Why the Incarnation?

Transcript

GRM 974
12/24/2006
Why the Incarnation?
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh


Jesus Christ was born, amazing event and we are 2000 years removed from that event and it still is an amazing event. And it will be significant 2000, 2 million, 2 billion years from now, that the Son of God became a man. It's important that we understand that the story doesn't stop at Bethlehem, it's not just a sentimental story, it's not just a love story, it's not just an interesting event. It is of eternal importance and significance. The One born at Bethlehem as the prophet Micah said, is the One who has dwelt, has live in eternity. The baby at Bethlehem is not beginning His existence, the babe at Bethlehem, as we looked at in a previous study, is the eternal God who has now been born into the human race, so that He is not only man, He is God, He is the God/Man. He is come to accomplish specific purposes.

We celebrate Christmas year after year and much of the world gets involved in the celebration. You can't turn on the news without getting caught up and everybody wants to measure how much is being spent, what are the most popular gifts. They interview people at the mall—do you have your shopping done, how much are you spending this year, what kind of gifts are you buying? In electronics—flat screen TVs, ipods? What is it? In all of this we celebrate the birth of Christ, too. We want to focus attention on why Jesus Christ was born at Bethlehem.

I have just a list of seven reasons why Christ was born. These aren't the only reasons you could list, it's my arbitrary list. Some of them overlap, but just a way of focusing our attention, why was Jesus Christ born at Bethlehem? Why is it important? Why is it significant? Why the incarnation? Incarnation, the embodiment, the infleshment, deity taking to itself humanity so that you have God clothed in human flesh, the incarnation. Why was Jesus Christ born at Bethlehem? Why is it worth celebrating? We might say, well the celebrations have gotten out of hand, they are misfocused. In all of that why would we, the ones who believe the Bible as the Word of God, why do we believe it was important that Jesus Christ was born at Bethlehem? Why do we celebrate and rejoice and praise God? Why do we understand that the angels were sent to announce this event?

I'm just going to list seven things with you, walk through them and give a scripture verse or two or three or four or so. And I've tried to limit them and you could add your verses and you could add perhaps other reasons that come to your mind as we go through. We have seven and I've arranged them in an order that makes sense to me, because I've put what I believe is the central reason as the fourth reason, because it is right at the heart of the seven. Why seven? Seven is the number of perfection, so we have at least a semi-complete list in my mind.


The first reason I've listed why Jesus Christ was born at Bethlehem was to confirm God's promises, to confirm God's promises. Christ had to be born at Bethlehem in order for all the promises God had given up to that point to be confirmed and realized. Turn to Romans 15. We're going to be running around to some verses and that sometimes gets confusing. We're going to start in Romans 15. Paul says in verse 8, for I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision. Circumcision refers to the Jews. On behalf of the truth of God, note, to confirm the promises given to the fathers. God has made certain promises to the Jewish ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, promises that continue through the prophets. For them to be confirmed and established, Jesus Christ had to come to earth. He came for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy. You could mark that out as a separate purpose. But I put it together here because that is part of the promises that God gave to the Jews, to the fathers, but are beneficial for us as Gentiles. An you'll note, some of this is recorded then and what those promises were in verses 9-12. And you can tell they are quotes from the Old Testament because they'll be marked out in a special way in your Bible, perhaps with all capital letters, talking about what would happen with the Gentiles. So that the promises that are confirmed are not only for the Jews, they are for Gentiles. The promises that God has made over the thousand years of the Old Testament revelation that encompasses more than a thousand years, but the record of it written down over a thousand-year period, all find all those promises confirmed in Jesus Christ.

Turn over to II Corinthians, keep going after Romans—I Corinthians,
II Corinthians. I Corinthians is a rather long book, as those of you who are here regularly know, since we're studying the book. It's not as long as I'm making it, but it's a long book. We're coming to II Corinthians 1:20, talking about the Son of God, Christ Jesus that Paul and his associates had preached at Corinth, according to verse 19. The Son of God, Christ Jesus was preached among you by us, by me, Silvanus and Timothy. That message of Christ is not a yes and no, but yes in Him. For as many as are the promises of God in Him, in Christ, they are yes. They find their realization, their fulfillment. You don't have some promises that will be fulfilled and some that will not, some that will be accomplished and some that just didn't make it. No. In Christ they are all yes, everything that God has promised through all Old Testament history is realized in Jesus Christ. He is the fulfillment. Apart from the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God to earth, there could be no fulfillment of any of the promises that bring us hope and joy. They could not be realized apart from Him.

So the first basic reason, and obviously we could spend our whole time just looking at the promises themselves. But we will just let that stand as it is. He came to confirm the promises, to bring about and enable the full realization of all those promises, even the ones that have yet to be fulfilled. And we'll mention those in a little bit. They could not be fulfilled if He had not come to earth, been born at Bethlehem.

Second reason I've listed for the birth of Christ, His incarnation, is to reveal the Father, to reveal the Father. Turn back to Matthew, at the beginning of the New Testament. Matthew 11:27, all things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. The Father and the Son have full knowledge of one another—the Father knows the Son and the Son knows the Father. And no one knows the Son like the Father, and no one knows the Father like the Son does. And if you were here for our previous study, we talked about the person of Christ and His deity. But now it is God's intention that He be revealed to man and the Father has appointed that the Son be the one to do that revelation, so no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son reveals Him. So the Son who has full knowledge of the Father has come to earth to reveal the Father to others. And apart from Jesus Christ there is no real true knowledge of God. I'm not saying men don't have ideas about God the Father, don't have their own convictions and thoughts, but there is no real knowledge of God apart from the revelation that has come through Jesus Christ.

Turn over to John's gospel, we'll go to chapter 14. We'll go back and forth in John to a few passages. John 14, important section here, we're on Jesus' last night with His disciples, He's going to be betrayed following this meal and discussion that began in chapter 13 and will continue through chapter 17 on this last evening with His disciples and He's giving them instruction. He's telling them to prepare them that He's going to heaven and He's going to prepare a place for them in His Father's house, in the opening verses here. In my Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go prepare a place, I'll come again. Down in verse 6, Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one come to the Father but through Me. If you had known Me you would have known My Father also. From now on you know Him and have seen Him. Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us. Jesus said to him, have I been so long with you and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father. Does that mean that Jesus Christ and the Father are the same person? No, we would begin to have nonsense. The previous verse we read, Jesus said, no one know the Father but the Son, no one knows the Son but the Father. And the only ones who know the Father are the ones that the Son reveals Him to, clearly making a distinction between the Son and the Father. He who has seen Me has seen the Father, because as we noted in our previous study, Jesus Christ is the full, the complete, the exact manifestation of the Father. He is the exact representation of His nature as Hebrews 1 says, because He is God. But He is a distinct person. There is one God, three persons, three members. They all partake of the same essence and nature and being, possess the same attributes that make them God. So when you have seen Me, you have seen the Father, you have seen deity. He came to reveal the Father. Philip, that question makes no sense, the request makes no sense. You've seen the Father, not that He has a human form like Me because that's not what God is. The Son of God took to Himself humanity and now dwells in a body and all the fullness of deity dwells in Him in bodily form. His bodily form is human, he is a human being. But He is deity in the body. That's what the incarnation is, God now being in a human body. You have seen the Father, His essence, His being, His attributes, His character, what He is, if you have seen Me.

Turn over to John 17:25, oh righteous Father. You see here the Son praying to the Father. Chapter 17 is His high priestly prayer and preparation for His betrayal in chapter 18. Oh righteous Father, although the world has not known you, yet I have known you. And these have known that you sent me and I have made your name known to them, and will make it known. So that the love with which you loved Me may be in them and I in them. You see I have made your name known to them, the name refers to what He is, His very being. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon in the Old Testament, he said, what is your name? The angel of the Lord said, why do you ask my name, seeing it is Wonderful. You cannot grasp the fullness of who I am, the wonder of My person, My being. But here Jesus said, I have made your name, who you are, made your name known to them.

And come back to John 1:1. in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. As we saw in our previous studies for those of you who were here, that we talked about the doctrine of the triune God. It's not something I can fully understand or that any human being can fully understand, but it is clear. And here you have, the Word was God, He was in the beginning with God. There is a distinction between the persons of the Godhead, and yet there is an identity that together they comprise the one God. Down to verse 14, the Word that was God in verse 1, verse 14, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Down to verse 18, no one has seen God at any time. The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him, He has exegeted Him, He is the One who has made Him known in a fuller and more complete way than had ever been done before or could ever be done. Because now you have God present in a human body. He has not ceased to be deity, can't be because He is God, but now He is also completely humanity, He is the God/Man. The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

So in Jesus Christ we come to know God. We're not talking about now just coming to know our experiences, our feelings. Oh yes as we sing the song, I feel so good in my heart and the sentimentalizing. No, these are actual factual truths that people can miss. Philip, at the end of Jesus' three-year public ministry where Philip has traveled with Him day after day, says, show us the Father. That will be enough. And Jesus says, Philip, open your eyes. How can you say, show us the Father. If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father, because I am deity in human flesh. So Jesus Christ came to earth to manifest God to man in a fuller, more complete final way than could be done in any other way. Awesome to consider. The baby born at Bethlehem is the God who called all things into existence according to the first part of chapter 1, we have studied before. Now He is the God/Man. He came to reveal the Father.

Thirdly, He came to be a faithful high priest, came to be a faithful high priest. Turn over to Hebrews 2. You have to go back to the back of your New Testament, and just in that back portion of your New Testament, the book of Hebrews, the large book before the book of Revelation. He came so He could be a faithful high priest. And the point I want to emphasize in this, and it will tie to the next point we have, that we'll talk about in a moment, in being a high priest to identify with us, to be a human being, a real human being who would suffer, who experienced pain, who would know grief. Hebrews 2:17, therefore He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. We'll pick that point up in a moment. Note verse 18, for since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted or tested. Jesus Christ experienced what we experience as human beings, the suffering, the trials, the pain, the heartache. He experienced those things, He lived a real human life. He never sinned, but sin is not a necessary part of our humanity. But He did know what it was to suffer, to feel pain, to know the loss of a loved one—the death of Lazarus, for example. He became a human being so that he might, verse 17 says, become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, so He can function as our high priest, to be our representative, the go-between between God and us.

Leave a marker in Hebrews 2 and come back to Job, just before the Psalms. Job 9. Job is going through suffering. As you are aware, he is proverbial for suffering. He has lost all of his children in one day, he has lost his wealth, his possessions, his respectability in the community. He has lost his health, he sits in ashes with a piece of broken pottery, scraping the boils on his body. Now in Job 9:32, he doesn't know what to do and God seems so distant, so removed. He says, for He is not a man as I am, that I may answer Him, that we may go to court together. There is no umpire between us who may lay his hand upon us both. Of if there were only someone who could be between us, who could represent me, who would understand, who would know something of my situation and yet know God and be able to go between us. Put his hand on me and his hand on God, be the one between us. Well we have a high priest who has endured all we have.

Come back to Hebrews. Jesus Christ is the One that Job was longing for. Hebrews 4:14, therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. _____________________there is no one who understands, yes, I have a high priest. These Hebrew believers, they are thinking, this is not working out. Maybe I'm going back to Judaism, maybe I'm going back to my family ways, my family religion. I have to escape some of this persecution, some of this suffering, some of the pain. And the comfort is, we have a high priest who understands it all. You have what Job longed for, you have a high priest and He walked this earth. He suffered, He knows what it is to be rejected, He knows what it is to be persecuted, He was crucified. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, is the way the prophet Isaiah would describe Him in his prophecy.

Verse 15, we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness. He knows what it is to be human, He knows our frame, that we are but dust. The struggles can be so difficult, so hard. He came to become a merciful, a faithful high priest. That's the third reason why He had to be born at Bethlehem.

The fourth reason is the central reason, and that's why I put it at #4. The central reason why Jesus Christ was born at Bethlehem was to die, to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Back up to Hebrews 2, the end of verse 17 we read, He came to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Propitiation, satisfaction. God is a holy God, a righteous God, and holiness and righteousness demands that the penalty for sin be paid. And the penalty for sin is death, and Christ came to be the propitiation for sin, to satisfy the demands of justice, holiness, God's righteous character.

Turn over to Hebrews 9. In contrast with the sacrifices and so on that went on in the Old Testament under the Mosaic law, Jesus Christ has appeared at the end of the ages, the climax of what has been prophesied and promised. The Hebrews 9:26, the middle of the verse, but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested. He was born at Bethlehem, took to Himself humanity, to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He came to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Amazing, of the millions and millions of people celebrating Christmas today, how many of them would be happy to sit down with you and talk about sin. How many of them would think you were in the spirit of Christmas, whatever that may mean, if you said, yes, Christ has been born at Bethlehem and that means sin is terrible, your sin is the most awful thing in the sight of a holy God, that Jesus was born at Bethlehem, and the reason that is good news is because the news about our condition is so bad. You know the birth of Christ at Bethlehem is God's solution to the sin problem. It's like I have an incurable disease and the doctor says, there is nothing we can do for you, we have not been able to find a cure. And as I am waiting to die without hope, someone comes barging in and says, I have good news, there is a cure. The birth of Jesus Christ at Bethlehem, I have good news, a Savior has been born. Today in the city of David there has been born a Savior. You understand that word means nothing, that news is meaningless if I don't know something about sin. Someone barges in the door and says to me, we've found a cure, be happy. I say, why? I don't think I'm sick, I don't need a cure. That's the good news of the birth of Christ, a Savior has been born who is Christ the Lord. You understand, if we are not sinners, if we are not under the condemnation of a holy God and doomed to an eternal hell for our sins, then the birth of Jesus Christ is nothing. It is not more significant than any other birth that goes on. Even if Jesus Christ were the Son of God and was born at Bethlehem but He didn't die on the cross, it wouldn't be great news to me, because the penalty for my sin is death. It's not the birth of the Son of God, it's the death. But the Son of God had to be born into the human race so He could die. That's the whole message of the birth of Christ. God has sent His Son to take to Himself humanity so that He can be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. How sad people are running around celebrating, there's a cure, there's a cure, there's a Savior, there's a Savior. And they haven't even considered the fact that they are sinners, so to them it just becomes a reason for celebrating. I don't know what the reason............... I don't know, we all celebrate at Christmas. My family and my grandparents and their grandparents all celebrated Christmas. Christmas is a time to celebrate. We're not even sure you should allow the name of Jesus Christ to be mentioned in our society in connection with the celebration of the birth of _________. You know, we don't say that name. It becomes silly, doesn't it? It is very hard for us to admit our sin, and that we do celebrate the birth of Christ. I think it is something to be celebrated, I'm not saying I agree with all the kinds of celebrations, but there is nothing that causes me greater joy than to know that God has sent a Savior for me. He came to put away sin, and He did that by the sacrifice of Himself.

Come back to the back part of your New Testament, almost to the end, just before Revelation I John 3:5, you know that He appeared. That word appeared is used often in connection with the incarnation, where God becomes visible, whereas all the fullness of deity dwells now in bodily form. You know that He appeared in order to take away sin. That's why He appeared, that baby born in Bethlehem is the appearance of the Son of God now in a human body, human form. Why? To take away sin, to take away sin.

Come back to I Timothy 2:5, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus. Emphasis here. Remember what Job wanted __________________ only an umpire between us, someone who could put his hand on me and his hand on God and be the go-between. There is one God, one mediator also between God and men. And here you have the word the, in my translation in italics, in front of man. Literally it is a man. Emphasizing the fact we're talking about one who is like us, but He is also God, Christ Jesus, Jehovah, Savior, Messiah. He is the mediator, He is the only one and He gave Himself as a ransom for us. That's why He can be a mediator. He has for all eternity been God, that's why the one born at Bethlehem, Micah said, would be the One who dwells in eternity, the One who was in the beginning with God the Father. But now He has taken into Himself humanity, so He can give Himself as a ransom for all. Why? Verse 4, God desires all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. Yet there is no salvation apart from a Savior, because the penalty for your sin is death. How sad. Churches will be packed out today. Look at the religious page in the paper, there are churches having more services on Christmas Eve day than they'll have all year long except perhaps for Easter. Services multiplied on services because people are going to church. Why? You know it becomes a joke, well everybody goes to church on Christmas and Easter. Why? Quite frankly I could think of a lot of other things to do, if that's all it is. You know what it's about—there is a Savior. I'm not making fun of people who only go to church on Christmas and Easter, I'm saying it is sad to not understand why Christmas as a day we give to celebrating the birth of Christ. Why Easter, the death and resurrection of Christ is of so much significance and importance? It's because you're a sinner, you are separated from God, you're going to hell. But there is a Savior, there's a cure—Jesus Christ who has been born at Bethlehem. And He has been born so that He might give His life as a ransom. The scripture says, He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

So at the heart of it all, if you forget all seven points, remember Christ died to put away sin, He died so you could be saved. Now what are you going to do? You believe in Him. When you believe in Him, God credits His death to your account, declares your penalty paid, He washes you white as snow, causes you to be born again into His family. Now you are His for eternity.

The fifth reason Christ came to earth was to destroy the works of the devil. There is a devil, satan, Lucifer, and he has authority, he has power. Go to I John 3:8, the one who practices sin is of the devil. The one who is sinning and lives his life in the realm of sin is a child of the devil. Remember in John 8 Jesus said to the religious people of His day and they were very offended by it, you are of your father, the devil. God is not your father, the devil is your father. So here the one who practices sin is of the devil, for the devil is sin from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. Why does the Son of God appear, why was He born at Bethlehem? So now He is incarnate, God in flesh, to destroy the works of the devil. You know it is sad, some people today think I don't want to trust Christ because I don't want to lose my freedom, I don't want to have to serve God. They fail to understand. People live in the realm of slavery and servitude to the devil. You either belong to God or your belong to the devil. Those are the only two options, there are no people in neutral territory. The one who practices sin is of the devil. The Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil. Christ's death on the cross, the result of His birth in Bethlehem, He had to be born so that He could die, was to destroy the power of the devil, to break his power, to set men and women free from their bondage.

Back up just before I John to Hebrews 2. But you can see how these reasons that I've just pulled out are all blended together. They're not freestanding in that sense, but they are all part and parcel of God's plan in having His Son come to be born and die. In Hebrews 2:14, therefore since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, flesh and blood, that through death He might render powerless Him who had the power of death, that is the devil. And might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. Those who sin belong to the devil. The penalty for sin is death. To live under the power of our sin, under its control, under the authority of satan leads us to death, not only physical death, we have spiritual death and we have eternal death, the second death, which is the lake of fire, as the book of Revelation tells us. Christ had to die to render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil, to set us free. Remember in John 10 Jesus said, I have come that you might have life and you might have it more abundantly. He sets free. If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. You have eternal life, not eternal death. He came to destroy the works of the devil.

On the brink of His crucifixion in John 12:31, Jesus said, now is the prince of this world cast out, now his power is broken, now men and women can be set free, now they can have life. He came to destroy the works of the devil. Awesome to think, every person you meet lives in the realm of death or the realm of life. Every person you meet either lives under the authority and control of the devil or the authority and control of the living God. Every person you meet is either a child of the devil or a child of God. It is that clear in scripture. Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of the devil.

He came to give us an example for a holy life. You cannot be saved by trying to live a good life. No one can be saved by their good works, not matter how good their good works are, because the penalty for sin is death. Where do we ever get the idea you can be saved by trying to be good, when God had to send His Son to this earth to die on the cross to pay the penalty for sin? But His Son set an example for those who believe in Him, now how should we live our lives as God's people. Not how do we get saved, we get saved by placing our faith, our trust, in the death of Christ as the payment for our sin. That causes us to be born again, the scripture says. But now that we've been born into God's family, now that we are the children of God and not the children of the devil, how do we live? Jesus Christ gives us an example to follow.

Turn over to I Peter 2:21, for you have been called for this purpose. Since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps. He committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth. While being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously. And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, for by His wounds you were healed. You see we are saved, we are healed, we're made whole from our sin through faith in the death of Christ on the cross, and being identified with Him by faith. But we learn how we are to respond now as His children to the opposition of the world by the example He set. We sometimes think when we try to have a testimony and live as we should before the world and people just relentlessly attack us and we just lose our temper, we get angry, we fly off the handle. We say, I couldn't help it, they just got to me. If you are a child of God, you could help it. I mean Jesus Christ went all the way to the cross and there they're nailing the nails into His hands and feet, and He didn't revile against them, He didn't utter threats against them. So I learn I endure suffering the way my Savior did. That's what He set a pattern for me, not so that I could be saved, but now as one who has been saved and belongs to Him I live my life as an example of His life in me. He came to be an example of a holy life.

Back up to Philippians 2. It's interesting how much of the great theology is given in the context of the total change of life that is to be evident in the lives of those who have experienced cleansing from their sin and new life in Christ. We don't have time to read this section because I want to get to the last point. Verse 3, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who although He existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So God has highly exalted Him and so on. See in that context? He gave us an example. Verse 5, have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who was willing to suffer and lose all, to endure the worst ________, the worst humiliation in paying the penalty for our sins. So that now one who has been redeemed by faith in Him through the grace of God, I want to have that humility. The Savior who loved me so much, the Savior who would give so much for me, the Savior who would suffer so much for me, how petty my sufferings are, how petty my difficulties are. How gladly would I count it a privilege to suffer for the sake of Christ, manifest the beauty of His character that is being produced in me now as His child. He came to give us an example of a holy life


And of great importance, the seventh reason I have in my list, is to prepare for the second advent, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to earth. You know when the angels announced the birth of Christ, they said He was coming to be king, He was coming to rule. Matthew 2:6, Luke 1:31-33, that the One coming would be the Christ, the anointed One, the Messiah of Israel. He would rule and reign and there would be no end to His kingdom. It hasn't happened. We're talking about an earthly kingdom where He will rule over all the nations and the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. And they will not hurt nor destroy in all of His holy kingdom, holy mountain. Look around. You doubt that, pick up the newspaper when you go home, turn on the news. People are hurting and destroying throughout the world. But Jesus is to rule and reign over this whole creation and there will be no wars, there will be no crime, there will be no violence. But it isn't happening. Has there been a failure? No, the Bible says He is coming again.

Go to Hebrews 9, the closing verses of the chapter. We've already been here because we were told once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested, put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die and after this comes judgment, so Christ also having offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. You know Jesus Christ had to come twice. He came and was born at Bethlehem so that He could suffer and die on the cross to pay the penalty for sin, so that it would be possible for men and women to turn from their sin and place their faith in Christ and experience cleansing and forgiveness, so that Christ could return to earth at a future time and set up a kingdom that would be inhabited by those who had been redeemed, cleansed from their sin, who had become the children of God. So if Christ hadn't come at Bethlehem and suffered and died on the cross, there could be no fulfillment of the prophecies that He would rule and reign over a redeemed earth, because there could be no redemption. There would be no people to inhabit that kingdom because we would all be condemned to an eternal hell, for in this context in Hebrews we read, for it is appointed unto men once to die and after this comes judgment. In that context Christ has been offered once to bear the sins of many. And He's going to come a second time, but it won't be to deal with sin that time, not to suffer and die to pay the penalty for sin. When He comes the second time, it will be rule and reign.

In that context He'll establish a kingdom, and all of those who have experienced His redemption will go into that kingdom and be part of it. All of those who have not placed their faith in Christ will come under His judgment, and will be sentenced to an eternal hell.

Back up to John 5, and we are done. This could be made as a separate point, but I've included it under........ He was born at Bethlehem to prepare for the second advent, the Second Coming to earth, and that includes His ruling and reigning and that includes His exercising judgment. In John 5:22 Jesus said, for not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son. Down in verse 27, He gave Him, the Father gave to the Son authority to execute judgment, note this, because He is a Son of man. That title Son of man identifies Christ with humanity. Of course as God He could have exercised judgment. He has authority over all, but remember He is now the God/Man and as a Son of man He is a redeemer, Savior. He is judge. So God has delegated the judgment of all to God the Son because God the Son is also man as well as God. And so everyone will stand before Christ for judgment. For example in Matthew 25 Jesus divides between the sheep and the goats. The sheep, they go into His kingdom, those who have believed in Him. Those who have not, He says, depart from Me cursed ones into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

So Jesus Christ, born at Bethlehem, a tremendous event which sets in motion God's plan of redemption, because His Son has taken to Himself humanity so that He can be the Savior, so that it's possible for us to be forgiven our sins, so that when Jesus Christ returns to earth again and sets up His kingdom that we are redeemed people to share in that glorious time. Sadly, there will be people who will not share in that glory, but will come under eternal judgment because there is one thing that does not change. God is a holy God, He demands the penalty be paid for sin. But He is a loving God, He had His Son come and pay the penalty and now He offers the free gift of eternal life in His Son to all who will turn from their sin and place their faith in Him. Salvation is a free gift offered to all. You must receive it by faith. So we celebrate the birth of Christ, of course we do, it is wonderful. I'm excited about it today, 2000 years after it occurred and what it means. Because He was born at Bethlehem so He could die at Calvary, I now know what it is to be forgiven my sins, I know what it is to belong to the living God. I know what it is to be free to have life. Because I'm a good person? No. Because He's a great Savior and He can save the worst of sinners. He saves anyone who believes in Him. Come unto Me all you who labor and are heavyladen, and I will give you rest.

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you that it is possible for us to come into your very presence today because we have a high priest who has offered the sacrifice necessary to pay the penalty for our sins. We do rejoice that we can celebrate the historical fact that at a point in time and a point in history your Son was born into the human race. We do not comprehend all that that miracle entailed, but we know that it is true because you have said it. We know that He came ultimately to be the Savior, to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. The Son of God left the realms of glory to be born into the human race, that He could bear our sins in His body on the cross and we could die to sin and live to righteousness. Lord, we praise you for such a great Savior. We thank you for your magnificent love. Lord, may we truly rejoice over the fact that Christ has been born at Bethlehem. It is possible for us to be made white as snow. We praise you in Christ's name, amen.