Good morning, everyone.
For those of you who don't know me, my name is Sean,
and I am one of the pastors of Trinity Cambridge Church,
and it's my joy and privilege to preach God's word to you this morning.
If you don't have a Bible, please raise your hand.
We'd love to give you a copy that you can use.
You could use it while you're here.
You could take it home with you.
Got one for Kevin over here.
Thank you, Elena.
And please turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 1.
Matthew is the first book in the New Testament,
first of the four Gospels, which are really kind of biographies of Jesus.
His life, his birth, his life, his death, and this Christmas,
this Advent season, we're particularly remembering his birth.
So please turn with you to Matthew 1, verses 18 to 25.
Let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's word.
Heavenly Father, we come to your word with the conviction
that every word of Scripture points to
and is fulfilled by your Son, Jesus Christ.
How much more so than this passage, which is about his birth.
So we ask that you would exalt the name of your Son, Jesus Christ,
that you'd reveal his mercy, his compassion, his grace to us,
so that through him all glory may redound to you, God our Father.
Father, we are your people.
To whom can we turn?
But to you, you have the words of eternal life.
So speak those words to us now, in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
If you are able, please stand as I read from God's word
in honor of God who has given this word to us.
Matthew 1, starting in verse 18, going to the end of the chapter.
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.
When his mother, Mary, had been betrothed to Joseph,
before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
And her husband, Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame,
resolved to divorce her quietly.
But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream,
saying,
Joseph, son of David,
do not fear to take Mary as your wife,
for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a son,
and you shall call his name Jesus,
for he will save his people from their sins.
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Emmanuel,
which means God with us.
When Joseph woke from sleep,
he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.
He took his wife,
but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.
And he called his name Jesus.
This is God's holy, authoritative word.
You may be seated.
When Adam first sinned in Genesis 3,
all of us and all of humanity sinned in Adam
because Adam was the firstborn of all humans,
and therefore the representative head of the entire human family.
That's why Romans 5.12 says that sin came into the world through one man,
namely Adam,
and death through sin,
and so death spread to all.
Because it was man that sinned,
it also must be man that pays the price for sin.
Only a human being can represent humanity.
So already in Genesis 3.15,
what we call maybe the first revelation of the gospel,
God says to Satan, the serpent,
I will put enmity between you and the woman
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.
It must be the offspring of the woman,
a man, a human,
that must represent humanity
and do battle with the serpent.
The Christ, the Messiah,
that will save God's people,
therefore must be someone who partakes in human flesh and blood.
But what man descended of Adam will do this?
What man can do this?
Psalm 49, verses 7 to 8 clearly teaches us,
Truly, no man can ransom another
or give to God the price of his life,
for the ransom of their life is costly
and can never suffice.
No human being, he says,
can afford to redeem another human being from death.
Why?
Because the wages of sin is death,
and the price of a person's life
is therefore too high
for another man to bear.
In Ezekiel 14, 14,
God says that when a land sins against him
and by acting faithlessly to him,
even if these three men,
with the reputation of being perhaps
the most righteous people,
recorded in scripture,
Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it,
it says, God says,
even if these three men,
Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it,
they would deliver but their own lives
by their righteousness.
God said of Noah in Genesis 6, 9,
Noah was a righteous man,
blameless in his generation.
Noah walked with God.
In Daniel 6, 4,
it tells us that Babylonian satraps
sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel,
but they could find no ground for complaint
or any fault because he was faithful
and no error or fault was found in him.
And similarly, God says of Job,
in Job 1a,
there is none like him on all the earth,
a blameless and upright man
who fears God and turns away from evil.
So obviously they're still humans
and so they're still sinful,
but according to human standards,
they're the cream of the crop,
righteous, blameless,
by all relative human standards.
And yet, even if those three men
were to stand before God,
to intercede before him for our sins,
they could not redeem a single person
because they cannot afford the price.
And that's a big problem.
But in Matthew 1, 18 to 25,
we find God's elegant solution to this problem.
Jesus the Christ,
the messianic king,
the prophesied king,
is the God king.
He is the God man.
He is fully man and fully God
and so that he can save all of us from our sins.
That's the main point of this passage.
We're going to look first at the humanity of the Christ.
Secondly, the divinity of the Christ.
And finally, we'll look at the salvation of the Christ.
Matthew writes in verse 18, 19,
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.
When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph,
before they came together,
she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
And her husband Joseph, being a just man
and unwilling to put her to shame,
resolved to divorce her quietly.
We're given several crucial details here.
Mary was betrothed to Joseph.
That means she was engaged,
formally engaged to be married to him.
They had not yet had their wedding
and they had not yet physically consummated their marriage
for that reason through sexual intercourse.
That's why he says it's before they came together.
But nonetheless, Mary was found to be with child.
Meaning she was showing pregnant.
We know from Luke 1, 56,
that Mary, after conceiving Jesus,
goes to Elizabeth to stay with her, her cousin,
because Elizabeth knows of her pregnancy,
that it is from the Holy Spirit.
And so she kind of takes refuge with her.
And it says that she stays with her for three months,
Luke 1, 5, 156.
And three months is about how long it takes
before a woman starts to show the baby bump.
And after that three months, she comes home
and then she's found out.
But there was no sexual infidelity
or promiscuity on her part.
We're told that she's witchcraft from the Holy Spirit.
So this is a virgin conception.
Mary conceived Jesus miraculously by the power of God
while remaining a virgin.
And I'll talk more about that later.
But for now, I want us to think about
the troubling implications of a virgin conception.
What are people going to say?
No, really.
I never slept with any man.
Listen, this baby is from the Holy Spirit.
How do you know that?
I had a dream.
Yeah, right, Mary.
Tell me, who's the man?
Fess up.
There will be suspicions of infidelity her entire life.
Jesus would be considered an illegitimate child by many.
So much is implied in John 8
when the Jews falsely accused Jesus of being a Samaritan.
Even though Joseph, his adopted father,
is not Samaritan, clearly.
They accuse him of Samaritan,
which means they're accusing him
of being an illegitimate child.
And they say to him,
we were not born of sexual immorality.
We have one father, even God.
It's hard for Mary.
Try also being in Joseph's shoes.
Here is a woman that he loves,
that he has pledged his troth to,
saying, I love you and no other,
and I'm going to marry you,
and I'm going to provide for you
and protect you for the rest of my life.
That woman that he cherishes,
that he wants to spend the rest of his life with,
before their wedding day,
before they can enjoy conjugal relations,
is pregnant.
Things that would go through a man's mind in that situation.
The betrayal.
The lack of trust.
And according to Old Testament law,
Deuteronomy 22,
a woman who was discovered not to be a virgin,
who had been unfaithful before the time of her wedding,
there was capital punishment for that.
That's how seriously God takes the marriage union.
The Jews couldn't enforce that penalty in the first century
because they were under Roman rule,
but that goes to show how grave this sin is.
And at this point,
even though they can't execute the capital punishment,
it's still an honor and shame culture.
And the exposure of Mary's pregnancy
would have brought endless shame to Joseph,
and so he really has two options to save face.
First option is to conceal Mary's pregnancy
and become her accomplice.
Maybe they hasten their wedding days
to allay some suspicions,
and they hide the baby for a little bit
and act like this is his child.
Or, this would have been the more likely option,
the most common option in a situation like this,
he could expose Mary's infidelity
and publicly bring shame in public divorce trial.
To say, I had nothing to do with this.
It was all her.
That would save his face,
help him to get out of this quandary.
But Joseph opts for neither of these.
It says in verse 19,
her husband Joseph, being a just man
and unwilling to put her to shame,
resolved to divorce her quietly.
The word just is the same word
that's translated often as righteous.
It doesn't mean merciful or considerate.
It means that Joseph was careful
in keeping the Old Testament law.
He was a righteous man.
And because Joseph is a righteous and just man,
he cannot marry someone who has been unfaithful,
an adulterous woman.
He must divorce her.
So that's what he decides to do.
I'm gonna divorce her.
However, Joseph is also a merciful man.
And he says he is unwilling to put her to shame.
So he resolved, instead of divorcing her publicly,
to divorce her quietly.
The New International Version,
which is an alternate translation,
brings out the meaning of this more clearly
in there, verse 19.
It says,
Because Joseph, her husband,
was faithful to the law
and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace,
he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
That's the idea.
And some of you might be wondering,
well, if they were only engaged,
why does he have to divorce her?
Betrothal in those days
was a much more serious and formal affair
than nowadays.
Nowadays, people break off engagements fairly commonly.
However, in those days,
engagement is a formalized thing
where you exchange the bride price.
The man would give the bride price,
which is basically the woman's inheritance.
And if he should be unfaithful to her
and divorce her,
then she has something that she can take with her
to provide for herself.
And so they would exchange that already
at the engagement.
And from that point on,
they were bound to consider
to be legally bound to one another.
And they were referred to as husband and wife.
And so breaking off the engagement
at that stage was considered divorce,
which is why Joseph resolves to divorce her.
But that's a problem here too,
because he can't divorce her.
If you remember why,
remember from Jesus' genealogy last week,
Matthew 1.16 says,
Jacob, the father of Joseph,
the husband of Mary,
of whom Jesus was born,
who is called Christ.
In order for Jesus to be the Christ,
the prophesied messianic king
descended from King David,
he has to trace his line to King David.
And his line to King David
is traced not through Mary,
but through Joseph.
Joseph has to take him as his child.
Jesus' messianic kingship depends on it.
And so the angel of the Lord intervenes
in verse 20 and 21.
Notice how the angel addresses Joseph.
Joseph, son of David.
This is why this is important.
Joseph, son of David,
do not fear to take Mary as your wife,
for that which is conceived in her
is from the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a son,
and you shall call his name Jesus,
for he will save his people from their sins.
It was the legal responsibility
of the father in those days
to name the child.
And by naming the child,
you lay claim on that child
and acknowledge that child as your heir.
And that's the idea behind Isaiah 43.1,
when God says to Israel, his people,
and consequently to us,
who are part of the new Israel in Jesus,
I have called you by name.
You are mine.
God's called his people by name.
We are his, his heirs.
And the angel addresses Joseph,
son of David,
to tell us what is at stake
and tells him,
despite his reservations,
to take Mary as his wife
and to adopt her son
and name him Jesus.
Verses 24 to 25 tell us
that Joseph obeyed the angel's commands.
It says,
when Joseph woke from sleep,
he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.
He took his wife,
but knew her not
until she had given birth to a son.
And he called his name Jesus.
It's Jesus because of,
because Joseph takes Mary as his wife
and adopts Jesus.
He becomes a son of David through him.
And this is amazing to me
that God uses Mary and Joseph,
who are mere humans,
for such a grand, glorious,
historic, significant event
as the incarnation,
the birth and lineage of the Messiah.
Can you imagine if Joseph,
after the angel came to him and said,
no way, angel of the Lord.
No.
I come from a respectable family.
Do you know I'm descendant of David?
King David?
I can't take her as my wife.
The endless shame.
Disgrace.
By every appearance,
she's guilty of fornication and adultery.
Can you imagine
if Mary said to angel Gabriel,
no way,
a pregnancy?
Right now?
I'm a virgin.
I'm not even married yet fully.
You think Joseph's going to take me
when I'm pregnant?
This is going to ruin
my prospects for marriage.
Not just that.
It's going to ruin the rest of my life
after I get abandoned by him.
Who's going to take me now?
Salvation history
hangs in the balance
of this faithful man
and this faithful woman.
Why would God take such a risk?
Of course,
in one sense,
it's not a risk at all
because the outcome is secure
because God is sovereign
and he's in full control
over all of human history
and every human decision.
But still,
God did not have to use
Joseph and Mary.
In Acts 17.25,
it says that God is not
served by human hands
as though he needed anything
since he himself
gives to all mankind life,
breath,
and everything.
God doesn't need us
for anything.
He's not served
by human hands.
We're the ones
who need him
for everything.
God does not need
to use Joseph
and Mary.
Yet he uses,
and this is God's
mode of operation,
he uses fallible
human beings
to accomplish
his infallible
divine purposes.
And that's amazing.
So many of you,
and I'm so grateful
for you,
that so many of you
are involved
in serving our church
in various ways.
So many of you
are involved
even outside of that
in campus ministry
and various missions
organizations.
Don't ever think
that you are doing
God a favor.
you're not doing
something that he needs.
He's doing you
a favor,
involving you
in his plan,
his great purposes.
How is it?
And I don't understand
this.
How is it that we,
people like us,
how is it that we
get to partake
in God's saving
purposes
throughout the world
by proclaiming
the gospel
of Jesus Christ
and making disciples
of Jesus Christ?
How can it be
that we
get to be a part
of that?
And how can it be?
This is biased
to all of you
in different sense,
but how can it be
that I
get to stand here
and expound
God's word
and preach to you
week after week?
That's a privilege.
We can't take that
for granted.
it's God's grace
to involve us.
And let's also
appreciate the
gritty humanity
of Jesus'
birth.
Look at,
he was conceived
by the Holy Spirit,
yes,
but he really is born
of the Virgin Mary.
She is called
his mother
in this chapter.
Matthew 1.16
says that Joseph,
the husband of Mary,
of whom Jesus was born.
Jesus was born
as an offspring
of the woman.
Like all of us
in this room,
Jesus has a real
human genealogy
traced through
his adopted father,
Joseph.
Jesus had
a human
upbringing.
thinking,
I want to note
here that there
is no mention
of a
Catholic doctrine
of immaculate
conception,
claiming that
Mary was born
without original sin
and never sinned
personally.
Mary was not
sinless.
Jesus is the only
sinless human.
In fact,
the claim that
Mary was sinless
and that only
a sinless woman
could give birth
to Jesus
runs in the face
of Jesus'
checkered genealogy,
which we looked at
last week.
Jesus embraces
humanity in all
of its sinfulness
to raise them
up to him.
We saw in
Jesus'
genealogy
that his
ancestors were
guilty of incest,
murder,
adultery,
idolatry,
child sacrifice,
and even
prostitution.
Jesus himself
was without sin,
yes,
but he,
nonetheless,
in his person
embraces the
whole of humanity
with all of
its sordid
and sinful
history.
There's also
no hint
in this text
of the doctrine
of Mary's
perpetual virginity,
that Mary
remained a virgin
for the rest
of her life.
That's nowhere
in Scripture.
Verse 25
does not say
that Joseph
never slept
with Mary,
ever.
It says
Joseph knew
Mary not
until she
had given
birth to a son,
which implies
that after
she gave
birth to Jesus,
they assumed
normal,
conjugal relations
like any
married couple.
people.
That's why
later on
in chapter 13,
verse 55 and 56,
Matthew notes
that Jesus
has brothers
and sisters,
and these
are not
referring to
spiritual brothers
and sisters
within the family
of God,
because in
John 2,
12,
it mentions
Jesus'
disciples
separate from
his brothers
and his
siblings.
Jesus had
human parents,
Jesus had
human siblings,
Jesus had
a human
upbringing
because Jesus
was fully
human.
And think
about when
the incarnation
actually began.
When did
God take
on human
flesh?
The incarnation
did not begin
with the birth.
It began
with conception.
conception.
God could
have,
imagine what
that would
have been
like,
God could
have sent
Jesus down
as an
adult.
He could
have written
the cloud
down just
like he
went up
to the
heavens.
He could
have written
the cloud
down in
adult form
and say,
here I am.
But instead,
Jesus was
conceived in
Mary's womb.
Jesus was
a human
embryo.
A pre-born
child who
went through
all of the
gestational
stages.
From the
cradle to
the grave,
from the
manger to
the cross,
Jesus embraced
human life
in its
entirety.
from
conception
to death.
As Hebrews
2 teaches
us,
in order
to save
us,
Jesus had
to be
made like
us in
every respect.
He had
to be
man to
represent
man.
He had
to take
on flesh
and blood
and become
like us.
Do you
ever doubt
that Jesus
is really
as merciful
and gracious
as God's
word teaches
us he is?
Think
again,
because Jesus
was made
like his
brothers.
This is
from Hebrews
2.17.
Jesus was
made like
his brothers
in every
respect so
that he
became a
merciful and
faithful high
priest in
the service
of God to
make propitiation
for the sins
of the people.
He is
merciful to
us because
Jesus gets
us.
he knows
all of
your
and my
frailties
weaknesses.
He knows
all of
our
limitations
and because
he does
he has
compassion.
Do you
ever doubt
that Jesus
faced the
same kinds
of temptation
that we
face?
Think again
because Hebrews
4.15
says we do
not have a
high priest
Jesus who
is unable
to sympathize
with our
weaknesses but
one who in
every respect
has been
tempted as
we are yet
without sin.
Jesus has
been there.
Jesus knows
the temptations
you face and
because he
himself suffered
when tempted
he is able to
help those who
are being
tempted.
There is no
savior like
Jesus.
In fact
Jesus is the
only savior
because he
truly understands
us because
he has
compassion on
us because
he truly
represents us
as man.
There is only
one mediator
between God
and man,
the man
Christ Jesus.
But Jesus
wasn't only
a man.
He was also
fully God.
He is the
incarnate God,
the son of
God who has
taken on human
flesh.
And we are
told this in
verse 18,
verse 20,
where we are
told that he
was conceived
in Mary from
the Holy Spirit.
And that is
why verse 16
of the genealogy
is careful to
note.
It does not
follow the
standard formula.
If it followed
the standard formula
it would have
said Joseph,
the father of
Jesus.
It does not
say that.
Joseph,
the husband
of Mary,
of whom Jesus
was born.
Joseph was
his legal
and adoptive
father,
but Jesus'
real father
is ultimately
God the
father.
No wonder
Joseph was
hesitant to
approach Mary
and sleep with
her even after
their marriage
ceremony.
It says in
verse 24,
25,
Joseph knew
her not until
she had given
birth to a
son.
The word
no is a
biblical
euphemism for
conjugal relations.
Matthew is
making it extra
clear that Jesus
is not a child
of Joseph
through intercourse.
Matthew is
making it
very clear.
In fact,
what man,
what faithful
man,
what believing
man in his
right mind,
knowing that
God is in
Mary's womb,
approached her.
Something sacred
and holy
has taken place.
Something divine
man.
And notice how
delicate and
restrained Matthew
is in his
description of
this.
It's very
unlike any
pagan accounts.
Ancient
Greco-Roman
texts often
tell lurid
tales of
Greco-Roman
gods impregnating
human women
and then
producing
demigods,
inferior deities
who are half
God and half
man.
But such
myths have
more in
common with
the disobedient
angelic beings
taking human
wives for
themselves and
giving birth to
the Nephilim
in Genesis 6
than the story
of Jesus'
conception and
birth.
Matthew's
unadorned
account is a
stark contrast
to these
elaborate Greco-Roman
mythologies.
He carefully
avoids any
hint of
any kind
of sexual
activity.
Jesus is
not half
God,
half man.
scripture
everywhere
and all
of church
history
confirmed
that Jesus
is fully
God and
fully man.
He's no
demigod,
he's no
superhuman,
he is
God and
he is
man.
That which
is conceived
in her is
from the
Holy Spirit.
Jesus is
born miraculously
with two
natures,
a human
nature and
a divine
nature,
in the
one person
of Jesus
Christ.
The prophecy
from Isaiah
7, 14,
which Matthew
cites in
verse 22
and 23
confirms this.
Matthew is
known for
often citing
the Old
Testament and
to demonstrate
how Jesus
fulfilled the
Old Testament.
He does
this over
ten times,
uses this
formula,
this was to
fulfill what
the Lord
spoke by
so and so.
That formula
quotation is
used over
ten times in
his gospel and
five of those
occur in the
birth narrative.
So Matthew
is making it
very clear to
us,
Jesus is
the prophesied
one.
Jesus is
the promised
one.
Jesus is
the one who
fulfills all
of these
promises.
And what
did Isaiah
7, 14
prophesy?
Behold,
a virgin
shall conceive
and bear a
son and
they shall
call his
name Emmanuel,
God with
us.
How specific
can it
get?
A virgin
conceives a
child and
this child is
no ordinary
child but
this child is
a God
child,
Emmanuel,
God with
us.
All of
the Old
Testament
prophecies,
when we
read and
from,
we were
singing Psalm
34 earlier
and we were
reading in the
assurance of
pardon also of
how God is
the one who
is with us,
the Lord of
hosts is
with us.
That phrase
occurs so many
times throughout
all of the
Old Testament.
God is
with us.
And
Imanu is
the phrase in
Hebrew that
means God
is with
us.
Imanu is
with us,
El is
God,
God with
us.
So all of
those promises,
everything that
God has said to
his people,
I assure you,
I am with
you,
I will not
abandon you,
I will not
forsake you,
all of that
comes to
ultimate fruition
in Jesus who
is Immanuel,
God with
us.
So he's
fully God.
This is why
Jesus doesn't
ever in the
gospel stop
people from
worshiping him.
All pious
people recognize
that there's
only one true
God and if
you try to
worship someone
who is not
God, that
that is
idolatrous.
So Peter
in Acts 10
when Cornelius
falls at his
feet to
worship him,
oh you,
you're this
great apostle,
one that
God sent
to me,
they bowed
down to
him to
worship him
and then
Peter lifts
him up
saying,
stand up,
I too am
a man.
Peter knows
this place.
Even angels
refuse to be
worshipped.
In Revelation
22, 8, 9,
John falls
to worship
at the feet
of an angel
who is this
glorious being
and then the
angel says to
John,
you must not
do that.
I am a
fellow servant
with you
and your
brothers,
the prophets
and with
those who
keep the
words of
this book.
Worship
God.
But the
Gospels,
this is
shocking,
right?
And this
is where
like, you
know, when
people come
to you and
say, oh,
the Gospels
in their
original form
never affirm
that Jesus
is the
deity, that
he is God.
Only the
Gospel of
John, which
was written
later on,
does this.
No, Matthew,
Mark, Luke,
and John
never do that.
I don't know,
maybe you've
heard this in
some of your
college classes.
Are you
kidding me?
Have you seen
how many times
people fall at
Jesus' feet and
bow down and
worship him?
And he says
nothing.
Instead, they
worship him, say,
truly, you are the
Son of God.
God.
And Jesus says,
yeah, you say
that I am.
That is who I
am.
Those things,
those instances
would be
incredibly
inappropriate if
they weren't for
Jesus' actual
divinity.
But Jesus is
fully God, and
because he is
Emmanuel, God
with us,
falling before
his feet in
worship and
bowing before
him is the
only appropriate
response.
And that the
deity of Christ,
divinity of Christ,
has important
theological
implications.
For my third
and final point,
the salvation of
the Christ,
the angel who
appears to
Joseph says in
verse 21,
Mary will bear
a son, and
you shall call
his name
Jesus, for he
will save his
people from
their sins.
The name
Jesus means
the Lord
saves.
So if you
wonder, is
Jesus really a
savior?
Yeah!
That's his
name!
the Lord
saves.
He will
save his
people from
their sins.
And we sing
Jesus' name
all the time.
His name is
on the lips
of his people
all the time
in prayer.
Every time we
pray, we pray
in Jesus'
name.
Every time we
sing, we sing
to Jesus'
name.
And how
sweet is
that name
that reminds
us the
Lord saves.
Jesus could
have had a
lot of
different
names.
The angel
God could
have told
Joseph to
name him
Naziah.
It's a cool
name.
It means
conqueror.
Yeah,
Naziah, go
conquer the
Roman Empire.
Liberate your
people.
I don't know
why I'm
talking like
this.
Yeah.
Or it
could have
been Daniel,
which means
God is
judge.
That would
have been
true too.
God could
have sent
Jesus to
judge all
of us as
he rightly
deserves to.
But no,
his name
is Jesus.
The Lord
saves.
And we
call out to
his name
every day.
Jesus, my Jesus, I love you.
And what exactly does Jesus save us from? Verse 21 tells us he will save his people from their
sins. And this brings God's entire salvation plan, his redemptive historical purposes to a focus
with a crystal clear focus. The Jews at the time, they were expecting the Messiah to come,
and they were expecting him to come and save them, but they were expecting him to come primarily to
save them from the Roman oppressors, to establish the kingdom of God on earth.
But Jesus's mission here, God is confirming through his angelic messenger, is far grander than that.
The Roman Empire? Please. God has much bigger fish to fry. Jesus has come to save his people from
their sins. Because the Jews, God's people were oppressed and conquered by many nations, right?
The Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and then the Romans.
But these foreign nations were merely instruments of God's judgment.
They were not the cause of their misfortune.
The true root cause of their misfortune was their sin, their unfaithfulness to God, their violation of
their covenant with God, which led to these judgments, which are meant to bring them back to repentance.
So then nothing short of salvation from their sins can actually save them.
This brings some helpful applications for our day and age, because in our day too, there's a lot of suffering.
There's a lot of oppression.
There are a lot of things that people need to be saved from.
Wars, natural disasters, international crises, climate catastrophes, epidemics, pandemics, economic depression,
social injustices, world hunger.
But there is one thing that is more urgent and more pressing and more consequential than any of these things that we must be saved from,
and that is our sins.
Sin is the cause of our alienation from God.
Sin is the reason for people's eternal damnation.
Sin is the root cause of all hostility between races and genders and nations.
Sin is the reason why diseases and disasters and death have entered into our world.
So my Christian brothers and sisters, do you give appropriate attention to dealing with sin in your life?
And do you give appropriate attention to proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ,
which is the only news that can deal with the sin around us and the sin of our neighbors?
Or are you more preoccupied with just the external circumstances of your life?
Heart diseases, brain malformations, cancers, strokes, do not separate us from God.
Sin does.
And Jesus, our Savior, came to save us from our sins.
Because Jesus was conceived and married from the Holy Spirit,
apart from the sexual involvement of any man,
the original sin that entered humanity through Adam, their head,
is cut off, interrupted,
as Romans 5, 12 tells us, uniquely in Jesus' birth.
Jesus is the first and only human to be born without sin.
I'm excluding Adam because he wasn't born.
He was created.
And Eve.
1 John 3, 5 says,
You know that Jesus appeared in order to take away sins,
and in him there is no sin.
This is because Jesus knew no sin.
Only he can bear our sins so that we might become the righteousness of God,
as 2 Corinthians 5, 21 says.
This is essential for his saving work.
He has to be God who is without sin.
Jesus is the one man who never deserved to die
because death is a consequence of sin,
and he had no sin.
And yet Jesus died to save us from our sins.
For those of you here who are not yet followers of Christ,
what is your solution for sin?
Romans 6, 23 says,
The wages of sin is death.
Hebrews 9, 22 says,
Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.
You cannot pay for your sins apart from death.
That is an endless night.
But the morning dawns with Christ who rises from the dead
to give hope to all sinners.
Have you put your faith in the only Savior
who can save you from your sins?
And there are exhortations here for believers as well.
Jesus did many good works during his time on earth.
He healed the sick and raised the dead.
Jesus' central mission, however, always was
to give his life as a ransom for many,
to save his people from their sins.
Likewise, I want you all as God's people
to love your neighbors as yourself,
to do many good works wherever you are,
to do your work with excellence in honor of the Lord,
in your classrooms, in the libraries, in the labs,
in the courts, in the banks, in the offices,
in the studios, and in your homes,
and in the marketplaces.
I want you to honor God and do good to your neighbors
and love your neighbors,
to abound in all good works.
But the central mission of the Church of Christ
is to proclaim Jesus Christ who saves us from our sins.
And that's how we join him in his mission.
I don't want us to ever forget that.
Also, I want to address those of you who feel that
maybe there are some sins in your life
that Jesus is not quite able to deal with.
I know you don't think that in your head, theoretically,
but you think that in your heart.
You think that in the way you approach God
because you approach him thinking,
ah, he doesn't really want to spend time with me.
He's not really pleased with me.
Yeah, maybe back then when my faith was new
and I was zealous and I became a fresh Christian,
but I've sinned so many times since then.
Again, and again, and again,
how can God possibly love me?
How can that really be forgiven?
Surely there's a limit.
If Jesus died and that's it,
then you might have something.
But Jesus died and he was raised
and he ascended to the right hand of the Father
where God's word teaches us
that he is now making intercession for us.
I want you to get this
because this is so important.
Romans 8, 33 to 34.
Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?
It is God who justifies.
Who is to condemn?
Christ Jesus is the one who died.
More than that,
who was raised,
who is at the right hand of God,
who indeed is interceding for us.
Jesus rose from the dead
and ascended to the right hand of the Father
and he is there interceding for us.
Similarly, Hebrews 7, 24 to 26 tells us
that because Jesus is a high priest who lives forever,
he didn't die like the earthly human high priests.
He lives forever
because he's raised from the dead
and he's at the right hand of the Father.
He is exalted above the heavens.
He says, consequently, it says,
he's able to save to the uttermost
those who draw near to God through him
since he always lives to make intercession for them.
Maybe you think God saves you partway.
Sometimes I've had this interaction.
I think my kids one time,
family worship asked me,
well, did,
are we forgiven because of Jesus,
what he did,
are we forgiven all our future sins too?
I'm like, well,
that's not exactly the right way to think about it, right?
Because we are called to confess our sins
to be forgiven.
So it's not that God forgives you beforehand
of all your future sins.
However, the basis for the forgiveness
of all of your future sins
is purchased at the cross.
And now,
at the right hand of the Father,
moment by moment,
with every sin,
with every failure,
Jesus intercedes for you.
I died for that sin.
Oh, here comes another one.
I died for that sin.
Here comes another one.
Yes, I died for that sin.
I died for that sin.
Interceding on your behalf right now
at the right hand of the Father.
Isn't that amazing?
So if you doubt that Jesus saves you
to the uttermost,
to the end,
completely,
Jesus is a complete Savior.
He is a whole Savior.
You doubt that,
then remember that.
He saves to the uttermost
because He is right now
at the right hand of the Father
interceding for you.
Jesus saves.
The Lord saves.
Emmanuel, God with us,
and He will save His people
from their sins.
Hallelujah.
Father, thank You so much
for Your love
in sending Jesus to us.
We are so loved.
So loved.
More love than we can know.
More love than we will ever
fully grasp.
And I ask God
that by Your grace
You will help
my brothers and sisters here
to grasp that love
a little bit better today.
And I ask that by Your mercy
that You will save those
in this room
who do not yet know
Your great love.
All glory belongs to You, Father.
Salvation is of You
from the beginning to the end.
So glorify Yourself
in saving sinners today.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.