The Crux of Christmas (1 of 2)

In the middle of the holidays, it's easy for us to get caught up in a sugar-coated, Christmas-card version of the Advent season.

But this often trivialized perspective can leave us feeling empty and unsatisfied. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg directs our gaze to the real wonder of Christmas as we revisit some of Alistair's most popular teaching from the past year. First Timothy chapter 2 and verse 5. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. Father, we bow before your Word. We pray for the help of the Holy Spirit that you will grant to us clarity of thought, that you will open our eyes to behold wonderful things in your Word, that you will be our teacher, and we pray in Christ's name.

Amen. Well, I don't know if you have checked, but as I have been thinking in terms of Advent, I was going back to my Book of Common Prayer and to the Anglican Liturgy, and I noticed what I thought I had known but it came home to me quite startlingly—namely, that in the epistles and in the gospels that are assigned to each of the four Sundays in Advent, what is quite striking is the fact that they are absent any particular reference to the actual birth narratives themselves. So, for example, for the first Sunday in Advent, the reading from the epistles, from the letters, is Romans 13, and the exhortation to love your neighbor, and the containment there of a number of the Ten Commandments. And when you have in your Gospel reading, they are reading from the Gospel of Matthew, but not from chapter 1 or chapter 2 but from chapter 21, and the reading there is the record of what we refer to as Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. So here we are, and we're in Romans 13, and we are in Matthew chapter 21, and I said to myself, you know, what a strange choice of readings.

And then I said, That's a great idea. I think I shall have a strange reading as well. And so that is why I have turned to 1 Timothy and to chapter 2.

We can learn from the best of them, you see. And the reason that I've done so is because, although you may immediately be thinking that this is a strange verse for our verses for this morning, I want to show you, I hope, that what the Bible tells us is that this is a decisive, it is a pivotal point—it is, if you like, the very crux of Christmas—inasmuch as it brings us directly to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Christmas story is one of the places where, as we've often said to one another, it is helpful for us to read the story from the back to the front. In other words, to read the Gospels in light of Acts and in light of the Epistles. Because we've, I think, rehearsed this enough that it's embedded in us that in the Gospels Jesus is revealed. We read the Gospel records, and there we have him in the manger as we've sung of it. We see him as a boy in the temple. We see him in his manhood in the garden of Gethsemane and more besides. And when we turn into the Acts of the apostles, then we discover that those who had been the followers of Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit, are now proclaiming this Jesus. And so, for example, in Acts chapter 4, Peter declares the fact that there is salvation in no one else. Jesus is the only way to know the Father to enter into heaven. And of course, when we turn to the letters and we read here just briefly from 1 Timothy chapter 2, we have the explanation of what has been unfolding there before—not only what has happened, not only what does it mean, but also telling us why it matters. And so it is here I want to begin this morning. I don't want us to get off on the wrong foot, as it were, in our Advent celebrations.

I want us to make sure that we are bowing underneath the explanation of God himself in Scripture concerning his plans and his purposes. There is a sense in which, to a certain degree, I'm seeking, perhaps, to rescue Christmas not from a kind of antagonistic secularism but to rescue Christmas from our own potentially diminished and trivialized perspectives—a kind of sugary Christmas, if you like, that sees God simply as a cheerleader, someone who simply wants our success or who wants to solve all our problems, who wants to make us feel good about ourselves. There's plenty of that around. It is a sugary kind of thing. There is a great sugar danger at Christmas, isn't there? Despite all the things that you've been reading and leading up to it and are going to be much more healthy—I love those little sticks of vegetables, they really are terrific—and they mean so much to me in comparison to all that wonderful sugary stuff that you just deposited at the office. It's a great danger, isn't it? But the fact of the matter is the sugary stuff leaves you feeling bloated and a little disappointed with yourself.

And I suggest to you the same is true. In an approach to Christmas that is at the one time amazingly appealing and at the same time absolutely unsatisfying. Because it is unable to address the deep-seated dilemma of man. It is unable to address the questions of our own quest for meaning in the world. It is unable to tackle the issue of suffering at its largest and most significant level and at its own personal level. It is unable to deal with the inevitability of death.

It is unable to handle our search for satisfaction. So I suggest to you that if we're going to make sure we make progress in this regard, we must allow the Bible to correct any of our faulty thinking—a kind of faulty thinking that, again, seeks to present it in a way that, as Tim Chester puts it in a wonderful little book of Advent readings called One True Gift, he says, most people have a Christmas card version of Jesus. It's all rather sanitized and safe. The Christmas card Jesus wears a permanent smile and only ever says nice things that make us feel wonderful about ourselves. And this is one of the reasons, incidentally, that you will find in the ensuing twenty-three days a recurring phrase in conversation. You will hear, I guarantee you, time and again, people saying, Well, of course, Christmas, it's really about the kids. It's really about the kids. And in many ways, it really is about the kids, because of the way we've handled it.

But in fact, what the Bible is saying, no, it is not about the kids. And we run the risk of seeking to fashion, if you like, a God of our own contriving, a God who conforms to us rather than our conforming to him. Now, it is in light of that that I have just three words for us. I will spend time on the first and the second and just a little on the third. The words have already been mentioned in at least one of our songs. The first word is history, the second word is mystery, and the third is victory.

All right? History. History. Here Paul tells us that what God has done in Jesus is provided for us a ransom, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

Given at the proper time. One of the great questions is, why is it that all of history went as long as it did before we have the breaking into time by the eternal God? Well, the answer to that, quite honestly, is that God knows what he's doing, and he knows when to do what he's purposed to do. And what he's pointing out here, Paul, in this little verse, is that what happened once stands with its impact for all of time. So that when we come to the issue of the birth and the life and death and ministry of Jesus, we're dealing here with a unique and unrepeatable event. We're dealing with something that happened once.

And all you need is a Bible and to read it to make this point clearly for yourself. And in talking with others, I think it's important that we have it in mind. For example, Luke, who is very careful in this regard, tells us at the beginning of his gospel that it seemed good to him, having followed all things closely for some time, to write an orderly account so that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. This is what I'm doing, he says. Many others have been doing this and working on this, and I, as a beneficiary of the eyewitness reporting, have decided that I'm going to do the same thing. Now, it is in light of that that we must go on then and start reading the gospel. And so, for example, in verse 27 of chapter 1, he tells of how an angel came to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. You say to yourself, Really?

Yes? Remember I told you, writing an orderly account so that you may have certainty concerning the things that have happened. You, says the angel, will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and you will give him the name Jesus. Orderly account, certainty, history.

How will this be? The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Almighty will overshadow you, and the child will be born of you, the Son of God. History. Now, these mind-boggling elements, these things that stretch our imagination, that cause us to wonder—and they're supposed to cause us to wonder.

How could you have a wonderful Christmas without wondering? It's presupposed that there will be that which causes us to say, My, my, I'm not sure I get this. I must think this again.

I must kneel in relationship to this. This is what we're being told. And these mind-boggling aspects can actually cause us to forget that these things are actually part of human history. When Paul writes to the Galatians, he summarizes it wonderfully when he says, But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son. And what he's saying there is just the same thing. There had been a series of events that had happened in time, in the unfolding drama of history. And when it was the fullness of time, according to God's purpose from all of eternity, then he sent forth his Son. Peter, when he writes in his second letter, categorically states the same thing. We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Now, somebody just told me, I need to read the current edition of National Geographic, so I'll try. Although, I once subscribed to National Geographic, and I found they just piled up—twelve of them. They looked very nice, but I didn't pay much attention to them.

I liked the pictures, I must confess. So maybe this is a piece in the current edition on the Bible and on the historicity of the Gospels. So maybe you could just photocopy it for me.

That would be good. Say that as a Scot wanting to save money. Save my money, that is. But whatever it says in that article has to be read through the lens of Scripture. No mythology, no invention, no creativity on the part of members of the church 250 years later. No, Peter says, no, we were on that mountain, and we heard that voice. We heard the voice declare, This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.

We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. That's why he says, I write to you in this way. And if you're here this morning and you're wondering and you're skeptical about these things, one point to ponder is this. What in the world was in it for Peter to get himself killed if what he was dealing with was a mythology, was a concoction?

There wouldn't be a page of the New Testament written were it not for the historicity of the events as they unfolded. John does the same thing when he writes. Listen to John in his first letter. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we've seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. This, he says, is what I'm telling you about. This is it. Once in royal David's city stood a lowly cattle shed.

Once! The storyline of the Bible is not of a plan that God instituted but which went wrong and then had to be, if you like, reconfigured and reinvented. No, not for a moment. If you read your Bible from the back to the front or from the front to the back as well, you will discover that Goldsworthy, the Old Testament scholar, is absolutely right when he points out that God's purpose from all of eternity was not Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden but was Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was Christ on the cross that, from the very beginning of the work of God in his kingdom, it was to establish that people that are his very own. And that's why, when we read Ephesians at the beginning of Ephesians, we realize this is the great mystery in it all. The history involves us in mystery. Well, let's turn to mystery. Mystery. I love mysteries. A large part of my reading is mystery. It's always mystery. I love having to keep reading and reading, and finally, all the lines eventually come together. It's a great moment.

It's a great moment. What of this mystery? Well, the mystery is not just mystery, it's unfathomable mystery. You have the mystery of God's eternal being—the reality of the eternal being of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one in three and three in one, coequal and coeternal, entering into a covenant in eternity for the accomplishing of his plan to save a people that are his very own. And along with that, the added mystery of the incarnation itself. And when you wrestle with these things, what you realize is that you don't go, as some would like us to be able to go, to a page in the Bible—you know, like, page 75, and then on the top it says Trinity, and then underneath Trinity you have this great explanation of the Trinity, or incarnation, and then you have it there. You don't.

Why not? Because the way in which the people of God came to an understanding of these things was the same way in which we're supposed to come to an understanding of these things. And how is that? By reading your Bible. By reading your Bible. And realizing that the very commencement of the Bible is plural.

Let us make man in our image. Well, there's the first hint. That the Spirit of God breathed over the waters, over the chaos, and over the darkness.

Well, I better factor that in. When I come to the beginning of the Gospel of John, where John decides not to start with the birth narratives, not even with John the Baptist, but back in eternity. And what does he say? It's mysterious. In the beginning was the Word.

The logos. The way by which God spoke the worlds into being. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.

Wow. So how could you be with God? And the Word was God.

Mystery. You see, at best what you have, the work of all the councils in the early centuries of the church, was the work of godly men who were thinking these things through and were ruling out all false options. So they realized that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. That in the baptism of Jesus, you have the Son of God in the water, you have the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on the Son of God, and you have the Father in heaven declaring, This is my beloved Son.

You see, it is these things—these amazing things, these mysterious things—that are at the heart of it all. This is how the Westminster Confession puts it, concerning Jesus. Here he says, The Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, being truly and eternally God, of one substance and equal with the Father, did, when the fulness of time had come—that's Galatians 4—take upon himself man's nature, with all its essential properties and common frailties, yet without sin. Now, says Paul to Timothy, there is one mediator between God and man.

There is only one channel, there is only one gate, there is only one way. He might have said, as Peter preached post-Pentecost in Acts chapter 4, there is only one mediator between God and man. Muhammad doesn't fit. Buddha doesn't fit. The devalued nonsense of Jehovah's Witnesses does not fit.

There is only one mediator between God and man—the man Christ Jesus. That the Lord of eternity is the Christ of history. That's what's being said. And, loved ones, this is not some kind of arm's-length theological construct. Can I say to you, this matters immensely.

This matters. It's all about the children. Well, to this degree, it is about the children.

Because we want to bow down to our children and teach them the wonder of the love of God in Jesus—that Jesus is the one who makes it possible for us, even though we're naughty, even though we're bad, even though we're selfish, even though we're scared, even though we're messed up, that it is in Jesus that we may come directly to God the Father through Jesus and know that there is no condemnation to us—not because we're sinless but because Jesus, the one mediator, has borne our sin. That, loved ones, is at the heart of it all. The Word was with God, was what was God. He was not only the only mediator between God and man, but he was at the same time both God and man. One of my friends says, How hard it is to grasp even the edges of this astonishing fact!

Yeah. The confession goes on, In this way two whole natures, the divine and the human, perfect and distinct, were inseparably joined together in one person without being changed, mixed, or confused. Well, you say, That's mysterious. Yes, but don't you live in the realm of mystery all the time? Now, depending on your mental faculties, for me, my whole world is mystery. Tape recorders are still a mystery to me.

I still don't get that. So why would I imagine that in embracing Christianity, I would be removed from the realm of mystery? No, I'm taken into the realm of mystery.

The incarnation of Jesus, God come to earth to dwell with us, certainly is a mystery. You're listening to Alistair Begg with a message titled The Crux of Christmas. This is another listener favorite from Truth for Life's Encore 2021 series.

And as Alistair pointed out today, it's important to rescue Christmas from a trivialized perspective. That's why our mission here at Truth for Life is to teach the Bible with clarity and relevance. A sugarcoated message may make us feel good for the moment, but God's Spirit works through the consistent teaching of God's Word to convert unbelievers, to strengthen believers' faith, and to build up local churches. In addition to the Bible teaching you here on Truth for Life, we hope you benefit from the books we recommend each month. Today we're offering a book that explores what the Bible says about life after death. The book is titled Heaven on Earth, What the Bible Teaches About Life to Come. The author is Pastor Derek Thomas, and he draws from scripture to give us a clearer picture of what life will be like in eternity. For example, he addresses questions like, is heaven a physical place or some ethereal notion?

And will we have physical bodies? If you're anxious about some of the unanswered questions you have about heaven, the book Heaven on Earth provides biblically solid insight into what the afterlife will be like. And I want to suggest to you, if you have someone you know who's dealing with the reality of death, this book gives them a reason for hope and even a longing for what is yet to come. You can request your copy of Heaven on Earth when you give online at truthforlife.org slash donate or call us at 888-588-7884.

I'm Bob Lapine. Does it seem strange to you that the ultimate purpose of Jesus' birth was his death? Tomorrow, Alistair takes a closer look at the great mystery and victory of Christmas. Be sure to listen then. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.