Sermon on Lord’s Day 14⤒🔗

35. Q. What do you confess when you say: He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary?
A. The eternal Son of God, who is and remains true and eternal God,[1] took upon Himself true human nature from the flesh and blood of the virgin Mary,[2] through the working of the Holy Spirit.[3] Thus He is also the true seed of David,[4] and like His brothers in every respect,[5] yet without sin.[6]
[1] John 1:1; 10:30-36; Rom. 1:3; 9:5; Col. 1:15-17; I John 5:20. [2] Matt. 1:18-23; John 1:14; Gal. 4:4; Heb. 2:14. [3] Luke 1:35. [4] II Sam. 7:12-16; Ps. 132:11; Matt. 1:1; Luke 1:32; Rom. 1:3. [5] Phil. 2:7; Heb. 2:17. [6] Heb. 4:15; 7:26, 27.

36. Q. What benefit do you receive from the holy conception and birth of Christ?
A. He is our Mediator,[1] and with His innocence and perfect holiness covers, in the sight of God, my sin, in which I was conceived and born.[2]
[1] I Tim. 2:5, 6; Heb. 9:13-15. [2] Rom. 8:3, 4; II Cor. 5:21; Gal. 4:4, 5; I Pet. 1:18, 19.

Scripture Reading: John 1:1-18; Hebrews 2:14-18; Phillipians 2:1-11

Singing: (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Hymn 16:1,2
Hymn 21:1,3
Psalm 37:3,5
Psalm 41:1,2,3,4
Hymn 20:1,2,6

Beloved Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ!

When the Lord God caused Adam to appear on the earth in Gen 2, Adam was not an infant of, say, 7 lbs; he was instead a full-grown man – strong, robust, healthy, handsome. Truly the crown of God’s creation. Why, congregation, did God not send His Son to earth in the same noble fashion? After all, God is sovereign. He fully had it in His power to send His Son to earth in the form of a strong, robust, handsome man of, say, 25 years. Would that not have been far more impressive than sending Him as a helpless baby?

God, we confess, makes no mistakes. It is no accident that almighty God sent His Son to earth via the womb of the virgin Mary. In fact, brothers and sisters, it is for us a source of enormous comfort that the Son of God became completely like one of us; His oneness with us is the source of our salvation. More, that the Son of God emptied Himself so totally is catalyst for us to empty ourselves for the sake of others; His self-emptying is an example for us to follow.

I summarise the sermon with this theme:

The Son of God emptied himself to become one of us

1. Who emptied Himself?
2. Why did He empty Himself?
3. What example are we to follow?

Who emptied Himself?←⤒🔗

God has always been; He has no beginning, is eternal. That is true of all three Persons of the holy Trinity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit all have no beginning, are eternal.

I cannot understand that. I cannot fathom how God can have no beginning, cannot fathom how He could be there always. I cannot fathom either how it’s possible that the Father and the Son have both always been. My experience tells me that fathers exist before their sons do. But from Scripture I learn that the Son is eternal God just as much as the Father is. Together they and the Spirit were always there, Triune God in perfect co-existence.

John tells us of the relation between the Father and the Son. In Jn 1:18, John describes the Son as "the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father." That’s to say: the eternal Father has one Son, and this Son is His dearest possession. To be in the bosom speaks of intimacy, closeness, love. That’s the relation between the eternal Father and His eternal Son: they are close, intimate, beloved. And together with the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son enjoy eternal glory (Jn 17:5).

It pleased this Triune God to create a world. He spoke from heaven on high, and in six days the creation appeared. By His decree the crown of His handiwork arose out of dust on the sixth day; a handsome man, strong and able to look after the garden. With this creature Triune God established His covenant; this man was His child. From heaven above God observed all He had made, and declared it all "very good".

Who created this world? Yes, within the Trinity God the Father first of all is the Creator. That’s what we confess with the Apostle’s Creed Sunday by Sunday: "I believe in God the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth." But Scriptures would have us know, congregation, that the Son was also involved in creation. The apostle John begins his gospel of Jesus Christ by stating emphatically of the "Word" (this is the Second Person of the Trinity) that "all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made" (Jn 1:3; cf Col 1:16). That’s to say: the Son of God was directly involved in creating the world; He is Creator with the Father, for "all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made."

Some time after Triune God finished creating His world, He from heaven above observed what the man did in the Garden; in deliberate disobedience he ate of the tree of what God had said he was not to eat! In so doing, this man-in-the-prime-of-his-life broke that covenant with God, and joined that Liar from the beginning…. The noble creature man became ignoble, lost all his good qualities, became dead in sin, subject to death and decay. The work of Triune God was fallen….

The reaction of Triune God? In heaven above, my brothers and sisters, Father, Son and Holy Spirit counselled together, then the Father sent the Son to earth. No, He did not send the Son immediately. Rather, at a time determined by God to be right, "when the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son …, to redeem those who were under the law" (Gal 4:4). See there the response of Triune God to our fall into sin.

But God did not send His Son as a second Adam in the sense that the Son of God received a mature human body formed as Adam’s was from the dust of the earth. Instead, God in heaven sent the Holy Spirit to earth, and the Holy Spirit "overshadowed" the virgin Mary (Lu 1:35) so that she became pregnant. After the normal nine months, the time came for her to give birth….

And sovereign God on high saw to it that Mary did not have the comforts of home at the time the baby was due, was instead away, travelling. Husband Joseph knocked on the door of Bethlehem’s inn to seek a place of comfort for his indisposed wife. But the door was shut before him…. By the leading of sovereign God, the best Joseph could find for his labouring wife was a cattle shed…. There "she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger" (Lu 2:7).

I do not know whether there were cattle in the shed, or whether a cow had licked out the manger before Joseph and Mary arrived. But I do know this: there is such a radical contrast between the glory which the Son of God had with the Father from all eternity in heaven and the poverty in which He was now born in the cattle shed! In heaven was glory and angels ever singing their ‘Holy, holy, holy’, and in heaven too was the nearness of the beloved Father. The Son of God traded that glory for … No, not to be an adult Prince on earth in knightly armour astride a majestic stallion, nor to be an infant Prince on earth wrapped in royal blankets and laid on a mattress of feathers in a luxurious crib. The Son of God traded that glory for … poverty, abject poverty! His mother had no more than rags in which to wrap Him, had no more than a cold stone feeding trough in which to lay Him! Make here no mistake, my brothers and sisters: that helpless baby in that feeding trough was God the Son – second Person of the holy Trinity!

How absolutely staggering the thought! The apostle John says of the Word that He "was with God", more, "the Word was God". To point up the majesty and the glory and the divinity of this Word, John adds that "all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made" – Creator. Of that Word, true God, John says in vs 14: "And the Word became flesh." Flesh: that term captures in Scripture the notion of brokenness, of frailty, of being subject to the bitter effects of the fall into sin (cf Is 40: 6f). Flesh: it’s weak, it’s sickly, it’s mortal, it’s finite. A baby, helpless, dependent, vulnerable: that’s flesh. To be laid in a manger with not a shred of luxury: that’s flesh. And see: that’s what God the Son became! He laid aside the glory of heaven, and He took on Himself true human nature from the flesh and blood of the virgin Mary; He became flesh, vulnerable. How awesome the thought!

No, this is not to say that the Son of God ceased to be the Son of God. Though no human eye could see anything exceptional in that infant in the feeding trough, He was and He remained the Son of God. But even as He remained true and eternal God, He became what He had not been before; He became a true man – with all the weaknesses that characterise fallen man. True God, true man: to my mind one can’t be both. But that’s what the baby in the manger was: true God, Creator, and true man, created. Certainly, He as it were laid a veil over His divinity; in His infancy and childhood and youth He caught the same illnesses as the other boys of Nazareth, was winded by running as the other children were, had to sleep His normal hours, etc. It wasn’t till He began His public ministry that the veil of His Godness was lifted somewhat by the way He spoke and the miracles He performed. No, His divine nature was not apparent in His youth, and yet He was very God of very God. Immanuel, God with us, in every sense of the word!

In truth, congregation, how staggering the thought. In the feeding trough was … God, God the Son! That vulnerable, dependent baby was … the One through whom all things were made! In the dirt and muck of the animal shed was … He Who had enjoyed glory with the Father from all eternity! Do you, congregation of the Lord, sense something of the awe that must accompany Christmas?? That low-key event is so stunning in its significance; who could imagine that holy, glorious, Triune God would send One from Himself to earth, who could imagine that God the Son would lay aside the glory of heaven for the poverty of flesh? Truly, how awesome!!

We wonder: why did He do this? Why did He leave behind the glory of heaven and become flesh? The angel answered the question like this: "He will save His people from their sins" (Mt 1:21). Paul words it like this:

For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us… Rom 8:3,4

And John answers the question with these words:

In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins I John 4:9f

Notice, congregation, the accumulation of phrases. God in the flesh will "save His people from their sins", He will "condemn sin", He will cause us to live, He will "be the propitiation for our sins." Those expressions all come down to this: those who rejected God in Paradise will be restored to God. See there the reason why God the Father sent His Son into the world; it was to redeem sinners from Satan’s bondage and reconcile them to Himself!

In order to achieve that goal, it was necessary that the Son of God enter the world not as Adam did, a mature man in the prime of his life. Had God formed from dust another human being as He did in Paradise, one to be known as Jesus Christ, then this second Adam would have no direct link (accept for His physical looks) with the human race. Yet the justice of God required that the same human nature that had fallen into sin should itself pay for sin. If the Son of God, then, was to reconcile sinners to God, the Son of God of necessity had to be as human as those who fell in Paradise, as human as those He sought to save. That true human nature He could take upon Himself by having as fully a human mother as any one of us. See there, congregation, why God the Son did not come into the world as a fully grown, mature man; He came as an infant, as human as the rest of us, so that He might be able to save us. In the words of the apostle to the Hebrews:

Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same Heb 2:14

and

Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people Heb 2:17

It altogether, then, congregation, points up how marvellous is the grace of God. Through the fall into sin we deserted our Creator, thumbed our nose at His covenant with us. But Triune God in heaven above did not sit to wait for fallen man to reach out to Him. So full of compassion is this Triune God at the plight of fallen man, so moved with pity, that He sovereignly, graciously, reached out to redeem the fallen. And how did He reach out to save? By emptying Himself! God the Son, by whom all things were created, partook of our flesh and blood to the extent of sharing even the frailties and poverty of this broken life, so that in turn He might save the frail, the broken, the empty.

This, my beloved, is as clear a picture of what grace is as you’ll ever see! God the Son laid aside His glory, deserted the bosom of the Father, humbled Himself to the uttermost by taking on the form of a bondservant…, in order that wretches might be made children of God. Yes, that is grace is all its grandeur, is grace in all its glory. For the unworthy and undeserving, for the damned and the wretched, God the Son gave absolutely everything in order to raise the unworthy and undeserving to a position of nobility, to make the damned and the wretched into children of God and heirs of salvation! This is grace, that God freely did so much, gave so much. This is grace, that the empty and the destitute are filled. In John’s words:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth John 1:14

And:

of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace vs 16

That’s to say: God’s gift of the law through Moses was very much grace, but God’s gift of His only Son is added grace, is grace upon grace. Truly, that the "Word became flesh" is a development "full of grace" (vs 14).

Away, then, beloved of the Lord, with the thought that we need to do something ourselves to win God’s favour! The very gospel of Christmas drives nails into the coffin of the notion of our needing to earn God’s favour. LD 14 draws out how totally and completely salvation is God’s gift, God’s grace. That Triune God would send One of Their Own into the frailties of this life of tears in order to reconcile sinners to holy God: that fact in itself abolishes the doctrine of salvation through works. Human approach to God is possible only through God’s infinite grace, and that is what the coming of the Son of God into this world is all about. Stand in awe, then, beloved, at the marvels of Christmas, yes, stand in awe at the gospel of free grace that comes out so clearly in the good news of the birth of the Son of God!

3. What example are we follow?←⤒🔗

I come now to the last point I need to draw out for you today. I draw to your attention what the apostle Paul does with the gospel of the Word becoming flesh. For he is moved by the Spirit of Triune God –Yes, the same Holy Spirit Who overshadowed Mary!- he was moved by the Spirit of Triune God to hold up the coming of the Son of God in the flesh as an example for the saints of Philippi. Listen to his words in Phil 2:

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men" (vss 5ff).

You understand: Paul contrasts "being in the form of God" with "taking the form of a bondservant", and with those terms contrasts the glory the Son had with the Father in heaven with the humility He received in Bethlehem’s manger. Here’s what John calls "the Word became flesh".

Observe, now, what Paul does with this action on the part of the Son of God in becoming a man. What he does? He holds it up to the saints of Philippi as an example they are to follow. That’s vs 5: "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God…, made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of bondservant." That mind of self-emptying which God the Son displayed at Christmas: that’s what the saints of Philippi were to take on board for themselves.

The problem amongst the Philippian saints was that they were internally divided. Instead of standing shoulder to shoulder in the battles of faith, they stood over against each other in an effort to maintain their own credibility, in an effort to promote their own interests. That’s what I conclude from the instruction of Phil 1:27:

Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that … you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.

And 2:3:

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.

Over against the being-busy-with-self so evident in the congregation of Philippi, the Holy Spirit sets the example of Jesus Christ. Without thought for self, in total self-emptying, He gave up the splendours of heaven and the nearness of His Father, in order to serve those lost in sin. This is an attitude Paul desires to see throughout the congregation of the Philippians; more, this is an attitude that is to characterise all those who call themselves children of God. The gospel of Christmas is to prompt more than adoration for a God Who gave so much for sinners; the gospel of Christmas is to prompt within God’s people an attitude of self-emptying equal to the self-emptying displayed by God the Son.

Please do not hear in this instruction, brothers and sisters, a command to others, that they need to deny themselves in order to give you the place you deserve. The instruction of the Spirit through Paul is not meant first for the other person; this instruction in self-emptying is meant first for you personally. As you confess Sunday by Sunday, then, that the Son of God was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary, do not irritate yourself on somebody else’s selfishness. Confront instead your own conduct and your own attitude. What motivates you in your conduct and your approach to others, your talk about others? Is there thought of maintaining your own reputation, promoting your own interest? Or are your words and deeds rooted in your earnest desire to see your brother grow in stature – never mind cost to yourself? That is the approach God the Son displayed at Christmas, and that is that approach which God the Holy Spirit would lay on all those redeemed by the blood of the Son of God.

And do not say, beloved, that you cannot deny yourself to that extent. Remember, please, that the same Holy Spirit Who overshadowed Mary has made His home in the hearts of all those redeemed by the Son of God. In the strength of that Spirit, you certainly can deny yourself for your neighbour’s benefit.

Why did Triune God not send the Son to earth as an impressive man of stature and dignity? We know it now: He emptied Himself completely for the sake of our salvation. As we confess His holy conception and virgin birth, this emptying is an example we shall gratefully follow - for the benefit of others. Amen.