I’ll be brief. The following is an audio from Truth For Life asking you to consider which part of the audience you are as we all participate in the celebration of Jesus’ birth.
The text of our sermon is from Paul’s letter to the church at Galatia. (You may safely click on any link in this post or on the Truth For Life website also linked at the bottom of this post.)
A Personal INTRO
I would have been here early as a participant, parent, praise band player or orchestra member. The backstage minutes prior to the doors opening for the annual Christmas concert rush toward the time when the audience will be allowed to enter the church for the best seats for the Christmas pageant. Most of the crowd is early for this full-house spectacle.
BUT WHAT IF
Before you enter you had to choose ONE of THREE sections for the Nativity Program based on your faith?
The key question YOU must answer (toward the end of today’s sermon) is this.
WHY DID CHRIST COME?
You cannot understand Christmas without Calvary.
Alistair Begg
SO before you enter the doors of our Christmas Story from the stage of our local church, please choose your preferred seating for the Christmas Story.
Group number one
(We have nearly unlimited seating for you.)
Group number one has never trusted in Christ, and the reason they’ve never trusted in Christ is because they’ve never had the law preached to them.
Group number two
The second group .. is made up of people who have had the law preached to them and need to understand the promise of God.
(We have a smaller section of seats for you too.)
Group number three
Regrettably, we must seat the other two groups first.
BUT LISTEN
Alistair Begg will include this group too near the end of his brief Christmas sermon.
This Talk of JESUS .com page will close when you click the link below:
A human life is bound in the womb of eternity. In one sense a child is not fully born by its mother into the fullness of life — but only into a helpless and limited mortal life — where babe may become child, child may become man or woman — this quick-passing human life bound in the confines of mortal time followed inevitably by death and judgment.
Born once in a human womb
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
adam bore both sin and death conceived in a womb of measured time, incomplete and nourished in the blood of our mother — growing to burst forth into a glory beyond the bounds of this place to which we have clung for such a brief time — measured time ended beyond the bounds of our dark inner existence.
What once was death separated from our mortal time within these bounds inevitably becomes life beyond humanity’s brief prison lifted into a glory of the everlasting Light beyond.
And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,
“BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUELG1694,” which translated means, “GOD WITH US.”
Christians (and even many unbelievers who have witnessed an annual Christmas pageant) know the Scripture well. But think of its implication as well as the impact of Almighty God entering measured time and mortal flesh.
An anointed Virgin of the Eternal God will have a son by the Holy Spirit of God!
This Son of the Everlasting One IS actually GOD [theos] WITH US [in mortal flesh and blood], BORN — as are all mankind AND who must suffer DEATH as is appointed to EVERY son of man.
Emanu–el – Hebrew Gospel announced in Matthew’s manger
Matthew addresses the genealogy of JESUS EMMANUEL as he would any line of adam.
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham:
I will not detail this linage of the promise of God through Abraham (who was childless) and David (whose Kingdom ended in defeat by Babylon) or that in his Gospel lineage Matthew designates Joseph as the husband of Mary. Matthew then adds that before she conceived JESUS, that is GOD WITH US, by the HOLY SPIRIT [v.18], however note that by these important names Matthew introduces of the LORD GOD in a fragile frame of a HUMAN CHILD.
Χριστός Christós, khris-tos’; from G5548; anointed, i.e. the Messiah, an epithet of Jesus:—Christ. – BLUELETTERBIBLE.ORG
The Christ child
NO other term in the New Testament is used more than CHRIST [500+x] to characterize JESUS. ‘Christians‘ should not take lightly any replacement of CHRIST in Scripture with some less characteristic human title.
Roger@TalkofJesus.com
The Good News of Matthew:
Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows:
when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.
And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly [divorcing his betrothed {with whom they ‘had not come together’}]. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying,
“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the One who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name
Jesus,
for He will save His people from their sins.”
Did you catch that?
The angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream as commands his to call the child, JESUS.
JESUS, unlike Joshua of the same name before, “Jehovah is salvation,” not only is not born of an earthly father but is NOT sent to SAVE the sons of Abraham from earthly enemies or lay claim to an earthly land as a king.
NO, Jesus, a son of man ONLY by the virgin Mary, “will save His people from their sins,” a mercy ONLY God can grant to a condemned son of adam.
The Good News of John
We began consideration of the Apostle’s Christian logic behind the birth of Jesus into time and human flesh. Today I end with his explanation of what also seems convincingly logical from the Savior who John calls ‘The Word‘ (λόγος – logos).
“Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born [from above] he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
“How can a man be born when he is old? ..
Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
“That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit.
“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Will you be born again (though we are old)?
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words [logos] will not pass away.
A word of Jesus Christ from the Gospel of Matthew 24:25
Here is the significance of the Christ child in a manger and the Son of Man Jesus on the cross who was born to save His people from their sins.
Pilate said to them,
“Then, what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?”
After having fled Pisidian Antioch, Roman capital of the Galatian district of Lycaonia, Barnabas and Paul must again go into hiding as they escape persecution in Iconium.
Luke’s detailed account of Paul’s first missionary journey in Acts 14 shows us what will frequently take place in many cities throughout the world. His historic account of the Apostles provides background for understanding of the intense hatred of Jesus Christ by many unbelievers.
5 And when an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers to mistreat and to stone them, they became aware of it and fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra and Derbe, and the surrounding region; and there they continued to proclaim the gospel.
Lycaonia and the surrounding region
A 21st c. satellite view of the plain east of the Taurus mountains. (A large man-made lake later provided irrigation to this arid region but would have been a river in earlier centuries.)
Λυκαονία – Lycaonia
Luke mentions that they fled to the cities of Lycaonia.. and the surrounding region. Although Lycaonia was also a city in the southern region of this district set on a plain near the Taurus Mountains, he names the next two cities where they will preach the gospel in addition to other more remote towns of Lycaonia.
Lycaonia = "wolf land"
a region in Asia Minor, situated between Pisidia, Cilicia, Cappadocia, Galatia and Phrygia, whose chief towns were Derbe, Lystra and Iconium
metaph. of cruel, greedy, rapacious, destructive men
- Source: BlueLetterBible.org.
Barnabas and Paul will eventually enter Lystra where Luke records yet another miracle among the gentiles.
NOTE Luke’s Gospel mention of the Lord Jesus using this same reference also points to rejection of the Gospel.
And all the people of the countryG4066 of the Gerasenes
andG4066 theG4066 surroundingG4066 districtG4066asked Him [Jesus] to leave them, for they were gripped with great fear. And He got into a boat and returned.
Gospel of Luke 8:37 LSB – Strong’s G4066 – perichōros
Rejection of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
“THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME,
BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR.
HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES,
AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND,
TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED,
TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”
Gospel of Luke 4:18-19a - Jesus Christ quoting the prophet Isaiah 61
“Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your [ears].”- The words of Jesus from Luke 4:21
Acts of the Apostles
And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.
But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.
– ACTS of the Apostles in Pisidian Antioch 13:49-50 KJV
..the idea of empty expanse; a space of territory (more or less extensive; often including its inhabitants):—coast, county, fields, ground, land, region.
boundaries for a region, district, land, territory
But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium.
Acts of the Apostles 13:51 King James Version
And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off G1621 the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. – Gospel of Mark 6:11 KJV
And it came to pass in Iconium..
ACTS 14:3-7 KJV
Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands.
But the multitude of the city was divided: and part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles. And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles, and also of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully, and to stone them,
They were ware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about:
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests
10 minutes
__utmb
Used to distinguish new sessions and visits. This cookie is set when the GA.js javascript library is loaded and there is no existing __utmb cookie. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
30 minutes after last activity
__utmc
Used only with old Urchin versions of Google Analytics and not with GA.js. Was used to distinguish between new sessions and visits at the end of a session.
End of session (browser)
__utmz
Contains information about the traffic source or campaign that directed user to the website. The cookie is set when the GA.js javascript is loaded and updated when data is sent to the Google Anaytics server
6 months after last activity
__utmv
Contains custom information set by the web developer via the _setCustomVar method in Google Analytics. This cookie is updated every time new data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
2 years after last activity
__utmx
Used to determine whether a user is included in an A / B or Multivariate test.
18 months
_ga
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gali
Used by Google Analytics to determine which links on a page are being clicked
30 seconds
_ga_
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gid
ID used to identify users for 24 hours after last activity
24 hours
_gat
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests when using Google Tag Manager
1 minute
_gac_
Contains information related to marketing campaigns of the user. These are shared with Google AdWords / Google Ads when the Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are linked together.
