Coeburn Presbyterian Church Sermons - Pastor James Ensley

Introduction: [ Acts 17] 1 Thessalonians is written to a young Christian congregation planted by Paul over a short period of time 3 weeks in the local synagogue and then he was driven out of town for the sake of the gospel turning gentiles from Idols and scandalizing the Synogogue. Paul now writes back to this congregation with thankfulness for their growth in the gospel of grace and to answer throughout the body some issues surrounding the second coming of Jesus and the nature of his ministry. This section before us is part of his thanksgiving prayer. Let us now turn out attention to the reading of God’s Holy Word which is given as a gift that we might Know God, our need, and his redemption in Christ.

Read: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

THANKSGIVING IS MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY. Why?

A) – It reminds me that every good thing that I have comes as a gift from my Father’s smiling Providence

B) – It reminds me that everything I have suffered comes from my Heavenly Father’s frowning Providence.

C) – It reminds me to take a day to have the Joy of family, to be thankful for immediate family, for Church family, for the body of Christ

D) – Yes it’s the food, but its more.

E) Thanksgiving is like new years but better. New years is all about us, what we will do differently, and our resolutions. Thanksgiving is about God, what he HAS been doing IN us and AROUND us.

a. So also, in Paul’s prayer today he is taking the time to say how he is THANKFUL for what God has done through his ministry and in the Thessalonians. And it all flows from the WORK of God the Father, of Christ, and the HOLY SPIRIT and this work of God in them is bearing fruit

Today we will see #1 The Fruit of the Word (vv. 2-3)

#2 The Power behind the Word 4-5a

#3 Godly Imitation verses 5b-10.

#1, When we see Fruitfulness produced by the Word of God we must remember that It is all Thanks to God that there are things to give thanks to God for.

Look with me at verses 2-3, 2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers,3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ

A) Praise God for each and every one of you. That’s what Paul says, praise God for the work he has done through his word, the gospel preached by Paul over just 3 weeks. which has produced fruit and life. Produced a new gathered body of Christ in Thessalonica and churches springing up throughout all of Macedonia.

a. All letters, all epistles, have thanksgiving sections in Paul’s day but Paul’s thanksgiving and prayers are always special and never there just to be there. In them, he previews his main themes and rejoices in the salvation he shares in Christ with the dear, beloved saints he writes to.

b. Even though he only briefly knew them, he is meeting people and churches founded because of the fruitful gospel witness and community that is lived out in the Thessalonian Church.

B) What specifically is Paul praising them for, he is praising: The Fruitful Christian life, the cardinal virtues, as we call them, for Paul throughout his letters are Faith, Hope, and Love.

a. But post-reformational protestants can hesitate, balk at the pairing of words like work…labor…steadfastness or endurance with the words Faith, love, and hope.

b. But we should not shy away from this but rejoice in the exact way Paul phrases his praise for the Thessalonians. Because they are Justified believers in Jesus who are being Sanctified and bearing, living-active-fruit.

c. My thanks to Dr. Benjamin Gladd for how he phrases this. Paul is saying, the believer in union with Christ lives out an Obedience of Faith, that is work produced by faith. A Labor of love or labor prompted by love, and Endurance inspired by Hope.

i. This is the opposite of monasticism, or mysticism. Where the Christian life is only an internal, contemplative, disembodied life.

ii. Or our own culture where We look within affirming faith in ourselves and our own resources

iii. No, true Faith hears the word of Christ, believes the word of Christ, entrustsitself to Jesus himself and all that he accomplishes in the gospel and such a faith is a gift that is given along with spiritual life, a new heart, and new energies that produce FRUIT. That produce transformation. Paul is thankful that trusting in Jesus has transformed the Thessalonians.

C) It has also given them a Labor of love, that is a labor prompted by love

a. The Christian - rooted in the gospel of Jesus - is Rooted and grounded in the love of Christ. And this love does not remain a mere feeling, no. Love when actively lived out can be a laborious, grueling thing. Christian Love demands much of us because believers in Jesus you have received much.

b. We love because he first loved us.

c. We Forgive because we’ve been forgiven.

d. We Seek and promote others’ good unconditionally because we have had the love of Christ declared to us, and then actively because we love the Lord Jesus, we Love his commands, and we love his will and desires and affections revealed to us in the entire bible.

i. Jesus sought our good while we were enemies and as our creator wisely gave us all we need for life and life with him. We in turn promote the good of others unconditionally with the free offer of the gospel and invitation into the fellowship of the Church. Into the life of the Church.

ii. Now, there is a trap here right? Our culture says, Love is love, by this they mean a feeling of affirmation and permissiveness to other perception of truth & their perception of what is good and true and beautiful even if it may be harmful, evil, and destructive.

e. Our Labor of Love is controlled, channeled, and directed by the moral law, molded by the character of God, and seen in the life & ministry of Jesus. …Then Love will seek the other’s highest good, ultimately.

f. We need a labor of love in the 21st century whose content is the very character of God declared to us from every page of scripture and not emptied down to a few slogans or culturally captivated, love emptied until it is mere approval.

i. Jesus said, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

ii. Are you glad that Paul sees in the Thessalonians a labor produced by loveand not merely felt love, or love signaled, or love re-invented, love shattered into a thousand opinions and a millions desires heading in every direction and impulse of mankind under the sun?

1. In the internet age of connectivity, americans broadly speaking are less connected to real HOMES, real direction telling us where to channel and express our love and how it works when its not just a Disney love story.

2. You must make your home centered on your heavenly Father, live by his word in the household of faith with brothers and sisters. Not as orphans.

iii. Christian love is not the rudderless American youth, dazed, angry and confused by a world with suffering and no hope.

1. No, it is wise, weighty, and directed by Faith in Christ and a Love labored and directed by Christ.

2. This labor of love is anchored and held enduring and steadfast because it has a fixed and solid Hope.

D) Endurance inspired by Hope

a. Hope in Christ is attested in scripture and inspires the fruit of endurance.

i. Colossians 1:5 - because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel,

Hope is what holds us steady in the face of suffering because we have a future, a resurrection, and a savior seated in Heaven who is returning to bring us home.

b. We live in a Hopeless society. There is nothing beyond our own resources. So every day when people scroll twitter or their favorite news site every hit of suffering closes in on us and makes us feel small.

i. One solution is to withdraw, to be hopeless, to be cynical, and to speak down on everything to see through everything in a negative and cynical, but ultimately passive way.

ii. Or, perhaps, we see the only solution is to lash out at everything wrong and, in our own strength, attempt to fix everything here on earth in a Restless activism, but the weight of the thousands of causes needing thousands of solutions is crushing. We cannot endure without the Hope of heaven, a heaven, with a risen king seated on the throne.

c. Paul does not despite the Thessalonians suffering, encounter a hopeless, loveless, faithless people. Nor has he seen them retreat to a spiritualized faith, hope, and love. But instead, he is thankful for a faith, hope, and love that produces a Church community that is living and active, rooted in Christ Jesus!

Look with me at verses 4-5a, 4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

#2, vv. 4-5a The Power Behind the Word, what lies behind the fruitfulness of the gospel word spoken to the Thessalonians?

A) Paul responds to the faith, hope, and love of the Thessalonians by speaking a word of encouragement. And there is nothing more encouraging and assuring than the doctrines of grace grounded in God choosing, unchanging, electing Love.

a. Now I say that slightly tongue in cheek because we know that this is often a divisive doctrine, a mysterious doctrine, one which the Westminster Confession calls for ministers to treat with care, which is why these verses deserve their own separate sermon. – Which I will find for you from a Pastor Jim Roberts who I team preached this with a couple years back.

b. What I will do is keep the movement going from God’s choosing to the fruit and result of it in the church and allow Pastor Roberts time to slow down and unpack and trace old testament parallel passages and enjoy reflecting on God’s gracious choosing.

what do we see in verses 4-5

B) We are Loved by God in Election

a. God loves his Church. God has chosen out of fallen humanity a people to belong to himself and Paul says, he knows this because of the fruit of the faith hope and love because the POWER of the Holy Spirit is evident in the Church.

b. Why is it evident? Because the WORD is accompanied with POWER, with vitality given by the Spirit producing conviction. A conviction that is public in the face of suffering and is dispersed as suffering pushes the Thessalonians throughout Macedonia.

c. The Word takes root because of the Holy Spirit, which makes the Word Sound Forth and in turn that word takes root with conviction and so on throughout Macedonia and the whole world and through the centuries until we inherited it here today in Coeburn, VA. Let’s follow that Logic a little more closely.

C) The Gospel goes forth in Word

a. Throughout 1 Thessalonians and Acts 17 there is an abundance of words related to the Preaching of the Gospel the word of God to us.

b. Words such as: [Slowly] Declare, Speak, Proclaim, Exhort, Charged,

c. it’s the Received Word, people are Persuaded by the word, in Acts 17 Paul: Reasons, Explains, Proves…What? that Christ suffered & Rose. The Gospel declaration of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ who is seated in power in the heavens and will (v. 10) return from Heaven.

i. Word based ministry is necessary

ii. And The content must be the Gospel of Jesus Christ

iii. But Not only in word…though that is the Necessary precondition. How can we believe if we have not heard (Rom. 10) but how is it believed once heard? The gospel is foolishness to natural man.

iv. Its received why? How?

1. Jesus says, I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

a. Only the Holy Spirit, Spirit of truth, can take the word of truth and press it into our lives.

2. Apart from the Spirit we are dead idolators worshipping dead idols…This must be overcome if we are to receive God’s word.

v. If you have received the truth of the Gospel it is Not some special goodness in you. It was not some special goodness of the Thessalonian believers, Acts 17 says only some believed, the rest were busy driving Paul away and hauling a man named Jason into court. Because Their idols and idol selling businesses were threatened. But those who received the Power of the Holy Spirit coming in regenerating hearts, giving new life, and the gifts of faith, hope, and love…these experienced FULL conviction. Conviction that produced fruit.Conviction of sin is a special ministry of the Spirit in the heart of those under the preaching of the word.

a. The Holy Spirit according to Jesus from John 15 & 16.

i. Is sent from him and “when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me;

2. What is Conviction? Conviction is The full acceptance of the truth and importance of the gospel. Which is both the conviction of sin and conviction of mercy in Christ, which produces Joy.

3. If we receive the word with full conviction then we will become imitators of those who also value the Word proclaimed and have suffered because of the gospel. Look with me in verses 5b-10.

#3 5b-10 You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. 6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8 For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. 9 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

D) IMITATORS of What of Who?

a. Paul says, they became imitators of him, Silas, and Timothy. I believe this is an aspect of discipleship good spiritually minded evangelicals have shied away from. It feels somehow earthly to literally become like another living person who isn’t King David, or Jesus, or just a Devotional quite time model of piety.

i. Paul says, “Follow me as I follow Christ.”

ii. The ultimate goal of discipleship is to be renewed in the image of Christ. But the Pathway that discipleship takes according to Paul is to be more like other disciples in the Church.

iii. We know this, People start to sound like others in their prayers, how they ask questions, have conversations, do hospitality or our reaction to seeing other Christians happy or sad or struggling with sin.

iv. We mimic Favorite phrases and responses. We do not follow an ethereal set of behaviors learned from devotionals… No, we rub shoulders with brothers and sisters from different generations, income levels, backgrounds, job, and areas of the world. Paul is not ashamed to say in so far as I am like Jesus follow me.

v. Because we have the same spirit, we have the same faith, hope, and love working in us, and we learn the toolbox, the life skills of Church from others.

1. Are you gifted at hospitality you learned it from a Brother or sister and THEY learned it from a brother and sister who learned it ultimately from Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit in the scriptures. Are you an evangelist > it was caught not taught and ultimately back to the Holy Spirit teaching through the Mind of Christ.

2. Prayer. Mercy. Counseling. Parenting skills all are imitations done in the body of Christ, we embrace this when we long to fellowship together and mimic each other.

3. But what specifically were the kinds of men Paul has in mind for the Thessalonians.

b. They were the Kind of Men who had 6 things:

First, Received the word with affliction that is Men who suffer for the sake of the gospel

Second, Men who had the Joy of the Holy Spirit, that is an assurance of belonging to God as a redeemed and forgiven child.

Third, Men Who speak of the gospel, in such a way that the name of Jesus spread through all of Macedonia and Achaia

Fourth, Men who Who turned from idols exercised repentance.

c. To repeat last week, repentance is Having a true sense of sin, and the mercy of God in Christ, hating and grieving sin and turning from it to God in new obedience.

d. Idols & Sin are lifeless and death-producing. Rejoice when you see someone turn from sin and learn how to do the same. Parents, speak in appropriate ways to your children about how you are actively turning away from sin and idols in your life, ways you are finding life in God but death in sin.

e. Weep over sin with grief in our culture. I think we often express our anger at sin but rarely our grief at what sin does to us and to others. Children need to see our grief at sin and its effects on individuals, families, and society. Not just anger.

Fifth, they were Men Who serve the living and true God

E) Idols are dead and bring death. God is the Lord and giver of Life. He is living and he gives life, vivification, and he blesses us with the life-giving communion of the saints.

F) If we serve the living and true God we will draw our life from those appointed places that God has given us to find life. Such as in Prayer, communing with Christ by his Spirit. IN worship. IN the body of Christ, around the Lord’s table. Our whole life if it imitates Paul will be consumed with a love for the Church that flows out of a love for God. It is impossible for Church to be a secondary and tangential part of your life if you have turned from idols to the Living God.

a. Examine your hearts is anything in your life an idol you serve instead of the living God.

b. IF there is anything cast it aside and look to Christ, ask for the Holy Spirit to give you FULL conviction and Full Joy and assurance in Christ alone, in fellowship with the body of Christ.

Sixth We are imitators of those Who Hope in Heaven meaning

G) We Hope In the Risen Christ, the risen and seated Lord. We speak of death as conquered, defeated, we hold our funerals to dead saints with Hope. We do not entrust ourselves to lesser hopes. Because only in the Hope of Christ seated in heaven do we have deliverance.

H) Deliverance from the Wrath to come.

a. Praise be to God that he has loved us and shown mercy in sending his only begotten son into the world not to condemn the world because it stood condemned already but that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

b. Is this your all controlling CENTER of your very life, identity, your controlling thought and passion???

c. Let this be our prayer, that we can say the word of the Lord has

d. sounded forth from Coeburn Presbyterian Church, and our faith has gone into our neighborhoods, our work, and the report of us is that we are joyfully filled with the hope of Heaven and the love of Christ.

Prayer & Benediction

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Introduction: Sinclair Ferguson writes; “Mark begins his Gospel by telling us two simple things. First, the gospel is about Jesus Christ. It is not good advice about how to live, but good news about a person. Then secondly, Mark sets the scene for Jesus by telling us about John the Baptist and the significance of his ministry” (Ferguson, Let’s Study Mark, 2).

Read: Mark 1:4–11

[4] John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. [5] And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. [6] Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. [7] And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. [8] I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

[9] In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. [10] And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. [11] And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (ESV)

Prayer of Illumination

First a quick review of Mark’s outline

Second, John a prophet of repentance (vv. 4-6)

Third, John preaches a savior mighty to save. (7-8)

Fourth, Our Baptism Belonging to the Covenant Community: Jesus’ Baptism Our Priest, Set Apart, commissioned for Holy ministry. (9, 10-11)

#1 What is the Outline of Mark?

What is the broad brush stroke outline of Mark’s Gospel? There are two parts to it!

1. The first half of the book says WHO Jesus is: Jesus is mighty to save! John preaches repentance, John talks about the kingdom of God. Jesus actually forgives sins, and brings us into God’s kingdom and makes us a people.

a. This builds as Jesus does miracles and makes statements that only God himself could back up, and culminates in Mark 8 with the question: who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” [30] And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.

i. This fulfills Mark 1-8 the WHO, the identity, you are the Christ

b. And Jesus says, people won’t understand that yet, they think that means I’m going to kick out the Romans…so to Peter, to even the demons who call Jesus the messiah, he says be quiet, not yet… [Techn. Messianic Secret]

2. The Second half of Mark, Mark 8-16 focuses not on WHO Jesus is but WHAT he came to do…Not the Person, the WORK

a. Mark 8:31”And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.” (ESV)

b. JESUS sets his face to Jerusalem to be the suffering servant who lays down his life as a ransom. Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” To die on a cross, where a centurion will say surely this is the Son of God! (15:39).

i. So the first half of Mark – wandering Galilee with his disciples in POWER, miracles, with Authoritative words establishing WHO he is. The miracles are to prove the identity so we will believe his words, and so put our faith in his WORK.

ii. …Second half of Mark setting his FACE to Jerusalem – in order to lay down his life, to suffer, and to die as a ransom for your sins.

c. Both halves demand a response! Douglas O’donnell asks this? “

d. “Will we follow, listen to, obey, and humbly serve Jesus? Will we suffer for Jesus, look to Jesus’ death and resurrection as our only hope of salvation, and await Jesus’ return? To Mark, those who genuinely believe the good news of Jesus the Christ and the Son of God respond in certain ways. Self-denial. Cross-bearing. Total dependence. Radical allegiance. Arise and follow the Son!” (O’Donnell, 9.)

e. Our membership vows roughly follow this order; Mark’s entire gospel provides this flow…Mark knows the good news begins with repent & believe on the Savior, rise and Follow him…

We took these vows so I think a constant reminder is good…And hopefully like wedding vows they are familiar.

1. Our Need of the Gospel: Do you acknowledge yourselves to be sinners in the sight of God, justly deserving His displeasure, and without hope save in His sovereign mercy?

2. Justification by Faith: Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and Savior of sinners, and do you receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation as He is offered in the Gospel?

3. Sanctification: Do you now resolve and promise, in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit, that you will endeavor to live as becomes the followers of Christ?

4. Gathered Worship & Service: Do you promise to support the Church in its worship and work to the best of your ability?

5. Honoring Delegated Authority: Do you submit yourselves to the government and discipline of the Church, and promise to study its purity and peace?

I pray Mark’s gospel will make these vows flow from knowing and Loving Jesus and knowing and loving the Church, the covenant family bound by oaths that Jesus gathers, the kingdom of God gathered on earth, worshipping Christ with the saints in heaven.

Well John launches straight into vow #1 – our need for revival, for cleansing from sin. Look in verses 4-6.

#2 Verses 4-6 John: Prophet of Repentance

[4] John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. [5] And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. [6] Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.

· John’s job is to prepare the way for Jesus’ three year ministry. He is getting Israel ready, to have hearts that are spiritually hungry, that know something is off in the spiritual life of Israel they need the messiah.

o He dresses as a prophet, specifically he dresses like Elijah in 1 Kings 17

o What kind of man was Elijah? 2 Kings 1:8 says, “He wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist.” And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.” (ESV)

a. What kind of Prophet is he? John is a Prophet of Repentance (pointing us away from sin) and He is Heralding Jesus (pointing to the solution, life, forgiveness, and restoration in Jesus)

i. We might call this addressing the problem of “nominalism” [external religion, in name only]

ii. “I desire worship from your hearts not sacrifice” “I desire repentance, a turning from idols, and turning to God for forgiveness of sins”

iii. ILLUSTRATION: What is repentance? Two metaphors, Holy SPIRIT light on sin (ah!) This focuses on the repentance side of the coin first; Or second Walking a cold dark path and the warm fire comes behind you. This focuses on repentance as inherently looking to the mercy of Christ.

b. SO when people say, that Christian sinned! …Yes, it’s the first question, we are sinners. Saved sinners, still sin. We just repent and look to God for purification. We are in this life always going to be putting sin to death, asking forgiveness of sin, and forgiving the wounds of living with other…saved…sinners. John pointed out sin, so they would repent, the same in the church for the grace of repentance never self-righteous condemnation.

i. So repentance is Good, and just preaches this word.

Q. 87. What is repentance unto life?A. Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief [sin is sad…] and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience.

Q. 89. How is the word made effectual to salvation?A. The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching, of the word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation.

ii. John preaches repentance and, second he preaches JESUS.

#3 John preaches a Savior Mighty to Save.

1. Jesus is Mighty to Save

V. 7-8 he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. [8] I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

So Jesus is not merely a prophet, he is the one who gives the inward reality of baptism by the Spirit…Jesus pours out the third person of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit poured out in your heart by Christ… So that the Church is filled with the Holy. He is Christ’s Spirit.

2. Following Jesus is not just following a new Instagram account that gives you good advice, explains psychological techniques and health and fitness solutions. Its not a bunch of encouraging quotes…

1. Jesus Spiritually rescues dead men and women who by his death and life and By the Holy Spirit filling their hearts and minds. If you go to Jesus and say, I am lost save me! The sin in me is stronger than I am – I trust you, save me! This is not just a well-advised move. It is a supernatural rebirth done in your heart and mind! That is now a Soul whose true north compass is changed forever.

2. John preaches that Jesus will baptize his people with the Holy Spirit.

3. The Holy Spirit is the fire and engine of the Christian life that makes our conscience alive and working, our hearts full of love that can overflow to our neighbors, that can make us truly sorrow for sin, and love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind so that All of live now revolves around HIM.

a. All believers receive the spirit at conversation. He is not a special second tier membership a select few get.

b. And for all believers; the Spirit delights to work through the WORD and to shine the spotlight on JESUS.

c. John 16:13–14 says the Spirit is the spirit of truth that takes the word of Christ and declares it to our hearts glorifying Jesus!

d. And in Christ we are by the Spirit, cleansed and forgiven, bearing his name. Reborn. Regenerated. Called, and united to Jesus. That’s the reality.]

#4 Our Baptism Belonging to the Covenant Community: Jesus’ Baptism Our Priest, Set Apart, commissioned for Holy ministry. Look in verse 9.

[9] In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

So John is calling people to repentance and baptizing them…Now Jesus is baptized.

What is baptism?

A Theology of Baptism: Holy & Clean, belonging to the covenant community

1. Baptism Represents that we are: Purified: Clean & Belong

a. This could be coming from the priest’s baptism (definitely Jesus’) it could be proselyte, various purification.

i. Purify – Heb. 9 various washings (various baptisms

1. Sprinkled blood as a purifier for holy things

2. Anointing oil

3. Water

4. FIRE.

2. Baptism as a Sacrament

a. Second it is now a sign and seal of the covenant this is Rom. 4 language.

b. OT precurs is Circumcision (cut off, bloody, represented a cleansed heart, call for internal to reflect the external).

i. NT baptism, water, cleansed, united to Christ and all his benefits as a sign and seal of regeneration and a new heart by faith, of righteousness

c. Jesus…does not need this baptism to be clean, he Makes us clean. But it shows he is our priest who is Holy and Clean.

i. Sinclair Ferguson say,“John knew that Jesus did not need to be baptised as a symbol of repentance - he had no sins from which he needed to repent. He was the spotless Lamb of God, who needed no offer of forgiveness. … His baptism inaugurates him publicly into his role as the priest who bears away the sins of men in order to bring them forgiveness and salvation.” …“The baptism of Jesus marked his public inauguration as the Messiah. He came into the world to be the Saviour of sinners…He has not come in pomp and circumstance to lord it over men; but in lowliness and humility, to save them. Here already he indicates how he will become our Saviour: by standing in the river in whose waters penitent Jews had symbolically washed away their sins, and allowing that water, polluted by those sins, to be poured over his perfect being.” – Sinclair Ferguson, 6.

d. Our Baptism says we belong to Jesus and to the covenant community the church, it is a sign of our belonging

i. Our Identity-holy to the Lord– represented (in the sign) Sealed as authentic and to be believed as from God that we belong to God and have an interest, a part, in the things of God.

e. We are not pagans. We are God’s people. And in Jesus’ baptism we see that he is not just a member of God’s people, He is God’s son, and by him we belong to God

Look in verse 10.

[10] And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. [11] And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

Illustration – Every child on the playground—Every child on a play stage or during a sporting game scans the audience for their Father’s face as they step out to perform—they desire the gaze and approval of their father. Look, look, look at me, do you approve?

Now, Jesus is not an anxious child, but there is a fittingness of him in his earthly ministry, in his humanity, as the eternal son of God to be equipped and fueled for his ministry from these words…How often Jesus must’ve remembered this moment over the next three years

…Even as he goes into the wilderness to be tempted, when times are difficult “you are my beloved son…I am well pleased with you!” See the sign of the dove…the dove of Noah’s ark saying, there is a new creation, a new beginning. Judgement will come to an end through Jesus. The world is redeemed from sin and misery in Christ. A foretaste now and in completion when he comes again at the end of the age. PEACE.

You can say the dove represents peace….but what kind of peace…peace with God and new life because of Christ’s work to defeat sin and death in our place. Jesus will take the flood, the deluge of wrath in our place that we may have PEACE. It’s not a hippy peace achieved by ignoring reality and responsibility with drugs, free love, and finding yourself. A False peace.

It is a peace that comes from finding your life in Christ, by being reborn, because Christ took judgment on your behalf and sent the Holy Spirit to come and live in your heart to make you a new creation reborn in the world made new. Forgetting all that lay behind and beginning again…And every time we repent it is a bit like that.

Let me say in no uncertain terms—You have the approval of your heavenly father if you are in Christ Jesus—when you stumble and fall into sin, you are covered by Christ, you are not gaining and losing God’s love and approval…therefore we can always name our sin for what it is because we are SECURE, we are beloved, we can BOTH see the sin for what it is UGLY or Unholy repent of it put it to death—And in Christ Jesus we are not identified by our sin by as a son and daughter of God.

The gospel of John proves clearly that the approval given to Jesus transfers to us in our Union with Christ…Two steps track with me.

John 3 as Jesus’ described his ministry and John 17 as he describes the approval we gain if we are united to Jesus by faith and trust.: John 3:34–36 He, Jesus whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. [35] The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. [36] Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (ESV)

John 3:35…Public, proud, approval…Spirit without Measure given to Christ. [35] The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.

J.C. Ryle says, the voice of the Father announces… “the Father’s acceptance of the Son as the Mediator, Substitute, and Surety of the new covenant.” (Ryle, 5). He’s the one who bridges the gap between sinners and a Just and holy judge, by being their subtitutes, cleansing, and guaranteeing the relationship promised in the new covenant by fulfilling our side of things in our place so that we have all the benefits of a secure relationship in Jesus….The Heavenly Father in Christ approves of you…God approves, he likes you, he hears your prayers attentively, being in a relationship with you was the plan set in motion by the Father & the Son

SO Yes, Jesus has the approval of his heavenly Father. You do too, as adopted sons and daughters… if you have rested in Christ. Christ is the only begotton son by divine & eternal nature…we are adopted sons and daughters by being born again by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit witnesses that approval, witnesses the renewal of you and creation. Even as Jesus is beloved of the father, you are beloved of the father.

John 17:6, 24-26 [6] “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word….[ [24] Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. [25] O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. [26] I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Jesus is sent from his baptism to suffer and serve to rescue those the Father sent him to gather. He has made known God to us. He shows God’s love for us that we can repent we can be forgiven, we can belong, we can have peace with God and a renewed life –If we die to ourselves and hide our lives in Christ. Have you done this? If so, enjoy the peace of the Spirit, the belonging of a Son & Daughter.

If you have this faith, God asks us to pronounce it publicly…John’s baptism was a public renewal… the book of Acts says we are to confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and we do this with vows and witnesses. …I would encourage a reading of the book of Acts to see this example.

If you have never been baptized, God calls you in the same way the Holy Spirit was poured out on Christ from heaven, poured out in tongues of flame at Pentecost to be poured out on you, and to your children after you…Acts 2, for the promise is for you and your children, and all who are a far off to be Holy, Clean, and Belong to the covenant community of God.

Prayer | Benediction

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How to begin one of the Four Gospels of the life of our Savior…Simply by Beginning.

This is the very word of God. From the Gospel of Mark Under the eye witness testimony of the Lord’s Apostle Peter; written for us to testify to the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Read Mark Chapter 1:1-8

[1] The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

[2] As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,

“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,

who will prepare your way,

[3] the voice of one crying in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight,’”

[4] John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. [5] And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. [6] Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. [7] And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. [8] I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

#1 Introduction to the Gospel of Mark

#2 Verses 2-3 Bridging B.C. to A.D. with the entry of the LORD

Interlude: WHO wrote it and to WHOM

#3 Verses 4-8 John: Prophet of Repentance; Herald of the King

Closing: What is the Outline of Mark?

Look in V.1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. (ESV)

What’s the big idea going into Mark 1, and indeed the whole book: Banjamine L. Gladd says that Mark proclaims “Israel’s long awaited King has arrived upon the scene

Every gospel This is why mark is often pictured as a Lion (Gen. 49:9; Num. 24:9). (vs. an Ox, Man, or Eagle).

o Speed & Agility – “Immediately” The Suffering Servant-King acting, not long teaching passages…

Genre: A Gospel It is like a biography, but with a more central focus on the crucifixion week 50% of the book; it is “History with a Point!”

The point of Mark’s Gospel is that there is great and good news that Jesus is the Christ! The long-expected Messiah, God’s anointed Savior, whom Peter confesses in Chapter 8. And that he is the Son of God, the great King, the Lion of Judah, and as the Son of God we learn the second person of the Trinity himself. This is confessed in Chapter 16. By the Centurion who spoke far better than he knew.

· Each passage of a gospel informs our heads & hearts about Jesus

o Peter says “though you have not seen him you love him” We are to know and love Jesus more and the Holy Spirit can do this through the Gospels.

o So always three things in our minds – WHO is Jesus?; WHAT was his message?; and WHAT did he accomplish? All these things are a proclamation of “Gospel ’eungelion” meaning Good News heralded.

§ The main point of every account as we go through Mark is not US or even the disciples, it is how they are responding to the Person (who: Christ; The son of God) and the WORK of Jesus (divine power displayed only to humbly suffer and die as a ransom for sinners).

· So NO Lord’s Prayer; No Sermon on the Mount, meaning no Beatitudes….But

§ Jesus calms the storms, casts out demons, defeats satan’s temptations in the wilderness, heals many, teaches with authority, is the Lord and Ruler of the Sabbath-The Lord’s Day is Jesus’ Day-He declares sins forgiven, feeds 5,000; feeds 4,000; curses the fig tree, cleanses the temple, is transfigured; declared the Son of God by Peter, marches to Jerusalem and sets his face as the Lion of Judah the king who will suffer and lay down his life as a ransom for sinners because the Kingdom of God is at HAND!

o And if you stepped into the worship service remember this service is gathered in the name and presence of the risen and reigning King Jesus. And these words are for you this morning. You are not just a random person with no purpose, a cosmic accident, a highly evolved monkey, or spinning the wheel to determine your meaning, identity, and purpose. You are called by this book to repent and believe in Jesus bowing the knee to your king who was gentle and lowly but mighty to save.

#2 Look in Verses 2-3 Bridging B.C. to A.D. with the entry of the LORD

[2] As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,

“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,

who will prepare your way,

[3] the voice of one crying in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight,’”

· John the Baptist is preparing & calling to repentance preparing to enter into the new covenant community. Forgiveness NOT Judgement. Restoration not Evil for those who are prepared in their hearts to turn to God through the messiah who is beginning his ministry.

o This ministry of John’s is a Bridging ministry, between B.C. & A.D.

§ John is Passing the Baton as the middle runner to Christ and the Apostles who will pen the New Testament.

§ John is the final old covenant prophet

· And God has prepared the church to expect and respond to this. John Calvin points out that Malachi stands as the final of the Old Testament writing prophets…the Lord then leaves Israel with Just the Law of Moses with no proper prophets. Until John…

o We know this feeling of Anticipation. Of Standing on the precipice of the age for a while.

§ Movie goers & Video game players are always asking…When are they going to make the sequel???

§ And one answer that is often given, is when the script is ready! (James Cameron’s avatar) or When technology allows for the filmmaker to do what he wants (Star Wars);

§ And God says, labor Under Moses and the law until “the fullness of time” until you are yearning for the messiah to come and do what the Law couldn’t do! until I send my messenger before your face…we’ll get there in a second….

§ Mark’s gospel shows the grace of God! It is the beginning of Good and joyful news, happiness to fallen humanity.

o So we can say yes, John is ushering in the Gospel age, the New Covenant Age, he is ushering people into the fulfillment of the chain of the Covenant of Grace From Genesis 3:15 to Abraham to Noah to Moses to David and finally to what it all promised—Jesus.

John’s message of repentance is graciouis: Because God makes the first move! God sending John, means the God…after 400 years of silence…is about to SPEAK. Sarch the whole bible is clear, God makes the first move, God speaks “the word of the Lord came, ”God reveals himself, God is on the move and he sends his messengers full of the Holy Spirit…

· But Who is he the messenger of?

· Verses 2-3 is a combined references to Malachi 3:1-4 (that last prophet) and Isaiah 40:1-5 (the greatest Prophet arguably).

o Right away the New Testaments roots are sunk deeply into the Old Testament. Mark’s understanding of the Messiah Jesus flows directly from the OT roots. The Old Testament promises what the NT fulfills. Unified. But greater light, greater revelation.

o Malachi 3:1

§ Malachi says, a Messenger will prepare the way for GOD to come to his temple….This is echoes both in the tabernacle and temple will the glorious presence of God fills the temple!

§ Now John prepares for JESUS to come to the Temple of God, where he in his very flesh will be in the temple to cleanse…

· Malachi 3: asks those “But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. [3] He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD. [4] Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years. (ESV)

o The messenger who prepare the Way of YHWH to come in judgement….

o SO John is warning them—God is coming to dwell with us again, this is great and joyful news, but also God is still Holy, Holy, Holy a purifying fire let us respond to the grace of the King of Kings coming in Repentance and receive the sign of our repentance & cleansing by water baptism.

The second reference is to Isaiah 40…Also a reminder that repentance and renewal is a Joyful and ultimately produces peace with God peaceful and peace from this fallen world.

· Isaiah 40:1–5 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins. …not not double punishment for sin but double pardon!

It is said Jesus come full of grace and truth---James 4:6 says, but he gives more grace…More mercy, greater pardon, probably the understanding that our exile is over, we are Home and at Peace.

· DO you feel at home and at peace with God? Jesus tells his disciples they will abide in him and him in them….that by the Holy Spirit we rest in the strength and life of the resurrected Jesus.

· And that is the key isn’t it. God did not remain at a distance…He did not turn the four hundred years of silence into 4,000. NO, he has Hebrews 1 say,

o Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, [2] but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. [3] He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

· And here in Mark 1 verse 3, we hear the voice of John the Baptist crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way for the LORD (all caps); YHWH; make it a highway; bring the dynamite and blast through every hill and barrier so that this is a railway straight through the mountains so GOD can come to his People and the Temple.

And Isaiah 40 verse 5 says, “And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,

and all flesh shall see it together,”

· To be Clear John is - The Voice of one calling in the wilderness

· The LORD all caps in Isaiah in Hebrew is YHWH

o This is in fact heavily implying that Jesus is God! Jesus is Lord

o The final implication is also that from here on out when marks says, lord in Greek “kurios” he is thinking of Jesus’ divinity.

o So fix firmly in your mind that in Mark’s gospel the earliest gospel from the first Paragraph it is clear that Jesus is Lord, and he is YHWH. It’s a bold claim. And it carries through in your ear how you hear “the Lord Jesus Christ” as a title from here on out.

Interlude: WHO wrote it and to WHO?

1. By Mark?? If I asked you to name “the 12 apostles…would using the names of the four gospels help you? “Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?” Indeed, not. Mark & Luke are not apostles but are associates writing under the apostles.

a. From earliest church history Mark was associated with Peter who stays at Mark’s mothers home in Jerusalem, Mark then become a ministry companion of Paul and Barnabas; He returns back to Jerusalem which upsets Paul but gives him more time with Peter; Paul has an argument with Barnabas about Mark, so Barnabas and Mark travel together in effective ministry, eventually so reconciled with Paul that he asks for John-Mark to come to him in prison.

b. HE is in the words of Laurence Housman “The saint who first found grace to pen, The life which was the Life of men.”

i. [Mark the writer of the first gospel was rejected as useful by Paul himself….When you fail in work, family, and Christian service in some way. No one has a final word on your future usefulness to the Lord, and no has formed a final opinion on you!]

ii. A second humerous note; Mark is receiving this gospel probably in the 60s from an old Peter as the key eyewitness. So whenever Peter seems ridiculous in his reactions and statements, remember it is the older & wiser Peter tattle-tailing on himself. Was he said? Fondly remembering what he got right and what they got wrong? I think so, like any older man would.

2. Who is this gospel written to?

a. In one since we could say, since everyone needs life from Jesus because we are lost wretches without him. Then Mark was written to every man, woman, and child who can listen to the life of Jesus and in it know – that is my savior, he forgives sins, he heals everything broken in my soul.

b. So Mark is for all people in all ages. And he wanted it to go far and wide.

c. Mark a little more specifically is for people he need a savior who suffers, who serves, who touches the sick, who listens, who is your creator who made you, who knows you.

d. More specifically Mark’s first audience may have been those suffering under Nero’s persecution. To initially Roman Christians….There are little Latin explanations of Greek terms throughout Mark. That make it likely he wrote it while in Rome, during the time of Nero.

e. Mark is saying the apostles are dying one by one—I know times are difficult, but do you BELIEVE? Do you have FAITH will you today whisper of the hope of Christ to someone else….Mark’s ending has these words Mark 16:8 And they [the women who visited Jesus at the tomb] went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. (ESV)

f. And we the audience say – NO! they have to TELL someone!

And Mark knows they will….They eventually do make it to the 11 disciples behind locked doors and tell them…But initially Shock and fear.

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Introduction: This morning we are back in Nahum, Nahum Chapter 3. We have 19 verses, and it’s a communion Sunday, so we will not re-read every phrase. I entrust you to track with an open Bible as we move through different sections.

In Nahum, we have seen God addressing Nineveh for its wickedness: Nahum has shown that sin will be judged because justice is how God is able to be a good refuge and address evil in this world. We learn that sin is inherently folly, chaotic, and entangling. Sin has consequences, and last week we learned that sin is sad. We learned that not just there but throughout the Bible, God sometimes accomplishes justice with a crooked stick. In this case, pagan Babylon is the crooked stick bringing justice against pagan Assyria. We looked at two similar examples: Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers in order to save his family from the coming famine and Jesus at the cross—evil men crucifying him. (I would invite you to go back and hear that message if you have questions this week that were really addressed last week. YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts are all options...)

In Nahum 3, we are wrestling with war, yes...violence, yes...but the more shocking part is we are dealing with the way Assyria, Nineveh, shamed others. Their sins brought shame and suffering to others and were shameful themselves. And so, when God brings justice against them, we cannot help but be shocked by the way He uses shame categories to address them. The underlying shame of Nineveh is exposed as Babylon conquers them. That, I would submit, is why the language and examples are uncomfortable in our passage this morning.

Because of the shamefulness of sin—But also, I hope by the end of today’s sermon, and as we approach the Lord’s table later, you will be thankful that God not only addresses our guilt in Christ Jesus but also the accompanying shame.

Note as we read this outline: think of who the audience is. Judah, who has suffered great evil and yes, shame at the hands of Nineveh. Verse 19 says when countries hear of the fall of Nineveh, they will respond with rejoicing—that those who had brought such evil upon them had been dealt with. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?

Read Nahum 3:1-19 | Prayer of Illumination

#1 The Guilt of Nineveh: The Shamers Shamed (v. 1-7)

#2 Nineveh’s Abuse of Thebes (v. 8-13)

#3 Your Leaders Have Acted Shamefully (v. 14-19)

_#_4Our Shame Removed by Christ

* The Shamefulness of Sin (Analogical to Assyria)...

a. Some of us may have experienced not just being sinned against but being shamed by the sin of another person. This is when we usually talk about sin as abusive. Some of us may have never been truly under the power of others to shame us, and this is a kind providence.

i. But in abusive relationships, addictions (we are under the thumb of evil. Sin has “power over us” even if it rightly is flowing from our own hearts).

ii. Nineveh had other nations under their power, under their thumbs. And they would shame them and grind them to dust. Look in verse 1.

[1] Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder—no end to the prey!

#1 The Guilt of Nineveh: The Shamers Shamed (v. 1-7)

First, what are they guilty of?

b. Violence – Violence celebrated and used as a tool of control over conquered nations.

c. Lies – Diplomats making and breaking treaties.

d. Theft – Extorting tribute, raiding temples, and looting entire nations.

e. Prey – Their presence leaving people wondering when Assyrian armies would next come and kill and destroy.

They are guilty of these things: violence, lies, theft, conquest.

Second, Nahum says for the guilt of these sins, they will fall: Their shameful conduct will be vividly reversed, and they themselves shamed in verses 2-7.

Verses 2-3 begin with chaotic scenes again—verse 2—The crack of the whip, the rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot! Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear, hosts of slain,heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end—they stumble over the bodies!

It’s the chaos and violence of war.

But more than the war itself, verse 4 answers WHY. Why is all this happening? The answer has already been given: Because of verse 1. They are guilty.

And guilt produces shame. Adam and Eve sinned, and immediately they felt the reality of shame. And it doesn’t take very long before we realize that shame is also transferred not just when you sin but when you are sinned against. Nineveh has shamed the surrounding nations. And vividly, we are being reminded that they needed to feel the shame of their guilt.

SO yes,v. 4 says, and all this is happening because of your unfaithful craving of power, recognition, and abuse of the influence of your powerful position. Nineveh abused the good gifts of wealth (not inherently bad), power (not inherently bad), and influence (not inherently bad)—but they used their wealth, power, and influence in dishonorable ways that were harmful to the moral state of themselves as a city and harmed all those smaller countries that took Nineveh at her word, who trusted her promises and graces and charms.

This is a difficult metaphor for especially Western Christian worldview people. Both those who are no longer believers but are still operating with the understanding of human dignity, value, and hold in respect the sanctity of marriage.

The metaphor is so shocking because the gift of marriage, female beauty, and sex is such a good gift; we are most ashamed when that good gift becomes manipulative power, shameful, and unfaithfully used.

One note in the metaphor for an American Nineveh is not the powerless female victim of trafficking. That is not the metaphor. Nineveh, in this metaphor, is the powerful one in control and is more like the Proverbs Temptress of Proverbs chapter 7:24-27, who entices and drags the foolish man into her home. She seizes and lures with promises...

And now, O sons, listen to me,

and be attentive to the words of my mouth.

25 Let not your heart turn aside to her ways;

do not stray into her paths,

26 for many a victim has she laid low,

and all her slain are a mighty throng.

27 Her house is the way to Sheol,

going down to the chambers of death.

So Nineveh used her wealth, power, and charms to betray the nations around her.

a. That is because the problem of guilt and shame when it comes to evil is severe. God is shocking our conscience to see the need for Nineveh to be sharply addressed.

b. ...And is preparing us to see Nineveh is reaping what they did to the city of Thebes in Egypt. And so the vivid word picture makes us remember sin is shocking and shameful. There is a reason in verse 19 all the nations say, finally, our abuser has been addressed.

c. You need these verses so you know that sins of true oppression, true victimizing, and true abuse are shameful and judged by God...

i. Verses 8-13 are about to ask Nineveh, “Did you think you could do all those things to Thebes...or Judah...or all your other vassal states and not reap what you sow?” Sin has left them guilty. But sin has also shamed them.

d. But taking a step back from Nineveh being the big bad empire reaping what they sow, what about ourselves? In the Bible, none of us can get away from the fact that all our sins have both an element of guilt before a holy and pure God and an element of shame before a God who is faithful, true, beautiful, and all His influence is for our good.

ii. The sin of Nineveh left entire nations broken, angry with them, and liable to be angry with God for what they suffered. Sin produces shame. Shame produces self-hatred and hatred of God...

iii. More on this later....

e. And that would paralyze you because you then must go further and say Jesus suffered shamefully at the hands of wicked men in order to redeem you, cleanse you, and restore you from the shame of sin...More on that later.

iv. Two areas we need to go...Let us look at what Nineveh did to Thebes in Egypt and then we will see the suffering of Jesus not only to remove our guilt but also to remove our shame.

2. Nineveh: Remember what you did to Thebes (v.8-13)

[8] Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall?

i. The context you need to know for these verses is that Nineveh had besieged and sacked the City of Thebes in Egypt...And so God is saying, “You think you are better than them?” YOU were cruel in your conquest.

b. What you did to Thebes, the shaming, will be done to you despite your best efforts. Reaping what you sowed.

i. You (verse 10) sent her into exile...you committed atrocities against men, women, children, and even infants...You took her people into slavery.

c. V.11-13 What you will reap will be defeat. You will lose all strength. In verse 11, you will reel and go into hiding...Seeking refuge...In the Lord? No, they will seek refuge in their own strength, never coming to the end of their own pride, self-sufficiency, and idolatry, never once remembering the God of Jonah and the mercy and refuge He showed their ancestors.

d. V. 12. All their secondary fortresses and cities will be useless and barely slow their enemies down once Nineveh falls.

e. Verse 13: Your strength and pride in your soldiers as the lions of Assyria, who are the Marines, the Army Rangers. Proud warriors, that strength will turn from a strong professional military into ineffective soldiers, ineffective defenses, and you will feel the vulnerability of being a woman in combat. [pause]

f. Nahum is in no way attacking women as women. Nahum would agree with Genesis 1-2 and the inherent value and dignity of women made in the image of God, with unique gifts and callings.

i. V. 13’s purpose is to state that Nineveh’s soldiers are going to be humbled by their powerlessness to stop the Babylonians from conquering them. Please remember that the internet and Marvel superhero movies are not real; in combat, war is ugly and brutal, and God created men and women with different roles. One created to guard, protect, and keep, and another uniquely created for nurture, giving life, not taking life. We are both blessed with strengths: I am very thankful for the love, care, nurture, and many gifts and callings God places on women.

ii. Verse 13 is using a simple reality as a metaphor that relies on the underlying truth that in real life, outside of Hollywood movies, there are vast differences between the strength of men and women. And the Bible agrees in principle that there are creational moral reasons for nations to rely on their men to fight honorably, and it is dishonorable for a nation to use women in combat.

Look in verses 14-19.

#3 Assyria, Your leaders have acted shamefully.

iii. The Assyrians thought they were invincible, and yet they will fall. Verses 14-19 invite them to be prepared, draw water, and strengthen the fortress; it matters not. For all your leaders are powerless (verses 17-19). Your leaders, your fortresses, will not save you.In fact, your leaders and scribes and entire bureaucratic system are like grasshoppers and locusts devouring everything around them, devouring the wealth and freedoms of those under their rule.

iv. You are done abusing the nations around you, and people will rejoice to hear that justice has been done. It will be good news. “For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?”

v. Nineveh’s leaders are not unique; our society has sins we are guilty of that aggravate feelings of shame.

vi. And our world: are we not unceasing in finding new ways to harm nations, families, and individuals? We harm men as men and women as women. We distort the image of God; we make families vulnerable or broken apart. In many ways, we are like the Assyrians.

* We can point to how civilized we are, but yet 100 years from now, when the history books are written, a wise historian who understands the inherent value and dignity of men and women made in the image of God will be able to fill entire books with the ways we have acted with guilt and shame as a nation.

vii. But we can’t just blame leaders or other people; each and every one of us has areas we feel not just guilt but shame for how we have impacted others.

* It doesn’t matter if we are raised in a good home, a good neighborhood, or even if we are people like myself who were children of the covenant.

* I still need Christ as a Savior to deliver me from my guilt and shame, and Christ draws near to us all.

* Look in this chapter again; I would invite you to remind yourself how Christ has done far more excellently than every wrong and everything shameful in this whole chapter.

Our Final Point: #4 Our Shame Removed by Christ...

g. Remember, Jesus went through shame, wrongful guilt, suffering, violence, lies, and the plundering of his possessions for us.The Larger Catechism reminds us that: “Christ humbled himself in his death, in that, having been betrayed by Judas, forsaken by his disciples, scorned and rejected by the world, condemned by Pilate, and tormented by his persecutors; having also conflicted with the terrors of death and the powers of darkness, felt and borne the weight of God’s wrath, he laid down his life as an offering for sin, enduring the painful, shameful, and cursed death of the cross.”

h. And yet Jesus is strong and kind to save: As you look through the chapter, we can say, looking back at verse 1 that...

i. Jesus was gentle and lowly, shedding His blood for us, not requiring it of us for His own comfort. He came full of truth and bestowed the rich inheritance of the Holy Spirit to us whom He rescues, fully reversing the wounds of Nineveh.

ii. Jesus is truly God; as our conquering King, He defends the widow and orphan, ruling and defending us...

iii. Jesus is faithful to us; He comes to us in our guilt and shame.

* Hebrews 12:2–3 says, “Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. [3] Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.“

* Romans 10:11: “As Scripture says, ‘Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.’”

* What Jesus does for us is exactly what God did in Gen. 3: “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” He atoned for their guilt and covered their shame.

* Jesus fulfills wonderfully the words of Zephaniah 3:19: “At that time I will deal with all who oppressed you. I will rescue the lame; I will gather the exiles. I will give them praise and honor in every land where they have suffered shame.“

a. Zephaniah 3:19 is a one-verse summary of Nahum 3 and what we still today need to hear as redeemed sinners—

* That in Christ Jesus, God is for us; He clothes us in radiant garments, restores honor to us, and all who look upon you will draw near in fellowship as brothers and sisters in Christ.

a. When we name sin as sin, what we are doing is saying this is the kind of thing I can take to Jesus for forgiveness, healing, and renewal.

b. Do not cling to your sin. Do not refuse to name sin as shameful; name it for what it is in your life, confess it to Jesus. He will not turn His face from you but will do the work of assuring you that He died for that sin! Jesus comes full of grace upon grace.

i. Do not wallow in your sin. Do not think confessing sin is beating yourself up for it. No! You are forgiven in Christ. No condemnation. No morbid introspection. Instead, the honest confession and assurance: FORGIVEN! CLEANSED! SON! DAUGHTER!

* In Christ Jesus, we know we are not better than Thebes or Assyria but that Christ is BETTER. Christ is our Strength. Christ is our Refuge.

* In Christ, you will have a home, a table prepared for you in the presence of your enemies. You will be free, sober-minded, upright. You may stumble but not fall, be shaken but not defeated. Still a struggling sinner but not shamed, because...

* He eases our hurts, binds our wounds, and proclaims Good News, the gospel, to all who would find their rest in Him.

* Praise God for Christ Jesus, who takes our guilt and bears our shame.

iv. AND this ought to produce in us, as a community, the fruit of the Spirit: patience, kindness, and the beatitudes of mercy—to be a hospital for sinners that diagnoses and names sin accurately, as any doctor should. But then to love the wounded and care for them with great patience, encouraging Christ as the only substitute for sin, and the Holy Spirit as the healer of hearts.

May Nahum’s warning to Nineveh cause us to long for salvation and deliverance from all evil, and magnify our wonder at the love of the Father, the suffering of Christ, and the assurance of the Holy Spirit.

Prayer

Benediction

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Introduction: Our first sermon in Nahum began with a big picture view of God’s character, explaining how God’s intense love for his people combined with holy justicemeans that sin will be punished. So in broad brushstrokes, Nahum wants you personally to believe, I need a refuge because sin will be punished, and provide comfort for the oppressed. God is jealous, avenging his people who are hurt by sin…

The second sermon, covering verses 8-15 tells us that sin is chaotic and entangling having inherent consequences. These consequences can cause problems on both a national scale and on an individual scale.

Third, today In Nahum chapter 2 verses 1-13 we learn that the result for nations and individuals, due to sin, is just sad. It’s awful.

We’ll see the consequences of Assyria’s sin coming from not just the judgement seat of the Lord but through the means of the Babylonian Empire. Themselves, though not as wicked as Assyria, still a brutal Empire. So we have some not good people being used as an instrument against other not good people, producing an ugly situation. But one that ultimately brings about judgement on evil and deliverance for those who take refuge in the Lord. God draws straight lines with crooked sticks.

This principle holds true for Jesus and the gospel…so that when you go to the cross, Jesus is experiencing the ugly consequences of sin, Pilate, the false trial, the soldiers mocking and beating him it’s ugly because the people crucifying him are themselves personally evil, and we will see that with Assyria as a city falls over the next two weeks.

Read Nahum 2:1-13 (begin and end with v. 13)

#1 vv 1-6 The Falling City

#2 vv. 7-9 The Plundered City

#3 vv. 10-12 The Predator Removed

#4 vv. 13 Why? Because God was against them.

#1 Vv. 1-6 The Falling City

[1] The scatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; dress for battle (gird your loins); collect all your strength. [2] For the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have plundered them and ruined their branches.

· ILL: Gandalf racing on horseback through Gondor, shouting, “prepare for Battle!” And you look out over Pellenor field and see the orc hordes….The Second and terrifying thing is God is telling Assyria to prepare for head to head battle…yes with Babylon but ultimately, this is like Moses looking Pharoah in the Eye saying get all the magicians…Be as prepared as you can in your own human strength. God’s mighty hand is about to Restore the freedom of the Israelites from Egyptian Bondage….Watch Prince of Egypt if you want to see this put to great music.

· Prepare for Battle. Man the walls and What do you see? The Red Babylonian Army. Read v. 3.

· “The Red Babylonian army led by King Nabopolassar. Who seems to be “the scatterer.”

· According to our text, Two different people. Two different agents are acting simultaneously against Ninevah in real time.

o The red Babylonian army is there…What do they want? They are conquerors. They are removing a rival empire. They want to plunder and loot the city.

o Yet God is sovereign. His providence governs all events in history. He has a purpose.

o To understand this event which is filled with bloodshed, death, Wickedness and yet in the midst of it all Deliverance for Judah…

o We must remember two other events that show this same dynamic.

· First, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, and the Lord used it…actually the Lord decreed it in order to provide food and grain to preserve the Abrahamic Line, the Covenant people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in his old Age.

· Second, the Crucifixion of Jesus.

§ Genesis 50:15–21 [15] When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” [Who did it. They did it? Why because they desired to, they acted in creaturely freedom to do what they wanted. What they wanted was evil. And they did the evil of selling their brother into slavery….][16] So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: [17] ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. [18] His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” [19] But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? [I am not the Lord of History. God is clearly at work saving us.] [20] As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. [21] So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. (ESV)

· So men of selfish desires acted wickedly. God used, ordained, the events to ultimately bring about a deliverance.

· Joseph’s brother crooked sticks. The Lord’s draws the straight line of deliverance and refuge for Jacob’s tiny band that is fledgling Israel being Guarded as they leave the nest to grow into a nation in Egypt…God preserves the stepping stones of history from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Exile, and return, all the way to the Cross of Jesus Christ. God must be sovereign over history. And so we see this same story unfold in Nahum 2.

o In our account today.

§ Assyria is wicked and is a lion killing and devouring prey – in this case frequently JUDAH.

§ God desires to deliver Judah from this wickedness.

§ But the third group Babylon. They aren’t a righteous army of Knights freeing the Judeans…No they are also a wicked conquering army.

§ They are a crooked stick, the straight line of justice however will be drawn by God using crooked Babylon.

· You are invited by Nahim to recoil at the crooked stick, and yet celebrate the refuge and freedom that is produced in God’s sovereign providence. Justice even with a straight stick is at times violent. Warfare is bloody. Nahum desires in his writing for us to recoil at the brutality and the distress of siege warfare to men, women, and children. (Even more intensely in Nahum 3).

o So, the Genesis 37-50 account of Joseph and his brothers is a good example, but a far greater example is the crucifixion of Jesus himself. The greatest act of evil in the history of the world. PURE INJUSTICE against a PURELY innocent and righteous sufferer.

o Bringing about God’s plan, God’s desired salvation.

o Satan is truly throwing all his darkness, wickedness, and evil at God. The soldiers are brutal and beat and mock Jesus, the pretend crown of thorns, the purple robes and being spit upon, being paraded through the streets, questioned repeatedly under false pretense (the Sanhedrin) or under cowardice (Pilate) not acting according to the truth. Acts 2:22-28 describe these events this way.

· Acts 2:22–25 [22] “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—[23] this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, // you [you!] crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. [24] God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it… [and the same crucifixion described in Acts 4].

· Acts 4:24–31 describes The disciples praying together, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, [25] who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,

“‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? [26] The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’—

[27] for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, [They gathered they freely came together to crucify Christ but in the same breathe verse 28 says, [28] to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. [And they ask for boldness to keep preaching the gospel and they are filled with the Holy Spirit to continue to spread the gospel.]

· God has a redemptive plan as the Sovereign Lord of history to save, to deliver Judah. He is good, a refuge in the day of trouble, and he knows those who are his.

· Judah needs to be delivered from Assyria.

· Assyria is under a just judgement and the wrath of God. He is avenging his covenant people. The bride of Christ.

· The Red Army of the Babylonians are on the move with their own set of motivations and desires.

o This events shows both God’s sovereign decree in history, and human responsibility (what the Babylonian army desires and does)

o The ultimate divine perspective and the human level of secondary causes. Sovereign personal reigning, but not impersonal fatalism.

· Assyrian will fall it will happen in this case not by purely miraculous direct supernatural means but through the true acts of the Babylonians, through “The Red Babylonian lead by King Nabopolassar, the scatterer. Look in verses 3-5 again.

[3] The shield of his mighty men is red; his soldiers are clothed in scarlet. The chariots come with flashing metal [These are like battle tanks, Abrams tanks are rolling in.] on the day he musters them; the cypress spears are brandished.

[4] The chariots race madly through the streets; they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like torches; they dart like lightning.

Everything is confusing….the red army has breached a set of defenses the chariots are rushing about…Its warfare…its mad rushing about.

[5] He remembers his officers; they stumble as they go, they hasten to the wall; the siege tower is set up.

Assyria is falling faster than expected…History tells us they had won a small victory; the Assyrians are drunk with celebrations and so the Chariots have pushed farther and faster than expected. The officers rush to catch up with the main army and to breach the next set of defense with siege equipment.

[6] The river gates are opened; the palace melts away;

The river floods, the city falls, and the palace of mud bricks is melting away under the mighty waters. Who knows how metaphorical this is or literal.

The king’s palace. Its fallen. The government. The leadership. The city is done for.

Nahum said, at your strongest you will fall.

The siege of a city can be brutal. This siege was a brief siege relatively. So, we do not hear of the horrors of one like Jerusalem in A.D. 70 with starvation.

But throughout history, foreign plundering armies have been brutal. Filled with evil and suffering. This is no different as men flee

#2 Vv. 7-9 The City is Plundered

[7] its mistress is stripped; [That is Ninevah personified as a woman] she is carried off, The City, Ninevah is stripped of resources, beauty, cultural artifacts, everything looted. her slave girls lamenting, moaning like doves and beating their breasts.

There is crying out and distress from the city falling. It’s awful. The Babylonian army is like every other conquering army throughout history. The Assyrians have lost and the Babylonian army spread through the city pillaging.

Verse 8-9 Shows two things. The population of the city flees. They are running to the hills they are running to the next great Assyrian city. Like a pool of water fading away…The army begins to dessert…. [8] Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. “Halt! Halt!” they cry, but none turns back.

Men flee from military formations and begin to run to their homes to get their family out of the city.

Perhaps this is the Lord’s influence. The Lord has melted the courage in their hearts. Perhaps this is because of the river flooding. Perhaps the Lord used the river flooding to melt the hearts of the Ninevites. Look in verse 9.

[9] Plunder the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of the treasure or of the wealth of all precious things.

#3 vv. 10-12 The Predator Removed

[10] Desolate! Desolation and ruin! Hearts melt and knees tremble; anguish is in all loins; all faces grow pale!

The city that once had conquered and plundered. Is not plundered itself. John Mackay points out the poetry in the Hebrew which we tried to echo in english. Desolate. Desolation. And Ruin. Pillaged, Plundered, and Stripped!

· The Assyrian Pagan temples are filled with gold some of which stolen from the temple in Jerusalem. Pillaged.

· All the heavy taxes demanded through the years of Israel and Judah hauled away. Not given back

· Remember, though the Lord is working through the crooked stick of Babylonian. They do not care about Judea…But nevertheless, the Lion of Assyria has been slain. Jacob, Israel is no longer their prey.

Verses 11-12 tells us the metaphor of Lion’s and their dens. The Assyrians liked Lion imagery, their young men, their soldiers were proud of their strength, and they knew they were the Apex predator. Everyone around them was prey. All they killed, they would bring back to the den, to the city, and give it to their own citizens.

[11] Where is the lions’ den, the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion and lioness went, where his cubs were, with none to disturb? [12] The lion tore enough for his cubs and strangled prey for his lionesses; he filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh.

· But no more! No more! Babylon has Conquered, Assyria is Fallen. Judah is free.

· If they will stay free of Idols. And turn and follow the Lord. Lest they too bring upon their own head the curses of the covenant.

· Nahum 2 is a gripping telling by Nahum of the Fall of the city.

· Remember a few things

o First, Nahum is prophesying this. It has not happened yet. But historical Babylonian records show that it happened just as he said.

o Second, This is meant to comfort Judah. And I think it does two things. Its gives HOPE. Hope that one day the Assyrians will no longer oppress and plunder them.

o But Third, it is also gives a warning. Judah – God’s people – will you be no different than Assyria, are you taking refuge in the Lord? Will you as chapter 1 says, will you keep your covenant vows? Will you worship God and God alone? Will you act Justly to the poor and the weak? Will the Lord be your refuge where he knows you by name. And you are UNDER the blood of the covenant, where you are made clean in the temple, and your sins are atoned for.

· OR will you be a lion dragging your prey into your den like Ninevah does? Judah will you follow idols, will you worship Baal, will you sacrifice your children to Molech, will you be like wicked King Manasseh or wicked King Amon, or will you one day be like good King Josiah…

Look at verse 13.

#4 vv. 13 Why? Did Ninevah ultimately fall?: Because God was against them. Because God was against them, they are a predator with prey no more.

[13] Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard. (ESV)

God was Against Ninevah. That is why they will Fall. That is why he used Babylon to remove them as a lion preying on the nations.

There messengers can no longer threaten, insult, levy taxes, and put pressure towards idolatry upon Judah.

Remember the progression of Nahum there is

· First, the warning that sin will be punished.

· Second the warning that, sin is chaotic and entangling and has inherent consequences

· Third, now Nahum 2 is saying the results for the sinful nation and unrepentant sinner is sadness and destruction. But in grace God’s word comes as a call to repentance for Judah

What about you JUDAH. But what about you hearing this today? Is God for you or against you?

When Judah is hearing Nahum’s prophecy, Judah is spiritually compromised, and the king is most likely Manasseh (or possibly the very early years of Amon).

Remember King Manasseh reigns in the middle of the 600s BC a few decades before Assyria falls.

Most likely Nahum prophesied during the reign of Manasseh, before Nineveh’s fall in 612 BC but after Assyria’s dominance was unquestioned.

if I were to ask, “name a wicked king of Judah.” Manasseh’s name is THE go to answer.

Manasseh led Judah’s into Deeply Corruption and Idolatry

Under Manasseh, Judah is at its lowest spiritual point since entering the land. Read. 2 Kings 21 and 2 Chronicles 33 description under Manasseh.

* Baal worship was restored; Pagan Altars are inside the temple itself; There is Molech Child sacrifice; Occult practices (fortune-telling, mediums)

* 2 Ki 21:9 says, “Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.”

This matters enormously for understanding Nahum. Because he is appealing to the remnant of Israel to turn back Nahum 1:15

[15] Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah; fulfill your vows, for never again shall the worthless pass through you; he is utterly cut off. (ESV)

* Judah has not been keeping her vows

* Judah has copied Assyria’s gods

* Judah is choosing worthless things over the LORD

So Nahum Wants his readers to remember this:

· “Your enemy will fall, but do not think you are righteous.”

· Assyria’s judgment is not Judah’s vindication; it is God’s patience.

Even in this darkness A faithful remnant still exists. The Scriptures are not gone, the grandson of Manasseh, Josiah, will find the book of the Law, he will read it, be cut to the heart with true repentance, and go on the greatest campaign against idolatry and evil in Judah of any of the kings.

Nahum is preaching to Judah’s ears preparing them for a time of spiritual renewal

Nahum 2:2 For the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have plundered them and ruined their branches. (ESV)

Hear this clearly, Judah is being comforted by a judgment they themselves deserve, except for God’s covenant mercy.

Judah must move from Manasseh to Josiah. From deforming themselves in sin to reforming themselves in faithfulness to the covenant, the word of God, and worship.

You and I must do the same throughout our lives whether we the culture is trending towards wicked Manasseh or a reforming Josiah. Our lives must constantly be wisely turning from sin and turning to Christ. Humbling seeking Christ.

Judah should not think. Assyria is falling. I am righteous. NO that was Ninevah’s mistake, thinking God does not hear, God does not care, there is no justice, sin has no consequences, sin does not distort and lie to me.

o Persisting in unrepentant sin, presuming on grace, or clinging to idols places a person in God’s opposition.

o Mercy, patience is always meant to lead to renewed repentance and trusting in the mercy of God.

· When is God for someone? God is for sinners who repent and take refuge in Him.

o God Is For Those Who Take Refuge in Him

o “The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.”(Nahum 1:7, ESV)

o If God Is For You it is Because He Has Acted for your in Christ

o Rom. 8:31 says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

· Paul does not say this lightly. He grounds it in the cross: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things??

Turn from your sin and Look to Christ in faith, and you will find a certain refuge. If you are battling sin and you feel the guilt and shame of it today. Remember, God is a refuge for sinners. Pray and ask for strength. Seek the Lord. He meets you each week in worship to feed you, to weaken sin, and to strengthen the obedience that flows from a living faith. He will sanctify all those who are in Christ and indwelt by his holy Spirit.

So this week pray to him, speak of your sin honestly. Ask him to put it to death. Speak of his goodness. The beauty and the sweetness of a savior who died for you. Speak to God as your Father who saves you in Christ and ask him to make you more and more like Christ. Christ is a sweet refuge for sinners who are tired of their sins and do not want to live life fearing the wrath of God against their many sins and want refuge in a God who will one day make all things right when Christ returns. That is our certain hope.

Prayer| Benediction.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com

Pastor John Mackay says,

“God’s wrath is one aspect of his character that is almost too awesome to contemplate. Its implications for sinners are so overwhelming that we shrink from it. But there is another attribute of God that his people have to remember so as to have a full orbed appreciation of the God with whom they have to do. [The LORD is good]. God [is] implacably opposed to what is morally wrong, and has as himself the standard by which all goodness is determined.”

Further, we saw last week that this opposition to wrong means that we as sinners need a rescue. But as those rescued by the grace of God, this is the very good news that God will truly deal with all evil in the final analysis. Such that Heaven can be a wonderful place, filled with glory and grace. Because a Holy, Good, Wise, and Just God has dealt fully and finally with Evil. The second component of this is the Timing of God. We see that in the patience of the Lord, the slowness to anger, that God deliberates and chooses the timing of his justice. This was good news because it means that like Adam and Eve the Lord is patient and his timing allows for the Gospel. The good news of rescue and refuge in Christ Jesus.

This week, we will see a small example of Evil and the entangling chaotic nature of sin. Ninevah is plotting against the Lord and the Lord’s people. Because God cares for those who take refuge in him, He will make an end of Ninevah.

Read: Nahum 1:7–15

#1 vv.9 Plotting against God? The End. (v.9).

#2 vv. 10-13 The Entangling Folly of Sin (v. 10-13).

#3 A Case Study of Foolish Idolatry (v. 11,12, 14).

#4 Peace with God: The Freedom of Wisely Worshipping (12b, 13, 15).

[7] The LORD is good,

a stronghold in the day of trouble;

he knows those who take refuge in him.

[8] But with an overflowing flood

he will make a complete end of the adversaries,

and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

We will go more into the end of Ninevah in the future. But one thing to note is verse 8 says with an overflowing flood God makes an end of his adversaries. And in this case, Ninevah quite literally historically did flood at its downfall; the river flooding was part of the ordinary means the Lord used to allow Babylon to conquer it.

The Prodigal Son: [Tell the opening story up until he takes his father’s money and his intended uses for that money]

….It was a plot dreamed up in his heart…He believed he could do it, get away with it, and gain ease and pleasure in the world. You see sinful plotting can range from wicked nations like the assyrians serving the idols of power and glory. All the way to the idols of Money, Pleasure, possessions, and fame. What do we suppose the end of this kind of plotting is?

1. The Folly of Plotting & Idolatry against God: verses 9-11? (v.9-13).

Look in verse [9] What do you plot against the LORD? He will make a complete end; trouble will not rise up a second time.

i. Evil is frequently talked about in the bible as scheming or plotting against God. Plotting against the Lord’s people or even plotting against the Lord’s creation.

1. A couple Examples; Psalm 2, the nations rage and PLOT in vain against the Lord’s anointed. God laughs and the psalmist says the anointed king reigns in Jerusalem. Ultimately this is about Jesus. Satan has long opposed God, the people of God, and eventually the anointed messiah of God.

2. Proverbs 21:29-30 [29] A wicked man puts on a bold face, but the upright gives thought to his ways. [30] No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel (or no plan no plotting) can avail against the LORD. (ESV)

3. Whether nations or Individuals, in the long run it is Fruitless to plot against God. Indeed, it is inherently dangerous. He will make an end to it, Stan plotted to strike at God throughout history until he finally struck at Jesus’ heel, which he then crushed down on the head of Satan, pivotally at the Cross and as we saw last week when he returns in glory to fully and finally crush evil and bring us into heaven where trouble will never rise up to plot again. No, not ever..

So plots are vain. Second, The Entangling Folly of Sin (v. 10-13)

[10] For they are like entangled thorns, like drunkards as they drink; they are consumed like stubble fully dried.

2. Nahum: You are sneaking around God’s creation where you shouldn’t

a. You are going up against the Lord and his people

b. You soon forget the plot against other people as your own plots and sin takes your full attention.

c. The IMAGE: Is of a burglar coming against a house and getting entangled in thorn bushes as they try to break in, the second image is of a drunk man going against a foe and stumbling around or possibly just sleeping off his stupor in his chair while being attacked.

i. SIN entangles and confuses us; that is the general principle here. Or Sin makes us easy prey to downfalls.

1. There is a Chaotic nature surrounding people entrapped in relational sin

a. Nations that sin against other nations stir up chaos and the Lord is going to Judge Ninevah for this.

2. But closer to home for us: there is a Chaotic nature of people entrapped in societally destabilizing action – Empires have always reaped what they sowed when they do not let the people dwell in peace. When they do evil and not good towards others.

a. Either creating unethical people or a destabilized region.

b. Example: B.B. Warfield and the distress in the streets…sees one calm man, and asks “What is man’s chief end?” “To glorify God and enjoy him forever.”

c. Trusting the Lord, the living and true God, or giving ourselves to the idols mentioned here that are poor counselors of money, possessions, passions, and power that is fleeting…the Living God, or the thorns of Satan and entangling sin with all its confusion and distress.

3. For you – you will reel or become entangled if you abandon the Lord’s commands for your life. In Every area of our life we are tempted to think we can lay aside God’s commands for our Speech, or our anger, or even our relationships.

a. In dating, marriage, singleness, as father, or mother no matter the status. There is a chaotic cost to sin every time.

i. There are consequences - if we sin in marrying an unbeliever. Because two people are no longer pursuing the same horizon of God. Because Everyone has an ultimate chief controlling life goal, and the Lord knows our relationship will reel and suffer confusion if one person is pursuing idolatry and one person is pursuing God in Christ; knowing the gospel of forgiveness and reconciliation makes a difference.

d. There are consequences if we act abusively towards family members.

i. It may be as simple as the economic and relational cost of a split home. Of now having two mortgages, and two of everything rather than one home, one marriage, and peace.

ii. That’s the bad news of the sinfulness of sin. We’ll get to the good news in a second…I’m trying to not just let us sit in the general principle of “oh poor Assyria, they got what they deserve” and “oh sin, vaguely defined, has consequences.”

One way to overcome this vagueness is to remember the revealed moral law of God. A study of the 10 commandments and the catechism questions on each one reminds us of how we are called to live, God’s plan for holy living, lays out the many ways we can sin against God and neighbor. And a good exercise is to ask, Why? Why commands on honoring parents, murder, coveting, stealing, lying, and sexual immorality….Well if you trace each way as a way to Love God and Love our Neighbor we see that sin then harms our neighbor, is against God, and ultimately means we have not loved our own lives because we have embraced the foolishness of sin in each broken commandment. As I said last week, “I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart” (v. 32); “Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.” Enlarge my Heart, O God, lest I stumble and fall.

Jim McCarthy says, “When we open our Bibles in private or at the start of a Sunday sermon, our desire must be for the Holy Spirit to stretch, hammer, and mold our hearts over the anvil of his word. It must be our desire to be shaped by the Bible, and never to shape the Bible. With young Samuel we must learn to pray: ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant hears’ (I Sam. 3:9).”

….And to do this is to believe every word of God about the true nature of the chaotic cost of sin.

There is a chaotic cost to sin every time. [10] For they are like entangled thorns, like drunkards as they drink; they are consumed like stubble fully dried.

Even if, as the psalmist says, it seems like for a year, 5 years, 30 years the person has gained from the sin, or the wicked has prospered. No, they didn’t. No, they didn’t, not at the end of the day.

1. There was a costliness to that sin. There was disorder of God’s good creation and a misery produced by it. Even if no one will tell you the cost and only his word, only God himself is wise and good enough to tell what the cost was. Trust the Lord even when sin seems to have all upsides and no downside to it.

2. Remember Ninevah had a revival 100 years before Nahum wrote and you can imagine as that faded and they fell back into wickedness and idolatry. Maybe for a few years they wondered what the cost was going to be…until eventually they said. There is no cost. That repentance was a brief panic. The Lord of Heaven and Earth does not care, let us turn to idols, let us turn to sin, it is easier and more comfortable this way.

3. But it is a lie: Nations pay the price. Families pay the price as do communities, as does every individual living soul.

4. Assyria will feel secure in its greatness; there are historical reasons to think their army was drunk and off guard when they were attacked.

5. And like dry stubble the end is quick a flash.

v Let us look more closely at the State of Ninevah in verses 11-14… Because this is the specific example given…

#3 A Case Study of Foolish Idolatry (v. 11,12, 14).

[11] From you came one who plotted evil against the LORD, a worthless counselor. [12] Thus says the LORD, “Though they are at full strength and many, they will be cut down and pass away.

[14] The LORD has given a commandment about you: “No more shall your name be perpetuated;

from the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the metal image. I will make your grave, for you are vile.”

1. A worthless counselor plots evil against the LORD

a. Most likely this is the Evil Assyrian King Sennacherib. His counseling is actually very extensive in 2 Kings 18, where he gives his opinion of the LORD, and where Israel should put their trust.

b. Remember, Hezekiah has become king and he does what is right in the Lord’s eyes according to all that David his father had done. He removes idols and pillars and even the bronze serpant of Moses that people had begun to worship. …We are told He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. And he even rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him.

c. During this same time, Israel in the north was still deep in idolatry and they were carried off by Assyria in 722 BC.

d. So the Assyrian King Sennacherib imposes a massive tribute on Hezekiah, 300 talents of gold. And in 2 Kings 18:15 “And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king’s house. At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD and from the door posts that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria….But Sennacherib came with his army anyway…and the communication from Sennacherib through intermediaries is this: “18:18 On what do you rest this trust of yours? Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me?”

e. He then goes on to mock Hezekiah, mistakenly thinking Hezekiah removed the high places. That Hezekiah’s removal of idols from Judah was his removal of God. When in fact, it was Hezekiah being faithful to the Lord. (v.22)

f. He then mocks Israel, attempting to counsel them to fear Assyria and ignore Hezekiah’s kingly leadership to trust in God.

g. Assyria feels like they are at full strength. They feel powerful and like the great majority *verse 12 of Nahum…

h. Sennacharib says, make peace with ME. Not the LORD God. Then you will prosper…things will be great and easy.

i. He then mocks all the countries’ he has conquered saying their gods are worthless and defeated and couldn’t defend them.

j. “But the people [ofJudah were silent] and answered him not a word , for the king’s command was, ‘Do not answer him.” But they were scared….

i. Hezekiah in his fear went to the LORD, tore his clothes. And he knows Judah is physically weak compared to Assyria.

ii. But he notes to the prophet Isaiah in 2 Kings 19:4 “It may be that the LORD your God heard all the words…the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard….To spoil the end of this particular account. Sennacherib speaks against God saying 19:10 “Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria…”

iii. After blaspheming God, he then tries to defeat Jerusalem…Hezekiah says, “2 Kings 19:19 So now, O LORD our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, are God alone.” (ESV)

iv. TO which the Lord replies. “I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.” And that night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians [v.19:36] Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh. [37] And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place. (2 Ki. 19:36-37)

v. Nahum 1:14 The LORD has given commandment about you: “No more shall your name be perpetuated; from the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the metal image. I will make your grave, for you are vile.

k. Evil ultimately serves false idols (v.14)

l. Those who worship idols worship worthless things

6. In the end idols always wants more…power…wealth…pleasure. it will never be enough until our sin consumes us…or the Lord disciplines us.

a. Its all very extravagant when its nations and Assyrians and names like Sennacharib.

b. But it’s the same today. The Human heart is a perpetual idol factory. The names change, the way we sin changes, but all are vile distortions of the good, the true, and the beautiful.

c. How very different a mindset idols produce in us Compared that to the fruit of the spirit – sober-minded, alert, on guard, awake. In 1 Peter and the Gospels. Joy. Peace. Paitence. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Self-control.

Let’s recap some Application, Lessons for us From verses 9-14 Questions to ask our hearts

d. First Remember: Alarm bells – Is my sin, whether secret or public making me have to think, plan, and plot further sins to get away with it or to keep pursuing it?

e. Second, Do I remember and believe that my sin will be brought to an end either through natural consequences or by the LORD on judgment day?

f. Third have I considered: The heavy hand of the Lord?

i. The Lord judges those plotting evil against him and his people. And also…

ii. The Lord chastens him whom he loves. Like a father disciplines the son he loves. So good news in the confusion, plotting, and reeling. If you are 1 step down the trail of sin, 3 steps, or even 50 steps and you feel the entangling, confusion, and the sense of impending doom from your sin.

iii. That may be the good news that you are a child of God and has not abandoned you to your sin but your conscience, the Holy Spirit, is still working in your heart and mind to say – flee from this – go to Christ – entrust yourself to the loving forgiveness of your Father.

iv. Remember the Church is a hospital and a refuge for those who are tired of their sin, and desire to seek a fellowship of brothers and sisters to begin plucking the thorns from their wounds, and to bring clarity, truth, and order to the confusion brought about by your sin.

7. Remember the Good news of gospel is the Lord offers reconciliation and healing to sinners:

i. The bible consistently shows those who have made a mess of things the promise the call from God is the free offer to at any instant to repent and be forgiven by the Lord.

ii. But what the bible does not promise is that we will always have more time to repent and return to the Lord. There is a suddenness to life. Ninevah has fully given itself to sin. To sinful plots. To entanglement, chaos, and either confusion or feeling at ease as they drink. And like an overwhelming and sudden end they will have a complete end and will never rise again.

iii. Nahum gives one historical example of Sennacherib and warns that it will be much worse this time. Nahum is not about the fall of Sennacherib (in 701 BC) that is only an example.. Nahum 2 and 3 will not just be the destruction of their army away at Jerusalem but the violent conquest of Ninevah some 80 years later by the Babylonians in 622 B.C. And as we’ll see over the next two weeks, war is not pretty. What the Assyrians did to others was brutal, and their judgement by the Babylonians will be as well.

How should Judah respond to this good news that the evil Empire of Assyria is no longer going to be oppressing them? Look in verse 15

#4 Peace with God: The Freedom of Wisely Worshipping

[15] Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! [it is said for the fortress cities you could tell that good news was coming based on how the messenger on foot ran joyfully in reporting the news. Good news behold good news is running towards you Judah, and should they respond? Second part of verse 15…]

Keep your feasts, O Judah; fulfill your vows, for never again shall the worthless pass through you; he is utterly cut off. (ESV)

2. Remember the Prodigal son…he had hit rock bottom….there are two futures possible for him

a. One is like Ninevah…they no longer worshipped the Lord in any way. They were not his people. They did not take refuge in him.

b. The second is Judah. Ike the prodigal son, returning home to his father, his father running to embrace his son that was lost but now is alive. [the prodigal remembered]

c. Judah needs to remember the Lord. After the time of Hezekiah a good king, Judah has two very wicked kings in a row in Nahum’s Day. Manasseh and Amon. God is calling Judah to hear the downfall of wicked Assyria, to turn from the evil idolatry of King Manasseh with his rebellion and abominations, rebuilding pagan high places. King Amon was also a wicked king. So cruel that his servants assassinated him. But out of this Young Josiah was made king at just 8 years old. And he reigned 31 years. He was a reformer. 2 Kings 22:2 says, Josiah “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in the ways of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or the left. King Josaih was a good king; he fulfilled his role as king, kept the covenant vows of Judah, and truly worshipped the Lord.

The exhortations make historical sense only in Josiah’s day:

· Verse 15 “Keep your feasts” → Temple worship is restored; Hilkiah the priest finds the book of the Law and Josiah restores the feast of booths; Passover is restored; the covenant is renewed with vows, and for a time they have peace and righteousness.

· Nahum is saying: Now that the LORD has broken Assyria’s yoke, respond rightly.

· Embrace Freedom from worthless idols.

Nahum’s good news did not end when Assyria fell, because Assyria was only the shadow of a deeper enemy. In Christ He bears the judgment in His own body. The yoke is not merely broken—it is nailed to the tree. And so announces a greater good news than just Nineveh’s fall—peace with God through the blood of His Son. Keep the feast, fulfill your vows, rejoice in your King—because in Christ the enemy is truly cut off, and the Lord Himself has become our refuge forever.

Prayer

Benediction.

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*audio issues. Hopefully corrected now*

Introduction: Jonah & Historical Preface (Jonah mid-700s; Nahum Mid-600s.

These verses preview the whole book. If Jonah shows God’s mercy for those who repent. Than Nahum shows God’s justice against wicked unrepentant Ninevah. This serves to comfort God’s people who suffer under the oppression of an evil Assyrian empire.

Read: Nahum 1:1–7

[1] An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.

God’s Wrath Against Nineveh

[2] The LORD is a jealous and avenging God;

the LORD is avenging and wrathful;

the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries

and keeps wrath for his enemies.

[3] The LORD is slow to anger and great in power,

and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.

His way is in whirlwind and storm,

and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

[4] He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;

he dries up all the rivers;

Bashan and Carmel wither;

the bloom of Lebanon withers.

[5] The mountains quake before him;

the hills melt;

the earth heaves before him,

the world and all who dwell in it.

[6] Who can stand before his indignation?

Who can endure the heat of his anger?

His wrath is poured out like fire,

and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.

[7] The LORD is good,

a stronghold in the day of trouble;

he knows those who take refuge in him. (ESV)

First, v. The Burden of the Book, v. 1

Second, the Character of God: Good but not Safe, v. 2-6

Third, Wrath & Refuge, v. 7

#1 The burden of the Book: This is an oracle, literally a burden, a weight to speak!. Nahum is a prophet and like a water tower creates water pressure that leads to water pouring forth. Nahum must pour forth the very word of God. This is not Nahum’s thoughts, nor the thoughts of a mere man, this is the word of the Lord. This is the word of which the psalmist in Psalm 119 says, “I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart” (v. 32); “Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors” (v. 24); “The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever”

Nahum is pouring forth truth that we ought to meditate on, long for, delight in, and see as righteous and enduring forever, more precious than Gold. But the key phrase there is that we need our hearts and minds enlarged and conformed to it, counseled by it. Because God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. Because God is God. And so we must meditate all the more to receive the teaching of the word of God to our hearts, souls, wisdom, and affections.

Nahum’s burden is that we receive the truth of Who God is and in particular that he is living and active. He says specifically that this concerns Ninevah. But it is written to Judah to encourage God’s people. Ninevah, though mighty, though powerful, though cruel that God remembers his people and his judgement will fall on Ninevah and he will remember his people. Like Israel is remembered in Exodus.

If, like Ninevah, you are unrepentant, and doing wrong towards others, this would make this a terrifying book.

But for southern Judea, and Nahum is meant to encourage God’s people that he has the power to save. God will be their defender and avenger of every wrong directed toward them, showing we need both a good God and a God who saves. That is the burden of the book.

#2 The Character of God: Good but not Safe, v. 2-6

Look again in verse 2

The LORD is a jealous and avenging God;

the LORD is avenging and wrathful;

the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries

and keeps wrath for his enemies.

There are three terms here applied to God we must think through carefully here because each of these three terms, jealous, avenging, and wrathful, is very different if the person described by them is entirely Good, Wise, and Just vs Evil, Foolish, and unjust. if the person has a right relationship with you or one of harm….

…depending on context, these traits may drive loving care, justice, and salvation for weak and defenseless creatures….Or terrible news to the defenseless if assigned to a sinner, someone we morally do not trust to be Good.

Second, it not only depends on the person with these traits but on you. It truly depends on if you are currently harming the loved one of this jealous avenger or if you are the victim being rescued by your avenging savior….ILL: Taken, Liam Neesom (Daughter)…It matters if you are the kidnapper or the kidnapped…

Jim Mccarthy says, this of v. 2: “… We equate jealousy with envy, bitterness, and covetousness. But God’s jealously is holy. It is his righteous zeal for that which belongs to him. As a wife is jealous over the eyes of her husband, the Lord is jealous for the singular worship of his people. As a father is jealous for the safety of his children, so the Lord is jealous for the well-being of his own when they are threatened.” – Jim McCarthy, 69.

In this context. Here, God’s Jealousy is that of a husband witnessing someone insult or attack his wife. Ninevah, the Assyrian empire, has overstepped. [Pause].

Second term: Vengeance: Romans 12:19 says, Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

This is a call to entrust ourselves to God’s moral timing in justice. To remind ourselves that, as mere humans and limited creatures dealing with our own sin, we have to, in faith, entrust ourselves to a wise God.

We distinguish two types of Avengers: One type of vengeance is illegitimate. Because it is without a transcendent moral claim, it is without complete knowledge; these avengers are frowned upon. Versus, God’s vengeance, which is always true Justice, based on true knowledge, perfect righteousness, and perfect holiness. God by Definition of his transcendent moral authority NOT a vigilante.

God is the rightful king of the universe who will take vengeance on his adversaries and keep wrath for his enemies. Why? He is jealous Husband, shepherd, and friend for those who are his. He knows those who take refuge in him, verse 7 says. …Good news. But also Scary right?

ILL: Remember in Narnia the Lion the Witch and the wardrobe. The children go through the wardrobe into Narnia…Its always winter never Christmas…evil has a frozen hold on the land through the White Witch…But Aslan is coming. And the children hear he is a great and powerful Lion.

And they ask is he safe? And Mr. Beaver replies Safe? Of course, he isn’t safe…but he is Good.

The Assyrians are being warned that they have the wrath of a Jealous King for his people turned against them….And I think as westerners we rightfully have caution over jealousy, wrath, and retributive justice because We know Human beings do not always have all the facts, we are emotionally volatile, we can be jealous of things for which we have no right over.

We believe in limited government because we believe in Total Depravity, the sinfulness of mankind, that one who has an impure heart, is not perfectly HOLY tends to use power corruptly. [pause]

But God is the rightful creator and judge, he is full of wisdom and knowledge, and he is jealous ultimately for His covenant people. He is Good and incorruptible.

He has said, “I will be your God and you will be my people’ Ultimately those who are the bride of Christ, the Church, he is jealous for his flock the sheep whom he will guard from evil wolves. So Ninevah has become a rabid wolf, or in Narnia, the White Witch who is an adversary an enemy of his people…God is A Terror…to evil….but he is Good.

And that is where this word wrath comes in. God is not disinterested about evil, God is not apathetic toward wickedness. No, the word Wrath speaks of personal heat and fury directed against particular evil and evildoers. Nahum illustrates the strength of God’s holy opposition to evil by using the strength and fury of Nature in (look in v. 3-6). God’s power is a Tornado and it’s all under his feet. He is greater than the fury of the Ocean. (if you’ve ever seen videos on boats on the oceans it is immense terrifying…and the ocean dries up before his might; the mightiest mountains melt before him, and he is stronger than the most powerful of earthquakes and so v. 6 asks:

[6] Who can stand before his indignation?

Who can endure the heat of his anger?

His wrath is poured out like fire,

and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.

That question is one to be wrestled with especially when we place it right next to verse 3.

v. 3….The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, [repeat slow to anger AND great in power

and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.

If we know the sinfulness of sin in light of the Holy Goodness of God we will recognize his great patience…

When Adam and Eve sinned, he said “you will surely die…that is the greatness of sin, the greatness of his patience is that very day God who is slow to anger and great in power…substituted an animal in their place and clothed them in animal skins….Did God just forget that it was Adam and Eve who deserved death? Was he clearing the guilty? OR did all guilt, sin, and wrongness in the world actually get addressed? …God is not the security guard at the Movie theater who sees you smuggling food into the theater…who sees you smuggling sin into his creation and just waves you through….

Can God be both Slow to Anger, Great in power, and not clear the guilty without all of us perishing?

Both must be true. Can both be true?

Walk with me a little longer we’re going to circle all around this a few more times.

Do we believe God is God? Do we believe God is Good and Patient And that he can pour out Wrath and Justice against particular sinners, particular people? And do we believe this can possibly be good news?

Long quote but I appreciate Jim McCarthy here: “This reality [of God’s wrath] can be difficult for believers. But it is utterly unbearable to an unbelieving world. So when preachers and churches fear the wrath of the world more than the wrath of God, this inconvenient but inescapable truth is usually the first to go. One need look no further for evidence than to Rob Bell’s 2011 bestseller, Love Wins. The former pastor wrote, ‘Millions and millions of people... were taught that the primary message of the gospel of Jesus is that God is going to send you to hell unless you believe in Jesus. And so, what got subtly sort of caught and taught is that Jesus rescues you from God. But what kind of God is that, that we would need to be rescued from [him]? How could that God ever be good? How could that God ever be trusted? And how could that ever be good news?... The good news is that love wins.

But Bell is wrong. There can be no perfect love without perfect hatred. God’s love and wrath are the equal and opposite manifestations of his holiness. God loves righteousness because he is holy. God hates wickedness for the very same reason: he is holy.” (McCarthy, 71).

Do we believe God is God and we are not? Jonah struggled with that when God said, “I will show mercy on your enemies because they have repented and turned to me.”

What is not yet clear in the Bible’s history is just how that sin will be covered. We know the wages of sin are death. We know that they had transgressed the justice of God and that the only way people could be shown mercy without compromising the justice, holiness, and perfect goodness of God is that a costly covering and atonement for that sin had to happen.

But that wasn’t any of Jonah’s business. We, now see Christ, who was God, left heaven SENT by this Just and Holy Father sent to save us. We are saved by Jesus, the Son voluntarily being sent by the Father and giving up his glory. Jesus, in perfect harmony with the Father left The Glory of heavenly hosts to step into the world that now is filled with death, sin and misery in order to provide that costly atonement, in order to enter into and raise us up from the muck itself.

So as Western Christians, we intuitively say Jonah, look at the mercy of God of course God is merciful.” …because we are on the other side of the cross, where costly mercy was shown—By the Father sending Jesus who would lay down his life, and he has laid down his life for us.

And if he is for us then there remains no more penalty for sin, and that indeed is true of us—IF we have fled sin and wrath into his marvelous grace.

But this isn’t Jonah, this is Nahum and Nahum gives us a very different kind of Mind & Heart challenge. God is God and we are not! God in his infinite goodness and holiness, can say to the Ninevites 100 years later, “you have stepped over the line” “you have assaulted my child Israel, and my goodness means that I must administer justice. Every wrong willbe made right.

And every wrong being made right is done with righteous fury, righteous jealousy over his child Israel, a righteous putting to death of all that is wicked and sinful.

I want to press this home a little more by contemplating more fully who Christ Jesus is and how he matches this portrait of God, and why this is Good news: So how does the Wrath of God and the Hope of Heaven God together?

Once again remember what Jim McCarthy argued in response to Rob Bell: “There can be no perfect love without perfect hatred. God’s love and wrath are the equal and opposite manifestations of his holiness. God loves righteousness because he is holy. God hates wickedness for the very same reason: he is holy.””

Look in verse 7 The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.

#3 Wrath & Refuge: In order for heaven to be Good and paradise, then God must be wrathful towards sin.

If one day heaven is going to be a wonderful place, filled with glory and grace, the book of Revelation says sin cannot dwell there. Look with me in Revelation 19 & 21 and ask: How is everything made right, glorious, and beautiful?

First, Look in Revelation 19:11-16 and listen to this description, of Jesus. In his first coming, Jesus came in humility to rescue sinners on the cross…Paul says this is a time of patience, but when Christ returns he comes mounted on a White Horse to defeat evil and usher in heaven.

[Rev. 19:11] Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. [12] His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. [13] He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. [14] And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. [15] From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. [16] On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

Next look in Revelation 21:1–7 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. [2] And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. [3] And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. [4] He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Everything is made right. Jesus came in humility and made it right on the cross….But in order for there to be life and light, the holy city, safe from all harm… the End of Revelation 21 must also be true. God must dwell there. And God is God. God is good. God is just. And Second. Sin cannot dwell there for it to be truly beautiful and a safe refuge for those who names are written in the lambs book of life

Last Look in Revelation 21:22–27 asking but what must also be true of heaven for it to be a wonderful place?

[22] And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. [23] And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. [24] By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, [25] and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. [26] They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. [Pause… v. 27] But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

To which we must ask the question, where does the justice of God fall in my life when I take a full inventory of every thought and deed in my entire life, and I do fall far short of the goodness of God…And well, yes, we can say “much sin has been done against me. I see the misery of this world impacted by sin.”

But. I myself have contributed evil in this world, so I must look to God for mercy to be enfolded in Christ Jesus and cleansed and made acceptable, such that God then becomes a refuge, a shelter in the time of storm.

Rev. 21:27 said, “only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” shall enter in there. It further says, “nothing unclean will ever enter into it.”

Nahum 1:6-7 asked the question: [6] Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.

But then equally true: [7] The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.

“Who can stand” the answer No one but the singular righteous man. Christ and Christ chose not just to stand for himself but to stand in our place.

Because God’s good and just indignation against sin fell fully upon Christ, it does not fall upon those who are united to Him by faith. We endure as guilty sinners before God not because His justice has been set aside, but because His justice has been satisfied in Christ.

And Nahum presses this home so vividly such as it almost hurts us in our guts in our stomach to hear what happens to sinbecause then we realize how very wrong it is in comparison to God and how very great our sin really is if it warrants, and it does warrant the response of God described in Nahum against Nineveh.

And then we look to Christ, and we see unearned mercy, steadfast love, and a savior who bore our sins on the cross, our sins our burden buried in his tomb, and his life, light, and holiness clothing us in his resurrection by the Holy Spirit uniting us Sinners to Christ our savior, and God our Father, and he was both Just and Refuge because he knows each and every individual name of those who take refuge in…him…those who take refuge in Christ!

Prayer

Benediction

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com

Note: Apologies for the audio recording quality. The lapel mic failed to pair to the phone and so this is a recording from the phone across the whole sanctuary.

Manuscript: J.C. Ryle says, “every birth of a living child is a marvelous event. It brings into being a soul that will never die. But never since the world began was a birth so marvelous as the birth of Christ…it opened to man the door of everlasting life.” – Ryle, Expository thoughts on Luke, 38.

· Introduction: Gabriel has come to Mary and said You will bear a son sent by the Father, The Holy Spirit will create life. By the Power of the life-giving Spirit, Jesus will be miraculously conceived according to the scriptures.

· We now enter into something very earthy in Luke Chapter 2. Very grounded feeling as Heaven meets earthly realities in a fallen world, receiving her newborn King.

· The Birth of Jesus happened in time, with specific people, in specific places, and the message and events of Jesus begin to unfold in very humble, tangible ways. Yes, still with angels, and worship, but also mangers, and family travel plans, government census’, and lodging problems.

· Is this not your spiritual life – There is the lightning bolt of seeing your sin and a need for a savior, the desperation of the darkness of your heart, your failures, your sins, and the cry for God to come and forgive, to cleanse, to heal, because you need Jesus. You know that you put him on the cross! “It was my sins that held him there”….And then you enter into a very ordinary life: School. Work. Family. Travel. Kids. Government officials. Some things are good, some things are bad, but your life is different once you are in Christ. The ordinary must be seen in light of the spiritually extraordinary realities of being saved, born again, and living for your Savior and King Jesus, in fellowship and worship with God’s people. Good news! Spiritual Glory meets Earthly Lives in Luke Chapter 2 verses 1-20.

Read: Luke 2:1–20

Prayer of Illumination

#1 The Birth of A Humble King vv. 1-6

#2 If Jesus is for the Shepherds, then what? Vv. 8-12

#3 Angels Worship, Shepherds Wonder, Mary Ponders (vv.13-20)

#1 The Birth of Jesus: A Humble King vv. 1-6

[1] In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. [2] This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. [3] And all went to be registered, each to his own town.

* Caeser Augustus formerly “Octavian” considered a good administrator and allowed his provinces a great deal of self-governance in law and religion. And the Lord used him to fulfill Micah 5:2 - unwittingly summoning Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, to begin and 70 mile journey while pregnant.

This was “in those days”, that is the days when Herod the great was King of Judah.[Tell 2 Samuel 24 and the fear of a Census ever since David’s….]

This actually delayed the enactment of Augustus’ census until Quirinius got their act together to force the census…

* earthy, people, time bound, he took on our nature, he entered our fallen world, he submitted to the law of God and the earthly human situation. Census. Taxes. Go to this town for legal reasons. Roman political situations.

[ look in verse 4] And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, [5] to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. [Pause]

. …The household of David returns to Bethlehem to be numbered…and in God’s providence he is born in Bethlehem.

A) But he grew up in Nazereth it is only in the Lord’s providence through layers of Roman bureacracy that the census brings him to Bethlehem at the appointed time…

a. Matthew later emphasizes the tension people felt: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46) …Jesus is known not as a humble, despised, almost backwater person - as a Galilean [local equivalent? GA > AL > MS > LS??], yet born in David’s city in Bethlehem therefore he is of the line of David and rightfully king, fully meeting messianic expectations the Lord had foretold in the written Word.

b. Every step of the way fulfills something. Micah 5:2 says he is born in Bethlehem, he fled to Egypt so the Lord could say, “out of Egypt I called my son.” Then on to obscurity until the time of his ministry.

i. It is not so much that Mary and Joseph have a checklist of places to visit Oh we must go to Bethlehem, back to Egypt, and then to Nazareth of Galilee, so much the same way as you may have experienced the Lord’s providence…They received the Notice – A Census is occurring you must go to Bethlehem…

ii. And then they understood oh yes Micah 5:2, then breaking news Herod has decreed the death of the boys of Bethlehem you must flee to Egypt to be safe….And then Herod dies it is safe to return…But it need not be Bethlehem you can come home to Nazareth to raise the young boy…

iii. Every step of the way providentially orchestrated by the Lord by events well outside Mary’s and joseph’s control. But the tapestry of their history being woven while fuzzy while looking forward at it…yet from behind, became clear as they look back over the shoulders at where the Lord has led them.

c. Jesus’ life every step of it is grounded in both earthy history and anticipated predicted prophetic meaning. A King, but a Humble King, the son of God out of Egypt, yet this time the perfect chosen Son.

i. Jesus is very aware that His coming is God saying, of all our fears, failures, to all the darkness, to the sin and misery, “fine” I’ll do it myself the eternal son of God will step in and this time he will retrace the physical and spiritual journeys of humanity, of Israel, of the prophets, the kings, and priests but this time It is God saying “I’ll do it myself” in order to save us… Look in verse 6…

B) [6] And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. [7] And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

i. Mary and Joseph go to Bethlehem, while in Bethlehem she came to the full term of her pregnancy and Jesus was born. Real pregnancy, labor, and childbirth. To not her Only son but her “firstborn” son…Mary has other children of which the gospels name as his brothers….despite objection that those are just cousins. Jesus is Firstborn not only born. Uniquely born yes, but he has true siblings and there is nothing wrong with that and through that we are blessed with James the brother of Jesus writing the book of James.

ii. There was no room in the usual second-story guest room, the same kind of “upper room” like where the First Lord’s Supper took place.

iii. Jesus is born, swaddled like countless babies through history, and in humble conditions laid in a feeding trough manger….whether in the lower courtyard or in a cave, it does not matter, the detail is given either way to show Humility that is jarring—Christ is born in meekness, humility, and lowliness, and it has been a check on the pride of godly men and godly women for centuries. Your savior was humble. Your king was humble, do not raise your proud eyes and sneer at any condition the Lord places you in when you yourself—a ruined sinner—in a despairing and dark world, were lifted, cleansed, and made a son and daughter of God.

1. If the unique only begotten son of God is born in a manger, then we too can be the blessed poor in spirit who are made Sons and Daughters of the Eternal Heavenly Father, united to the Eternal Son, indwelt by the Holy Spirit of Truth and the Lord and giver of life.

2. Christ made his home in the manger:

a. 2 Cor. 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sake he became poor that you through his poverty might become rich.

3. So therefore, meditate deeply in your heart on this fact the King was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. And let that thought fill our adoration and worship

4. Do not skip over the actual significance of newborn babies being swaddled. Not just the swaddling clothes but Mary is swaddling Jesus. William Hendrickson notes this simply…He is loved. Jesus is eternally loved by the Father. And in time Mary loves her son and swaddles him to keep him warm and comforted. God is Love and the love Mary felt for the Son of God flows from God to her. The mystery is profound if you wish to meditate on it further.

5. Let us follow Christ in humility, and know you are warmly beloved of Christ. The Jesus who loves you was loved by his mother of whom he was also her creator and savior. He knows what it is to receive human love and divine love in the Father…He knows how to love you and sympathize with your frailty and weakness…

6. And, he loved you enough to defeat sin and death and swaddle you in righteous robes as sons and daughters of the king. Humilty precedes Glory. Glory flows from the Humilty.

iv. God the Son, the eternal word steps into the ring to defeat death, satan, and save his people from their sins….to clothe them in humble, loving, righteousness.

v. And then the camera pivots to Shepherds…

#2 If Jesus is for the Shepherds, then he is for each of you this morning: a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Vv. 8-12

[8] And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. [9] And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. [10] And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. [11] For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. [12] And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

A) V..8-9 misc…[tell the story of Christmas walk-thru…this is my scene!]

a. Who: Shepherds by night…..FLASH. Glory. A Spiritual and powerful being! Glory. Fear.

b. Fear Not!

c. Good News. Joy!

B) V. 8 & 11 If Jesus is “unto you” is for the Shepherds then he is for each of you this morning

a. You may know that we think of Shepherds highly, and from paintings fondly now…but that is because of these very events, because of Psalm 23, because Christ is out great Shepherd…But for these Angels this is going to the humble men that much of society would be worried about as dirty and dishonest. Now I don’t want to overplay that hand, though it makes for strong preaching… We don’t have to pretend shepherds were the worst of the worst. They are poor but easily can be honest and good Israelites but of a humble to negative reputation.

b. But what the shepherds are not is powerful, wicked King Herod and his court. The angels are not appearing in the middle of the Sanhedrin or among the rulers, or among any of the movers and shakers of the day.

c. Unto you, humble, questionable people, a Savior is born. Christ came to save the least to the greatest, and He has done so throughout history. And this morning Christ is born for you, whether you feel the least…or if you feel the greatest, or somewhere in between he is born for you if you would humble yourself.

d. It is for All people, it is joyful news, and it is for you if you believe if you trust and rely on the next part.

C) a Savior, who is Christ the Lord

a. Jesus was born To save

i. He is not help….he is not merely a teacher….that is a person who is a great help, a mentor, to you.

ii. But what does it mean that he is a Savior. A rescuer.

iii. “O Holy Night” – “Long lay the world in sin and error pining” – trapped! Wrong!

iv. Saviors rescue those who cannot save themselves. Like from a trap or prison, from war, distress, from defeat. From being conquered to be liberated.

v. Sin has conquered and enslaved humanity in darkness.

vi. Jesus is Savior, Jesus is also the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed with the oil of God upon his brow to be the King of King who as Lord mounts the great rescue mission of Light breaking in to liberates captives in dark chains to sin.

vii. And third…our rescuer is as Thomas says, “Lord”, my Lord and my God.

b. My anointed Lord and my God my savior, my King is a baby laying In a manger – He, the eternal Word of God in the manger, the Lord of universe come into the universe.

Just as the shepherds eyes adjust to the glory of the one Angel of the Lord…And they receive the standar “fear not.” As they are trying to process the message…Suddenly A Multitude an Army of angels appear on the scene… Look in verse 13.

#3 Angels Worship, Shepherds Wonder, Mary Ponders, and We?

[13] And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

[14] “Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

[Youtube suddenly decided I wanted to watch Malcolm in the Middle Clips: Dude Ranch, fireworks at night, Komodo 3000, How will we know which one is the Komodo 3000? And all of a sudden night turns to blinding daylights….As the TV crew simply films them in broad daylight before switching back to night time…]

I do not know what a multitude of angels glorifying and praising God looks like. But the pillar of fire and cloud, the fiery cloud on mt. Sinai the glory of the Lord descending on the tabernacle, the brightness of Moses’ face as he came down tells us something of the brightness of the weight of glory the shepherds experienced. Being themselves glorious like flame, shining precious like jewels, but more these glorious creatures, angels, if they are the seraphim literally “fiery ones” they themselves shield their faces with their wings in the throne room of God. Because of the intensity of the Holiness and Glory of God.

Glory be to God! Joy to the world, the Lord has come, let earth embrace her King. Let every heart prepare him room, And heaven and nature sing. Let all creation sing “Glory” …rocks, hills, and trees echoing back this joyous strain to the ears of the shepherds as the voices of the angel echo from creation itself.

Glory to God in the Highest….Because the Son of God has become a baby boy….in order to give us who were enemies with God peace with God because he was pleased “as man with men to dwell”

There are grammatical questions and even some early manuscript disagreement About the end of verse 14. And simply because of tradition it can sound right or wrong to our ear. Because it is familiar in the KJV. The peace on earth comes from God free and gracious good pleasure towards man. Not because we were particularly pleasing to God. It is all of Grace.

You can paraphrase its meaning along the lines of “peace towards those whom God freely loves and delights in in Christ Jesus.”

How should we then respond to the announcement of the Gospel. TO the worship of the Angels…Look in verse 15.

[15] When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” [16] And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. [17] And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. [18] And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.

· We sometimes can have a brief moment of religious wonder, a song moves us to tears, a sunset or sunrise says, God is beautiful and wondrous. Christmas songs stir our hearts to worship Christ. Because he came to rescue us from Darkness…

· But as the glory fades….what if the shepherds had just gone right back to their flocks? What if we after Christmas just go right back to ours – as if God and Christ do not exist lives? –

· May it never be. May all of Life be lived before the Face of God, to the Glory of God, out of Gratitude for such a great salvation.

· So the shepherds say, Let us go to Bethlehem to see! To experientially act on what we have seen!

o God has made Known his salvation.

o Let us respond to the offer of salvation and go and see!

· [ILL: Growing up….Christmas walk-thru…at first we’d just leave quietly….But I think our leader had read the passage… Let us go to Bethelehem! “What about the sheep, Father?” Leave the Sheep! The Messiah only comes once, let us go and see what the Lord has done!]

· Haste! Quickly! Today! This hour this moment! Believe the Word of the Lord.

· They went and found it exactly as God had said. A Baby boy, swaddled in a manger, in Bethlehem, the Son of Mary of the house of David, the house of the King, Humble….

· And they went home and visited the synagogue about once a quarter…complained about Taxes and Herod…

· No! They told others. The messiah is born. The savior. The King is born, humble! Salvation has come!

· And all who heard Wondered! Marveled! Because they like us wonder at the grace of God, wonder if the darkness in our hearts can be lifted, has the 400yrs of silence ended…Will we really and truly return from Exile. Will the King come to his Holy Temple! Yes and Yes.

[19] But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. [20] And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

A) This year I encourage you to treasure these things up in your heart.

B) To treasure the word of God, the promises of God, the life of Christ.

C) We will be in Mark’s gospel over this next year…But ponder, gather up God’s word throughout the week that you may daily in your hearts ponder, and grown in glorifying and praised God!

D) Let the word take root in your heart lest hearing you do not hear and seeing you do not see. And you remain lifeless in darkness and lost in your sins.

E) Instead, with Mary Ponder and Treasure the Word this coming year.

F) With the shepherds, glorify and praise God for your Savior Christ Jesus.

G) The story of Christ as Savior, Messiah, and Lord is only just begun. He will from a humble condition fulfill the Law, fulfill, all righteousness, and like a multi-faceted diamond there is infinite beauty of grace in Christ to turn and examine each day from the Word of God in the events of the life and Christ and all of scripture which points us to him.

H) May God add his blessing to the reading and preaching of his word. Will you pray with me?

I) Prayer

J) Benediction

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com

· Last time together we saw the grace of God the Father in sending Gabriel to announce good news. The savior is coming, great David’s greater son, sent by the Father, to conquer sin and death to inherit an eternal throne. But Jesus did not come in glory he came humbly, taking on our flesh.

· This is done by the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit in the incarnation is wondrous, miraculous, and powerful, but it is not irrational or unbelievable. Because God works consistently through history to prepare his people to know How the mighty creating God planned to save his people by a Child born to a woman.

· The Holy Spirit not only gives life to Christ but also gives life and faith to us to know this is a trustworthy and true statement and a true event of History: Jesus, the eternal Son of God, truly was born to Mary some 2,000 years ago in history, in reality. It is not a mere story or a metaphor; it is reality. Indeed, even saying the year is Two thousand twenty five asks the question….Two thousand twenty five what? In the year of our Lord’s Nativity. The First Noel.

J.C. Ryle says this “is a passage which we should always read with mingled wonder, love and praise.” (16). Hear. Believe. And Give praise to God for the wondrous things written in His word for us. From Luke 1:34-38.

Read: Luke 1:34-38

[34] And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” [35] And the angel answered her, “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. [36] And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. [37] For nothing will be impossible with God.” [38] And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. (ESV)

Prayer of Illumination

#1 A Natural Question, with a Supernatural Answer (v. 34)

#2 The Answer: The Holy Spirit’s Life-giving Work (v. 35)

#3 Faith Seeking Reason: God Works in Patterns (vv. 36-37)

#4 Responding to the Word with Spirit wrought Faith (v. 38).

Look in V. 34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

#1 “How will this be?” (Not unbelief like Zaccheus, not this cannot be, or will this be, but HOW, in what why – I believe but I desire explanation.

· There is a Good reason for the question, we are right to question; Spontaneous, reasonless claims. Except we’ll see this is not a contextless, spontaneous, or reasonless claim. And Mary did think it was either.

· The annunciations rightly underscore the supernatural character of the revelations and the events that inaugurate the age of the new covenant.

· And should it have been otherwise? If nothing less than the sovereign, divine intervention of God himself was capable of accomplishing the work of restoring a fallen world, should not the initial beginnings of that wondrous work be clearly marked as divine in origin?

· Remember the world is desperately fallen in sin and misery to the Root. Well-beyond merely human efforts to repair the far-reaching and powerful curse of the fall.

· Let Christmas remind you that man does not redeem himself Gabriel’s words are not for the spiritually self-sufficient. Christmas was a thorn in the face of every grand-Ism (Naturalism, Marxism, Atheism, theological liberalism) of the 20th century.

· Donald Macleod says, The virgin birth is posted on guard at the door of the mystery of the incarnation; and none of us must think of hurrying past it. It stands on the threshold of the New Testament, blatantly supernatural, defying our rationalism, informing us that all that follows belongs to the same order as itself and that if we find it offensive there is no point in proceeding further.’ [– O Palmer Robertson, Christ of the Consummation, 24 citing Donald Macleod.]

· Christmas is unapologetically the HOW of a personal and sovereign God unfolding a plan across centuries through prophets, signs, and anticipation of these things being fulfilled.

· Were not these very events predicted several hundred years before their occurrence? Does not the record of the succeeding events of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus confirm his uniqueness as the Messiah sent by God to bring to pass the promises of the prophets?

· Christmas reminds us there is a God who Speaks, he gave signs, he gave plans, and Mary, as an Israelite, knew not Just the Plans, she KNEW HIM. She knew HOW he works. And knowing HOW he works, Then she may go and ponder these things in her heart. What follows is not Spontaneous, reasonless claims in a materialist world, but the planned, anticipated, Who, how, and why reasons to her Question. Not simple. Not without mystery because God’s ways are not our ways. It is not an instruction manual. But it is a sufficient answer to her and to us without us prying into the mysteries of The Holy Spirit’s work.

Look in v. 35.

#2 The Answer: The Holy Spirit’s Life-giving Work

[35] And the angel answered her, “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.

We will answer WHAT the Holy Spirit Does. Previously we read in v. 31 you will conceive in your womb and bear a son…Now we see that this will be the life-giving work of the Holy Spirit.

A) The Holy Spirit will be “Upon Mary” – the singular life giving, attention of the Holy Spirit to Mary. Just as the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters at creation, and was the breath of Spirit and life to Adam from the dust of the ground….So The Holy Spirit is particularly and singularly the life-giver to Mary. So Mary if you can believe God is the creator of all things of nothing, and the Spirit of God is the Lord and giver of Life, the how is through Him. The Spirit of God you have heard of as active through the whole of the Hebrew Scriptures you have heard from childhood.

B) The Spirit’s life-giving power is the power of the Most High – The power of God, his ability to accomplish his Holy Will. This the positive “God is able” vs. the double negative “nothing is impossible with God.”

a. If you are at your darkest point. You feel alone and abandoned, to far from God, and there is not Joy. Remember nothing is impossible with God, the same Holy Spirit who gave life to Christ can restore, and give you a relationship of trust, belief, and joy in Christ again…The spark of life and hope in the Darkness. The Power of the Holy Spirit.

C) The Holy Spirit will overshadow her: The bible frequently records the Holy Spirit appearing as a Theophany – a visible appearance of God, a theopany -as a cloud, symbolizing the immediate presence and power of God; so we see the Spirit of God at Mt. Sinai as a Cloud, the Cloud over the tabernacle, Spirit hovering over the face of the waters in creation.

a. The Holy, Transcendent creator of the universe, who sustains, guides, oversees, everything with wisdom, who does not get overwhelmed, flustered, confused, has placed his Holy Attention to bring a holy, undefiled, life – human life conceived united to the eternal son of God. Through Mary.

D) Therefore Christ would be Holy.

a. Holy: What is Holiness?

i. Holy things are set apart from common and profane uses, especially anything unclean, and tainted by sin.

1. Holy things are pure, clean, and in service to God.

ii. Jesus is Holy because he is the Son of God not the son of Joseph and by extension represented by fallen Adam. Jesus is not imputed with Adam’s sin or Adam’s loss of original righteousness or the corruption of Adam’s nature. No, he is the second person of the trinity who never was represented by Adam or fell with him.

iii. He now by the Holy Spirit is the Son of God taking on a human nature now in the incarnation becoming a new Holy representative.

b. Jesus is The Son of God

i. The Father sends the Son in the incarnation. The eternal Word took on human flesh. By the power of the Holy Spirit.

1. The son didn’t send the father to become a son.

2. The Heavenly Father, sent the eternal Son, to become a son.

ii. He eternally was a divine person of the Trinty and in time and space at the turning point of History the eternal person of the Word, the Wisdom of God, the Son of God, assumed a human nature. A human nature is a true and united body and soul.

iii. Mary is his true mother. The Holy Spirit the true creator out of nothing.

What of Us Sinners?

· We must consider a similar yet distinct work of the Spirit – The Holy Spirit, He is the one who gives rebirth.

· I already said, nothing is impossible with God. But indeed our salvation, righteousness, turning to God is impossible with man. Why? We must be born again, the work of the Holy Spirit is absolutely necessary because Eph. 2:1 says, The necessity of rebirth is because [1] And you were dead in the trespasses and sins [2] in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience

o Dead, spiritually lifeless men walking… v. 3 we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

o We need to be born again, by the Holy Spirit: v. [4] But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, [5] even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— (ESV)

o The Spirit takes Dead, defiled, unholy men and women and makes them Alive, Clean, and Holy Saints.

o Similarly God says we are a covenant community – our covenant Children are declared “Holy” by Paul in 1 Cor. 7.

o Both the Incarnation of Jesus and our Being Born again is a work of The Three persons of the Trinity. The Father sends the Son to save a chosen people, the Son is given life by the Spirit that he may die for his people’s sins, and the Spirit gives life to those who are dead in their sins.

§ The incarnation and salvation are woven together and the Father, Son, and Spirit act consistently in each. Therefore – Nothing can separate us from God. Just as nothing could defile the Lord Jesus who was holy, innocent, and undefiled.

§ Remember Jesus by the Power of the Holy Spirit, and the nature of himself as a divine person, despite taking on a human nature was securely HOLY

§ The term for this is “impeccability” which says, Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Though Satan assails him, though he goes through many trials and temptations, He is one person both man and God: And God the Son Cannot sin. Deyoung says, “Just as an iron wire by itself can be bent (human nature), but once welded to an iron bar is rendered immovable, so that God-man Jesus Christ is rendered impeccable by the union of the human and divine natures.”

§ Good news for us because while we are still being sanctified, battling indwelling sin, if we are truly in Christ Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will be glorified, and in Heaven WE too will be UNABLE to Sin. Not because in ourselves we will be impeccable but because we will be glorified by the Holy Spirit and all three persons of the trinity have brought us to an eternal home.

§ We have an eternal, secure home with Christ the Savior. In heaven a place that is holy, holy, holy. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit will hold us secure.

· Christians are not naturalists (believing matter is all there is), Christianity is supernatural from beginning to end, and we are people who believe in the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. Mary has an answer to “how can this be”: God the Holy Spirit is doing life-giving work in her, and by extension will do the same for us his people through the centuries, and wondrously into eternity in Heaven.

· So the answer How? Supernatural. The plausibility and belief of this it not just in this moment from Gabriel with no preparation to believe this….There is a history to the world…there is a history to HOW God has acted. How god has spoken in history, preparing context!

Look in v. 36-37: And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. [37] For nothing will be impossible with God.”

#3 Belief by other evidence: Elizabeth too has conceived

Matthew Henry states, It was a further encouragement to her faith to be told that her cousin Elisabeth, though stricken in years, was with child, Here is an age of wonders beginning, and therefore be not surprised… Dr. Lightfoot thinks, …all the instances in the Old Testament of those having children that had been long barren, which was above nature, were designed to prepare the world for the belief of a virgin’s bearing a son, which was against nature. And therefore, even in the birth of Isaac, Abraham saw Christ’s day, foresaw such a miracle in the birth of Christ. The angel assures Mary of this, to encourage her faith…. No word of God must be incredible to us, as long as no work of God is impossible to him. – Matthew Henry Commentary

Mary this supernatural work will happen in your life….That is How. But God has given you a history, the entire old testament in preparation, and even you cousin Elizabeth has joined the ancient ranks of Sarah, Rachel, and others.

Elizabeth: In her old age has conceived a son…she who was called barren, in her Old Age…Gabriel is not just being mean. Americans I think have a fear of old age. Whereas in the bible age is wisdom, honor, and glory, grey hairs are a glory on the head. Elizabeth is old and the bible doesn’t waste words the strong implication is that Gabriel means this in a medically technical sense of post-menopause. Luke 1:7 (ESV): “They were both advanced in years.” Luke 1:18 (ESV): Zechariah says, “I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” So Her having a child is miraculous. As is the Case of Sarah and Isaac. Indeed, wrapped up in the covenant of grace is God for thousands of years preparing the world to know that Salvation will come from a miraculous conception, not just of an old couple like Sarah and Abraham, and Elizabeth and Zecharaiah….But as Isaiah 7:14 prophesies. Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (ESV)

· Ryle points out the special graciousness of God in this. That he could have asked Mary simply to believe, but he graciously offers her the immediate comfort of an in context sign. Just as Jesus after the resurrection could’ve said I told you ahead of time destroy this temple and in three days I will rebuild it, I said, I am the resurrection and the Life, but here I am grilling some fish and Jesus shows them his true resurrection body by preparing and eating breakfast with his disciples.

· But. Behind the merciful preparing and confirming signs and evidences we have the greater statement for faith.

A) For Nothing is Impossible with God. The reality of a supernatural creator and a creator who has spoken through the centuries fills this passage.

a. What is impossible with the God who is the personal transcendant creator of the world? Ryle says, “Faith never rests so calmly and peacefully as when it lays its head on the pillow of God’s omnipotence.” (Ryle, 22)

b. What is plausible?

i. Gabriel’s declaration—“Nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37)—is itself a citation of Genesis 18:14 (“Is anything too difficult too wondrous for the LORD?”), spoken to Sarah, another woman facing an impossible birth.

ii. This is not poetic flourish. It is a theological argument. The God who opened Sarah’s womb…the God of Egyptian plagues, manna, who parts waters, can impart life to a woman, bearer of life, this God can accomplish the conception of the Messiah.

B) Prophesies of God down through the ages all converging on a single human being with the impossibility of coincidence…All the contours of history converging on Jesus: Kevin Deyoung says, “When Jesus Christ came into the world, he did not come unannounced. For those who had ears to hear, God had long promised to send a deliverer: a seed of the woman to crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 315), a child of Abraham (23), a lion of the tribe of Judah (49:10), a star from Jacob and a scepter from Israel (Num. 24:17), a prophet like Moses (Deut. 18:15-19), a royal Son (Ps. 2:7), a son of David (132:11; 2 Sam. 7:12-13), a child born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14), a Prince of Peace (g:6), a shoot from the stump of Jesse (11:1), a revelation of the glory of the Lord (40:3-5), a light to the nations (49:6), an ancient one born in Bethlehem (Mic. 52), a speaker of peace whose rule shall extend from sea to sea (Zech. 910), and the God of justice and the Lord come to his temple (Mal. 3:1). (Deyoung, Daily Doctrine, 165).

i. This conversation with Gabriel is vastly different then a contextless claim; or atheistic claim.

ii. Angels, Relatives who work in the temple of God. Mary & Joseph are descendants of David.

1. I read the book of James more as a kid because It had my name, Mary’s Magnificat shows that she is very familiar with God’s plan of Salvation through the Messiah.

2. Let us look at Mary’s response of faith, and prayer, and song.

#4 Response of Faith: The Spirit confirms in our hearts the truthfulness of the word.

Look in verse 38: And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. (ESV)

I am the servant of the Lord…Lord I am your handmaiden, the King James said. A response of faith that accepts the coming trials and difficulties such a believing obedience would demand Matthew Henry says, “She objects not the danger of spoiling her marriage, and blemishing her reputation, but leaves the issue with God, and submits entirely to his will…She is not only content that it should be so, but humbly desires that it may be so: …We must, as Mary here,guide our desires by the word of God, and ground our hopes upon it. Be it unto me according to thy word; just so, and no otherwise.” (Matthew Henry Commentary).

The Spirit who is John 14:17 says , the Spirit of truth, confirms this to her heart.

she expresses her belief in prayer in song, which we call Mary’s Magnifcat from the opening line “my soul magnifies (Magnificat) the Lord. My spirit REJOICEs in God”

Or even…My soul fulfills its chief end, my soul glorifies and enjoys God. Vs. 46…

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

…v. 55. as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” (ESV)

Mary knew the Messiah was long expected. We capture that long-expected longing that the Holy Spirit testifies to in our Christmas carols.

· Come, Thou long-expected Jesus, Born to set Thy people free.

· The hopes and fears of all the years Are met in thee tonight.

· Late in time behold Him come, Offspring of the Virgin’s womb.

Maybe less well known is “of the Father’s Love Begotton” v. 5-…

Of the Father’s Love Begotton This is he whom seers in old timeChanted of with one accord, Whom the voices of the prophetsPromised in their faithful word; Now he shines, the long-expected;Let creation praise its Lord— [Evermore and evermore.]

6. O ye heights of Heav’n adore him! Angel hosts his praises sing!All dominions bow before him And exalt our God and King.Let no tongue on Earth be silent, Every voice in concert ring—[Evermore and evermore.]

7. Christ! to thee with God the Father, And O Holy Ghost, to thee,Hymn and chant and high thanksgiving And unwearied praises be,Honor, glory, and dominion, And eternal victory—[Evermore and evermore.]

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Read: Luke 1:26–38 (Emphasis v. 26-33).

[26] In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, [27] to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. [28] And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” [29] But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. [30] And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. [31] And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. [32] 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, [33] and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

[34] And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

[35] And the angel answered her, “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. [36] And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. [37] For nothing will be impossible with God.” [38] And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. (ESV)

Three Things this morning

#1 A Long introduction to the next 3 sermons

#2 The Messenger sent by the Father.

#3 The Message From the Father about His Son.

Finishing the HC catechism, now doing the WSC in a year, Christmas and Easter are also catechetical topics with repetition. Why do we need to come again and again to Isaiah, Micah, Genesis 3, and the beginning of Matthew, Luke, and John in particular? We are being reminded who Jesus is and what he came to do.

Part of the repetition allows us to remember two things: The simplicity of Christmas and 2,000 Years of Wonder at the depths of the theological reflection found in it.

· Shallow enough for a child to play in, in its simple joys. “Joy to the World, A savior! Rescue from Darkness. Light is here…. – Also Deep enough for an elephant to wade in…because to truly understand the incarnation, what is happening at Christmas…

· We have to understand – Adam’s Fall and our Fall, covenants with Abraham & David, the covenant of redemption in eternity, saying the Son will Redeem sent by the Father.

· Christmas is simple “a savior is here” the darkness is being pushed back, and the depths of Gabriel, saying Christ is conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, introducing the revelation of how an eternal person of the godhead takes on a new nature by the work of the Holy Spirit. Born yet without sin, the second person of the Trinity in the womb of a virgin….

o Christmas is essential in explaining the basics of our Faith, mere Christianity that Salvation comes from humility, and starts with an unborn child who is born in humble conditions…born that man no more may die; because the one born is the resurrection and the life…by trusting in Christ because no one comes to the father except through this baby laid in a manger. No one has the life and light of Christ if they are not trusting in Christ.

o It is Joy to the World and the Light wins, but many loved the darkness rather than the light.

· For the next three weeks, we will be exploring Luke’s Gospel, examining how the incarnation creates simple joy and deep mystery, and exploring the utterly unique salvation found in the work of all three persons of the Trinity, who come into clear focus in the beginning chapters of the Gospels. Already by the end of the first two chapters of each Gospel, we know more about the Trinitarian rescue mission than we did in the Old Testament.

· This is A Trinitarian Rescue, a Trinitarian Salvation…Like in Creation the Trinity is active in our salvation.

o John 1:1–5 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. [4] In him was life, and the life was the light of men. [5] The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (ESV)

§ Creation: Architect, Builder, Life-giver [Expand]

o The same is true of our Salvation.

§ Galatians 4:4–5 “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law.”

§ The Father decrees, the Plan – Jesus is sent by the Father, to undo the curse of the fall, Jesus the surety, a surety is the person who is the secure-guarantee of the oath or contract, the guarantee pledged of the Covenant

o Jesus is the accomplisher of the covenant; everything broken by Adam would be accomplished and more by Jesus.

o And the life of his incarnation was given by the Holy Spirit: He was Conceived by the Holy Spirit.

o The Holy Spirit accomplished, the Incarnation of Jesus; who is the Accomplisher of our salvation by his birth, life, death, and resurrection. He lived in a life of sinless righteousness. All according to the plan and blessing of the Father with the assistance of the Holy Spirit every step of the way.

· In the incarnation, at advent, or Christmas, we remember the simplicity and depths of “The word became flesh.” The Father sends the Son in the incarnation. The eternal Word took on human flesh.

o He eternally was a divine person of the Trinty and in time and space, at the turning point of History, the eternal person of the Word, the Wisdom of God, the Son of God, assumed a human nature. His Human nature is a true and united body and soul.

§ Mary is his true mother. The Holy Spirit is the true creator out of nothing.

§ This is a holy mystery of which we can say some things but not all things.

§ But all the things we say of it come from the testimony of the Scripture. A very fact the Birth narratives in Matthew and Luke point out to us, to fulfill the scriptures, according to the scriptures, and the traditional readings from Isaiah, Micah, Samuel, and Psalms are quoted throughout. So let us go see wondrous things in God’s word.

§ Look again in Luke 1:26-27

Read: Luke 1:26-7

[26] In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, [27] to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.

1. Angels on the Move – messengers from God (v. 26-27)

a. Who? Gabriel sent from God to a city of Galilee called Nazareth

i. Gabriel along with Michael is one of our two named angels in the bible, and his name means Mighty is God.

ii. V. 19 to Zechariah, I am Gabriel, “I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you, and to bring you this good news.” Speaking of John’s birth. But this same Gabriel comes to Mary here.

1. He is an angel and so we always see Gabriel’s prompt and complete obedience. Hendrickson reminds us, your will be done “as in heaven so on earth.” It is on on earth who need to learn the will of the Father the way the angels do in heaven.

2. God’s salvation plan is being enacted. We sing “late in time behold him come”

a. The world groaned under the effects of the fall. But the moment the divine order came from the Father “go, go to Joseph of Nazereth, go, go to Mary of Nazareth.” He went…things are in motion.

b. Gabriel was sent to bring Good News. No more waiting. No more types, shadows, symbols, promises, prophesies of future times and seasons, future days of the Lord.

3. Now, Now is the day of salvation, when is NOW? v. 26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God…

4. Earlier in Luke’s gospel Gabriel has already announced the John the Baptist was coming, the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord.

5. Salvation history timeliness is now measured in Months. Elizabeth is 6 months pregnant with John….And soon Mary would go to Elizabeth where John would give his first pronouncement of Joy by leaping in the womb of Elizabeth in the presence of Christ.

6. Good and Joyful news. As some of the most important events of salvation history begin happening in weeks, and months (and then of course we get about a 30 year gap and Jesus’ active ministry happens in the span of three years…

7. So Gabriel is a busy angel as he goes to Zechariah, Mary, and Joseph. Of all three, his announcement to Mary is perhaps the most important.

b. V. 27 MARY A Virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.

i. Now Joseph will get his own visit from Gabriel where he says the same thing…Assuring Joseph that what was happening with the creation-out-of-nothing power of God to create life in the womb of a virgin betrothed who had been faithful to all her vows to Joseph. Matt. 1:22 says, All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet [Isaiah]: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

ii. Next week we’ll look more at the actual nature of Jesus’ incarnation by the power of the Holy Spirit.

iii. Today remember All this took place according to scripture,

iv. Including that Joseph is “Of the house of David”

1. He has no throne. Herod has the throne. But the Father has not forgotten his promise that the King of his people will be of the line of David legally through Joseph (Matthew’s genealogy) and biologically through Mary (Luke’s genealogy).

2. V. 32. “Jesus will be great… and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His fatherDavid.”

3. Take great confidence that Christmas is a Heralded event where God brings together all the promises of the scriptures in the person of Christ Jesus.

v. But Gabriel is on a mission sent by the Father…He is about to explain the Father’s call on Mary’s life and why we know her name to this day, and he will be explaining the greatness of her Son.

[28] And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”

2. The Message (v.29-33)

a. (v.29) “Favor with God” – the culminating of Redemptive History

i. God’s unearned grace towards Mary.

1. Gabriel speaks wisely and rightly to Mary.

2. We know the church through the centuries has unhelpfully and often blasphemously assigned sinlessness, titles, and even prayers to Mary in a way that takes glory from the Father, Son, and Spirit and places it on a mere human….All that aside.

3. Gabriel is going to a young woman, who is betrothed, engaged, and telling her very weighty news. I say weighty because it is the weight of glory, splendor, and distress and difficulty for Mary all at the same time.

4. The distress is emotionally deep, relationally she is going to struggle with rumors, wondering in her heart if Joseph will understand …Accusations of sin, fears of potentially being alone.

5. So Gabriel gives a very formal greeting, but leads with the assurance that the favor and grace of God is with you, Mary.

a. Your Heavenly Father is with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you, because you have the Favor of God. And God is not fickle. God’s settled disposition of Grace to us once given is never taken away. If you are in Christ, trusting in the Son, then you can know that you have the Father’s favor and the Spirit dwelling in your heart.

ii. God is with you! The Lord is with you. I think there is a double meaning or word from Gabriel that God is “With Mary”

1. First, Immanuel, meaning God with us. Quite literally she will be raising the second person of the trinity after he has taken on a human nature…She doesn’t know all that yet.

2. Second, Also, I think God with you in the same way Psalm 23 promises us that God is our shepherd, he is with us. As surely as God was with Mary as she bore the Savior, so too will He be with us if we are trusting in that Savior by faith.

iii. But at the End of the Day, Gabriel is an Angel, and Angels are scary.

1. [Story time] In college after night classes…walking behind women in Car Garages at night – think non-scary thoughts, don’t walk too close behind that woman…should I pass her, take out my keys? Is whistling scary or cheerful?

2. Fearful.

3. Gabriel…ok man remember you’re an angel, its going to be scary but no need to add extra fear on top. So lets go with the standard angel line “Greetings, I know who you are, Do Not be afraid, explanation.”

iv. It doesn’t matter the greeting. Mary is Distressed

3. [29] But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. [30] And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God

i. Do not Fear, remember I said you were “O favored one” you have “found favor with God” (active or passive?)

1. Is The verb tense that she is in the process of gaining favor?

2. No, She has Favor. It is settled. That is why he said her identity was “Favored One”

3. God has decreed Favor towards Mary:

4. Favor is grace that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness: grace of speech

5. good will, loving-kindness, the favour of the merciful kindness of God. He delights in her.

6. Even as in Luke 2:40 Jesus grows strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

ii. God will be with her. He will never leave or forsake her.

1. Similarly, God was with Christ all the days of his life. By the Spirit.

2. And of US, in Christ Jesus with very different callings but he is the Same Heavenly Father who shows his favor to us as his sons and daughters in Christ.

3. Eph. 1:2-3 says, Grace [Favor] to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

iii. We have the grace of the Father in Christ Jesus and the promise that God will be with us. Indeed, his spirit dwells in us.

1. We take that for Granted.

2. Mary is blessed not by inherent grace or lack of sin in her but by her role.

iv. The Favor of the Father is the blessing, particularly of her role as the Mother of our Savior…look in v. 31-33

4. . [31] And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus

1. The Wonder of LIFE – in her womb, a body and soul a miracle that ought to be highly valued in every life…in every mother. But of singular and unique significance because she bears the Eternal Son of God in her womb.

2. The Life of Christ is unique in that he is an ETERNAL Person. Now with two natures. On the most important mission ever, sent by his Heavenly Father.

3. V. 31: Has a clear echo of Isaiah 7:14… you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

4. [14] Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

5. Mary probably did not process all this at once. After all, she is troubled, an Angel is speaking to her, her world is being turned upside down, indeed not just hers, but the whole world was turned upside down by Jesus.

6. God is more closely known to us because he took on our humanity. Mary doesn’t know people from Germanic Tribes, England, Russia, China, Africa… But all throughout the whole world, people now know her name…because her son would die for them and rise for them and is right now leading the worship of his people from his heavenly throne today. Jesus is alive and reigning today and he is great and on his throne.

That Jesus will be a descendant of David with a throne and a kingdom is not new news but very old news. God promises it to David. Isaiah says it, and now Gabriel says it to both Mary and later Joseph.

Look in v. 32. Gabriel speaking…

5. [32] 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, [33] and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

a. God the Father will give him the Throne of his Father David

i. God with Us is great, because the Son of God, Jesus, is the savior who will take the throne of David.

ii. 2 Sam. 7 is the Davidic Covenant where God speaking to King David says, My steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. [16] And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’”

iii. Mary, remember the covenant promises God made to your ancestor David; your family is humble and low, you were exiled to Babylon, but the Lord has brought you back, and the throne your son Jesus will have will be eternal. It will be the throne of Isaiah 6…the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. …

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;

the whole earth is full of his glory!”

Glory fills the throne room of our risen Savior. But…When the Father sends the son…He is not yet on the eternal throne promised him. Salvation begins not with Glory but with humility.

The Humble King is sent by his Heavenly Father by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary of Nazareth, betrothed to Joseph the carpenter, soon to travel to Bethlehem of Judea, in order to the fulfill every word and promise of God.

If you are here this morning, remember that Christ has come. It was long expected according to the scriptures, it was the eternal plan of the Father and the Son that Christ would come, that Christ would die, and that Christ would rise again. And now His Kingdom is forever. On Earth as it is in Heaven. Receive these glad tidings with Joy!

Prayer

Benediction

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