Evans, Our God is Awesome: God's Incarnation

He was born in an obscure village, the son of a peasant woman.

He grew up in another village, where he worked in a carpenter's shop until he was thirty. Then for three years he became a wandering preacher.

One Solitary Life

Wednesday 23 March 2011

He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a house. He didn't go to college. He never visited a big city. He never travelled two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He did none of those things one usually associates with greatness.

He had no credentials but himself.


He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies and went through a mockery of a trial. He was executed by the state. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.


Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind's progress. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that One Solitary Life.


The Incarnation of God


Isaiah 7:14 - Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Matt 1:23 - they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us).

Theologically this is the incarnation (from the Latin for flesh) or enfleshment of God - God became a man! This has to be one of the greatest miracles ever.


Isaiah 7:14 - Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Matt 1:23 - they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us).

Theologically this is the incarnation (from the Latin for flesh) or enfleshment of God - God became a man! This has to be one of the greatest miracles ever.

Isaiah 9:6-7

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end,on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.


1. The Incarnation reveals God’s sovereignty

Every text dealing with the incarnation is full of God’s sovereignty.

Evans suggests this is shown in the genealogy of Matt 1:1-17 - where God worked countless miracles to ensure the right lineage for Jesus, showing he was of the line of David.


1.a. Sovereignty and omnipotenceFor prophecy to be fulfilled Mary and Joseph had to be in the city of David, Bethlehem. God used a Roman census to achieve it.When the temple was destroyed in AD70 all records of genealogies were lost - apart from Jesus’ which were recorded by Matthew and Luke.Matt also shows Jesus is connected through Solomon to king David.God arranged the “match” of Mary and Joseph


1.b. Sovereignty and Grace

David - adulterer and murdererSolomon - 999 women too manyRahab - prostitute and GentileRuth - Gentile woman(inheritance was reckoned through the male line not female)Ham is traditionally thought to be the father of Africans


2. The incarnation reveals God’s holiness

Both Joseph and Mary were godly in their lifestyle. Joseph obviously had not had sex with Mary, hence his response - he did not compromise.

Matt 1:18-19 - Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.


3. The incarnation reveals God’s power

In Luke 1:6-7 - Zechariah...had a wife Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.

There were 20,000 priests - the chances of being selected are low unless God is moving





3.a. The visitation to Zechariah





3.a. The visitation to Zechariah

God’s timing is amazing - they had no child whilst they were young. They had prayed - and maybe even stopped praying by now.

Now it was God’s time for their child to be the forerunner of the Christ


3.b. The conception of John

Zechariah questioned the angel - and hence questioned God, that is he did not believe God’s word.

The angel Gabriel did not respond well and to prove what he had said he struck Zechariah dumb.

The power of God is at work.


3.c. The visitation to Mary

We see a greater show of God’s power in Jesus having no human father.

Luke 1:26-28

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!"


3.c. The visitation to Mary

We see a greater show of God’s power in Jesus having no human father.

Luke 1:26-28

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!"

Luke 1:30-33

And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."


3.d. The conception of JesusLuke 1:35, Scripture makes it clear how it will happen, and that God is his father.

"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy— the Son of God.

Jesus was fully God and fully man - fathered by God, born as a human, coming as a man to save humanity - he would get hungry yet be able to feed 500 people with a few loaves - and he could defeat death.


3.e. Mary’s visit to Elizabeth

Gabriel then gives more news to Mary, Lk 1:36, 39

Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age...At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea,

And God in his grace gives further confirmation to Mary, Luke 1: 41-43

Mary Elizabeth Winstead - an actress






When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

JTB jumps in his mothers womb, two women are brought together by the Holy Spirit and Elizabeth confirms the move of God to Mary







When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

JTB jumps in his mothers womb, two women are brought together by the Holy Spirit and Elizabeth confirms the move of God to Mary



4. The incarnation reveals the veracity of God

Veracity - conformity to facts: accuracy: habitual truthfulness

God speaks truth, he does not lie - Matthew is full of fulfilled prophecy / events

1:22-23, 2:5-6, 2:15, 2:17

All of these things were predicted hundreds of years before the events took place.


4. The incarnation reveals the veracity of God

Veracity - conformity to facts: accuracy: habitual truthfulness

God speaks truth, he does not lie - Matthew is full of fulfilled prophecy / events

1:22-23, 2:5-6, 2:15, 2:17

All of these things were predicted hundreds of years before the events took place.

Micah 5:2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

Bethlehem was small and insignificant - God is specific, showing his veracity - the other option, the ‘prophecies’ are written after the events.


5. Son of God, son of ManJesus gets these two titles because of the incarnation. Neither denies the truthfulness of the other. Son of Man means Jesus bears all the hallmarks of humanity, fully human, without the sin. Son of God does not mean he is less than God - he shows fully all the qualities of God.

This is the hypostatic union - the full nature of God and of man in one person


5. Son of God, son of ManJesus gets these two titles because of the incarnation. Neither denies the truthfulness of the other. Son of Man means Jesus bears all the hallmarks of humanity, fully human, without the sin. Son of God does not mean he is less than God - he shows fully all the qualities of God.

This is the hypostatic union - the full nature of God and of man in one person


6. The glory of the incarnation

All of God was in Christ, appointed for salvation, all of man was in Jesus, representative = Jesus Christ.

Jesus is one of a kind - Jn 1:1 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Word expresses thought - Jesus is the perfect expression of God yet distinct from him and equal with him






6.a. Glorious Lord






6.a. Glorious Lord

Verse 3 - All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Verse 14 - And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.


John 1:18 - No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Jesus came to earth so that men could understand God, to know and love him in terms we might grasp.

God the Father has never been human - he has never experienced the things you do, he is omni everything - but Jesus did, he was poor, had needs, was tired etc.

Jesus makes sense of God to us, and sense of us to God - he fully understands and fully experiences both sides. 1Tim 2:5

6.b. God in Flesh


Philippians 2 explains how Jesus became God and man - v. 5-8

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was inthe form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

6.c. The slave-man


Philippians 2 explains how Jesus became God and man - v. 5-8

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was inthe form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

6.c. The slave-manSo much; pre-existence of Jesus, emptying does not mean he ceased to be God; deity in human flesh.

Bond servant = doulos - slave man, the lowest in the Roman empire, Jesus did not just become human but became a slave. So low that everyone is covered in his grace.

Died on a cross = as a criminal

Jesus had to be fully God - only God can save, and fully man - only man can die


7. Lessons from the incarnationHow do we respond to the God-man? Matthew 2:1-2

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him."

The magi were astronomers watching the skies - knowing Numbers 24:17 - a star shall come out of Jacob, - they travelled 18 months to see Jesus, they paid a massive price to worship Jesus - the religious community didn’t even know he had been on their doorstep for a year and half.

What price do you pay to worship?Wednesday 23 March 2011

7. Lessons from the incarnationHow do we respond to the God-man? Matthew 2:1-2

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him."

The magi were astronomers watching the skies - knowing Numbers 24:17 - a star shall come out of Jacob, - they travelled 18 months to see Jesus, they paid a massive price to worship Jesus - the religious community didn’t even know he had been on their doorstep for a year and half.

What price do you pay to worship?

7.a. Worship


“God if you can arrange history like this I can trust you to arrange my life and lead me where you want me to go”

God used an ungodly king and ungodly preachers to lead worshippers to Jesus.

Trust God in the general and he will then lead you in specifics - the wise men followed a star (general) and God took care of the details in his time.

7.b. God’s will


“God if you can arrange history like this I can trust you to arrange my life and lead me where you want me to go”

God used an ungodly king and ungodly preachers to lead worshippers to Jesus.

Trust God in the general and he will then lead you in specifics - the wise men followed a star (general) and God took care of the details in his time.

7.b. God’s will

If you want God to lead you:

Are you already doing what God has told you to?


Gold = moneyFrankincense = expensive spiceMyrrh = embalming fluid, Jesus was born to die (just like the strips which swathed his body as a baby)These gifts would also have helped as this very poor family fled to Egypt.The wise men went home another way - sent by God - thus protecting Jesus

7.c. God’s sufficiency


Matt 2:16-18 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:

"A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more."

7.d. God’s judgement


Rachel (buried near Bethlehem) was considered the mother of Israel “give me children lest I die”, she took a long time to have children and in Jer. 32 they are dying or being taken into captivity - judgement. This is further fulfilled in Jesus’ day as the people reject God and ignore the incarnate Christ.

Heb 10:26

The incarnation is not simply God with us - but God demanding our response, our allegiance


Responding to the incarnation

1. How costly is your worship? (mental, spiritual, physical cost)

2. Are you being obedient to what God has already said to do?

3. Do you see God’s sufficiency in your life? Are you trying to run ahead of God, or lagging behind?

4. Is Jesus really your Lord and Saviour?


Spiritual

Evans, Our God is Awesome: God's Incarnation