The wonder of music in the birth accounts of Jesus

Luke 2:13-15 "And suddenly there appeared 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 menwith whom He is pleased.” 15 When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.”
Introduction:
Christmas Eve is special - and so I thought what we would do today is to begin considering the role of music in Christmas. 

The Praises of Jesus' birth in Luke
The infancy narratives in the first two chapters of Luke's Gospel record for us five songs and poems sung by various saints or angels that praise the arrival of God in human flesh.  The first two that we will consider occured right before Christ's birth.  They are found in Luke 1:46-56 and Luke 1:67-79. 

Strange names but magnificent meaning
If you notice in some of your Bibles, these particular portions of scripture have weird sounding titles.  For instance the first song, the song of Mary, is called "The Magnificat".  The reason for this is because these are the first words of Mary's song as it is recorded in the Latin Bible - The Vulgate.  This was the version of the Bible used for 1,000 years in the Old Roman Catholic Church and the influence of that version carried over into some of the terms we use in describing details of the Bible. The term "Magnificat" is Latin for "The Exultation".  You may recognize from the word our English word "Magnificent".  What Mary sings and Who she sings about is the one who is God, coming through her womb as a virgin born human being.

The second song in Luke's record is the song of Zecharias called "The Benedictus" (meaning blessed).  Perhaps you have heard of an opening prayer where the persons asks for God's blessing on a given event as being called a "benediction".  Like the first, the meaning is profound, in that Zecharias is praising God for his sending of the forerunner through he and his wife, Elizabeth.   No doubt, the events surrounding the Savior's coming into the world were indeed blessed! 

The Wonder of the Magnificat (Mary's song)
We can note three things about Mary's song in Luke 1:46-56:

1. The Savior in her womb is personally meaningful  Notice how often Mary uses the words "my" or "me" in 1:46-49.  Mary sees the profound significance of Christ's coming for her own life.  She has embraced everything spoken to her by the angel.  She has taken God at His word and is overjoyed at the fact that in her womb is the Living word. 

2. The Savior in her womb is powerfully Mighty  In Luke 1:50-53 Mary rehearses how this One in her womb Pre-existed as the Eternal Son, sharing in unending and Undivided glory with the Father and Holy Spirit. God as One God has ever existed within the Father, Son and Spirit. The Son aims to make known the glory of the Father. The Son is Sovereign ruler over the nations. (Psalm 2).  He knows how to deliver His people.  These ideas flow from Mary's lips as the Holy Spirit gives her utterance. 

3. The Savior in her womb is prophecy's fulfillment In Luke 1:54-55 Mary is thinking of all the times God promised and predicted the coming of Messiah.  From Abraham down to Malachi, God kept revealing how the Promise of Salvation would one day become the Person of salvation, born in due time.  For Mary, the literal fulfillment of that truth was now living inside of her. 

The Wonder of the Benedictus (Zechariah's song)
With Mary praising the wonder of Christ's soon birth, Zechariah too is praising God for the fact of the forerunner - John.  With only 6 months difference between their births, God's perfect timing was truly incredible.  This song is full of statements regarding God's promises and prophecies about salvation, redemption and the Light of Hope that is seen in the coming of Messiah.  The one who would announce that coming is spoken of in scriptures such as Malachi 4 and Isaiah 40.  Truly the power of worship was declaring that the plan of God in Heaven was getting ready to touch down here on earth.  It would not be not long before the Son would manifest on earth in frail humanity wrapped in swaddling clothes. 

God's Preparation for the Arrival of the Son in History

Galatians 4:4 "when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law".

Introduction
It always astonishes me how much time and effort is expended in preparing for the celebration of Christmas. People spend months in advance preparing for the big day - from shopping to setting aside time on the calendar. Churches will spend months in choir rehearsals, newspaper ads and sermon series to make way for the focus on Jesus. These two observations pale in comparison to the great lengths God took in preparing for the entry of the Son into history. Lets consider today God's preparation for the arrival of the Son into time. 

God's big plans included all of history
When we consider the whole of history from Genesis up to the time of Jesus' birth, it is amazing to think about everything God orchestrated to make the entry of the Son of God into the world a possibility:

1. 3600 years from Genesis to Malachi.  From Adam to Noah = 1656 years.  From Noah to Abraham = another 350 to 400 years.  From Abraham to the end of Genesis = around 250 or so years.  From Moses' day in Exodus to David's time in 1 Samuel is around 400 years.  From David to Malachi's day is roughly 600 years.  God orchestrated the rise and fall of at least four world empires in between the Old and New Testaments (Babylonia, Persia, Greece and Rome). In addition to personages and political reigemes, the upsurge and spread of the Greek language following Alaexander the Great's conquest of the Mediterranean world in the 4th century b.c, as well as the building of the Roman roadway system following the conquest of the Greeks set the stage for what would be the spread of the Gospel following Jesus' ascension. Countless wars and 109 prophecies in preparation for when He would come were all used by God in the providential preparation for Jesus' arrival.

2. The silent years between Malachi and Matthew.  From Malachi to Matthew we see the word of God not being spoken.  Just because God hid His face did not mean His hand was not at work behind the scenes.  As we noted already, three world empires rose and fell.  At the end of the Old Testament, Babylon was in power.  In 539 b.c she fell to the Medo-Persia Empire.  This empire, predicted and spoken of in Daniel 2 and 7, was the first to begin the practice of crucifixion. 

Next came the Greeks, under Alexander the Great in 333 b.c.  After conquering Persia, Alexander began his program of making the whole world like the Greeks.  Everyone under his domain would speak Greek.  This language would be the language of the New Testament.  The Jews also made the world's first Bible translation - the Septuagint, in 275 b.c.

Greece gave away to Rome and the Roman empire devised the 50,000 mile roadway system throughout the Medditeranean world called "The Roman Road". It would be quite useful, especially when the early church would come to spread the goodnews of Jesus Christ. 

Rome by Jesus' day was experiencing politcal unreast in the Holy land.  Power had changed hands, and populations of people were being redistributed.  This is what prompted Caesar Augustus to issue the decree for everyone to return to their hometown to be counted.  Josephus the Jewish historian of the 1st century records this very census in his "Antiquities of the Jews", giving us a historical corroboration of the accuracy of Luke's Gospel. Because of that decree, Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, as predicted in the book of Micah.

3. The prophecies of the Old Testament. When you count up all of the prophecies that predict the first coming of Jesus Christ, the grand total comes to 109!  Some of these are so extraordinary, they are worthy of mention.  Genesis 49:10 tells us what tribe in Israel the Messiah would derive - from Judah.  Isaiah 7:14 tells us He would be virgin born, with Isaiah 9:6-7 revealing Him as both human and Divine.  Isaiah 53 reveals He would suffer and die, with Zechariah 12:10 using the term "pierced" to describe the marks on his hands and feet.  Psalm 22 unfolds the words He would speak on the cross and Micah 5:2-4 uncovers the place of His birth. 

All in all, God alone can cover the scope of the timing of events, peoples and places - for He alone is Big enough, Powerful enough and knowing enough to accomplish it.  If anything, the timing of Christmas shows us that salvation is of the Lord!

The significance of the star of Bethlehem

Matthew 2:2 “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”

Today's blog is going to attempt to deal with the question: "What was the star of Bethlehem?"  Whenever you begin to dive into this subject, you come away with three general explanations.

1. The star was a natural phenomena.   In reading the literature on this subject over the years, I have found all kinds of explanations, some of which range from the purely ridiculous to the downright intriguing.  Some have suggested that the celestial object witnessed by the Magi may had been a comet or a brightly exploding star called a supernova.  Recent computer programs that can depict the appearance on the sky over any location on Earth have have run back to the period of Jesus' birth (7 b.c to 2 b.c) and have discovered the alignment of three planets: Jupiter, Mars and Venus. 

Could these astronomical phenomena been used by God in guiding these wisemen?  It would seem that as suggestive as this may be, it is not adequate to explain what they saw.  The object in question, accordng to Matthew's record, "guided them" and then "stayed" over the spot where Jesus and his family were living. 

2. The star was a supernatural phenomena  On the other end of the spectrum of explanations lies the supernatural explanation.  Many will point back to the times when the people of God were led through the wilderness by "a pillar of fire" by night.  Certainly we cannot argue that when the Magi explain this object as guiding and leading them, and then "standing over the place" where the Christ child was at, that thise object is of supernatural origin.

When one does a word study for that word "stand" in Matthew 2:9, we discover that the star not only just "stood over" the place of Christ's dwelling, it "stationed, positioned itself".  This tells us that the object in question had some level of intelligence (perhaps an angel for instance).  The only issue with this view is that like the completely natural explanation, we don't have enough information to make a judgment on what exactly the star was.  However, we can at least say that the object possessed intelligence of some sort.

3. The star was both natural and supernatural  If we take both the natural and supernatural explanations together, we can say that whatever the Magi saw that night entailed God communicating through both the night sky and the supernatural realm.  In a past blog I demonstrated how the prophet Daniel, over 600 years prior to the Magi in Matthew 2, had injected the prophecies of the Messiah into the thought life of these Persian Astrologers.  If you look at Matthew 2 once again, the quotation of a particular prophecy helps us to arrive at an explanation that includes the scriptures, the specific means through which God communicates saving truth. 

4. The Star definitely had prophetic significance
Theologians have noted that God communicates to human beings in two ways: General Revelation and Special Revelation.  General Revelation is the witness of God that we have in creation and the conscience.  It proves His existence and our responsibility to Him, but it does not identify Who He is nor does it lead to salvation.  This is where we need "Special Revelation" from the scriptures to fill in what is needed to lead a person to saving faith in Jesus Christ. 

When you scan the account of the Magi in Matthew 2:6, they do quote the prophecy in Numbers 24:17 concerning a star arising out of the tribe of Judah in Jerusalem.  This suggests to us that they were operating on what they first detected from General revelation - the positions of certain things in the sky (as wells as some time of supernatural phenomena), beginning over 800 miles at where they lived and them following that over a period of two years to where Christ was.  Then with them already possessing ancient copies of the Jewish scriptures handed down through their number from the days of Daniel, God at that moment used a particular text in His Special revelation to persuade them to worship the Christ child. 

We must remember what they ultimately sought and the only proper response
Although we could offer a pretty plausible scenerio for what the Magi saw in the night skies over Babylonia and Bethlehem - one thing is sure - the star in question was but a Divinely given natural/supernatural means, and beholding God in Human flesh was the true goal.  By the time they reached Him, the Spirit of God, through the scriptures, had convinced them that this was the One they sought.  They worshipped Him, and then went away exceedingly glad.  May that be our response to Christ throughout this season and the rest of lour lives: worship and exceeding joy. 

How Matthew's Genealogy Tells the Story of Christmas

Matthew 1:1 The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:

Introduction:
400 years had passed since God had spoken a word in Israel.  Not one word of God was heard in all the land or the world.  God's hand was working behind the scenes, guiding both history and the specific bloodline of Jesus Christ.  In Matthew's Gospel we see a total of 52 names, three sets of 14 generations, depicting the bloodline of Jesus Christ from Abraham up to the birth of the Messiah.  Many folks are tempted to skip over these genealogies that occur in Matthew and Luke. However, all scripture is profitable for instruction, for correction, for rebuke and for training in righteousness.  (2 Timothy 3:16).  To get the most out of this first chapter in Matthew, let the reader note the following key features:

1. Abraham, the head of the first 14 names, represents the Promise of salvation.
Abraham heads up both the first leg of this genealogy, as well as the whole list of names mentioned by Matthew.  We read of Abraham's life in Genesis 12-25.  It was to Him that God promised a nation (Genesis 12) and a ultimate redeemer or "seed" (Genesis 15).  God's promise of salvation, first mentioned back in Genesis 3:15, is brought into sharp focus through the life of Abraham.  Found over 100 times in the Bible, Abraham is used to illustrate what it means to trust in the Lord by faith (Romans 4) and to live out the life of faith through obedience to the word (Hebrews 11).

2. David, the head of the second 14 names, represents the Prophecy of salvation
In Matthew 1:6-11 records the next fourteen generations of Christ's bloodline, beginning with David.  In 2 Samuel 7:13-16 God gives David a prophecy through the prophet Nathan that from his bloodline would come a descendant to rule and reign.  This descendant's kingdom would last forever.  In other scriptures, such as Psalm 2, 45 and 89 we see God expanding and explaining this prophecy.  It is God's prophecy about David that takes the promise of Abraham and gives it flesh and bones.  Clearly the promise of salvation will indeed be the Person of Salvation. 

3. Jeconiah, the head of the third set of 14 names, represents the Problem addressed by salvation
Anyone who reads the story of Jeconiah will understand the fact that he had been cursed by God as a result of treachery against God and the throne of Israel.  His bloodline was cursed and thus he represents the problem being addressed in God's sending of His Son - the curse of sin.  Jeremiah 22:24-30 records God's words against Jeconiah and his descendants. 

The miracle of Christmas reveals that a sinless Savior would indeed be born from an otherwise long line of sin, treachery and failure.  Just as the light of the sun is not affected when it shines upon a trash heap, so it is that the Virgin born Son of God could be sinless despite coming from a cursed bloodline.  If anything, to bear the curse of sin was the very reason why God the Son came to be born in a stable. (Please compare Galatians 3:10,13) 

4. Jesus, the final name in the genealogy, is the solution to the problem of sin, the fulfillment of every prophecy and the personification of the promise of salvation
Therefore it is fitting that even the geneaology of Jesus Christ would tell the saga of salvation:  God began with a promise, reinforced it with prophecy, to address the problem of sin with the solution: Jesus Christ.  Truly those first words of the New Testament would be God's final word on all that pertains to what He was accomplishing through Jesus Christ. 

A Poem: The Savior Revealed

The Savior Revealed

The Father Veiled His Son from view

God drew a plan on what to do

The Son and He saw humanity’s curse

Mankind’s sin would only grow worse

A bloodline from Adam and Eve had been decreed

From Adam to Abraham came the Seed

A nation born from slavery’s hate

Israel would grow and exist as a gate

God the Son would open the door assigned

In Mary’s womb God and man aligned

The One Who omnipotent, with worlds at His command

Would be veiled in weakness, with soft infant hands

Omniscience whose knowledge knew no bounds

Would be veiled in frailty uttering cooing sounds

The One who Omnipresent in time and space

Would limit Himself to human space

Though veiled in flesh His deity remained

A cross was his destiny, with blood to be stained

Revealed he was, died he did

The guilt of sin, its penalty rid

He rose and ascended, his body changed

                 The Revealed Savior accomplished what was arranged

How Jesus' incarnation and resurrection delivers meaning, value and purpose in life

Luke 2:1-6 "Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. 2 This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. 4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, 5 in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. 6 While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth."

Introduction:

The human predicament is a phrase used by Christian thinkers to describe human life lived in such a way as to assume the non-existence of God and the denial of life after death. Thinkers such as the late Christian theologian Francis Shaeffer called such an approach to life: "The absurdity of life without God". Both God's existence and the concept of immortality (or life after death) constitute what is the necessary foundation for having meaning, value and purpose in this life. Today's post wants to consider how the Christmas accounts deliver to us none-other than God Himself as well as immortality.

Why life is meaningless without immortality and without God, and how Jesus came to deliver both. 

Without immortality – there is no ultimate significance. Our brief lives are not long enough to achieve such. Even legacies, at best, last centuries without being reinterpreted and forgotten. We have eternity written on our hearts, as Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes. Without God, we have no obligation to live good and do good in this life. Without the moral lawgiver, there is no morality, no meaning and thus – no purpose.

Now when we think of the opening text in today's blog, we see life carrying on historically and personally. Caesar's census is a true fact of history. Not only does Luke prove to be a reliable source for recording this event in which we find Mary and Joseph, but other sources outside the Bible - such as the Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus, also record this general event. The birth of Jesus is described as none other than the appearance of God in human flesh (1 Timothy 3:16). Moreover, this little baby would grow up to be a man, who would die and then rise from the dead three days following His crucifixion. Jesus of Nazareth was indeed truly man, however He was more than a man, since at the same time He ever remained truly God (John 1:14; Colossians 2:9). Hence, Jesus Christ in both His incarnation and resurrection delivered personally the meaning of life by making available God Himself and the hope of life with God after death. Such realities bring the necessary meaning needed to live out meaningful lives in this world.

Why life is valueless without immortality and without God, and how Jesus came to deliver both. 

God and immortality answer the questions: who has the right to tell me how I ought to live? And “why live how I ought to live?” Value cannot be discerned apart from a reference point with which to measure good, evil and meaning.

When we think again about what the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus achieved, we see that Jesus Christ validates and personally delivers not only the moral foundation but spiritual power to live out the moral values and duties embedded within the fabric of the universe. We know that our world is not only physical, but moral in nature. To have in the Gospels the paragon of perfection - Jesus Christ - is to have the embodiment of the very base-line of all morality and meaning. Whether believer or unbeliever, objective moral values and duties bear on the human heart that sense of "oughtness". That is to say, there is a God to Whom I'm accountable ("oughtness"). The duties deal with those actions that demand accountability to an ultimate authority. Jesus Christ, and His redemption, deliver the power to the person who responds to the quickening work of the Spirit. Hence, Jesus Christ gives us the value of life - since He delivers to us God and the hope of life-after-death. 

Why life is purposeless without immortality and without God, and how Jesus came to deliver both. 

God and immortality affirm a direction, an overall narrative and point to the universe. Moreover, the purpose is defined by the grandeur of the origin and the extraordinary means employed to reach the purpose or end point.

Once more the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus Christ speaks to the provision of life's purpose. Jesus Christ as God incarnate delivers to me God on a one-on-one level at the moment of saving faith. In Jesus Christ there is an ultimate purpose to life. We discover in the Bible that Jesus is coming back to bring history to a close (see Titus 2:13). Furthermore, in Jesus the immortal life of hope that is looked forward to after death is fore-tasted by way of the new-life and new nature He delivers by the Spirit at salvation. As the old song states: "Heaven came down and glory filled my soul". 

So, Jesus Christ delivers to us God and immortality, and thus provides life's meaning, value and purpose. Through Jesus alone can we escape the absurdity of life that attempts to conduct itself under the false assumption that there is no God and no immortality. 

A podcast link: The reality of miracles and their relevance to Christmas

Matthew 1:19-21 "And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. (20) But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying: "Joseph, Son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit."

Today's post features a link to a recent podcast that aims to equip people on how to defend and communicate the historicity of the virgin birth conception of Jesus. Just click on the link and then push the play button. The episode is roughly 12 minutes in length. https://gcrpodcast.wordpress.com/2015/12/15/podcast-the-reality-of-miracles-and-their-relevance-to-christmas/

This time of year provides prime opportunity for Christians to share their faith with loved, friends and neighbors. In the podcast, I deal with the subject of the possibility of miracles, and how such a subject is relevant to the main truth of Christmas: namely Jesus' Christ's incarnation and virgin-birth conception. The hope is that the podcast will encourage and motivate readers and listeners to see why it is reasonable to believe in the historicity of the virgin - birth narratives of Jesus Christ in Matthew and Luke. To God be the glory!