Category: “What Child Is This?” series

Substitute

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(Luke 2:41-52)

Sometimes we want a substitute; other times we need one. There are certain social situations when we wish we could simply hit the pause button and be replaced by a substitute to allow us to be anywhere but there. But there are also scenarios in which we simply cannot be two places at once. When work and family obligations collide, it would be nice to have a substitute so you could be two places at once. This morning, whether or not we want him, we see that Jesus is the Substitute we need. So far our Christmas series, “What Child is This?” has provided two answers: this child is the Prince of Peace and our Redeemer. The final answer provided in our series highlights that this child is also our Substitute.

You think time flies (wasn’t it just Thanksgiving???), how about jumping from infant to adolescent in one week! Just last weekend we were celebrating Jesus’ birth and here we find him twelve years old already. While it seems like quite a jump, the Bible doesn’t really cover much of Jesus’ life until he is baptized and begins his ministry around the age of 30. So this glimpse of twelve-year-old Jesus is a rare one.

And it’s interesting, isn’t it, that the one account we have of Jesus over that thirty-year period is Jesus sticking around at church long after the service was over? Of all of the curiosities and questions we might have about Jesus’ upbringing, his teenage years, and his twenties, God provides one account for us, and it is centered on worship and the Word. At the very least, we can conclude that gathering in God’s house for worship ought not to be an afterthought or treated as an optional leave-it-or-take-it element of the practice of one’s faith. At most, we could conclude that by covering just this one account of Jesus’ life over the span of 30 years, God is emphasizing the prominence and priority that public worship should be in the Christian’s life. 

There is a need for this conversation among Christians today. While I don’t question the intent behind the encouragement often provided for attending worship, I don’t know if the way we have tried to get there has always been the best. The one making the case for an increase in church attendance often points out that church attendance has been on the decline for decades now, and since that’s bad, we should correct that trend by going to church. Not only is such an argument ineffective, but it also fails to address that church attendance isn’t primarily a habit issue, but a heart issue.

Listen, a church on Sunday morning can be just as easily filled with empty people as it can with empty pews. These are the empty people Isaiah described: “The Lord says: ‘These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught’” (29:13). While we often imagine the church was much healthier in “the good ‘ole days,” which tend to be whatever we subjectively presume them to be in our own minds, the number of people worshipping on a Sunday morning is not the only metric for church health, and I would submit that it isn’t even the best one. 

As I said, we’re dealing with a heart issue, not a habit issue, and a heart issue is more difficult to treat than just measuring a metric. Many lament how Christianity is on the decline. It may appear that way based on church attendance, but what if not as much has changed as appears? What if it isn’t actually a reality that there are fewer Christians, but rather it just appears that way, as many more unbelievers/hypocrites used to hide in the church than outside it? So we lament those not in church, but how many in the past who were actually in church were simply doing so to meet an expected requirement or to be seen? Pride can work with either one – “look at what a fine Christian I am who worships regularly” or “look what a fine Christian I am who is so strong in his faith that I don’t need church attendance to showcase or prove my faith.” Pride can work with either scenario – being present without being present or being absent without being active.

But… shame on us if we are inclined to use that as justification for not worshiping weekly. There is a real need to emphasize corporate worship in an individualized church culture. A personal relationship with Jesus doesn’t mean that’s the only personal relationship I have with the body of Christ. To belong to the body of Christ is to belong to more than just Christ, the head, but also the whole body! And where more than anywhere else does the body stay connected to the other parts and Christ, the head? When we gather for worship.

Trying to change behavior by increasing worship attendance fails to address the real issue – the heart. Only Jesus does that. Look at how Jesus did that in our account this morning. After his mother expressed her dismay at his behavior, his response – a question of his own – explained his behavior perfectly: “‘Why were you searching for me?’ he asked. ‘Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?’” (v.49). He was honestly surprised. He had to be in his Father’s house. Let’s understand that in two ways. 

We talk that way when trying to convince someone else of something. “You have to try this food at this restaurant.” “You have to listen to this song by this artist.” “You have to get this gadget or that device.” When we convey that level of passion to someone else we are stressing that how much it has meant to us personally. We feel so strongly about it that we want someone else to have the same positive experience with it. Jesus felt so passionately about being in his Father’s house that he had to be there.

But he also literally had to be there. Remember that God created us to love and worship him with pure holy hearts. Yet ever since worship first went wrong when Adam and Eve cast aside God’s command and ate from the tree, not one human heart has ever been able on even a single occasion to worship God in purity and holiness. Even our best worship is but worthless waste before God! Sin stains our worship! If even attending worship regularly in the first place, we are so easily distracted, disinterested, and disengaged when in God’s house. That’s if we’re attending regularly and not believing whatever lie it is that tells us there’s something better going on Sunday morning than gathering with God’s people around God’s Word to glorify God together. So Jesus literally had to be in the Temple to meet God’s demand that pure and holy hearts love and worship him. 

Even more astounding is that rather than being the One worshipping, Jesus had every right to be the One worshipped! He ought to be the object of worship, not the one offering up his worship. The One the wise men journeyed great lengths to worship in person with precious gifts was the same twelve-year-old boy offering up his worship in the temple courts. The One who would make the ultimate sacrifice on Good Friday deserving of ultimate praise and worship is the same One humbly offering up his worship among the adult spiritual leaders of his day. 

Into a me-centered world came a Father-focused Substitute. We make public worship about us; He made it about his Father. Our lives are an act of worshiping according to our own will; his perfect life was an act of worshiping according to his Father’s will. Where we casually dismiss the Third Commandment’s call for weekly worship, Jesus embraced and kept it perfectly. What we don’t even have the will to carry out perfectly, Jesus not only had the will, but also the obedience to carry out perfectly. We needed One who could put the Father first at all times, including love for his Word and worship, and we have One who met that demand. We have Jesus. Holy Jesus. Perfect Jesus. Substitute Jesus. 

Notice that his perfect obedience to his heavenly Father also expressed itself in obedience to his earthly father and mother. “Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them” (v.51). When we see Jesus as he came to be seen – as our Substitute – we appreciate even more his perfect record of obedience. He was not born into our world for some short-sighted purpose like setting an example for us to follow – that is too small a thing! Instead, he came to achieve what we could not, cannot, on even our greatest days. He came to obey as a Substitute for those who disobey. He came to live in righteousness to be our righteousness. He came to be the purity and holiness required for entrance into heaven. He came to be the perfect child we could not, loving God’s Word and worship in ways we cannot. 

Children, follow suit. Do not disregard your parents’ commands, whether by defiance or indifference. That applies to the home and it applies to the church. You do not yet know what is best for you, so God has given you parents to guide you. When it is time for church each Sunday morning, do not burden or exasperate your parents with your stubborn whining, but be a joy and blessing to them, so that worship might be a joy and blessing to both you and them.

It’s that time of year again when goals and resolutions are on our radars. What’s easier when it comes to hitting the mark with goals – hitting the goal or maintaining it? Suppose you’ve wanted to organize the garage for years. But whenever you think about it you get overwhelmed because you don’t know where to start. Truth is, you’re not just talking about one goal, but a project requiring many steps to achieve that goal. Organizing the garage includes sorting through stuff, then determining which stuff you’re going to keep, what’s going to Goodwill, and what’s getting pitched. It likely includes determining whether or not you need shelving or bins to store things more efficiently. It will obviously include a good measure of cleaning, too. So it’s quite a project that you’re talking about!

But wouldn’t it be so much easier if an expert organizer came and did it for you? Wouldn’t it be so much more enjoyable if all you had to do was maintain a garage that has already been sorted and organized and cleaned for you? That would be much less overwhelming! You might even be energized and excited to keep it the way it is after someone else already did the hard work – and did an exceptional job at that!  

Jesus has done just that for you. He had more than a resolution on his mind; he had your righteousness, and he came with his perfect obedience to tidy up your disorganized, disobedient life. He did all of the work for you as your Substitute. He kept God’s law. He was the “good Christian” we could never amount to. He treasured Word and worship with an honest and sincere heart. He already did the hard work for you, and an exceptional job at that! Now the burden of having to be like Jesus has been replaced by the joyful freedom of wanting to be like him, with no strings attached. He met his Father’s demand of holiness, leaving us to enjoy the blessing of walking in his footsteps. What Child is This? This Prince of Peace is your Redeemer and Substitute. May the blessing of his perfect obedience bring blessings through your guilt-free obedience in the new year! 

Redeemer

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(Galatians 4:4-7)

While a sermon isn’t typically the place to look for hot stock trading tips, this morning you’re in for a treat. Years ago you might recall a video rental chain by the name of Blockbuster. There was a new service entering the movie rental industry that allowed you to go online to choose which movies you wanted to rent, and this company would mail the DVDs directly to your home. This company was called Netflix. Its growing success was threatening Blockbuster’s business model, causing Blockbuster’s stock price to decline significantly as a result. But, since Blockbuster was starting to get on board with the mailing model and already had 1,000s of physical locations from which to operate, I jumped on the stock, convinced it would be a matter of time before it caught up and jumped back to the top in the industry. 

I was wrong. Would you care to know how much each share of Blockbuster is worth today? About 1/10 of a cent. It’s worthless. It is of no value whatsoever. Be sure to follow me for more hot stock tips! 

Share prices of stocks go up and down in value. In fact, the value of a thing can fluctuate, can’t it, as its value is really determined by how much someone thinks it is worth. This morning as we continue our What Child Is This? series, in addition to the answer Isaiah provides us with on Christmas Eve, that this Child is the Prince of Peace, we also today see that he is our Redeemer. Through this title, we see how valuable we are to God because of the worth he attaches to us.   

Most of us are familiar enough with the term redeemer. We will talk about a person needing to redeem himself. When we speak of it in this sense the implication is that someone has carried out some wrongdoing in general or some damage to a relationship with another individual. When sufficient effort is then made to remedy the situation or reconcile with the other individual, we speak of that person having redeemed himself. So there is a sense of righting a wrong when it comes to the idea of a redeemer. 

Now that may work in a court of human law or public opinion, but there is a courtroom where no man can redeem himself or another: God’s. The psalmist writes, “No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them – the ransom for life is costly, no payment is ever enough” (49:7-8). Suppose I borrowed $10,000 from you to buy up all that Blockbuster stock. Now, years later, you ask for your money back. For obvious reasons, I don’t have the money, but offer to pay you back in shares of Blockbuster. Would you accept? Of course not! It’s not worth anything! No lender would accept payment in the form of the same worthless investment that just lost you a significant investment! So neither can we who have by our own sin made ourselves worthless, pay back anything to God! The very thing that put us into the position of needed to be redeemed – sin – is what taints us so much that we can never offer anything of ourselves of value to redeem ourselves before God!

But boy do we still try! We have solutions for trying to redeem ourselves. Some religions emphasize the ongoing effort to redeem ourselves by becoming better, by being good people. Sounds good enough, but it ignores the real issue that needs redeeming: sin.

An increasingly popular approach in our age of secularism is to deny God and any need for redemption at all, but this, too, falls short. Sin is real. It separates. Ignoring it, calling it something else, pretending there is no God who takes issue with it, these offer no redemption.

So Paul helps us understand precisely why God came into our world bearing a body. “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship” (Galatians 4:4-5). First, let’s talk timing. Paul says “when the time had fully come.” What he means is that in God’s governing over all things, he had determined the exact time for the promised Savior to arrive on earth. One can look at the Roman world at the time and see how ideal it was for Jesus to be born. The Roman Empire was enjoying a season of peace from war. A universal language was used, making communication much more effective. The Roman system of roads made places far more accessible for travel. It was an ideal time.

Yet, we might think that today would be much more suitable. After all, consider all of the technological advancements. Think of all the ways we could communicate the birth of Jesus if he had been born in 2021. Seems like now, not 2,000 years ago, would have been a better time, doesn’t it? 

Ironically, one could also argue that all of the reasons for now being a better time could also be used to argue against it. How well would the message be received in an age when we are inundated with more information in a month than people of the past were in a lifetime? And the technology – a blessing, for sure, in so many ways… and yet a constant distraction at the same time. Does technology serve us or enslave us? So maybe Paul had it right when under divine inspiration he argued that God had determined the best time for the Redeemer to enter our world. And how would he carry this out? Why did it have to be done the way it was done? 

If a person is to be rightly rescued – redeemed – then it stands to reason that he must be rescued from the actual threat facing him. You don’t save a drowning person by running to the hospital to grab a stretcher. You don’t treat a broken bone with a band-aid. No, for the solution to provide an actual cure, it has to address the real problem. What is the problem that we all needed solved? Make no mistake – the real threat is having to answer for our sin or suffer the consequences of a real hell.

To rescue those being crushed and condemned under the weight of the law, God – who by his holiness established the law in the first place! – bound himself to keeping it so that, placing it on his shoulders and flawlessly fulfilling it, he could keep it from crushing us with its eternal condemnation in hell. While by our disobedience we disqualified ourselves according to the law, Jesus was born to keep the law, so that by his obedience God’s expectation of perfection could be met. Since only man and not God himself who gave the law is bound to it, God became a man so that he could keep it. 

Imagine a youth claiming to be able to drive her whole life without ever breaking the speed limit. While that’s a bold claim to make, she has no way to prove it. She must first be of the legal age limit to drive, and then pass her test to get a license. Once she does those things, she could then set out to prove her claim by maintaining a perfect driving record. But until she is actually bound by the law, it’s not possible for her to keep it. So it is with God – to keep the law he had to first bind himself to it, so he was born into this world bearing a human body, so that he would be bound to the law.

Notice how Paul effortlessly slips into his next thought with the clear implication that Jesus did in fact keep the law. After explaining how it would happen so that we might be adopted as God’s sons and daughters, the verse that immediately follows point out that we are sons and daughters! Jesus did it! He succeeded in perfectly obeying the law, for we are now adopted sons and daughters, no longer slaves, but free heirs to receive the glorious riches of an eternal inheritance, along with all the treasure house of blessings lavished on us while here on earth in the meantime! Now we have that most intimate of relationships, being able to address the Father as “Abba,” akin to “daddy,” a relationship unique to father and child. Now the Son born in Bethlehem calls our hearts his home. 

Now we are worth something, for we have been redeemed. Jesus’ redemption is what has given us value. Apart from him we were worth nothing. We are by nature just like all the BOGOs and discount coupons for this store and that restaurant stashed in your drawer at home – worth nothing until actually redeemed! Until you actually show up, purchase something, and redeem the coupon for whatever discount it is, the coupon is worthless. It has to be redeemed to be of any value. 

So it is with us. Christmas means we are worth something, for that child, that Prince of Peace came into this world to be our Redeemer. And because he redeemed us with his own precious blood, we are worth something. How much, you ask? Considering no price can be attached to Jesus’ holy, innocent blood, and that that was the price paid for you and me, how valuable does that make us? If something of inestimable value was used to buy us back, to redeem us, then how valuable are we – priceless! And that is just how God sees us. For he would not have offered up his only Son as the redemption price for our very souls if he did not treasure us beyond measure! 

What Child is This? He is our Redeemer. Because we have been redeemed, we are sons and daughters who are God’s own heirs, standing ready to receive his greatest blessings both now and for eternity. What other gift that you unwrapped this year even begins to compare to that!?! Merry Christmas!

Prince of Peace

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(Isaiah 9:2-7)

One of the simple things in life that brings joy to just about everyone every time it is shared is the announcement that a couple is expecting or a baby has been born. I know of at least one friend whose family gathering this Christmas will include his daughter sharing the news that they are expecting. Whether it’s the shared anticipation of a couple who is expecting or the exciting news of the baby’s arrival at birth, it’s the kind of news that just makes us happy. 

News of a birth also means wanting to hear all of the details. When was the baby born? How long was labor? Boy or girl? How much did it weigh? What’s the length? These curious questions are a natural follow-up to news of any birth, as we want to get to know a little bit more about the baby.

We heard a baby announcement today from the prophet Isaiah. While we aren’t used to such announcements being given any further out than about nine months at the most, Isaiah shared his announcement some 700 years before the due date! And, he didn’t wait until the baby had been delivered to share the details, but declared them ahead of time. His words today, and the words we’ll look at for the next two Sundays of Christmas, will provide us with the necessary information to answer the question raised by the beloved Christmas hymn, What Child Is This? 

So just who is this Jesus whose birth is celebrated across the world by people of every nation and language? He must matter a great deal, for who else’s birth has been cause for such universal celebration every year ever since it happened?!? That fact alone deserves our attention, doesn’t it? Regardless of what anyone believes, isn’t this birth worth looking into if so many people all over the world have celebrated it for so many years?

What, then, does Isaiah tell us to provide insight into an answer for the question, What Child Is This? Quite a lot, actually! Isaiah tells us he’ll be a beacon of light in a world steeped in darkness. He will be a source of joy. He will bring victory. Then, we get to verses that have served as the basis for some of the most beautiful music ever played or sung; words that have inspired so many in the world of music and the arts; words that have filled hearts with hope for 2,700 years – the words of Isaiah 9, verse 6: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” While each of these designations could provide sermon upon sermon or even series upon series, on this day we will give our attention to just the one title that answers the question before us, the title, Prince of Peace. 

To be designated as the “prince” of something is to say the one bearing the title is considered to be the authority in that field or area. The dictionary describes the title as “a man or thing regarded as outstanding or excellent in a particular sphere or group.” So what does it say about Jesus that his birth announcement 700 years before his arrival did not merely associate him with peace or describe that he might bring in a season or period of peace, but that he himself is the prince of peace? It means that any understanding of peace apart from Jesus is either an inadequate or incomplete understanding of what peace is, for he is the prince! A person cannot, therefore, have peace apart from the One called the very Prince of Peace!

But sadly, that doesn’t stop the world from either pursuing peace in all the wrong places or simply flat-out avoiding the things we perceive to be disrupting it. We do have phrases that incorporate the word peace, like “peace of mind,” being “at peace” with a decision, or “making peace” with someone. In one way or another, each of these expressions has to do with something that is unsettling or causing tension or conflict. To achieve peace, then, is to settle the matter, ease the tension, or eliminate the conflict. The result should then be peace. 

Another solution is to simply avoid the things that are unsettling or cause tension or conflict. But with a few rare exceptions avoiding such things isn’t a real solution. It may perhaps buy some more time toward a solution, but the act of avoiding is itself no solution, and very often only exacerbates the problem. This happens especially when avoiding is paired with some attempt at escape like substance abuse or any of the other escapes we explored back in our October and September sermon series. 

If any of these supposed solutions for peace worked, then how does one explain why our world is as unsettled as it’s been in any of our lifetimes? If these solutions worked, then do so many express the feeling that things are getting worse, not better? Shouldn’t we be “at peace” and finding “peace of mind” if we’re finally addressing climate change, calling out privilege and racism, if “our guy” is finally elected President, if individuals are free to identify as whichever gender they prefer, if… the list goes on. But how come all this “progress” hasn’t resulted in more peace? Why is drug and alcohol abuse on the rise? Why is depression debilitating more and more? Why are suicides so regularly in the news? Where is the peace? Is this what peace looks like?

The answer is “no.” This isn’t peace. Peace isn’t found in the absence of COVID or conflict; it’s found in the presence of Christ. Remember, Isaiah already told us what peace looks like! It’s not just Isaiah, either. Peace and God go hand-in-hand throughout all of Scripture. Micah, another prophet at the same time as Isaiah, said this when describing Jesus in a birth announcement of his own: “And he will be our peace” (5:5a). The apostle Paul, who wrote a good chunk of the NT, frequently referred to the God of “grace and peace” in the greeting of his letters. Another writer in the Bible wrote, “Now may the God of peace… equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20). Peace and God go hand-in-hand!

So just how did Jesus secure this peace that all the progress in the world cannot provide? “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in [the Son], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:19-20). Jesus came not just to be born in a manger, but to die on a cross. His very life was the price for our peace with God. Someone had to answer for our sin that separates us from God, or heaven would have been permanently shut off to us. God had communicated through Old Testament sacrifice that payment for sin was required. Jesus made that payment for us. Since we are no longer in debt to God for the payment of our sin, then we are at peace with him.

And the added bonus that comes with this peace? When you have it, it won’t ever run out. It isn’t a passing peace or a fleeting peace, but a permanent peace, as Isaiah shared in his announcement: “Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end” (v.7a). This kind of peace won’t end. That also means your circumstances won’t change it. The things that happen to you can’t diminish it. Wherever you are, God’s peace through Jesus is with you – even if you’re in jail, like Ruffino Fernandez. 

It was in jail that Ruffino came to faith in Jesus after hearing the Word of God during a seminar. Being so positively impacted by the Word of God in that seminar, he attended another the next time it was offered, explaining, “The teaching and love in these seminars has meant so much to me. I wanted to learn more before I left [prison].” Later, a third such seminar was announced, and Ruffino was very eager to attend. The problem? It was set for the same day as his release from prison, meaning he would miss it because he was being set free. So what did he do? He asked his parole officer for his release from prison to be delayed until after the seminar! (Source: Prison Fellowship fundraiser letter dated July 24, 1984, signed by Charles W. Colson.) Who would do that? Why would anyone do that? Because the prison walls made no difference at all to someone who knew the Prince of peace. Whether held inside the walls of a prison or released into freedom, it didn’t matter – he had peace either way. And because of Christmas, because God made good on Isaiah’s baby announcement and gave you the gift of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, you have peace, too.