Preaching Report: Matthew 1:22-23
Background.: I had originally become interested in preaching on the virgin birth / incarnation following reading a chapter in "Knowing God." Packer's 5th chapter, "God Incarnate" approached the incarnation in a new and powerful way to me. In the end, I didn't end up using any of it (on this occasion). This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, December 14th, part 2 of my Christmas series.Message.: I decided to major on the image of the Pregnant Virgin. I even titled the message "The Pregnant Virgin" although a more accurate title would have been "Immanuel" or "God with us now." I just realized that we usually refer to the "Virgin Birth" and that is at the end of the pregnancy. Or, we refer to the "immaculate conception" but that's just the beginning of the pregnancy. Either way you totally lose the feeling that Mary was actually pregnant, a pregnant virgin!, for 9 whole months. It wasn't just conception, boom, birth in an instant. She carried the embryonic Son of God, the developing Lord, until He was full term. That's just amazing. It's stark. It's intense. It's not as pretty as the before and after shots.
And I preached that that's the way it's supposed to be. I compared it to the cross. The cross was the place where God's Holiness and our sin collided in a bloody mess on/in Jesus.
The virgin's belly was the place where the Creator collided with the Creation and became a Creature. It was also bloody and messy, but in a beautiful birth. The Word became flesh in her tummy. It's amazing to think about. I think it gets across the incarnation in a way most people aren't used to. There was a place of piercing in, when God became God with us in a brand new way.
In the sermon I went to the prophecies of the virgin birth in Isaiah and talked a lot about King Ahaz from Isaiah 7. Ahaz was an evil king who burned his own sons in the fire. I called him an ironic receiver of this prophecy. God told him he would be delivered from the fire (the northern Kingdom's invasion and the Syrians) even though he burned his sons in the fire. God even offered him a sign of anything he wanted in order for him to believe that He was with Ahaz. Taking the religious high-road, Ahaz said he would not test the Lord. Ironically, again, he even quoted Scripture, Deut 6:16, which refers back to Exodus 17:7 when the people tested God asking "IS THE LORD AMONG US OR NOT?" It's ironic because this time the Lord is inviting Ahaz to test Him! Unbelievable. Has God ever offered you the opportunity to ask for any sign you want?
How many people do you know who would refuse your prayers, saying they don't want to 'bother the Lord' when the truth is they don't care about him at all?
Ahaz didn't want a sign to just go on disbelieving. Isaiah rebuked Ahaz for that. Then the prophecy had a near-term fulfillment in the birth of Maher-shalal-hashbaz (Isaiah 8) and then the prophecy was reiterated for the long-term fulfillment in Isaiah 9.
I started the sermon off with an image going back to the previous week. I said it was like our sins had us trapped in a cage. As sinners, guilty under the wrath of God, we were locked up like a prison on death row. Then I said if we were just forgiven and not freed, it would be like an inmate who was declared innocent but stayed locked up! I added to that if we were freed from our cages and left to go on our own, that was also incomplete. Because without God with us, we would be like the Israelites when they left Egypt. On their own they would have gone right back into slavery. So would we.
But Jesus not only forgives us and frees us, He comes with us. God was with people in the Old Testament--in the exodus, and even with Ahaz--but He was not with them like He is with us, in Christ.
And Christ is not only with us, He is in us. Through the Holy Spirit, He is with us in an infinitely better way than He was with the Israelites in the exodus.
If He is with us, then He is with us, whenever, wherever, whatever. He is with us when we sin, helping us to repent. Apart from Him we couldn't/wouldn't do it at all.
He is with us in suffering. If we have hope, that's Him working in us. If we have strength, that's Him working in us. If we are sick of it all--the whole world of sin, that's Him with us hoping for the future redemption.
Unlike the previous week when I accidentally/inadvertently only preached to the Christians, this week I included a direct and thorough appeal to the lost. If He's not with you, you're sill locked in the cage. You're guilty. Your sentence is being fulfilled and will be fulfilled. You need Christ to free you.
posted by T L @ 13:05
<< Home