AN ATTITUDE OF WONDER, PART 2 (LUKE 1:46-55)

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT

SERIES: THE ATTITUDES DISCIPLES REVEAL, PART 4

GCEFC: DECEMBER 21, 2008

INTRODUCTION

1. Today we’re on part 4 of our series: The Attitudes Disciples Reveal. And with Christmas 4 days away, what more appropriate attitude could we explore than the Attitude of Wonder?

2. Last Sunday we considered the wonder of the Incarnation. That the eternal, holy, all-powerful, all-knowing, sovereign God who created the universe became a human being.

3. And the fact that God became a human being is not extraordinary because of its difficulty. Becoming human would not be a difficult achievement for God.

4. What’s extraordinary about God becoming a human being is that it’s so UNEXPECTED. We might expect a human being to make an attempt to become a god.

5. But who would expect God to voluntarily become a human being?

6. Why would a perfect God, complete within himself, who lacks nothing, who needs nothing, who has nothing to prove, and nothing to gain?

7. Who has been worshipped day and night from before time began and is sovereign over everything and everybody in the entire universe.

8. Why on earth would God willingly become one of us? Why would God condescend to such a low and humble place?

9. The Bible says God became one of us, and took the sin of us, and died for us…because he loved us.

10. God so loved the world that he gave his Son. And the Son so loved the world that he gave himself, so we might not perish, but by trusting in him have eternal life.

11. This is not only the most extraordinary thing that has ever happened in this world. But it’s truly a thing of wonder from which we should never recover.

12. AND…last week we saw that there’s wonder in the HUMILITY of the Incarnation. Not only was there humility in God just becoming a man…but he took humility to such a degree that it’s truly beyond human comprehension.

a. The Son of God was born into a humble nation.

b. Born into a humble time.

c. Born into a humble family.

d. Born in a humble way.

e. Who lived a life of humility.

f. Who gave of himself in humble sacrifice.

g. Who died in humble submission.

h. Who came not to be served in glory, but to serve in humility.

13. None of which he had to do. All of which he chose to do. For you…and for me.

A. SURPRISES ARE OVERRATED

1. I don’t know about you, but I like to be prepared. Even though I was never a Boy Scout— a fact I’m not proud of—I still like to be prepared.

2. Some people really like surprises. I’m not one of them. I like to know what’s coming, when it’s coming, how it’s coming, and what’s coming with it.

3. Yes, I realize that makes me a bit of a bore, but there’s no sense denying it. Now I should point out there are a few circumstances in which surprises are fine by me.

a. I like the surprise of taking a long trip and arriving quicker than expected.

b. I like the surprise of something costing less than I thought it would.

c. I like the surprise of something going smoother than I anticipated.

d. I would like the surprise of the stock market going back up before Jesus returns.

4. As you can see, it’s not a big list. And again, you might think I’m a bore because I think surprises are overrated, but I think I’m in good company.

a. Consider that about 1/3 of the Bible was prophetic when it was written. That what was written was written about things in the future. Things that hadn’t happened yet.

b. There’s surely more than one reason for this. But one reason was so people would know what was coming and be prepared for it.

c. God said through his spokesmen—this is coming—this is when it’s coming—these are the circumstances surrounding it. So don’t be surprised when it happens.

d. GAL 3:8 says: The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’

e. In speaking of the coming day of the Lord, Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica: But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.

f. God doesn’t want us to be surprised either about what he’s doing, or even what he’s going to do in the future.

g. And…one of the most common reasons that God judged his people throughout biblical history is because they failed to believe what he said he would do.

h. In other words, people seemed surprised that God did the very thing he said he would do. The Bible calls such people faithless.

i. God doesn’t want us to be surprised when what he said would happen actually does.

a. Remember when the nation of Israel was in the desert about to cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan? The land God promised he would give them?

b. So Moses sends out 12 men to explore the land before Israel entered it.

c. The men returned after 40 days of exploration and they had discovered that the land of Canaan was all they hoped it would be, and more.

d. But the people refused to cross the Jordan into Canaan. Why? Because of a surprise. The surprise was that there were giants in the land.

e. They hadn’t counted on giants. They hadn’t expected giants. They were surprised by giants. So they doubted what God had said he would do.

f. Well you know the story, God said to Moses: Not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.

g. How had they treated God with contempt? By not believing what he said in advance he would do. Their doubt that God would do what he said cost them the promised land—after the people of God had waited 430 years to possess it.

5. Which brings us to the next wonder of Christmas—the wonder of the preparation.

B. THE WONDER OF THE PREPARATION

1. No doubt there were some who were surprised by the birth of the Messiah on that first Christmas morning. But it was not for lack of advance notice or preparation.

2. For centuries the portrait of the Messiah was painted in the Word of God. God didn’t want anyone to be surprised when the Messiah came into the world.

3. God didn’t want anyone to be in doubt that the Messiah had arrived.

a. It was prophesied far in advance.

b. John the Baptist came preaching that the Kingdom of God was at hand.

c. The angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her she would give birth to the Messiah.

d. An angel gave Joseph the same good news.

e. Signs in the heavens led the Magi to the child.

f. An angel announced to shepherds that a Savior had been born. And a host of angels appeared praising God for what had just happened.

4. And there were numerous preparations that took place in anticipation of Christ being born. Let me mention just a few of them.

a. It was foretold about 700 years in advance that the Messiah would be born to a virgin. The New Testament confirms this in MT 1: When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

b. Skeptics argue that the prophecy wasn’t actually recorded before Jesus was born, but after he was born. Kind of like shooting the arrow—and then drawing the target.

c. The problem with this argument is that the Greek translation of the Old Testament was completed in 250 B.C.

d. So we know that the prophecy was in written form no less than 250 years before Jesus was born.

e. That would be similar to someone predicting in 1758 what would happen today. Maybe like someone predicting 20 years before the American Revolution that in 2008, a black man would be elected President. Quite a feat of prognostication.

5. It was foretold way back in GEN 12 that the Messiah would be a descendant of Abraham, and that through one of his descendants all peoples of earth would be blessed.

a. This is nothing short of remarkable for at least 2 reasons. First, at the time the prophecy was given, Abraham was nobody significant.

b. He was a simple man living in a pagan and polytheistic culture worshipping manmade gods and idols.

c. We look back from Jesus to the great Abraham, the Father of the Jewish people, and think: Well of course the Messiah would be a descendant of the great Abraham.

d. But that’s only looking BACK. Looking forward NO ONE would have guessed it. Kind of like predicting that in 2000 years, a descendant of Billy Bob from Chigger Creek, Georgia is going to be the Savior of the world. Yeah, right.

e. Second, imagine predicting that one descendant from one man in a pagan culture is going to be the source of blessing to all peoples of the earth.

f. Now in history there have been individual people who have been blessings to the entire world or nearly so.

a. Like the guy who invented the wheel. But we don’t know who that was.

b. But Johann Guttenberg has certainly been a blessing to a huge number of people throughout the world by inventing the printing press with movable type.

c. And Louis Pasteur, who saved countless millions of lives through his discoveries.

d. But we’re talking about not just a temporal blessing, as wonderful as that may be. We’re talking about an everlasting spiritual blessing. Sins forgiven forever.

e. And to predict that such a blessing would come through a descendant of a man 2000 years later who was not known 25 miles from his home is truly remarkable.

6. Abraham had 2 sons, Ishmael/Isaac. Prophecy revealed the Messiah would come through Isaac, so an entire line of Abraham’s descendants are eliminated from the prophecy.

7. Isaac had 2 sons, Jacob/Esau. But the prophecy indicated that the Messiah would come through Jacob, so an entire line of Isaac’s descendants are eliminated.

8. Jacob would go on to have 12 sons, any of which could have been the ancestor of the Messiah. But the line continued through Judah—just one of Jacob’s sons.

9. And it was predicted that the Messiah would be born in the town of Bethlehem. Foretold in an OT book we might not have even heard of were it not for this incredible prediction.

a. MICAH 5:2: But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will rule over Israel, whose origins are of old, from days of eternity.

b. The Bread of Life would be born in BETH-LECHEM—literally the House of Bread.

c. Skeptics also have a problem with this prophecy. They claim that Jesus was probably born in Nazareth, his childhood home, and it was later claimed he was born in Bethlehem so as to fulfill the prophecy of Micah.

d. Which would make the entire Nativity some vast, convoluted plot that would make the Kennedy assassination conspiracy look like child’s play.

e. I think here C. S. Lewis would invoke the term he coined—Chronological Snobbery. That is, that moderns tend to assume that people in the ancient world were a bunch of witless imbeciles.

f. One thing the ancients were almost certain to know was where people were born. It was very important for a number of reasons.

g. You’ll recall that the reason Mary and Joseph were even in Bethlehem was because it’s where their ancestor, David, was born.

10. Of course, the most important and significant aspect of that first Christmas was the one spoken by the angel to Joseph: Mary will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.

11. You are to give him the name “YESHUA,” as it would have been said in Hebrew. The name “Yeshua” literally meaning: God saves.

12. You are to give him this name because he has come to save people from their sins.

C. CONCLUSION

1. Christmas is a time of wonder for many reasons. Over the last two weeks we’ve looked at 3 of them.

2. There is wonder in the incarnation itself. That God would become a human being.

3. There is wonder in the humility of the incarnation. That God stooped to a level of humility that is really beyond comprehension.

4. There is wonder in the preparation of the incarnation. From the prophesies made centuries in advance. To all of the details that had to fall into place.

5. This Christmas, and every Christmas, let’s not miss the wonder of it all.