The Messiah of the Manger
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
Man, this Christmas season is flying by. I know last week, Pastor Lauren got all of us thinking about the Christmas traditions that we do. She had mentioned donuts in her family, which I thought was awesome. I don't know if you guys are in the midst of carrying out all your traditions. We have Christmas cookies going, and then we have some movies on, and we love it. We still have to do the Christmas lights, and behind Bel Air here, we haven't gone through yet. We're looking forward to doing that. And so, hopefully you guys are enjoying those things. I know it goes by fast, and so we want you to enjoy that. But yeah, the season is, 2024 is just around the corner. And today, speaking of things going fast, our series is coming to an end. We're wrapping up our Christmas series, The Message of the Manger. We've had, three weeks ago, we talked about the mystery of the manger. That was the incarnation, how Jesus is fully God and fully man, and wrapping our heads around that to the best of our ability. We also talked about the miracles, all the impossible things made possible by God for the birth of Jesus. And then last week, Pastor Lauren talked about the majesty of the manger and how people were awaiting the coming heavenly king.
And so today, we're gonna shift our focus from this moment around the manger. I don't know if you know this, by the way, we have a manger up here. Did you guys see this throughout the, it's been there? I love it, Pastor Chris built a manger for us. But we're shifting from the scene directly around the manger around Jesus' birth, and we're gonna look forward to what he's gonna do in his life. We wanna answer the questions, why was Jesus born? Why did God send his only son to earth? In other words, why do we have Christmas? In order to understand that fully, I wanna take us back a bit and help us understand why we needed Jesus to descend from heaven, why we needed the incarnation, why God had done all these amazing things, all the miracles, and why people were waiting for a king, the majesty around the manger. Because God didn't just do this for fun. He didn't just say, "Hey, this is a good time in history." They just kinda like, "Let's put Jesus in the story right now. "This works out, this would be a good time." Or, "Hey, it's getting kind of shady. "I think we need Jesus to kinda help it out a little bit." No, there was way more intention and purpose in the arrival of Jesus. There was a need for him. And this moment at the manger is a culmination of so many other moments. This was anticipated and prophesied and waited for, for years upon years, generations upon generations. And so I wanna start briefly at the beginning.
Now let me ask, how long do you think humanity was in need of a Messiah, of a Savior? Well, it's all the way back at the very beginning of our Bibles, thousands of years ago, in Genesis in the Garden of Eden. You may be wondering, this is Christmas, Why are we talking about Genesis right now? Well, without understanding what happened here at the beginning of the Bible, we won't fully grasp and appreciate what is happening when Jesus is born. You see, we believe that the Bible is one coherent story, all leading us to Jesus and God's plan of salvation. It's important that as we read scripture and try to understand what God is doing in the midst of different people and different scenarios, that ultimately it's driving us to the arrival of Christ. The moment where Jesus the Messiah arrives. And it's gonna point us to what will happen in Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection. So, to go all the way back, just a brief refresher for some of you, or maybe something new. We're gonna go back to the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. And back then, everything was perfect, right? God had created this Garden of Eden. He had put Adam and Eve in there to be partners with him, and everything is great for a time until it isn't. Until Adam and Eve, and we know of the fruit and the tree, and they choose to separate themselves from God, and sin is inserted into the story. They choose to try to do life apart from God. And all of humanity from that point on has a sin problem. And that sin problem is a separation from God. Instead of being destined to be with him forever, humanity is at risk of never being with God, and apart from him for eternity.
So that is the sin issue, and it's an issue that God wants to correct, but in his perfect and beautiful way, and it's gonna take time. And he alludes to his plan when speaking to Adam and Eve and the serpent in the garden. After everything goes down, God is debriefing with each of them. The big moment happens, sin enters, and God, I'm going through this so fast, but God is talking to Adam, and he's like, "Hey, this is how life is gonna change." He talks to Eve, "Hey, this is how life "is gonna change for you." And he talks to the serpent, the enemy. And he says this, in Genesis 3.15, he says, this is God speaking to the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, "between your offspring and hers. "He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." The "He" in that verse is foreshadowing to the coming Messiah, Jesus. Jesus will defeat the enemy. And so everything in our Bibles, everything, up until we get to here, right around here, Jesus' birth, everything in between is God's plan unfolding about bringing about that Messiah. From the moment that sin enters the story, everything else is pointing and leading to Jesus entering the story. It's from this moment on that we know that God has a plan of salvation. Someone is going to come and rescue humanity. Like I said, sin has corrupted humanity and driven us away from God, and there's nothing that humanity can do on its own to restore that broken relationship. The human situation because of sin is hopeless and chaotic and despairing and void of any love.
But Jesus brings love and peace and hope and joy to humanity, as he is the source of all those things. And he brings restoration for our relationship with God. Jesus is born to confront the issue of sin. This is why we need Jesus. This is why God has sent his son to earth. And this is how the manger points us So what Jesus the Messiah will do. So there was our brief Bible lesson from the past and now we're back in Jesus' time. There are many references to Jesus being the Messiah in helpful passages in Scripture and they all describe a little bit about who He is and what He does. We don't have time to go through them all but I would encourage you this week and up until Christmas and this season to maybe do a Google search in your personal time and you know Bible passages Messiah and see what you learn from that. But today I want to focus on one, and that's in Luke. We'll be in Luke today, chapter four. And in this scene, this is Jesus, grown up by the way, we're far past his birth, we're gonna come back to the birth, but we're far past his birth. He's a grown man, he's starting things, he's starting his ministry. And so he's coming from the wilderness, where he spent significant time being tested and tempted by Satan. And he succeeds through that temptation and testing by resting on his purpose, his mission, that he came to be the Messiah. He's a part of the rescue plan. He is the rescue plan. And so he comes back from the desert and he's like, "I gotta let people know who I am now." He's kind of been under the radar. He's just been Jesus living his life.
And so he goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath and he reads from a scroll of Isaiah. Isaiah's a book in our Bible. It's full of prophecy. And this is an epic moment of Jesus sharing who he is. So if you guys wanna follow along, I'm gonna read from verse, starting in verse 16, chapter four of the book of Luke. It says this, "He went to Nazareth, "where he had been brought up, "and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, "as was his custom. "He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah "was handed to him. "Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, "because he has anointed me "to proclaim good news to the poor. "He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners "and recovery of sight for the blind, "to set the oppressed free, "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, "Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." This is, I mean, amazing, thinking of how long people have been waiting for the Messiah, how long generations after generations and the people, this wouldn't be the first time they've heard this passage before. So they know everyone's anticipating at some point there will be someone to come rescue us. And they recognize as Jesus is reading this, like that's him. This is the guy that we've been waiting for. All their eyes are fixed on him. So what is Jesus gonna do? Let's find out what the Messiah is all about. I just wanna go line by line here and break down what Jesus is saying by reading this scripture.
So the first part says, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me "because he has anointed me." Well, anointing symbolizes holiness and authority. In the Bible, kings, prophets, and priests could all be anointed to signify that they had been set apart and selected for a specific role. And the Hebrew word here that Jesus is using when he says "anointed" is also the word for Messiah. So he's saying, "Look, it's me. I am the anointed one. I am the Messiah, the one you've been waiting for." So we know that Jesus, as the Messiah, has been anointed, he's been purposed, he's been selected for this role by God. To redeem and to rescue, to sacrifice and to be king. The passage continues to proclaim good news to the poor. Jesus as the Messiah brings good news, brings the gospel. John 4, in the Gospel of John, there's a different scene that's a little bit more explicit in explaining this role of the Messiah. There's a conversation between Jesus and a woman, and the woman says to Jesus, "I know that the Messiah, called Christ, is coming, and when He comes, He will explain everything to us." says to this woman in this passage, "I, the one speaking to you, I am He." And so we know that Jesus brings truth. He brings perfect understanding and explanation to the Scriptures, to the way that we are supposed to live according to God. His purpose was to reveal truth and to... He has the power and clarity of sharing God's perfect Word. This is the role of Jesus as a prophet, being the voice of God. And he would do this throughout his life by teaching in synagogues, by having conversations with his followers, parables, more conversations with his disciples, explaining what scripture really means and what God is actually calling people to.
The end of that verse says, "To the poor." And why "to the poor"? Well, Jesus would teach on the on the Sermon on the Mount, that the poor in spirit are blessed, because the kingdom of God, God himself, values those who the world may see poor in their eyes, God sees value in them. And so he's speaking the gospel to everyone, not just who the world would think, hey, the good news should come to those who have earned it, who have lived a certain life. No, Jesus came to give good news to absolutely everyone. The passage continues again, it says, He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind and set the oppressed free. So it's not just that the Messiah reveals truth, he does that, but he also has come to do things. He's come to rescue and to redeem. Now the Israelites for a long time had this idea of what that rescue plan would look like. They thought an earthly ruler, an earthly king, that would help them rise up against their oppressors, thinking of the Roman government, and we're gonna establish this new kingdom here on earth. That's what all of Israel thought. But Jesus is not talking about an earthly nation or kingdom. Jesus came to rescue, to save lost people, and to give freedom, but freedom from sin. Rescue from that eternal separation from God that they were dealing with. That people would no longer be bound by the oppressive sin and darkness in their life, but would have the light of Christ and have freedom in him. Jesus came to free sinners and to give new life, eternal life to those who believe.
And then it ends with, “to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” Now, this is referenced to an old Israelite tradition that every 50 years, any slave would be freed and any borrowed land would be returned to its original owners. And Jesus is not saying, "Hey, that's what's happening this year, everyone." He's saying, "I'm now ushering in a new era of salvation." This is an era where the work of sin can begin to be undone, where people were once separated from God, and now that relationship can be restored, not fully, like it will be in heaven, but we can once again commune with God the Father through Jesus. So this whole passage, verses 18 and 19, when Jesus is reading this, he's saying, this is what I'm bringing, what the Messiah brings, is an era worthy of celebrating, of anticipating, of getting excited about. This is what the Messiah will do. This is why God sent his only son to earth. This is why Jesus is born, and this is why we have Christmas. Jesus was born to save, to share God's truth, and to redeem the lost, to free humanity from their sin. And so in our scene, Jesus says all this, rolls back up the scroll, gives it to the attendant, and all eyes were on him. And it was clear that he was saying this about himself.
And in verse 21 it says, "Today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." Jesus has announced that he is the Messiah. And he's alluding to what will happen, God's plan that's gonna be carried out in the coming years of his life. Now today, our series is around the manger. We're approaching Christmas Day where we often think of baby Jesus, and that's appropriate, we can do that, we can celebrate that. But it's important to know that thinking of Jesus in the manger is to think of what that baby, the Messiah, will do in his life. While we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we truly celebrate the birth, what that birth brings, what the Messiah brings. You see, Christmas means less if we think we aren't in need of rescuing. Christmas means less if we don't think we need a savior. And Christmas means less if we aren't looking forward to the Messiah doing work in our own lives. The passage in Luke continues in a very unfortunate way. We won't read it, but let me just tell you what happens. Jesus says all this, and I wanna compare it to what we're doing today too. So Jesus says all this, he's at the synagogue on the Sabbath, which is what they would do at that time. We're today at church on a Sunday, which is what we do. And Jesus comes unexpected and claims to be the Messiah. And at first people were in awe. They're amazed at what is happening. But then the people wanted proof. They didn't take Jesus at his word any longer.
And so Jesus has some harsher words for them, telling them that prophets are not accepted in their hometowns and the people are offended. As one scholar says, it says, "People are more ready to see greatness in strangers "than in those that they know well." And that's what was true of the people in Nazareth. And so I just want us to pause and think about that. If you know Jesus, if you've been walking with Jesus for most of your life, are you at risk of being numb to the greatness that he's doing around you and in you and through you, especially in another Christmas season? Are you numb to how amazing the birth of Jesus is? Well, that's kind of what Jesus is saying to these people. He's saying, "Hey, I'm saying all these truths and you want more. You don't need more, but you want more." And they get angry. And they get so angry that they want to push Jesus off of a cliff. I'm not making that up. That's in the Bible. They are pushing him. This crowd, this angry mob, is forcing him to this cliff. They want to throw him off. They're so offended. But in verse 30, this is what happens. "He walked right through the crowd, and he went on his way." He just left. He walks on and continues with his purpose, with his rescue mission, because he is the Messiah. And they missed out on experiencing more of the Messiah in their lives.
And so what is our response to the Messiah today? Are we amazed, hearing amazing things, seeing amazing things from God? And sometimes we're in awe and we're like, "Yes, God, you are so good. "This is incredible." Or are we more offended and angry? Jesus, you wanna do what with my life? Jesus, you're asking me to change in what way? Jesus, you want how much of me? You want all of me? Sometimes these things offend us. They stir us up. We don't like that. And maybe we identify with both these groups if we're honest with ourselves. Even in the same day, we can be, at one point in the day, we're amazed at God. In the next moment, we're really offended. "God, I don't like what you're doing in my life right now." But verse 30 is a warning to us. He walked right through the crowd, went on his way. Our Messiah is on a mission. He's got things to do in our lives, and we don't want to miss out. If we reject or ignore the Messiah, we'd be missing out on being freed from sin, or seeing light in the darkness, or being rescued completely. So I wanna invite the worship band back up as we close. We're gonna close our sermon this morning and really our whole series with this. The Message of the Manger, that was the title of our series. And so I wanna make sure that we all know what that message is, be very clear. The message of the manger is one of salvation. It's about how the incarnation of God in the person of Christ came down through miraculous means and circumstances. Jesus came to be our King, came to be our Redeemer, our Rescuer, our Lord and Savior, our Messiah. And so will you this Christmas lean into God? Will you worship Him? Will you give him your entire life? And as you celebrate his arrival and you celebrate what his arrival means, don't let Jesus pass you by this Christmas.
Let's pray. God, thank you again for Christmas, for sending your son. Thank you for what that birth means and the fact that we get to have an opportunity to experience everlasting life with you. That through your son that you would bring salvation, that you would correct this sin issue that all of us are dealing with. So God, our prayer this morning is that in today, in this next week, and through Christmas and beyond, that you would draw us closer to you. And if that's by focusing on your birth, on the birth of Jesus, then so be it. If that's on focusing on what Jesus would do later on in his life, great. In whatever ways, God, I pray that you would draw us closer to you, that we would come to this point of surrendering, giving our lives over to you, worshiping you with all that we have. I pray that we would all, however we're feeling, at some point in this Christmas season, we would experience your joy, your peace, your hope, and your love. God, you are so good. We give you all the praise. We pray this in your name. Amen.