One of my favorite Christmas carols is “What Child is this?” And I think that this carol asks the quintessential question of all mankind, what is this Child that was born of Mary. It’s a question that hopefully you have answered in your heart. The answer to this question is declared by the angel, “for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.“
But to fully appreciate the anticipation of what this Child was that was to be born, you must be familiar with the prophesies that were made concerning Him, and which progressively were made more explicitly down through the centuries revealing more and more details concerning what this Child would be. His birth was initially prophesied at the dawn of creation. In fact, God Himself prophesied to Satan concerning One who would be born of a woman, who would crush Satan beneath His feet. God said in Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
God furthered promised to Abraham, that from his seed would come One through whom all the world would be blessed. Gen 22:18 "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
Joseph was a further prophetic illustration concerning the question of what child is this, by being the son of his father rejected by His brethren, and yet providing salvation for the very ones that had rejected him.
Another type or prophetic symbol of the One who was to come and the purpose for which He came is found in the Passover Lamb that was slain so that the angel of death would pass over the people of God who had the blood of the lamb on their door. The Christ would be the spotless lamb of God that was slain for the sins of the world, so that those who had the condemnation of death might be delivered from it.
In the book of Exodus, we have the prophetic typology of this seed of Abraham pictured in Moses, who would be the deliverer of His people from enslavement. Moses was a type of the Christ to come, who spoke the word of God, who performed mighty wonders and miracles, who delivered his people from slavery, and who led them safely through the sea, and through the wilderness into the Promised Land.
David was another prophetic type of who this child would be, as David was anointed King, and God promised David that his kingdom would endure forever. Psalm 89:3-4 says "I have made a covenant with My chosen; I have sworn to David My servant, I will establish your seed forever And build up your throne to all generations." So this child that would be born was to be the Anointed One, who will reign as King over the kingdom of God.
Isaiah answers this question of “what child is this” by several prophecies. We looked at a couple of them last week, but I will just read them to you again to refresh your memory, and to show how God progressively reveals more and more details concerning this child through prophecy as the day of His birth drew closer.
Isaiah 7:14 says, "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” In this verse, much more detail is given, He will be called Immanuel, which means God with us. Now it becomes even more clear that this child will be the Son of God in human form.
That truth is prophesied even more clearly in Isaiah 9:6 which says, “For a child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of [His] government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”
This prophecy explicitly makes clear that this child that will be born, will be the Son of God, will be the ruling head of the kingdom of God, will be the Almighty God, the Father of Eternal Life, will be of the line of David, and His government will be forever.
There are many other prophesies and illusions in Isaiah to the future child that will be born, but we cannot brush past the prophesy found in Isaiah 53, which speaks even more clearly and specifically about for what purpose this child was born. It speaks of the Christ being the Savior, that He will grow up before the Lord, despised and rejected of men, unrecognized as the King of Glory, yet offering Himself up to be beaten, bruised, and slaughtered for our iniquities, that as vs 11 says, “As a result of the anguish of His soul, He (God the Father) will see [it and] be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.”
There are many other prophesies concerning the Messiah, the Anointed One of God who was to come to mankind as a baby in a manger. But not to remain a baby, but to grow up and live a righteous life, to teach the word of God, to save man from the condemnation of sin by the offering of Himself as our substitute. So that when the angels announce His birth on that much anticipated night, they say “today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
But this is not just a theological spiritual exercise, but the birth of Christ is a historical, actual, physical event that is well documented both in scripture and by secular writings. At the outset of Luke chapter 2 you see a census being taken of all the inhabited earth. It was a census by the decree of Caesar Augustus who was over the Roman Empire, which was the dominant government of the civilized world. It’s interesting to think that for the next century or two, you could have looked at that census and found the name of Jesus of Nazareth, born of Joseph and Mary. In fact, Justin Martyr, writing in the middle of the second century, said that in his own day (more than a hundred years after the time of Jesus) you could look up the record of the same census Luke mentioned.
Joseph and Mary were required to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem to register, which was a journey of about 80 miles, at the very time when Mary was about to give birth. Joseph was a carpenter. Mary was a young woman who was scandalized by gossip that she was the mother of an illegitimate child, even though the baby was conceived of the Holy Spirit. After an arduous trip they were strangers in a tiny town that had no room for them in the one inn the town could boast of. And so desperate to find shelter for his wife who was soon to bear a child, Joseph found what many think was a cave hollowed out as a shelter for livestock, and he made a bed for the baby in a manger. Mary had the baby with presumably no midwife to help, and she swaddled Jesus in cloths and laid Him in a manger.
What a contrast in imagery! This Jesus, the long anticipated Messiah, the God’s Anointed One of countless prophesies, of the royal line of David, destined to be King over all the earth, inconspicuously born in a tiny town of Bethlehem, in a feeding trough, to a young woman and a carpenter, in the most common of common circumstances. As Isaiah said 700 years before, “He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.”
But though the townspeople of Bethlehem are oblivious to the birth of the King in a manger on the outskirts of the village, yet God chose to announce it to some common shepherds out in the country, who were keeping watch over their flocks that night.
And Luke says “And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened.” I suppose they were. A lot of people claim to have seen angels, but one thing that seems common to all Biblical accounts of someone seeing an angel is that they are terrified. We saw that at the tomb of Jesus in our study the other week. “They went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”
But however terrifying angels may appear, they are the messengers of God. I don’t know in what form these angels came that appeared to the shepherds. They could have been in blinding light, their forms in flames, their appearance like lightening, they might have had wings, or they might have looked like ordinary young men, they might have been standing or they might have been hovering in the air. We don’t really know. But we do know that Luke says the glory of the Lord shone around them. That probably means there was a very bright light that shone from them and around them. We also know that there were more than one, for Luke says that the angels went away from them into heaven.
Popular tradition says that the angels sang. But the Bible doesn’t say they sang. However, Luke records them as saying, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This [will be] a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”
As I mentioned previously, the angels announcement answers the question, “what child is this?” Saying that there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Notice that the angels give titles for Jesus. First they say this child that is born is a Savior. This was a title that was used for deity, which refers to Him as a deliverer. The second title is Christ. Christ is the Greek word for the Hebrew word Messiah. The Messiah is the promised Anointed One of God. The Son of David, who would reign on the throne forever. And the third title they give is Lord. Adonai in the Greek. Again, another title of deity. Master, ruler, sovereign. And of course we know that previously the angel Gabriel said to Joseph that His name would be Jesus. Jesus means Jehovah Saves. Jesus is the Savior, the Messiah, and the Lord.
Then suddenly with the angel that made this announcement is a multitude of the heavenly host. Hundreds, if not thousands of angels appear, the armies of heaven, all praising God and saying, “glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” That peace from God is not the same kind of peace that John Lennon called for. It doesn’t mean the end of war. It’s the peace brokered by Jesus Christ on behalf of man, when we were at enmity with God. Jesus became our peace. He satisfied the justice of God so that we might become adopted into the family of God. That’s why Isaiah prophesied that He would be the Prince of Peace. Jesus arbitrated our peace with God.
“When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds [began] saying to one another, "Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us." So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger.”
Vs17 When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.” I find it very interesting that God relied upon common shepherds to be the witnesses of the incarnation and to make it known. Do you know that the word pastor comes from the word shepherd? Shepherd is from word which means to pasture, which is where the word pastor comes from. Your pastor is supposed to be a shepherd, one who cares for and tends to the flock of God. But a pastor is also supposed to be a preacher, a proclaimer of the good news. And so I suppose it’s fitting that God chose these shepherds to proclaim the good news, the gospel, that Jesus the Messiah, the Lord, had been born in Bethlehem. That is the same job that God has given pastor’s today, to proclaim the good news, the gospel to all men.
The gospel is just this, that Christ was born to be our Savior, our Lord, and our King.That He was born to free us from our sins, and to procure our peace with God, that we might be made a part of God’s kingdom. If anyone believes in Jesus Christ as Lord, and receives Him as their Savior, they can be saved and be delivered from the condemnation of death and receive instead everlasting life.
Today we celebrate and proclaim the Lord’s birth as Christmas. Christmas means God’s gift to man. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Receive Him today, and be saved.
Luke says that all who heard the shepherd’s message wondered, or were amazed. Luke doesn’t say that they believed. He doesn’t say that the ones who heard came to worship Jesus. But they wondered. Many people wonder about Jesus today. They wonder if He was truly the Son of God. They wonder if His message is really the truth. They wonder if He is the only way to God, as He claimed. They wonder if it might be true, or some of it might be true, but maybe none of it’s true. They wonder if it really matters. And they die without coming to saving faith in who Jesus is and what He has done to save man. Don’t let your life pass you by and you never truly believe. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. He that doesn’t believe is condemned.
But some believed. Luke says in vs 19”But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.” Did you know that Mary needed to be saved? The Roman Catholic Church says that Mary was sinless, that she never died, she was assumed into heaven. They have made a deity out of Mary which is a terrible sin of idolatry against God. Mary was a virgin, but she was a sinner. The Bible says for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But Mary believed what the angels said concerning her Child. She believed that she had been conceived of the Holy Spirit.
Back in Luke 1vs 30 The angel Gabriel said to Mary, "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 name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end." Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.”
So Mary believed these things, pondering them in her heart. How do we know that Mary believed? You simply have to read what is known as Mary’s Magnificat, which is found in Luke 1 vs 46. I won’t take the time to read all of it, but in the first two verses she praises God as her Savior. And Mary said: "My soul exalts the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.”
The shepherds also believed. Vs 20 “The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.” They were praising God that today in the city of David there has been born for them a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” That belief, that faith, is all that is required for salvation, to have peace with God.
Today the shepherds have declared unto you that in the city of David, there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Do you believe in your heart in Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior? Do you receive the gift of God? I pray that you do.
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