand they allow us to wonder like John did just exactly is Jesus the Messiah but on the other hand they give us absolute unequivocal proof that he is that he is now let's pick up the story with John the Baptist in Luke 3 in luk Luke 3 and see what was going on with John's confusion

Luke 3 begins in the 15th year of the reign of tiberious Caesar when ponus pilate was governor of Judea and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of iua and trachonitis and lenus was tetrarch of abene in the high priesthood of Anis and Caiaphas the word of God came to John that's very important because what John says was direct Revelation from God the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness and he came into all the district around the Jordan preaching a baptism of

repentance for the Forgiveness of sins as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet the voice of one crying lying in the wilderness Make Ready the way of the Lord make his paths straight every Ravine will be filled and every mountain and Hill will be brought low the Crooked will become straight and the rough roads smooth and All Flesh will see the salvation of God so he began saying to the crowd who were going out to be baptized by him you brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the

Wrath to come therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance and do not begin to say to yourselves we have Abraham for our Father for I say to you that from these Stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham indeed the ax is already laid at the root of the tree so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire we hear more of John's words over in verses 16 and 17 John answered and said to them all as for me I baptize you with water but one

is coming who is mightier than I and I am not fit to untie the thong of his sandals he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire his winnowing Fork is in his hand to thoroughly clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire fire so with many other exhortations he preached the gospel to the People John preached the gospel of judgment John was preaching the messiah's arrival and unleashing fire in a fury of judgment so it's not surprising that when Jesus

came he didn't do anything that even remotely looked like judgment in fact it was the very opposite and that's why John sent some of his disciples to say are you the Messiah or should we be looking for someone else and Jesus sent the message back well judgment's not the only part of my Ministry I've also come and Jesus quotes from Isaiah 35 and Isaiah 61 and says to show Mercy to heal people to give the blind sight and the lame to enable them to walk and to raise the dead and and to preach the good

news John you didn't have the full picture John was the number one Prophet Jesus said in Matthew 11:11 he was the greatest man who ever lived up until his time so he would be the greatest Prophet but even he was confused as to what the Messiah was supposed to do when he arrived that's not surprising in 1 Peter 1:10 and 11 we have a statement that kind of covers the ground with this as to this salvation the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries seeking to know

what person or time the spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow that's a statement that basically says the prophets had a hard time trying to figure out what person could fulfill all these diverse prophecies the prophets had a struggle with that and so we're not surprised that John did as well not surprising and it's not surprising also in the light of what Jesus said in Matthew 13: 16 And1 17 listen to this he says to his disciples blessed are your eyes because they see

and your ears because they hear for truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and didn't see it and to hear what you hear and didn't hear it even even the prophets who wrote the prophecies weren't sure there was so much diversity they couldn't be certain of whom they themselves were actually writing now that takes us back to where we started Matthew 11 go back to it John's confusion was certainly enhanced by his condition ition you notice in verse 2 of Matthew 11 it says he was

in prison he was actually put in prison by King Herod Antipas he was locked up in a gloomy Fortress of meyus located about 5 miles east of the Dead Sea out in the wilderness his prison was in one of the herodian Palaces his imprisonment was an imprisonment it was grim and certainly it made him Wonder just exactly whether or not Jesus was the Messiah because instead of him coming to judge his enemies John is under the Judgment of the very enemies of [Music] God a grim imprisonment but apparently he was allowed some visitors and when

he had the opportunity he sent some who had visited him back to Jesus to ask Jesus to explain what is going on at that time John may have he may have had some inklings that he was going to be beheaded as he was but even apart from that just being in that prison was very very different than what he expected when the Messiah [Music] arrived and John had received his Revelation directly from God he failed to see how to resolve the confusion of expecting the Messiah to come and judge and Reign and bring Salvation and

instead of that Jesus brings compassion the nation turns on him there's no Act of judgment except on the prophet who announced that he was coming as the [Music] judge Jesus sends back the message that's not the only thing I'm coming to do and he sends back the comments that I read you in verse 5 compassion healing and preaching the gospel and tells John and anyone else not to be scandalized by the fact that he doesn't appear appear to be who they expected this is a very important word by the way for all Jewish people throughout

all of history because the continual rejection of the Messiah Jesus by the Jewish people even to this very day and this very hour is predicated on the fact that he didn't do what they expected him to do instead of bringing judgment on the enemies of God he himself was executed that is so alien to what they expected that that's the foundation of their rejection in spite of what Isaiah 53 says so many amazing prophecies about Jesus enough really to be confusing let me give you some illustrations turn to Isaiah chapter 7 Isaiah chapter 7 one

of the most familiar and beloved Prophecies of the Messiah but it is full [Music] of paradoxes enigmas Isaiah 7:14 therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign behold and that behold is there because what's about to be spoken is a shock a virgin will be with child and bear a son a virgin will be with child that's not possible and bear a son and not only that but that son will be named Emmanuel a virgin Alma in the Hebrew a virgin has a son a virgin has a child and bears a son there's two

things there a virgin with a child that's the humanity and the bearing of a son a son given by God because his name is Emmanuel he is not only given by God he is God how am I to understand that how how could Isaiah understand that a virgin who has a child who at the same time is a given son given by who given by God himself that's John 1:14 begotten by the father a child who is human and yet Divine who is both a child of a virgin and God himself Emanuel means god with

us that's incomprehensible Isaiah in chapter 9 received another Prophecy of the birth of Messiah the coming of messiah in chapter 9: 6 and 7 for a child will be born to us again through the virgin that's his Humanity a son will be given to us the Son of God the only begotten of the father so here is a child who is both human and divine and to emphasize the fact that he is divine that he is Emmanuel God With Us the government will rest on his shoulders and it doesn't qualify that word government with any

descriptives the government the rule the sovereignty will be on his shoulders he carries the full burden of sovereignty on his own shoulders he is Sovereign he is also called wonderful counselor which speaks of his Supreme wisdom there is no counselor that is such a Wonder of a counselor as he is because none have his wisdom he is the Mighty God and again that's exactly what it means he is God Almighty he is notice this a child and a son who is also the Eternal Father and the Prince of Peace Prince would indicate the son of

the father and yet he is both the Eternal father and the son of the father who is the Prince of Peace there will be no end to the increase of his government or of Peace this is where his sovereignty is extended into permanence on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold it with Justice and righteousness from then on and forever more the Zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this what kind of a child is this a son with a human mother who is a virgin a son with

a Divine father is both man and God because he is in essence Emmanuel because he is the almighty God because he is the Eternal Father because he is the Prince of Peace who could possibly fulfill all this this is really incomprehensible how could Isaiah have any idea of the realities of which he wrote in Luke 135 the angel said to Mary the holy spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you and for that reason the holy child shall be called The Son of God the Son of God yes

you will conceive in your womb and have a son he will be great be called the son of of the most high and the Lord God will give him the Throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end everything that was in the Isaiah 9 prophecy was reiterated by the angel to Mary at the birth of Christ how can one person be truly man and truly God this is the mystery of godliness in Genesis 3:15 he's the seed of the woman in Daniel

7:13 he's the son of man in Psalm 2:7 he's the son of God in Genesis 22:18 he's the Seed of Abraham and yet he himself said before Abraham was I [Music] am he is both David's Lord and David's son so says Psalm [Music] 110 that is to say he is the father of David and the son of David father of David in his divinity the son of David in his Humanity there is nothing to compare with this in all of human history so we can understand if there's a little bit of confusion how can he

be son of David and David's lord well Colossians 2 says the fullness of the godhead dwelt in him bodily so the mystery of his person is enough to confound anyone even the very Prophet who wrote let me tell you a second mystery The Mystery of the line of Judah in Genesis 49:10 you don't have to turn to it it says that the Messiah will come from the tribe of Judah from the tribe of Judah the scepter the the right to rule will not depart from Judah until Shiloh com Shiloh is the one whose right it

is so the Messiah will come from the line of Judah that's on its face simple enough through Judah will come the progyny that leads ultimately to the Messiah but there are some issues there that have to be dealt with and I want to show you these go back to Genesis 38 Genesis 38 this is a frightful story honestly but it's very instructive for us with regard to Christ as the Messiah we won't go through the whole story in Genesis 38 but Judah had some sons and um he had a son who married a woman named

Tamar Tamar um married his first son and the son died and according to leverite law when a son dies if there was another brother the other brother would take her up and uh end her widowhood and take the place of his brother and marry her to keep the family line going so a second brother married Tamar we won't go into all the details of that but he also died so now Tamar the daughter-in-law of Judah has had two of judah's sons marry her and both of them are gone so Judah has another son another son

who should have been available named Sheila I know that's not a good name for a son but that's long ago so the right thing for Judah to do would have been to give the third son to Tamar and to pick up the leverite law that allowed the family line to pass on by giving another son who had not married but I can understand a little bit of hesitation in judah's mind I gave her two and they're both dead um maybe I'm not going to do this again and that was his decision so he really was

disobedient it was an act of unrighteousness on judah's part not to provide a son so she was going to get out of her widowhood one way or another she was going to she was going to have children one way or another so if you look at the middle of Genesis 38:14 Tamar knows that judah's going to be around so she removes her widow's garments and covers herself with the veil and wraps herself she sits in the Gateway of vam on the road to timna for she saw that Sheila had grown up and she had not

been given to him as a wife when Judah saw saw her he thought she was a harlot or she had covered her face that's what she wanted him to think so he turned aside to her by the road and said here now let me come into to you and he didn't know that she was his daughter-in-law and she said what will you give me that you may come into me there's a price for this he said therefore I will send you a young goat from the flock she said moreover will you give a pledge until

you send it until you send the goat will you give me something that will guarantee that I'm going to get the goat what pledge shall I Give You Verse 18 she said your seal your cord and your staff that is in your hand so he gave them to her and went into her she conceived by him she arose and departed removed her veil and put on her widow's garments she got what she wanted she got pregnant and that family was going to have to take take care of her because she was going to Bear the

children of Judah well it all unfolds in an ugly way verse 24 about 3 months later Judah was informed your daughter in-law Tamar has played the Harlot and behold she's also with child by adultery or harlotry then Judah said bring her out and let us burn her bring her and we'll burn her it was a while she was being brought out that she sent to her father-in-law saying I'm with child by the man to whom these things belong examine and see who signate ring cords and staff are these Judah recognized them and said she's more

righteous than I in as much as I did not give her to my son Sheila she's more righteous than I she's trying to force me to do what I should have done I mean she's not righteous but she's more righteous than he was he didn't have any relations with her again verse 27 she was giving birth and there were twins twins Perez and Zarah came forth so now judah's got two illegitimate children how does that work for the Messianic line how's that fit in listen to Deuteronomy 232 this is the law of God no one

of illegitimate birth shall enter the Assembly of the Lord none of his descendants even to the 10th Generation shall enter the assembly L of the Lord it took 10 Generations before an illegitimate child would be considered legitimate to be put into the family line the curse would be lifted only after 10 Generations turn to Ruth chapter 4 you know the the story of Ruth of course but it ends with this very interesting genealogy and the genealogy Verse 18 are the generations of Perez one of the twins born to Tamar from Judah here are the generations

of perz starting with Judah perz and if you go through the names all the way down there are 10 generations and then the name of David David is the first one in 10 Generations who can be counted in that line how precise is God in dealing with his own standards the curse is lifted at the 10th Generation David is the 10th Generation from Judah thus David is free from any generational taint of the sin of Judah free to enter the congregation of the Lord free to reign as king and free to be the ancestor of

the Messiah and Tamar shows up in Matthew 1 in the genealogy of Jesus and God not only shows his grace but he shows how he conforms to his own law 10 Generations exactly to David and he is free from any curse the mystery of Judah there's a third Paradox the third Enigma to confront and I'll just run this by you quickly Micah 52 says Jesus will be born in Bethlehem in Bethlehem he'll be born in Bethlehem plain and simple but Hosea 11:1 is a is a a prophecy about Israel but it is a prediction also

of the Messiah and it says he will be called out of Egypt he will be born in Bethlehem and called out of Egypt Isaiah 111 says that he will be a branch nezer nzar suggesting the name of the town nerth but that is named after nzar which is the word for a Shute or a branch how can all this be how can the Messiah be from Bethlehem and from Egypt and from Nazareth turn to Matthew chapter two and we see it clearly and it's marked for us in the text Matthew 2:1 Jesus was born in

Bethlehem verse 5 in Bethlehem verse 6 Bethlehem Micah 52 is quoted there but if you drop down to verse 13 the angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream and say said get up take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you for Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him so Joseph got up and took the child and his mother while it was still night and left for Egypt he remained there until the death of Herod this was to fulfill what had

been spoken by the Lord through the prophet out of Egypt I called my [Music] son it's the action of Herod that precipitated the flight to Egypt to fulfill that prophecy and then down in verse 21 Joseph got up took the child and his mother came back into the land of Israel and when he heard that archelus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod he was afraid to go there to Judea after being warned by God in the dream he left left for the regions of Galilee and came and lived in a city

called Nazareth why didn't he settle in Judea or somewhere around Jerusalem why Nazareth because in a fit of anger shortly before his death King Herod changed his will as apparently he did often and he put arus his worst son the most violent son in charge of Judea in the place of Antipas who was assigned to Galilee in Pera and Joseph was really fearful of archelus because archelus had killed 3,000 Jews at Jerusalem in one Massacre he was cruel beyond belief Joseph wasn't going to expose this young child to the threats of a murderous leader so

he went to Galilee and to Nazareth so if Herod doesn't change his will Jesus doesn't become a Nazarene they all fit together in God's perfect perfect [Music] plan well at least two more quick the the Paradox of his right to the throne let's go back to Matthew chapter [Music] 1 and this will be just quick just to capture a name in the flow of the genealogy of Jesus starts Matthew 1:1 the record of the genealogy of Jesus you come down to verse 11 and you see the name jeconiah or coniah as he's sometimes called in

the line of Jesus is this jeah he is from David's line through Solomon okay from David through Solomon you come to jeah now is that a problem it's a serious problem turn to Jeremiah 22 Jeremiah 22 verse we'll just look at verse 28 here is a [Music] prophecy about coniah or jeconiah Jeremiah 22:28 is this man coniah a despised shattered jar or is he an undesirable vessel why have he and his descendants been hurled out and cast into a land they had not known that's the Babylonian captivity oh land land land hear the word of

the Lord thus says the Lord write this man down childless a man who will not prosper in his days for no man of his descendants will prosper sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in Judah what no offspring of konah can ever rule can ever sit on a throne and yet back to Matthew 1 jeconiah is in the line from David to the Messiah how is that possible well while you're looking at the genealogy notice this the genealogy keeps saying the father of the father of the father of the father of the father

of the father of the lines go through the father and you come down to verse 16 Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary by whom Jesus was born it doesn't say Jesus was born of Joseph because he wasn't and that is precisely how the curse of jeanah is bypassed Jesus was never a descendant of Janiah never he received the right to rule the king of line but not the DNA of jeconiah he was not begotten by Joseph John 1:14 says he was begotten by [Applause] [Music] God Mary was a descendant of David

through the line of another one of David's Sons Nathan Joseph came through the line of [Music] Solomon but jeanah put a curse which is consistent with God's intention that Jesus has the right to rule but no descendant of jechoniah will ever sit on the throne the Perfection of God's Providence in every detail one [Music] final mystery all throughout the Old Testament Jesus is identified as a stone or a rock a stone to strike a stumbling Stone a tested Stone a Cornerstone a choice Stone a stone Builders reject a stone Daniel 2 cut cut out without

hands a Smashing Stone a crushing Stone how can Messiah be all of that how can he be a stumbling Stone a rock of a fence a Cornerstone a precious stone a choice Stone a sure Foundation a smiting Stone how can all that resolve in one person you think that might be complicated it actually is not look at First Peter chapter 2 1 Peter chapter 2 Peter does all our homework for us he sums it all up 1 Peter 2:4 and coming to him this is talking about salvation as to a living Stone has been rejected

by men a rejected Stone but his choice and precious a choice and pre precious stone and you also as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ for this is contained in Scripture that is to say all the ways in which Christ is the stone are laid out in scripture and Peter lines them all up scripture says Behold a lay in Zion a choice Stone a precious Cornerstone and he who believes in him will not not be disappointed this

precious value then is for you who believe but for those who disbelieve the stone which the builders rejected this became the very Cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word and to this Doom they were also appointed whether Jesus is a precious stone or a stumbling Stone depends completely on how you respond to him if you believe in him he is a precious stone if you reject him he is a crushing Stone listen to his words Matthew [Music] 2142 Jesus said to them

did you never read in the scriptures the stone which the builders rejected this became the Chief Cornerstone this came came about from the Lord and it is marvelous in our eyes therefore I say to you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing the fruit of it and here's the most important part and he who falls on this Stone will be broken to Pieces but on whomever it falls it will scatter him like dust you have a choice you fall on Christ and you are broken in Repentance

and saved you wait till he falls on you and you are crushed in Eternal judgment so we're not surprised that even John the Baptist couldn't sort out all the prophecies so how blessed are we right we we have all the answers let validate that Jesus is the savior of the world the only one father it's been such a delight to look into your word and again see with clear understanding the truth concerning our blessed savior as we think about Christmas it sometimes can seem like it's pretty simple the child was born but the truth is

it was unfathomably complicated for Christ to be everything that was prophesied about him it had to be Jesus it had to be him and it is that's why we celebrate we look with sentimentality at the infant and we Rejoice we look at the massive text of scripture with all the features of this prophetic mosaic and as we continue to look at those scriptures the face of Christ emerges clearly and the message is clear fall on him and you will be broken but he will put you back together again with eternal life reject him and he

will crush you in judgment yes John the Baptist had a right to expect Jesus to judge and that's what he'll do when he returns but for now he offers himself as our savior Open Hearts to him even today we pray in his name and for for his glory amen