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I have never done this - and may never do it again!  But yesterday I had a lot of response from my message and people wanted not just the sermon they can get live on line but some asked for the manuscript so they can slowly read the passages and study.  The manuscript is publishable in any sense - it is my “talking points” so will be lacking in many ways - but if it helps people understand who Jesus is and why his birth was so radical have at it.  I know many of my friends that are Jews & Muslims will disagree - but it will at least help you understand how we as evangelicals think about Jesus.  To my other friends that are non-religious and other faiths - it will also help you understand us.  To you who call yourself Jesus followers or Christians - you should celebrate the awesomeness of what God did in that manger.  A great resource for this was Thomas F. Torrance - Incarnation:  The Person and Life of Christ.  Read on . . . . .

CHRISTMAS MIRACLES:  THE MIRACLE OF AN EARTHLY MOTHER & A HEAVENLY FATHER

TEXT:  Matthew 1: 21She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel”(which means, God with us)

Man knows he needs more than himself – he’s lost – and we are looking for this superhero who is one of us yet beyond us.  Jesus in a very real way is GODMAN! So Matthew begins miraculously with divinity coming into humanity in a manger and putting on humanity – and concludes miraculously with that divine humanity returning miraculously back to heaven where it still is.  He comes only divine and returns human/divine.  This is why in the Great Commission he says all authority is given to me and power – we are to walk in that divine power.  John makes it clear he is God.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. . . . . John 5:19So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

1.  JESUS’S GENEOLOGY CONNECTS EVERYTHING IN THE TRINITY IN HIMSELF GIVING US ACCESS TO GOD.
MATT:11The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers - Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6and Jesse the father of David the king.  And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam … 8Jehoshaphat . . . Uzziah, . . . Hezekiah, . . . .Amos,[c] and Amos the father of Josiah, . . . 12And after the deportation to Babylon: . . . Zerubbabel, . . . Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. 17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations. 18 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. 19And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20But 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.

A geneology showed lineage, legal rights, authority, and legitimacy.  That is being established with Jesus here.  He’s the rightful son of God and son of man.  What is unusual is first his tie to the throne of David so strong, the way it’s arranged, his tie to Abraham, and his tie to those after the exile.  It’s being tied not just to people but to a broader history.  It’s not just about genology but salvation history and all that is to follow with Jesus.  His geneology and his name are critical in describing who and what he is going to do.  This prophecy stuff has to be clear because his entrance is so radical and who is is so unexpected by his own tribe.  The next unusual thing is that in this lineage there are Gentiles, prostitutes, and women.  5 women, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary.

This is the reason the Jews rejected him – not that he claimed to be the Messiah – but that he claimed to be God.  Other people can say he didn’t claim that – but the Jews were right – they got it – he was claiming to be God and it got him in trouble.  What God does in Jesus – is totally unexpected in Judaism – they expected the Kingdom of God – they expected a Messiah would take them there – they didn’t expect that Messiah to be God himself – to them that was heresey.  I don’t think we can appreciate how radical this was to Judaism – nothing in the prophets prepared them for this.  They had to relook at what Scripture said – Jesus fulfilled it all – but then the added ingredient of God.  This is a very very big deal. 
Everything about Jesus is human and divine.  We have been made in the image of God – which to most means something psychological and somewhat spiritual – but not completely understood.  Now God enters into the image he has made in man – as Jesus.  Jesus invades humanity – and the geneology drives home that point,  Jesus as the Trinity is eternal – now as divinity invades humanity – his humanity becomes everlasting – he wasn’t human from the beginning – he invades humanity – this is the big deal.  That nature is now inseparable.  He is eternally the God/Man – with a redeemed humanity.  His humanity doesn’t stop at the resurrection – he’s at the right hand of the Father now interceding for us.  We will see him – physically – one day. 

The entire life of Jesus from his birth to his sinless life, to his death, resurrection, appearance for 40 days – is “saving” – every bit of it.  And that salvation continues on a daily basis as he has redeemed us and intercedes for us.

As the God-Man – the great exchange happened when he was born into humanity in a manger conceived 9 months earlier, and is raised by the Spirit back into eternity.  They call this the “hypostatic” union – it comes from words meaning essence – and refers to the combining of divinity and humanity and the Trinity.  HISTORY – SCIENCE – BIBLE – DIVINITY – HUMANITY they all converge and collide here Israel ‘ whole point was to be a nation that followed God and to be light to the whole world.  So you see Israel, being a precursor of the church and what it meant to follow God.  No matter how hard Israel tried, she lost to idolatry and faced judgment and yet God stood ready to forgive.  Jesus would be born into the womb of Israel.  So as individuals we are lost in our sins – what Jesus did was by creating a single one and only prototype in the Trinity of God’Man would change it all.  Judgment & Mercy.  I asked my rabbi friend why Israel did that – because she found gods that permitted her to sin he told me.

What you see is the once and for all unity of God and man.  James Denney “If only all our evangelists were theologians and all our theologians were evangelists.”  I’d say pastors more so. 

2.  JESUS’S EARTHLY MOTHER CONNECTS HIM WITH US TO REVEAL HIMSELF TO US SO WE CAN KNOW HIM.

Revelation – Only Jesus can reveal himself to us – that is divinity as well.  Man lost in his sin cannot see God – God has to quicken that man.  It is the humanity that comes to all of us. there is no way we could God if God didn’t first come to us. 

Identification – this is the human dimension to Jesus.  He takes on fallen flesh.  He is the Son of man, the Servant of Phil 2 – We are finite human beings

Mediation - Timothy 2:5For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, Hebrews 9:15 & 12;24 SAYS THE SAME.  This is why he was the Priest – because he was one of us.  The priest had to come from among the people.  He is still your priest – as Hebrews says our high priest.  This is critical – our humanity isn’t lost in Christ – it’s redeemed in him!  He doesn’t do away with it – he is still the Godman and we are going to take on “imperishable.”  It’s 1 Cor. 15:42-58, perishable taking on imperishable.  We have to understand we weren’t created flawed – we flawed his creation and it will be restored not done away with!  This is why as Carl Rahner says ‘Can’t do theology without anthropology.”  You can’t explain God without explaining who Man is.  Can’t tell a man who God is and how he works if he doesn’t understand who he is and how he works. 

Our hope is in him – the I am statements of John are important – I am the way / truth / life, etc.,  He IS those things – not things he gives us.  The only way we come to God the Father is through the Son.  SO as God puts on human nature I the cross – from an empty grave we put on Spiritual nature!  The result is we are now able to be the Children of God and are left with royal freedom & divine authority!!!!  Jesus as the permanent Son of God and Son of Man saved us and we are secure because we are in him! 

3. JESUS’S HEAVENLY FATHER CONNECTS HIM WITH GOD TO RECONCILE US TO HIS FAMILY. 
Col:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Sinlessness – As God and divnity – he did not sin.  He was tempted like us – but did not sin.  The early Greek Fathers focused more on 2 natures – the divine and human instead of us and breaking the rules.  To the Greeks it was all about nature – ours and Gods. 
Atonement This is where Jesus goes beyond the Old Testament – he was a subtstitution – literal God/Man – Jesus dying for our sins so a once and for all sacrifice.  Thus substitutionary atonement – he took your place.  It wasn’t child abuse – it was divine sacrifice out of love that any parent would do. 

Redemption – At this point divinity is imparted to us – we are saved and here comes the Holy Spirit – the power by which the incarnation of Jesus takes place is present.  This means reconciliation – the kingdom Gospel, the reconciliation of all things.  This is why he has sent the Spirit within us.  The reformers really got the sonship and divinity of Jesus and salvation by grace alone – they weren’t as aggressive in an understanding of the Holy Spirit TORRANCE – For the Christian life to work, you can’t have a divine revelation of the son with a divine impartation from the Holy Spirit of who Jesus is.  This all matters because it is describing our identity in Christ.  THEY NEEDED EQUAL UNDERSTANDING AND APPLICATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT & SO DO YOU & I!

Transformation – Because he was God.  Ro. 12:1-1 we can be a new way of thinking – metanoia.  As Messiah OT verses applied to Jesus – but not divinity.  There was no break in of God into humanity in Judaism that prepared them.  You can’t find Easter weekend in the Old Testament – Peter says David is talking about it when he says “you will not let the Holy One see decay.”  He’s reading the OT with Easter Weekend with the Christ.  BUT, you never could have read the OT with Jesus being God.  Suffering servant, Psalms, etc., Transformation is possible because the temple is now within you – God dwells you are filled with the Spirit.  No longer is the temple a cold place – a new dwelling place – is you, not an inanimate object.  The temple, and the holy of holies was a shadow of what was to come, the holy of holies is now within you!  Quit worrying about a temple in Jerusalem – it’s over for that – it was a shadow – get out of your card board box, your make believe home – he’s within you now.  Construction in process.  BUT, now sin is more serious because you are subjecting God to that.  You are a child of God with relationship and authority - walk in it.