A couple weeks ago while I did a few of my treadmill runs, I watched an inspiring movie called The Guardian. I say ?inspiring? because the subjects of the film are the real live heros who serve in the United States Coast Guard as rescue swimmers. Every day these brave men and women board helicopters like this one and go out in response to distress calls. They do this no matter how bad the weather?whether it be in the middle of a hurricane like Katrina?or a brutal winter storm like those that plague the icy waters of the north Pacific. Nothing stops them from going out because they believe?it is their firm conviction?that there is no greater calling than saving lives.
If you?ve seen the film then you know there?s a scene at the beginning of the film in which the commandant of the Coast Guard Academy is briefing some new recruits and he proudly reminds them of their high and noble calling. He says something like this, ?Out of the 39,000 men and women that make up the United States Coast Guard there are only 280 rescue swimmers. This is because we are the Coast Guard?s elite. We are the best of the best. When storms shut down entire ports, we go out. When hurricanes ground the United States Navy, we go out. And when the holy Lord Himself reaches down from Heaven and destroys His good work with winds that rip houses off the ground, We. Go. Out.?
Is that an inspiring statement or what!? Well, the rest of the movie is a celebration of these brave men and women who jump out of helicopters over stormy seas?true heros who COME DOWN from above to help people who need saving.
As I ran and watched, I couldn?t help but think of the spiritual parallel, because of course the basic Gospel message is that GOD CAME DOWN to save you and me. He came down from Heaven to rescue lost and dying people like us?people who, to quote the old hymn, were ?…sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore.?
Every Advent we gather as we do tonight to CELEBRATE God?s RESCUE MISSION. Similar to the people out in the ocean?people who are in dire straights?similar to the way they rejoice when they see that the coast guard rescue swimmer has come, we rejoice each year at this time and sing, ?Joy to the world?the LORD has come!?
For the past four weeks we?ve been emphasizing this fact by reminding ourselves of the answers to the questions that surround Jesus? coming DOWN to save us. Tonight the question I want us to deal with is this one: ?Why did Jesus come down as a BABY?? And?we are not the first people to ask this question. The Bible records the fact that many of the Jews of the first century wondered the same thing. You see, in their minds the long-awaited Messiah would need to come in the form of the ultimate military commander. He would arrive full-grown?and on horse back with his sword held high…crying out for vengeance and redemption for His favored nation. Dr. Jeremiah writes, ?He would have the wisdom of Solomon, the charisma of David, the godliness of Moses, and the military genius of Joshua.?
The people who lived in Judea on that first Christmas Eve yearned for this kind of Messiah. They felt the need in Israel demanded it. After all, they were a conquered nation?an occupied nation. In their minds a BABY would have been no help at all…which brings us back to our question: Why WOULD Jesus come as a baby? I mean, coming down in that way?well it makes as much sense as sending an infant to save a drowning man.
But of course, Jesus didn?t come DOWN to save a nation. No?Jesus came to rescue us from our sin?and this kind of rescue mission required the birth of a BABY?but not just any baby?a baby unlike any other. You see, this child would have to be both GOD and MAN. In order to save lost sinners like you and me, He would have to be fully HUMAN and fully DIVINE?simultaneously. I like how Dr. Jeremiah puts it. He writes, ?God?s eternal plan was for Jesus to come down to die?to give His life as a sacrifice for our sins. Only someone PERFECT would be able to offer His life as a sacrifice; any other life would be just another human one. God alone is holy. God alone could atone for man?s sin with the death of His own Son. On the other hand, God is a spirit, and a spirit cannot die. What was the possible solution? God must become a man but He must retain His purity and perfection.?
So on that first Christmas night God not only came down?He came WAY down. As Yancey puts it in his book, THE JESUS I NEVER KNEW, ?Unimaginably the Maker of all things shrank down, down, down, so small as to become an ovum, a single fertilized egg barely visible to the naked eye, an egg that would divide and re-divide until a fetus took shape, enlarging cell by cell inside a nervous teenager.? To rescue us GOD became MAN and what?s more, He entered this world in the same way any man does?as a tiny BABY.
Tonight I want to say two things that I hope will help us all understand this mysterious aspect of the nativity story more fully.
(1) First, baby Jesus? virgin birth was a sign of His DIVINITY.
I mean, an infant conceived and born in this way proved that He was not just any infant?but GOD?God in human flesh.
And?let?s pause to acknowledge the fact that the Bible CLEARLY teaches that Mary WAS a virgin at the time of Jesus? birth. In his Gospel MATTHEW is careful to point out that, although Joseph and Mary lived together after their marriage, they did not enter into sexual union until after Jesus was born. LUKE also affirms that Mary was a virgin at the time of Jesus? birth…echoing the prophesy of Isaiah, which had said, ?Behold a VIRGIN shall conceive…? Three times in Luke?s first chapter Mary herself says she was a virgin…so there is no lack of Biblical clarity on this issue?and that is a wonderful thing, because to save us, this baby would HAVE to be virgin born! There would have to be no doubt that this child was GOD in the flesh.
?GOD IN THE FLESH?…Isn?t it that an amazing thought? Think of it?the baby that Mary held in her arms was God Himself? Those little newborn lips that cooed and cried once formed the dynamic words of creation! Those tiny, clutching fists once flung stars into space and planets into orbit for, as Colossians 1:15-17 says, ?By Jesus all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities?all things have been created by Him and for Him. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.?
Try and consider what this means. Concentrate for a few moments and try to conceive how BIG our universe really is. A hollow ball the size of our sun would hold 1.2 million planets the size of Earth?with room for 4.3 million more globes the size of our moon. The nearest star, Alpha Centauri, is five times larger than our sun. Betelguese, one of the stars visible in the constellation Orion, is 248 times larger than that! No wonder Job expressed his awe of God by saying, ?How can a mortal be righteous before God? Though one wished to dispute with God, he could not answer Him. God?s wisdom is profound! His power is vast! He alone stretches out the heavens. He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and all the constellations.? (Job 9:2-3, 9)
One of God?s creative laws?the speed of light?helps us in our attempt to better understand the size of the universe. That law says that a ray of light travels at 186,000 miles per second so a beam of light from here will reach the moon in a second and a half. Imagine you could travel that fast. If you could?you would reach Mercury in four and a half minutes. Getting to Jupiter would take about 35 minutes. If you decided to go on, you could get to Saturn in about an hour, but it would take you nearly four and a half years to get to the nearest star. At light speed, traveling just to the edge of our Milky Way galaxy would take you about 100,000 years. If you could count the stars as you travel, you would find about a hundred billion of them in the Milky Way alone. If you wanted to explore other galaxies you would have literally billions to choose from. I mean, the size of the universe is incomprehensible?and Who made all that? GOD DID!
Does that help you to understand a little better HOW FAR DOWN God came to save us? Jesus came as a baby?He was virgin born?so that we could know that it was HE?GOD in the flesh?Who had come. The fact that He came the way should remind us that the Being Who created everything had come to RE-CREATE us and make us new.
Another thing?the WAY Jesus came heralded the glorious news that God became touchable?approachable…and that He loves us and WANTS us to approach Him!
So Jesus came as a baby?He was virgin BORN?to attest to His divinity.
(2) But His coming in this way also attested to His HUMANITY.
You see, in some mysterious way that BABY was not only fully GOD?He was also fully MAN.
He arrived from Heaven with Godly perfection of which no human being is capable?but He also took the full human journey. And this is important because it tells us that Jesus has indeed been through everything we go through. The fact that our Savior came as a baby tells us that, ?…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, must as we are?yet without sin.? (Hebrews 4:15) Dr. Jeremiah puts it this way: ?How could we follow His footsteps as a man if we hadn?t seen Him crawl as a child? How could we believe He had undergone ALL the temptation we have faced if He had bypassed the most difficult years in which we struggle to earn our adulthood? To make the full sacrifice on our behalf, Jesus had to make the full commitment. It would mean very little to us if he had sprung from heaven fully formed, bathed in heavenly glory, saying, ?Here are my hands and feet?place Me on the cross for I am willing to die.?
So?we see Jesus as a BABY in a manger?and as a CHILD in the temple?and as a YOUNG MAN quietly beginning the ministry that would change all human history. We see Him in the desert wrestling with temptation?and all this shows us that He is FULLY HUMAN. This fact that God in the flesh lived as a baby, a child, a teen, an adult?well it reminds us that He can indeed sympathize with ALL our struggles. The Incarnation?God become flesh?it tells us that for 33 years Jesus felt everything you and I feel. He struggled just as we struggle. He even faced what every human eventually faces?Jesus faced DEATH itself. In short, Jesus came as a baby in order to deal with the SAME fears and challenges and trials we deal with.
In an article for Christian Standard magazine entitled ?Carols for Any Season of Suffering,? Matt Proctor reflects on this aspect of the Incarnation. He writes: ?My 5-year-old, Carl, and my 3-year-old, Conrad, love it when I dress like them. After they put on jeans and a blue T-shirt, they?ll come ask me to wear jeans and a blue T-shirt. When I do, they have a saying. They will survey me, survey themselves, and say, ?Look, Dad?same, same.? For my birthday, Carl bought me a North Carolina blue mesh shirt…because he has a North Carolina blue mesh shirt. We could be ?same, same.? When I play living room football with my boys, Conrad will not let me play standing?so big and scary and towering above him. Instead he insists I get on my knees. When I am down at eye-level, Conrad puts his hand on my shoulder and says, ?There. See, Dad?same, same.? They like it when I enter their world. The THEOLOGICAL term for this is ?completely Other.?
This summer, I scraped my leg working around the house. A couple days later, when Conrad fell down and scraped his leg, he pointed at my scab, then showed me his own and said, ?Hey, Dad?same, same.?
Here?s my point. God Himself has felt what we feel. He chose not to stay ?completely Other.? He got down at eye-level, and in the Incarnation, God experienced what it’s like to be tired and discouraged. He knows what it?s like to hurt and bleed. On the cross, Jesus Himself prayed a psalm of lament: ?My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?? (Psalm 22:1) In your pain, you may be tempted to say, ?God, you have no idea what I?m going through. You have no idea how bad I?m hurting.? But God can respond, ?Yes, I do.? He can point to your wounds and then to His own and say, ?Look: same, same. Me too. I have entered your world, and I know how you feel. I have been there, I am not only approachable. I am WITH YOU now. I care, and I can help.? That is what Christmas is all about.?
So?to summarize?Jesus came the way He did?He came as a baby?so we could better understand that He was both God and Man?and this is very important. You see, we can trust Him with our lives because we know He was God…and we can love Him with our hearts because we know that once He was a tiny baby wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.
Communion
Each Christmas Eve we observe communion as a way of celebrating the Incarnation. These elements remind us that,?Jesus Christ, being in very nature God, 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, and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient to death?even death on a cross.? (Philippians 2:5-7)
As we share this meal, let me invite all Christians present to partake with us because even if you are not a member of this church….If you are a Christian…if you are His, this is Yours.
THE ORDINANCE OF COMMUNION