← ArchiveLuke (That you may know)Sunday, January 31, 2016DateJanuary 31, 2016Speaker—TextLuke 1Passages in this sermonLuke 10:42Luke 1:41:11Isaiah 77:48Daniel 711:18Matthew 2811:50Romans 5:821:351 Peter 1:431:34TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00Our peace childs, you, thank you for leading us in worship, that our verdict is not guilty because of this child that was born to save the world from our sins.0:25Well, today we will begin a journey as a church through the book of Luke. And every Sunday we will answer this question that you may know this. So if you have your Bibles with you, please turn to Luke chapter 1. If you showed up late for church today, you're not so late that this is a Christmas sermon, but we will be looking at the birth of Christ this morning.0:51Luke chapter 1, beginning in verse 26, will be our text. That you may know. That's the reason Luke writes this gospel. Luke 1.4, Luke says that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed. And Luke writes this gospel in a way that we may know truly who Jesus Christ is1:18and truly how we should live out the truth of Jesus Christ. And he begins with the peace child. He begins with this child of promise, this one who is unique. One commentator says it this way. He says, The origin and humble setting for the birth of such a stellar figure1:44should already alert us to the fact that God often works in strange ways. Hallelujah. Think about that. God sent his son in the form of a child to redeem us from our sins. What a strange story. But what a wonderful story it is. We see also in Luke this idea that what began in creation,2:15God speaking by word, creation forth, that God now recreating and bringing creation back to himself in the Logos, the word of God, who is Jesus Christ. Luke 1, verse 26. Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.2:45And the virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, Rejoice, highly favored one. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at this saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. So the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.3:12And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. And Matthew tells us that Jesus means he will save the people from their sins. Verse 32. He will be great and will be called the son of the highest. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.3:41And his kingdom, there will be no end. Then Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I do not know a man? And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you. And the power of the highest will overshadow you. Therefore also, that holy one who is to be born will be called the son of God. Let's pray. Father, what a strange story we see.4:06That you would send your only son in the form of a child to a place that has no room for this child to save this place from our sins. Lord, we do not deserve your son. We have done nothing worthy of the grace that is so freely offered through the birth4:33and the death and the resurrection of Jesus. And yet you loved us anyway. Father, what a strange story. But Lord, we are so thankful that you sent your son to redeem sinners such as I, that we may have eternal life and live for you. Father, burden our hearts, Lord, convict us of our sin, that we may live a life worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.4:59We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Well, this morning we're going to look at the uniqueness of Jesus. So that you may know. So pastor, what should we know today? Luke says that we may know that this child saves. That this child saves. And Luke does that in a way that he points us very clearly5:28to the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. And the first way he does that is we see that Jesus is uniquely divine. You say, well, why does that matter? Hold that thought. That Jesus Christ is uniquely divine. Look at verse 27. We see Mary, a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary.5:57So how is Jesus unique? The one and only. First, he's unique because he's born born to a virgin who is engaged, betrothed to be married. So what does that mean? It means that Mary has not known a man. I think Luke is pointing us to several facts about Mary. One, she's young. She's the age of engagement, betrothal, which would be about 12 or 13.6:25You say, well, whoa, that's really, really young. That was normal. In this time, that was cultural. 12-year-old. Think about this now. We're used to the Christmas story. We're not used to it at the end of January. But we are used to the story. You know, Mary had Jesus and put on a donkey and there was no room at the end. But can you imagine a 12-year-old, 13? Let's say she was old.6:55A 14-year-old. Jesus carrying the Son of God. Never known a man. If that was the only fact that we know about Jesus Christ, he is uniquely divine in that. That is the only thing we know about Christ. A virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph. So Mary makes this child unique.7:21I don't think I need to go more in depth than that. If you have questions, see me after church. But we know no other human being like Jesus Christ. We know no other. Uniquely divine. Actually, the Old Testament points us to this child of a virgin. Isaiah 7, 14. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign.7:50Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel, God with us. He will also be called Jesus because he will save the people from their sins. Jesus is uniquely divine. And we're going to see why that's important because if we take away the divinity of Jesus Christ and make him a good teacher, there are lots of good teachers. I had lots of good teachers in my life growing up.8:18I had some that weren't so good, but I had a lot that were excellent. But those teachers could never save me from my sins. Jesus is uniquely divine. That is important for us. God's word says that is important. Isaiah says, So, do you believe in the divinity of Jesus? You say, well, I don't know. I don't believe in those miracle things.8:49If you don't believe in the divinity of Christ, you don't believe in Jesus Christ. And I pray before we leave, you will believe in Jesus Christ. He is uniquely divine. But that's not all. Look at verse 27. He is not just uniquely divine in the way he was born, but he's uniquely divine in this way. Now, do you not think it's strange9:12that this entire passage here in Luke is about Mary, right? The angel's coming to Mary and telling her, do not fear Mary. And Luke takes the time to say, the virgin Mary betrothed to a man named Joseph of the house of David.9:41So, why is that important? Is that just a random fact that Luke wants to impress us with the knowledge or the inspiration of the Holy Spirit writing through him? No, why is it important that Jesus Christ is coming from the line of David? Because again, it impresses upon us the uniqueness of his divinity, that he is God. He is God. Why is that important? Well, we see other scriptures here.10:11Isaiah again, verse 7 of chapter 9 says this about the one who is to come. Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. Thank God for the day that there will be no end to the peace and the government of our Savior. As we near election time, I long for a government that is ruled by the King of Kings. And upon the throne of David10:43and over his kingdom, to order it, to establish it with judgment and justice from that time forever, even forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. So he's not uniquely divine just because of the virgin birth. That is enough. But also the scriptures point us to look forward to seeing Christ through the Son and the line of David. Isaiah points us that way. And in case we missed it in Isaiah,11:12Daniel also reminds us. Daniel says it this way. Then to him, in Daniel 7, 14, was given dominion and glory and a kingdom. Then all peoples, all nations, all languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom, the one which shall not be destroyed. Now if you have been here for the last several weeks,11:41think about the great commission. What does Jesus tell us? And lo, I am with you always, Matthew 28, 20, even to the end. And now God's word is pointing us even to the birth of Christ. To what? That his kingdom will not end. What comfort there is in knowing that our Savior is uniquely divine and that will for always, forever be the case. He is uniquely divine.12:11Luke reminds us that he will sit on the throne of David. Uniquely divine virgin birth. Uniquely divine of the line of David. He's also unique in this way. Verse 31, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and you shall call his name Jesus. you shall call his name Jesus. Now that doesn't seem,12:40we know that. We grew up, most of us grew up hearing the name of Jesus. And may we not take that fact for granted because there are people in our area I can imagine that have never truly heard the name Jesus in the way that God's word uses it. Jesus means what? Matthew says, verse chapter 1, that he will save the people from his sins. How many people in the history of the world could actually have the name Jesus and live that out? He is uniquely13:11divine. I can't imagine what's going through Mary's mind at this point. The Holy Spirit comes to her while the angel comes to her and says, by the way, Mary, I want you to know this, you're pregnant. Can you imagine the weight of that on a 13-year-old girl? And by the way, you're not just pregnant. Tell your future husband that, by the way. And tell him you are pregnant with the Son of God.13:40Now, parents, let's get real. There have been times where I've looked at my wife and said, hey, where's Eli? She'll look at me and say, I don't know, where is he? And there's a moment of panic that it's like, he's quiet. We have a three-year-old. In our house, quietness is not a good thing, right? Can you imagine if that child was a son of God? Joseph, where's Jesus? I don't know, Mary. You tell me. Oh, no.14:10Oh, no. We have lost the Son of God.14:19We don't think practically that. We just think that, oh, Jesus was, you know, he was always there. But there had been times in the Bible where we see that they lost Christ for several days. Found him in the temple doing his father's work, by the way. Jesus Christ is uniquely divine. He was given that name. They didn't pull it up. Some of you now, if you are going to have children in the future or have had children recently, you can Google the most popular names. I did that this morning. I was reviewing my sermon. I said, let me just see the popular names of 2016.14:49of 2016. For the boys, the number one name in 2016 of boys, James. James. Elijah was in the top 10, also Isaiah. But Mary and Joseph did not have that chance because they did not name their son. Who named their son? God himself. Why? Because he is uniquely divine. He is God. Born of a virgin. He will sit15:19on the throne of David and his name and his name is Jesus because he will save us from our sins that you might believe and I might believe in his divinity. And you say, well, why does that matter, Pastor? I believe he's Jesus. I kind of, he taught me good things. I believe. If we don't believe in the divinity of Christ, we have made him nothing but a good teacher and good teachers do not save us from our sins. Only Jesus Christ can redeem you. Luke says15:50Luke says that you might know that this child saves. He is uniquely divine. But that's not all. Verse 26, we're going to back up here. For God, a birth announcement through email, through text, will not work. Jesus Christ is not only uniquely divine, but his birth was uniquely announced. Look at verse 26. Now the sixth month16:19the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And here's, here's the birth announcement. Verse 28, And having come in, the angel said to her, Rejoice! Highly favored one, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. But when Mary saw him,16:49she was troubled at this saying and considered what manner of greeting this was. Why? Because this was unique. She couldn't go back to the Bible and say, well, this happens a lot. There have been lots of Jesuses and Gabriel's always announced it this way. Oh, I get it. No, he is unique. The birth announcement is unique. And she was troubled and in verse 30, the angel said to her again, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor17:18with God. Now let me just ask you this. How did your parents announce your birth? Might have been through text message. Some of you might have been through rotary phone. Some of you might have been through smoke signals, right? Josh was born. I laugh sometimes in neighborhoods you'll see the stork put in the front.17:45None of that was adequate to announce the birth of the Messiah. None of that. And so God sends his angel, Gabriel, by the way, means the strength of God to announce the one and only child. He is uniquely announced. Now, we have seen Gabriel before in scriptures. You might know that name. He appeared to Daniel to interpret his visions.18:13He appears to Zechariah earlier in Luke to deliver the news about John the Baptist. And for the Muslims, they believe, their tradition says, that Gabriel appeared to Muhammad to deliver his visions. And I would say to all of those, maybe he did, but let me tell you, there was only one announcement and there's only one God. There's only one Messiah and his name is Jesus Christ. So if you have a friend18:42that says, our tradition has, well, we believe in Gabriel too. You say, well, let me tell you about Gabriel. Let me tell you about the son that he announced. There's only one. He's uniquely divine. It is uniquely announced. But here is the beauty of the announcement of God in our life. Verse 13, we'll back up. Gabriel comes to Zacharias. When he saw him, he was troubled and fear fell upon him.19:12Now, this is John the Baptist being announced. So what we see here is that God can interrupt a worship service to answer prayers. because the angel is coming to a priest, Zacharias, who is in the temple and the smoke of the incense is filling the temple and that represents the prayers of the saints and as they are worshiping, God interrupts. I love that picture. Sometimes we get together and worship and God says, Pastor, let me interrupt your worship to bring you19:41a special announcement because God has that power. God can interrupt our lives and our worship to announce the grace of his son. He can interrupt our worship. But God can also do this in verse 26. God can send his angel Gabriel to a city of Galilee named Nazareth. Now, Jerusalem and the temple was the hub of religious cultic experience. So if you're20:12in the temple, you expect God to show up there. But Galilee, what good is there in Nazareth? What good is there in Galilee? And God sends his message even to Galilee. And so the hope that we have is no matter where you are in a remote village to a young woman, God can get his message across. And to religious people in a church, God can get his message across because he uniquely and beautifully announces his son.20:41his son. I heard a pastor say it this way. He said, if you're running from God this morning, you're in luck because God can hit a moving target. God can hit a moving target. How do I know that? Because I'm here today. That when I was running from God, God said, Josh, you can't run fast enough, you can't run far enough for me to hit you with the grace of God to announce uniquely the birth of my son. Mary, you're not too far off, you're not too remote.21:11remote. Zacharias, you're not too embedded in church culture or for me to save you. Thank you, Lord, right? Sometimes we get so embedded in church that we miss worship. We miss this child who saves us from our sins. He is uniquely divine. He is uniquely announced. And here's the beauty of this announcement. Romans 5.8 says it this way, that God demonstrated his own love towards us, that while we21:41were sinners, Christ died for us. That before you and I pursued God, God said, Josh, I have been pursuing you a long, long time. My son was born for you. He died for you. This is the announcement of grace, that while you are still sinning, Christ was born and died for you. And for me, that takes a huge weight off my shoulders. His grace22:12His grace is uniquely announced in our life. 2 Corinthians repeats this. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. And that this birth announcement sounds like this. 1 John, in this is love. Not that you and I love God, but that He loved us22:41loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation, the atoning sacrifice for our sins. The announcement of Jesus Christ doesn't begin and end in Luke. It continues to this day. If you're here and you have never tasted salvation, if you never, as the scriptures say, taste and see that the Lord is good, I want you to know that God uniquely announces His Son to you. That His Son died for you, that while you still sin, He died for you.23:10for you. He is uniquely divine. He is uniquely announced. We only have salvation in this Son. His name is Jesus. Why? Because He will save the people from our sins. And that's not a thank God He saved me from my sins. That is a I thank Him today. He continues to save me from my sins. Uniquely divine, uniquely announced. Third, we see this, verse 29. In the birth23:41of Christ, we see that His grace is poured out. And you say, well, poured out to who? Holy people? Church people? Good people? Verse 29. When Mary saw the angel, she was troubled at His saying and she considered what manner of greeting this was. And so what we see in the scriptures is this. The angel says, Mary, you're favored. She was24:11She was troubled and then the angel says, Mary, you are favored. This is the way God's grace works. Josh, this is my grace and I say, oh no, Lord, I'm not worthy. But it's not because your worthiness it's because of my grace. Josh, you are favored. So what is this grace? God reminds us that His grace is poured out on non-unique people. Jesus Christ is unique. You're nothing special. You say, that's kind of harsh. Well, the good thing is God uses not special24:41not special people for His purposes. Right? What donkey did Mary ride? We don't know. Our son has a book and names him Clopper. It could have been Clopper. But we don't know. Why? Because that animal is nothing special but it carried the child that was special. And I think Mary is raising her hand here in verse 29 and she's saying, but Lord, I didn't sign up for this. Lord,25:11Lord, you picked the wrong person. Lord, let that person have your child. Let that person have Jesus. And yet, the angel says, but no, God's grace is upon you. So if you've walked in here today because you think you're something special, you came to the wrong place. if you've walked in here to tell God how great you are, I pray that you will leave here telling God how great he is. Because none of us are special. But yet, Christ died25:40Christ died for us that he may use us for his grace. And this, we're going to see for the next several months, is one of the themes of Luke. That God can use the little people for his kingdom. Little people. People that the world says, well, I don't know about you, and God says, but I do. Josh, I call you my son, because my son died for you, and redeemed you, and adopted you into the family26:10the family of God. Luke over and over reminds us that God uses the little people, the non-unique people, the ordinary people, to do great things for him. If you came in here and said, I'm not much, you're in luck. First, I don't believe in luck, so you're really not. But I do believe in grace. And grace is a lot more powerful than luck. Grace26:39Grace says that, Josh, I've given you eternal life, that you might have it more abundantly. Jesus saves non-unique people. Mary wasn't special, God didn't seek her out because she was special, but God equipped her, God gave her the grace that she needed. The angel said, Mary, you're a favor, and she said, Lord, you got the wrong person. And the Lord said, no, I have the person I need because I have equipped you to live for me, to be the mother, to be blessed of this27:09of this child whose name is Jesus because he saves the people from their sins. God's grace is poured out on non-unique people. Fourth, we see this. Jesus Christ is unique, uniquely divine. He was announced in a unique way. God uses non-unique people. He uses us. Thank God and then in verse 31 we see, behold, you will conceive in27:39conceive in your womb and you will bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the highest. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob not for a little bit, not for a short time forever and of his kingdom there will be no ends. You know, we see that his saving grace is28:09grace is unique, but also has no ends. That God's grace is unique in your life and that grace has no end. So, Pastor, what is this grace that you speak of? Grace is this, that you and I are unworthy of eternal life. We are unworthy of the broken relationship because of our sin with Jesus and with the Lord and that he died to mend that. But he didn't do it just temporarily. Not only will his kingdom,28:38kingdom, there will be no end, but our relationship in him there will be no end. So why do I believe firmly that we have eternal life forever in Jesus Christ? Because his reign is never ending in our life. So if you walked in here today and you say, well, I used to live for Christ but I've just fallen recently, I want to tell you that his kingdom didn't quit reigning because you fell. And tomorrow if you stumble29:08stumble that his kingdom doesn't end, that God doesn't look down and say, I can't believe, I didn't see Josh, I didn't know he's going to do that. He knows. And even in our moments of weakness, Jesus is still on the throne. And if you're here today and you say, well, I just don't acknowledge that he's king, I want you to know that he is still on his throne and that one day your knee will bow and29:37bow and your tongue will confess because the Bible says that every knee will bow that Jesus Christ is Lord. so one day we all will recognize his authority, his reign. His grace is unique because it endures forever. Here's our struggle, that you and I know nothing that endures forever. We have cars that rust. We have clothes that tatter. We have clothes that just go out of style. Everything30:09Everything that we know of has an end because everything that we know of has a beginning except except the reign of God, the reign of Jesus Christ. Before you and I were, he was. His reign will not end and that gives me hope because sometimes I turn on the news or I look out and say Lord, we just do a really bad job of reigning over ourselves. We are30:38We are horrible rulers and yet Jesus Christ reigns. He is uniquely divine. His birth is uniquely announced. He uses non-unique people and his reign is unique in our lives and it will reign forever and ever. Amen. First Peter says this, to inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,31:08who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. If that doesn't seem permanent, if your salvation doesn't seem permanent, what does? Let me read that again. First Peter, and Peter, by the way, was a man who fell on his face many times, who walked with the Lord, who denied the Lord, and yet Peter says this in 1 Peter 1 4, that we have an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled,31:39undefiled, that does not fade, it is reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. There is nothing more permanent than our salvation in the King who reigns forever. There's nothing. And may we treasure that in our hearts as Mary takes this home and she treasures it, that he is God32:09is God and he died to save us from our sins. You say, well, pastor, how do we live this out? How do we respond to that? Luke gives us his word by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to know that this child saves, that this child saves. Not this church. If you put your hope in Bethel, and I love this church, you have put your hope in the wrong thing, and this church will fail you. If you have put your hope in this pastor, you're like, man, he's pretty32:39he's pretty good. You have put your hope in the wrong person. If you put your hope in religion, or add fill in the blank, anything but Jesus Christ, Luke will look at us and say, I want you to know, I have written these things that you may know with certainty that this child saves. Have you put your faith in Jesus? And his name means, when we call out the name Jesus, he will save. He is Emmanuel, God with33:09God with us. Have you truly put your hope in Jesus Christ? Our youth powerfully showed us that we have been ransomed and redeemed if we do. If you have not, we're going to give you a time of invitation shortly that you can respond to God's word. maybe you're here and you are a believer, you're saved and you just say, well, I just don't know. I don't know if he's everything that he said he is. I want you to know that God's word, everything in God's word points to33:38points to Jesus Christ and the fullness and the truth and the fulfillment of his life. That Jesus is who he says he is. Every fiber in my being believes that. and everything in Isaiah and Daniel, everything was pointing to today where the birth of Christ was announced and the world can finally say, thank you. Thank you. Fully divine. Uniquely divine. Uniquely34:08Uniquely announced. God announces his grace into our lives. Have you responded? Maybe you're here today and you just say, well, pastor, I've kind of been that person you've talked about. I've fallen. Well, you can turn to Peter who fell many times and Peter looks and says, you know what, we have salvation, we have an inheritance that is incorruptible, it is undefiled. We have grace from the fountain that never runs dry. Won't you34:39Won't you drink of that? Jesus says, if you know this bread, you will never hunger again. If you drink of the fountain that is Jesus Christ, you will never thirst again. Won't you respond to the truth of Jesus Christ? this child saves. Do you know that and are you living it out? Do you know that and are you living it out?Next in Luke (That you may know) →Sunday, February 7, 2016More sermons on Luke →
