O Father Your Word tells us that if we resist the devil, he will flee from us. And  so we ask now that You would teach us from the life and example of Your Son, how we may become more than conquerors through You who love us. Fortify our faith, our hope, and our love, by the power of the Holy Spirit, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. 

How would you tell the complete story of your life? Your birth, your youth, your maturation, your death? If you had the opportunity and ability to write your autobiography, what metaphors would you use to describe your life story? What genre would the movie version of your life fall into? Tragedy? Comedy? Adventure? Romance? Some mix of all the above?

• Well in the Bible, God gives us many different metaphors to describe the history of the world, and the story arc of individual people and families.
• Perhaps the most common metaphor the Bible uses is the metaphor of life as a Journey, as a long walk from one place to another. From the garden to the wilderness, and back again. From Egypt to the wilderness to the promised land.
  • We see this in the book of Proverbs that there is a way/path of wisdom, and the fear of the Lord that leads to life, and then there is the way/path of folly, which leads to death.
  • Jesus uses this Journeying/Walking metaphor in his Sermon on the Mount when he says, Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it (Matthew 7:13-14).So according to God’s Word, you are on a journey in some direction. You have a choice between good and evil, right and wrong, the easy way to death, or the difficult way to life. Life is a journey, a coming of age story, towards either heaven or hell. Do you believe this?
• Now another metaphor the Bible gives us, is the metaphor of life as a Battle. Life as Warfare. Life is a competition, a showdown, a duel to the death between sin and righteousness, between good and evil. And under this metaphor, every Christian is a kind of soldier in the Lord’s army. Yes, there are people who switch sides, there are people who betray the cause, there are deserters, there are cowards who shrink back in fear. But the Christian life is a warfare, against the evil inside of us, and the evil outside of us.
  • Paul in 2 Timothy 2:3, Endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
  • In Ephesians 6 Paul tells us to, Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
  • In Colossians 3:4 he says, Put to death your [own] members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. These must die!
  • What is the life of a Christian? It is a journey, it is a voyage, it is a competition, it is a coming-of-age story, it is the romance of heaven and earth, and it is a war to the death to win your soul.
• Do you think about your own life in these terms? In Biblical terms? Do you see yourself the way God wants you to see yourself? Where there are real enemies who hate you and want you dead, the world, the flesh, and the devil, and so you must put on the armor of God every single day until God gives you permanent victory and peace.
• Well in our text this morning, we see that the life of Jesus, was a life of warfare. It was a battle of wits and wills for the salvation of the world. Jesus and everyone who wants to follow Jesus is like a warrior signing up to enter the Colosseum. This life is a gladiator match. Your opponents are the devil, and your own sinful flesh, and heaven is the great cloud of witnesses cheering in the stands.
• The great puritan John Owen once said, “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” And that really summarizes what is at stake every day that you wake up and get out of bed. You are entering the Colosseum again. You must put on your armor again. You must pick up your Bible and read it again. You must get on your knees and pray again. You must forgive your debtors again. You must seek forgiveness again.
• And this is because, the devil is an experienced tempter, your flesh is weak, and Satan loves to exert all his force on the weakest part of your soul. And so how can you withstand such temptations? How can you fortify your heart and mind against the many schemes of the devil?
• This Jesus shows us how to do in his own showdown with Satan.
• And so this morning I want us to walk through this text to answer one big question, and that is: How do you overcome temptation? How do you win in this battle for your soul? Let us see how the Lord Jesus teaches us.

Our text divides into two basic sections.

• In verses 1-2 we have The Occasion of Temptation.
• In verses 3-13 we have Jesus Resisting Temptation.
  • The Occasion, and the Resistance.

1And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

2Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

• First recall that Jesus has just been baptized by John the Baptist. Heaven opened, a dove descended, and the Father announced, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased (Luke 3:22).
• And then we see that Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Jesus chooses to go to the place of testing. Why does he do this?
  • Jesus is reenacting the history of Israel. Israel was chosen by God to be His priestly nation. God says to Moses in Exodus 4:22-23,Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Israel is My son, My firstborn. So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn.”
  • And then because Pharaoh refused to comply, hardened his heart, and would not let them go, God fulfilled His Word.Pharoah and all of those without the Passover lamb, suffered the loss of their firstborn son.
  • So just as Israel was led out of Egypt and baptized in the Red Sea, so also Jesus was baptized in the Jordan river. And just as Israel was tempted for 40 years in the wilderness, Jesus is tempted for 40 days.
  • Recall that the journey from the wilderness to the promised land was only an 11-day journey. But because they complained, rebelled, and broke God’s covenant, gave in to temptation, that 11-day journey turned into a 40-year punishment.
  • As the saying goes, “You can take Israel out of Egypt in a day, but you need 40 years to get Egypt out of Israel.” This was true for them. And it is often too true for us as well. God redeems us from this sinful world in a moment of Divine grace, but the rest of our lives is then God continuing to get that sinful world out of our hearts.
• So Jesus goes into the wilderness to succeed where Israel failed. Jesus is the natural firstborn Son of God, He is the new Israel, and He has come to re-write all our failures by His own perfect obedience. Jesus goes to be tempted in the wilderness as an act of divine grace for you and me.
• A second reason Jesus goes into the wilderness is to teach us that after our baptism, tests will come. We thought becoming a Christian would make our lives better and easier, and in many ways it does. It says in Proverbs 4:18-19, The path of the just is like the shining sun, That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know what makes them stumble.
  • But there is this important caveat: Now that you are on the side of the angels, a child of God, Satan hates you far more than he hated you before. The more full of the Holy Spirit you are, the more Satan would love to take you down.
  • We see in this in the Old Testament with the story of Job. Who does Satan attack with every weapon he’s got? The most righteous man on earth. And then after Job suffers the loss of his children and his possessions, and still blesses God, God says to Satan in Job 2:3, Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause.
• So learn this lesson well: Satan hates you when you are sinning, but he hates you even more when you are not. Satan hates those he rules over, but he hates those he does not rule over even more. This was true of Job, it was true of Christ, and it will be true of all those who desire to follow Christ.
  • And this is an important lesson in how to overcome temptation: Be aware that after spiritual highs, after great successes, after your baptism and your filling with the Spirit, after fasting and prayer, Satan often comes to tempt. When we are weak and we know we are weak, we rely upon God and are protected. But sometimes we start to think our strength is from ourselves, and that becomes a new weakness.
  • And so what this means is that you must always be on guard and constantly casting yourself upon Divine mercy. There is a reason Jesus taught us to pray daily, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Because every day temptations come. Whether from the devil himself, or other people, or hard circumstances, or from our own sinful desires. Remember you are in a battle on at least three fronts: the world outside will assault you, the devil will shoot his fiery darts, and your own flesh wars against the spirit.
  • Do not underestimate your foe, or forget the foe within. If you do, you will easily fall into the Devil’s snare.
• So that’s the first thing we need to learn from Jesus. Note the occasions when the devil likes to tempt. And don’t think that just because you are full of the Spirit or baptized, that temptations will not come, assuredly they will.
• And this brings us to verses 3-12 where we see the kinds of temptations that devil uses against Christ, and there are three principal temptations here.
  • The first is an appeal to the human appetite. (vs 3-4)
  • The second is an appeal to human ambition. (vs 5-8)
  • And the third an appeal to human presumption. (vs 9-12)
  • So let us see how the devil tempts and how Christ responds.

3And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.

4And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

• Notice that the devil begins by questioning Jesus’ identity. Most likely at this stage in Christ’s ministry, because he has not yet performed any miracles, the devil is unsure whether Jesus is a mere man or something more. And so he tempts to find out, and he also tempts to make him fall.
  • And this is also how the devil often assaults us. He questions whether we are really the children of God. He sows seeds of doubt in our heart: “If God really loved you, would He let you suffer as you do?” “If you are really a child of God, wouldn’t God want you to be happy? Wouldn’t He want you to satisfy your appetite?”
  • How many Christians have been seduced by this lie. That God is not actually as good as He says He is, and because God must want me to be happy, He must want me to take and do what I think will make me happy. This is America’s sin. God blessed us in many ways, we forgot God in our prosperity, and now we are paying the consequences for elevating our own appetites above the will of God. This we must repent of and resist with all our might.
• This first temptation is very similar to the first temptation in the Garden. Remember the serpent comes to Eve and questions God’s goodness saying, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”… “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen. 3:1, 4-5) The devil appeals to Eve’s appetite for knowledge, for god-likeness, for the forbidden fruit.
• And now Jesus is being tempted like our first parents were tempted. The first Adam gave in to his appetite for what God had prohibited, and now the Last Adam, Christ Jesus fights how Adam should have fought, using the word of God. How does Jesus respond?
  • He responds by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. And the context of that quotation is Moses reminding Israel, before they enter the promised land, how God has provided them with manna for 40 years. Deuteronomy 8 goes on to recall God’s faithfulness in the past and His promise for the future saying: Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.
    • So while Satan tempts us to take right now what God has promised to give us later, Jesus fights back with those promises, and the remembrance of God’s faithfulness.
• And this is how you and I must fight. We must keep heaven before our eyes, a world in which there is no sorrow, no tears, no death, no pain. Because that is what awaits us if we persevere in the faith: joy inexpressible and full of glory. When Satan tempts you with a good, look to the greater good that God has in store for those who love Him.
• Moreover, you should also fear the consequences of giving in to temptation. Because every time you sin, you weaken your will to resist the next time. And if you give in now, and don’t repent immediately and go in the opposite direction, you are running the risk of self-deception unto destruction. And then once you die, there is no more opportunity to repent, and even if there was, you would not choose it. A will that turns away from God in this life, will remain that way forever. And that should make you fear and tremble and beg for God’s mercy to sustain you.
  • As it says in 2 Peter 2:19-21, For by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.
• This brings us to the second temptation.

5And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. [this likely some kind of vision]

6And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.

7If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

8And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

• First observe the lies, the sinking sand, that Satan builds his temptations on.Satan offers to Jesus what he does not actually have the power to give.
  • He says to Jesus, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
  • But who is the one delegates authority? Who is the one who owns the world? It is God, not Satan. Satan is a usurper. He claims what does not belong to him and then tries to trick as many as he can to enthrone him above God.
  • This is why Jesus calls Satan a thief, a liar, and a murderer from the beginning. He says in John 10:10, The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
  • When King Nebuchadnezzar committed this sin of Satan, attributing to himself a power and glory that belong to God, God rebuked him saying, King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: the kingdom has departed from you! And they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen; and seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses.
  • Satan cannot give what he does not possess. And while Jesus could have refuted Satan with many other possible passages and truths, like “I am the God who has all authority,” instead he chooses to quote from Deuteronomy.
    • And this is because Jesus wants to help us overcome our temptations.Jesus alone can say I AM GOD, whereas you and I cannot. And so Jesus uses a weapon that we also can use. And that is appealing to the written Word, It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
      • This is first commandment stuff, “No other gods before me.” And with this weapon of loyalty to the one true God, Jesus rebukes the devil.
• Third and finally, the devil appeals to the vice of presuming upon God to intervene.

9And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:

10For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:

11And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

12And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

13And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.

• Now the devil is using Scripture to try to force Jesus’ hand.
  • It says in Psalm 91:11-12, For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
  • And so Satan is weaponizing the promises of God to protect His people, to get Jesus to kill himself.
  • Make no mistake. This is the devil inciting self-harm, suicide, death, and he is willing to use Scripture to convince Jesus that, “If God really loves you He will stop you, so give it a try.”
• Do you see how cruel the devil is in his temptations? He cannot help himself. He wants Jesus to eat rocks, not bread. He wants Jesus to bow down to him, not God. He wants Jesus to kill himself, and he baits the hooks with the Word of God. Satan will take what God intends for your salvation (Holy Scripture), and he will twist it for your damnation.
  • Are you aware of the ways that you are tempted to be presumptuous, to be passive when God tells you to be active, to blame God when you are the one responsible for your actions?
  • As my former pastor Doug Wilson likes to say, “God does not steer parked cars.” So are you moving in faith? Walking by faith? Working out what God is working within? If not, then you are tempting God, you are being presumptuous.
• Well how does Jesus overcome this temptation? He could have refuted Satan’s exegesis of Psalm 91. For the Psalm begins by saying, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. In other words, God’s promise of rescue is contingent upon remaining in God’s house, dwelling with Him, not casting yourself away from His presence. Moreover, the kind of deliverance that God promises is eternal and spiritual, not merely temporal and physical. For the Psalm concludes saying, With long life will I satisfy him, And shew him my salvation.
• But Jesus does not choose to engage with Satan on Psalm 91. Instead he goes back to Deuteronomy for the third time, and selects a verse that clearly condemns what the devil is suggesting, it says in Deuteronomy 6:16, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
  • And this itself is instructive for us. There are times when we are outmatched by our opponents, by heretics, by wicked smart false teachers. Their knowledge of Scripture and history surpasses our own. And yet if you Christian, know the Ten Commandments, if you know the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostle’s Creed, the basics of loving God and loving your neighbor, and are whole-heartedly seeking to honor God, then you have more weapons than you might think.
  • And if Jesus, who knows everything, fought the devil with the same Scripture that you and I have, then that Scripture is also sufficient for us to overcome temptation as well.
  • Moreover, we have this promise from God in 1 Corinthians 10:13, No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

• Learn to fight like Jesus fights. Review the armory of truths you already know, and then add to that armory when you meditate on God’s Word. When you hear these sermons. When you pray and sing the Psalms.
  • Paul says to Timothy, Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. (1 Tim. 6:12).
  • The same can be said to you who confess the Creed every week. Who confess your sins every Lord’s Day. Who confess that Jesus is LORD to the glory of God the Father. Hold fast to that confession of faith steadfast till the end.
  • If you make gaining Christ your highest ambition, one day you will be able to say with Paul in 2 Timothy 4:7,I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
• May God grant you to gain the victory and triumph, through the power of Christ’s love working within you, to the glory of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

O Father, we thank You for the revelation of Your Son Jesus Christ, in whom the human race may now find salvation. Grant us now to behold the wonders of Your law, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

When do you most feel the good pleasure of God? Have you ever felt as if God is in heaven, looking down upon you with a big smile, loving who you are, loving what you are doing, delighting in your thoughts and actions because they bring glory to Him? Have you experienced the Father’s good pleasure before?

• Well, here in our text, Jesus shows us both what God takes pleasure in, and how we also may share in his Father’s delight. Moreover, Luke shows us by this long genealogy that God has been planning this revelation of His love from the foundation of the world.
• The revelation of the love of God in Son of God is the centerpiece of human history. The patriarchs looked forward to it, we now look backward to it, and as it says in John 1:12, as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
  • In other words, by believing in Jesus, you are now included in that long genealogy of Jesus, not according to the flesh, but as a descendant of His according to the Spirit, and indeed that is what your baptism signifies: Your rebirth into the family of God. Your connection to the royal line of God’s Son. Your adoption by the grace of the Heavenly Father.
  • Innumerable blessings flow from this union with Christ, and yet far too many Christians neglect these blessings, or live in ignorance of them. We forget to make use of the many diverse graces God offers us in His beloved Son.
    • It says in Psalm 103:2-5, Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. And on and on it goes!
  • And so if you are weary, if your strength is waning, if it has been a long time since you’ve felt the Father’s good pleasure, here in our text Jesus will show you the way to enjoy that good pleasure again. Or if you have never known the love of the Father before, perhaps today can be that day for you.

• Our text divides into two basic sections.
  • In verses 21-22, we have The Baptism of Christ.
  • In verses 23-38, we have The Genealogy of Christ.
    • And as an aside, we won’t spend much time on the actual contents of the genealogy, but if you want to how this harmonizes with Matthew, or why it has 77 names in it, there are plenty of books I can recommend to you ifthat’s a puzzle you want to explore.
• The big question we should ask though is, Why does Luke wait until the 3rd chapter of his gospel to give us this long list of names? Matthew begins his gospel with a genealogy, but Luke reserves this information so he can link it up with Jesus’ baptism? Why is this?
  • The main reason is because: who Jesus is, is the explanatory key to unlocking the rest of the book. If you do not know and believe that Jesus is both perfect God and perfect man, that He is both human and divine, you will not understand what Jesus is doing and why he is doing what he does.
  • And so in this baptism, and in this genealogy, Luke points us to the twofold sonship of Christ. He is the earthly son of Adam, and the eternal Son of God. He is the most beloved Son of the Father, in whom the Holy Spirit abides, and He is the adopted son of Joseph. And it is this twofold sonship that mirrors and reflects the way that God saves us.
  • Jesus is by nature divine, the natural son of God, but he has a legally adopted human father according to the flesh, Joseph. Whereas we are all natural sons of Adam, children of wrath, dead in sin, but God legally adopts us as His own.
    • So what Jesus is by nature, we are by adoption, and what we are by nature, Jesus is by adoption. This is the beautiful harmony and touchpoint of how God saves the human race. The son of God became the son of man so the sons of men could become sons of God. That is the main point of this genealogy.
  • So already Luke is priming us with the truths that we need to understand Christ. Because Jesus is going to do and say things later that are hard to understand, but if we remember that He is perfect God and perfect man, we will see the purpose for his actions: 1) They are to save us, and 2) they are to teach us. They are to reveal to us the true nature of God, and they are to show us how we may become partakers of God, conformed in our sufferings to Christ. And this is especially evident in Jesus’ baptism.

21Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,

22And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.

• There are three amazing mysteries here: The mystery of the Holy Trinity, the mystery of the Incarnation, and the mystery of our Salvation. And in order to understand a little bit of these mysteries, we can ask some Why questions that this scene provokes.
• First of all, Why was Jesus baptized? We know that John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance, but if Jesus is God and he is perfect, he has no sins to repent of. So what then is the purpose for Jesus undergoing this ritual?
  • There are at least five reasons for the baptism of Christ.
  • 1. The first reason comes from the mouth of Christ, who says to John, when John is insisting that he needs to be baptized by Jesus, Jesus says to him in Matthew 3:15, Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Jesus is baptized to fulfill all righteousness.
    • That means, Jesus came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law, and it was the righteous thing to do at that time to be baptized by John. Jesus is a new Israel, doing what the law of God required.
  • 2. The second reason for undergoing baptism is to teach us humility. Jesus, who is John’s superior, and who has a superior baptism to John (with fire and the Holy Ghost), voluntarily makes himself inferior to John. And by this action Jesus shows us what his whole ministry is about, serving those inferior to Him. And thereby, teaching us how we may fulfill all righteousness, by serving even those who are inferior to us.
    • In Philippians 2:5-8, Paul calls this “the mind of Christ.” Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
    • So Jesus begins his public ministry the way he will end it. By voluntarily subjecting himself to his inferiors. By doing what is not personally necessary for himself, but which is most necessary for us sinners. Jesus is the God and King and Lord who stoops low to serve us, and is exalted on high because of his humiliation.
    • So do you follow in his train? Does this kind of humility and service characterize your life? Do you submit to those who are superior to you? Do you honor those who are equals with you? And do you humble yourself to serve even your inferiors for their good? For this reason, Jesus was baptized by John.
  • 3. The third reason Jesus undergoes baptism, is to bury the Old Adam. This is another reason Luke links the genealogy to his baptism, because in Christ, the old man dies, and the new man is reborn.
    • Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
    • How does a person get into Christ?
    • Paul says in Romans 6 that it is by baptism. Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
    • Jesus was baptized to teach us how the old man dies. He dies through union with Jesus’ death, and he rises again in union with Jesus’ life.
    • Elsewhere Paul tells us to reenact our baptism on a daily basis.He says in Colossians 3:9-10, Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.
    • And he says in Ephesians 4:22,that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
  • 4. The fourth reasons Jesus was baptized, was to remove any excuse for us not being baptized.
    • If you believe in Jesus but refuse baptism, you are failing in your very first step as a disciple. Are you more holy than Jesus? Are you wiser than God as to the necessity for baptism? Are you not actually a sinner in need of cleansing? If Jesus was baptized and had no need for repentance, how can you refuse what you do need, and what the Lord commands?
    • In the very first sermon of the Apostle Peter, what does he say? It says in Acts 2:38, Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
    • This brings us to our fifth reason for Jesus’ baptism.
  • 5. Jesus was baptized to show us that through Him heaven is made open to us.
    • No man can enter heaven’s door unless he is perfect. Unless his sins have been blotted out, washed away by the blood of Christ. And in baptism, this is what God does for us, He forgives our sins.
      • Jesus says in John 3:5, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
      • And Paul says in Galatians 3:27, For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
      • And that means that wherever Christ goes, you may go also. If Jesus has access to heaven, so may you through Him.
      • This is how Paul can say in Ephesians 2:6, that we are seated with Christ in heavenly places.
      • And in Hebrews 9:24 it says, For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.
    • So Jesus is baptized to signify that he is the anointed high priest in the order of Melchizedek, He is the one mediator between God and men (1 Tim. 2:5).
      • This is why Paul tells us in Hebrews to keep our hope and our heart anchored in heaven, because that is where Christ is right now interceding for us.
      • He says in Hebrews 4:14-16, Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
    • So do you see what your baptism into Christ gives you access to?
      • You now have a direct line to heaven! You have high-priest who can sympathize with your weakness. And so do you make use of that direct line? Are you constantly on the horn with God, making your requests known to Him? Because God wants to hear from you far more than you want to be heard, and so go to Him “in Jesus’ name.” Baptism gives you access to heaven, but you still have to make use of that access through prayer.
• And in fact we discover that this is also something Jesus does when he is baptized. It says, in verse 21, Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened.
• This bring us to a second Why question: If Jesus is God, if Jesus is perfect man, why does He pray? Is He just talking to Himself? Yes and No.
  • This is where we dip into the mystery of the Trinity and the mystery of the Incarnation. As God, according to His divine nature, Jesus is one with the Father and the same One God who hears and answers prayer. But as man, according to His human nature, Jesus prays to be heard and to teach us how to pray.
  • It says in Hebrews 5:7-9, who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death [God the Father], and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.
  • As God, Jesus answers prayers together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, they are the One God who answers prayer. But as man, Jesus prays, he cries out, he cries tears, in order to be heard, in order to teach us how just how essential and necessary prayerful obedience to God is. This is why Jesus prays, because according to His divinity He answers.
• We may also ask the question: In what sense did Jesus praying and obeying make Him “more perfect?” How do you perfect perfection?
  • The greater perfection that Jesus achieved, was not a moral perfection (which he always had), but the perfection of his body and ministry. The perfection of glorification. The perfection of completing his mission to the cross.
  • Prior to his death, Jesus’ body could suffer. He hungered, he was thirsty, he felt sorrow, pain, and deprivation. His body could be cut and it could bleed. But after his obedience unto death Jesus is perfected by his resurrection, never to die or suffer again.
  • And so Jesus is perfected as the author of our salvation, as the immortal man, the immortal king, who begets immortal sons and daughters who by dying shall never die again. This is the hope of the Christian faith.
  • As it says in 1 Peter 1:3-4, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.
  • So Jesus was perfected in glory to perfect you for glory. And he did this by a prayerful and constant obedience to God.
• And so if Jesus was devoted to prayer and he was sinless, how much more should we be devoted to prayer who still struggle with sin?
  • St Augustine says, “once we are washed in baptism, daily we are washed in prayer.”
  • Prayer is how we renew our minds. Prayer is how we renew our love for God. Prayer is what keeps us in heaven with Christ,which is why we are told to pray without ceasing.
  • Prayer is what gives us the peace of God, as it says in Isaiah 26:3, You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.
  • And so see what results from baptism and prayer. See what God reveals at the baptism and praying of Christ?
• It says in verse 22, And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.
  • A third and final Why question we may ask is, Why the Holy Spirit descends likes a dove?
  • 1. First because a dove signifies innocence. And Jesus is the innocent one.
  • 2. Second is because a dove signifies peace. And the Holy Spirit is the peace of God, and Christ the one who will make peace by his death.
  • 3. Third is because in Noah’s day, the dove was sent out after the flood to find a place to rest. And Jesus is the final resting place for those who desire eternal rest. Jesus is the new creation, who ascends from the flood waters of death. And by hiding yourself in the Ark that is Jesus, you may find refuge from the flood of final judgment. He will carry you safely to the new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells.

And so I ask again as we close: Have you felt the good pleasure of God? Have you experienced the peace that comes from prayer and baptism, and taking refuge in Jesus? Have you experienced what we sing about in Psalm 149? For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation.

• It says in Hebrews 11:6-7, But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
• So if you would please God, if you want to feel the Father’s good pleasure, then diligently seek Him. Trust in Jesus as your reward. Condemn this world like Noah did, by living a life of faith, and you shall enjoy for all eternity the good pleasure of God. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

O Father, we thank You that while evil rulers may try to imprison and behead your messengers, Your message of truth conquers nonetheless. We thank You for the bold preaching of John. We thank You for Christ’s greater baptism, with the Holy Spirit and fire. We thank you for converting us, for setting our hearts ablaze with divine charity. And we ask that our love would increase and bear fruits worthy of repentance. For we ask all of this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

After two long chapters looking at the birth and youth of Christ, Luke now jumps ahead in time to when John and Jesus are grown men. John and Jesus are now around 30 years of age, and it is John’s preaching that will go before Jesus’ preaching. John’s baptism will go before Jesus’ baptism. And so already God is fulfilling what He promised earlier in Luke 1:16-17 when He said to Zacharias (John’s father), And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

• And so how does a person prepare to prepare to meet Jesus? How should you prepare to meet your Creator one day before Whom you shall give an account?
• Well, that is what this passage is all about answering. It is John’s job, his special calling, to prepare people, not only for Jesus’ earthly ministry, but for final judgment. And in that respect, you are not very different from John’s 1st century audience. You too are either wheat or chaff, a dead tree or a living tree, and depending on your state, you are headed in one of two directions: Either for God’s heavenly kingdom in glory, or for the flames of eternal punishment.
• This is the gospel John comes preaching, “repent and believe, or else.” This is the same gospel Jesus comes preaching. He says later in Luke 13:3, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Jesus says in John 8:24, If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. Jesus says in Mark 11:26, But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive you.
• And so your salvation is dependent upon repentance, faith, forgiveness, bearing fruits for God. All of those actions are effects of divine grace, but they are effects that you must choose to manifest.
• God does not merely ordain the final destination of His elect; He also ordains all the intermediate steps between. God does not merely predestine us for heaven; He predestines all the means for us to get to there. And those means include your free choice to repent of your sins and to follow Jesus, not just once, but every single day. God is so powerful that He can move us to freely will what He wills.
  • This is the meaning of what Paul says in Philippians 2:12-13, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
  • Jude says likewise in Jude 20-21, But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
• So are you keeping yourself in the love of God? Are you working out what God is working within? Because this is what John charges his hearers to do if they would be ready for Christ and Christ’s judgment.

Now our text here divides into three sections:

• In verses 1-6 we have The Prophet’s Mission
• In verses 7-17 we have The Prophet’s Preaching
• In verses 18-20 we have The Prophet’s Imprisonment
  • Who is John? John is a man on a mission, that mission is to preach, and because of his preaching he will end up in prison. That’s the basic flow of the text.

1Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,

2Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.

• Observe the state of Israel when God’s kingdom comes. A Gentile Roman Caesar Tiberius is the most powerful man militarily speaking, and he has governors beneath him called tetrarchs. A tetrarch just means a ruler of 1/4th. And so Israel is divided into four different provinces/jurisdictions, Herod’s sons govern three areas, and the Roman Pontius Pilate governs the fourth.
  • We see also the Jewish high priesthood is divided between two different men, Annas and Caiaphas. We know from Josephus that Annas was basically a mafia Don. He would put out hits on people, he would pay people off. He was like the godfather of a Sadducean crime family. And although Annas had been deposed by the Romans, his son-in-law Caiaphas had been appointed in his stead. Nevertheless, Annas still had so much sway in Jerusalem, that when Jesus is brought for his trial, we are told in John 18:13, they led him away to Annas first; for he was father in law to Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same year. So Caiaphas may be high priest, but Annas is the real power behind him.
• So the world of John the Baptist is a world governed by corrupt and evil men, both in the civil realm and in the religious realm. Luke is giving us the names here of men who will later conspire to kill Jesus. So church and state have become offices/institutions of oppression, injustice, and heresy.
  • The Sadducees were essentially Jewish heretics (they denied the resurrection, they denied the immortality of the soul, Acts 23:8), and compared to the Sadducees, the Pharisees almost look like the good guys.
  • The Pharisees have the distinct honor of being that class of people Jesus most frequently argues with. So Jesus at least thinks the Pharisees are worthy of debate, and indeed a number of prominent Pharisees will convert to Christianity. Nicodemus being one of them, and others later in the book of Acts (Acts 6:7), most importantly The Apostle Paul.
• Now all of this corruption at the top is what Nebuchadnezzar had dreamt about some 600 years earlier. When Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the great statue of four kingdoms, he tells him in Daniel 2:43-44, As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.
  • So the Romans are the iron kingdom, and the Herodian/Jewish alliance is the clay, and while they rule together, they will never be able to adhere and achieve a unity, and Daniel says this is when the kingdom of Christ shall begin.
  • So Luke gives us these seven different names of priests and kings because Jesus is coming as the final priest-king Melchizedek. The dominion belongs to Jesus both in the church and outside the church, and none can escape His everlasting rule. This is what Daniel prophesies, it is what John comes to prepare people for, and it is what Jesus Himself will come proclaiming, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15).

3And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins;

4As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

5Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth;

6And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

• Here Luke quotes from Isaiah 40, and he identifies John as the voice who comes before the Word. Jesus is the eternal Word made flesh (he is the salvation of God), and John is the voice who shall speak of Him.
• We observe also that John is baptizing in the Jordan river, and he is a voice crying out in the wilderness.
• Why the wilderness? The wilderness is where God first formed Israel into a nation. The wilderness is where God tests people, it is a place of purgation, of cleansing, of learning to trust God and forsaking the vices of Egypt. The wilderness is where God makes for Himself a holy people, and enters into a marriage covenant with them. The wilderness is also where the holy prophets take refuge and gather when tyrants are on the throne.
  • So John is a man of the wilderness. And he is showing by his location what Israel most needs, where Israel needs to go. They need to be re-constituted as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. They need to be re-sanctified, re-born, and the way they do this is by repentance unto life. John comes preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. This is what the wilderness is for: purging us of evil.
• It is also significant that John baptizes in the Jordan river. The Jordan river was where Israel crossed and followed Joshua to enter the promised land. The Jordan River is where Elijah crossed and gave a double portion of his spirit to Elisha. The Jordan river was where Elisha told Naaman the Syrian to be baptized and cleansed of his leprosy (2 Kings 5).
  • And so by baptizing in the Jordan, John is coming in the spirit and power of Elijah, and he is saying to Israel that they are unclean like Naaman the Syrian. They are lepers in need of a miraculous cleansing, and only God can heal them.
• We see also that John is a voice that cries out in the wilderness. John does not speak softly, he preaches loudly, he shouts at people. Why?
  • There are three basic reasons we shout at someone.
    • 1. Because they are deaf or hard of hearing.
    • 2. Because they are far away from us.
    • 3. Because we are angry.
  • And all three of these conditions apply in John’s case.
    • Israel is deaf to God’s voice, and so John cries out.
    • Israel is far away from God and so John cries out.
    • Israel is suffering under God’s anger, and so John cries out.
• And what does God do with those loud cries of John? He uses his voice to pave a straight path into people’s hearts, to turn them and prepare them to receive and embrace Christ.
  • John’s preaching is like a bulldozer, an excavator, the concrete trucks and rollers to make Christ’s entrance smooth. The proud must be humbled. The humbled must be encouraged. The perverse must be made pure, the crooked man made straight.
  • John preaches with hard words because our hearts need the pounding. We all need to be softened to receive the Word that is Jesus. Jesus will say the same thing in his parable of the soils. And James 1:21 says likewise, Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness (softness) the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
• John cries out to awaken our deaf hears, to call us nearer to God, and to warn us of the wrath of God, the final judgment. John is the first trumpet blast to warn us of God’s kingdom. Only the righteous may enter, and the righteous enter by faith.
• This brings us to verses 7-17 where we hear The Prophet’s Preaching. How does John begin his sermon to Israel? Well, he begins by insulting them.

7Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

8Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

9And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

• Now one of the first rules of rhetoric, or public speaking, is that in your introduction you want to endear people to what you have to say. And usually insulting your audience is not the best way to do that.
• However here a strong rebuke is a most kind introduction. And that is because John loves these people, he loves this brood of vipers and wants them to be converted from snakes to saints.
  • John wants everyone to know up front, “I know what you are. And I have not come here to tell you stories or to entertain you, I am not here to gain a following for myself or to build some platform, I don’t really care about your esteem or admiration. I am simply here because the way you are living right now will destroy you.”
  • Moreover, John says to them, “You think you can escape the wrath of God just by going through the motions of getting baptized and professing repentance (cause everyone else is doing it). Or maybe you think you are too good for that, you aren’t unclean, because you can trace your lineage back to Abraham. Abraham was holy, so you must be holy to.”
  • John says, “No. None of that.None of that matters unless you personally live differently than you are living right now. There’s a time for talk, but the time for talk is over. The time for action is now. Bear fruits keeping with your baptism, keeping with your profession, otherwise you are a hypocrite or self-deceived.”
• John rebukes them, he shouts at them, because he loves them. These crowds coming out to him are the seed of the serpent, the offspring of Satan, the devil is their daddy, and they are in denial about it. And so John is trying to wake them up to what they really are, to their true serpentine nature, and to that poison within that will kill them. Remember what God says will happen to serpents? They get their head crushed. And John would spare them that, if only they will repent.
  • And so he begins by calling them what they are: A generation of vipers.
• How do those vipers respond to this? Those who hear and fear for their lives ask him, “What shall we do then?” And in verses 10-14, there are three classes of people who ask this question, wanting to be baptized, and receive an answer.
  • Those three classes are the 1) the common people, 2) the tax collectors, and 3) the soldiers.

10And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then?

11He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise.

12Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do?

13And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you.

14And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.

• To the common people John says,He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.
  • This is a call to love your neighbor as yourself, to clothe the naked and feed the starving.
  • And this is not actually a work of mercy, it is actually a work of justice. It is due to man as man, as made in God’s image, to not be naked, and to not starve to death. And if a society is unwilling to feed and clothe those who are destitute, that is a society that has lost touch with its own humanity. It says in Proverbs 12:10, The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.
  • Right now, America is a place where food is abundant and clothes are cheap. It might not be healthy, but you will not starve. Our bigger problem is obesity, cancer, heart disease. Even many of the homeless have more than two tunics, some of them have smartphones. But that was not always the case, and it will not always be the case if we persist in our rage against God and His law. We are still living off some of the Christian capital (moral and financial) of the past. But those accounts are dwindling, we could drain that in an instant.
    • For example, it is not just or humane to let drugs and immigrants cross our borders unchecked, or to give people clean needles so they can do their drugs more safely. It is evil to legalize things that turn people into zombies, that deface the very image of God within them. And yet this is what we do.
    • It is a scourge on our nation and our laws, that we tax our citizens to pay for people’s vices, and then people profit off those vices and so now there is a financial incentive to keep those vices going, and to expand them. This is casinos. This is marijuana shops. This is online gambling. This is all kinds of government programs and regulations that actually hurt the poor in the name of helping the poor, that actually oppress people in the name of liberating them.
    • And so to quote Psalm 11:3, If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do? John’s answer is the same as the Psalmist: You do what is just in the eyes of God.
      • Psalm 11 goes on to say, The Lord is in his holy temple, The Lord’s throne is in heaven: His eyes behold, His eyelids try, the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous: But the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, And an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; His countenance doth behold the upright.
      • This is the justice God wants from the repentant: Feed the starving, clothe the naked, and seek what is truly good for the poor in the eyes of God.
• The second class of people are the tax collectors, what should they do? To them John’s answer might be surprising. John does not tell them to quit their job. John does not tell them to stop collecting taxes. Instead he says, Exact no more than that which is appointed you. In other words, keep the law. Collect for Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but don’t use Caesar as pretext for your own greed and envy.
  • Later in Luke’s gospel, the tax collector Zacchaeus will be a shining example of what bearing the fruits of righteousness looks like in this vocation.
  • It says in Luke 19:8-10, Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
  • Zacchaeus was someone ready for Jesus. And so when Jesus says to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house,” Zacchaeus obeys. It says, So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully.
  • We could think also of Matthew the tax collector, who becomes a disciple of Jesus, and the author of the first gospel. John’s ministry was not in vain.
• The third and final class of people who ask John, “What shall we do?” are soldiers. If the common people are like the valleys and the hills made level by caring for one another, and the tax collectors are like the crooked made straight, then the soldiers are the rough ways made smooth.
  • How does a rough military man make ready for Jesus? John says,Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages. That phrase “do violence to no man” likely refers to extortion, or taking money by threats and intimidation.
  • John just gives the soldiers the 6th commandment, the 9th commandment, and the 10th commandment. No murder, no bearing false witness, no coveting. This is basic stuff. But we are bad at doing the basics.
  • And so John is calling them back to basics. Use your strength and sword to defend the innocent and punish the wicked (Romans 13). Use your authority and power to seek out the truth, don’t lie and intimidate to get your way. And be content with what you have.
• These are the fruits of righteousness. These qualities and actions reveal whether you are truly alive or dead inside. And lest you think these fruits are optional, John seals his sermon with a warning, a warning that points us to Jesus.

 15And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not;

16John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:

17Whose fan (winnowing fork) is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner (storehouse); but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.

• John is saying in effect, “However great or holy you think I am, I am nothing compared to Jesus. Jesus is the Judge with whom you have to do. If you think water baptism and my preaching is powerful, the one who comes after me is All Powerful, He baptizes with fire and the Holy Spirit. I can see your outward actions, but He can see your secret thoughts, He can see into your very soul, and most importantly, He can transform your soul by His grace.”
• This is the hope of John’s gospel: that those who are ready to receive Jesus, receive from Jesus a greater baptism, a baptism by fire and the Holy Ghost.
• And this is how God prepares us for judgment day. He gives His Holy Spirit, so that we can bear the fruit of the Spirit. He tries us and tests us by fire, to remove what is dross, chaff, and evil within us.
  • It says in 1 Peter 4:12-13, Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.
  • And Paul says likewise in 1 Corinthians 3:12-17, Now if anyone builds on this foundation [that is Christ] with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
• So the baptism of Jesus in fire and the Holy Spirit, makes us into temples. And then our job is to adorn that temple with good works. Works done poorly or half-heartedly are like wood, hay and straw, they will get burned up. But works done from genuine love, justice, mercy, charity, these are the gold, silver, and precious stones that glorify God and make us glorious.
• And this is what John is calling people to do when he says, bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do good works worthy of the God who saved you.
  • Or as Paul says in Ephesians 4:1-3, walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
  • These are the fruits that glorify God, and God rewards those who bear such fruits. And how does God reward John for his ministry?
  • We see in verses 18-20, that John’s preaching was rewarded with imprisonment, and imprisonment that ended in martyrdom. John was rewarded by sealing his testimony to Christ in blood.

18And many other things in his exhortation preached he unto the people.

19But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias his brother Philip’s wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done,

20Added yet this above all, that he shut up John in prison.

• John reproved Herod for his adulterous marriage to his half-brother’s wife. And because of that stand for justice, for his defense of marriage, John was rewarded with imprisonment and martyrdom.
  •  We call this a reward because Jesus says in Luke 6:22-23, Blessed are you when men hate you, And when they exclude you, And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.
• So John received and is now enjoying a great reward in heaven. He was faithful unto death, and so received the crown of life.
• And so imitate John’s faithfulness. Heed John’s warning. Repent of your sins and believe in Jesus. Kill the snake within you, and bear fruits worthy of a saint.
• And if you are godly, God might reward you with imprisonment, with false accusations, with hatred, martyrdom, and a name written in heaven’s book. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

O Father we acknowledge that while one person plants, and another person waters, it is You who give the growth. And so as we hear now Your Word preached, and we desire to make progress in grace, we ask that you would give the increase, make us to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit, even fruit that remains, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Children, Teenagers, I have a question for you: What would you do if you had three whole days to do whatever you wanted? No parents. No grandparents. No babysitter. No restrictions. No school. Let’s say you had the whole weekend all to yourself, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. What would you do with three full days of freedom?

• While you think about that, I’m going to ask your parents a question.
• Parents, how would you feel, if your children, your teenagers, were left all alone for three days without your supervision?
  • Would you be stressed out, or relieved? Would you be anxious and worried about them, waiting for the police to call, or would you not sweat it?
    • Granted, a lot depend on the ages of your children. I know I would be stressed out, I don’t think my children could survive three hours without supervision! So how would you feel?
• Alright, thought experiment over. Everyone come back from that dream (or nightmare).
• Children, what you want to do when nobody else is watching, reveals if you are good or bad, whether you are good and deserve more freedom, or whether you are bad and need more discipline.
• Teenagers, What you do when nobody is telling you what is right or wrong, reveals whether you deserve more freedom or less. Whether you are mature enough to drive a car, or have a smartphone, or hang out with those friends, or play that sport, or be in a relationship, or be left alone at all. What you do with the small measure of freedom you have, reveals whether you deserve more freedom or less.
• And this is because, age and maturity are not the same thing. God intends for your age and maturity to grow together, but because of our sin and our stubbornness, it often does not happen that way. In fact, some people never mature into who God created them to be. There are people in their 50s and 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, who are still like toddlers and teenagers in their heart, petty, bitter, entitled, resentful, and there is nothing more tragic than that.
  • It says in Proverbs 19:29, Judgments are prepared for scoffers, And beatings for the backs of fools.
  • It says in Proverbs 1:32, For the waywardness of the simple will slay them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them.
  • Too much freedom given too early will destroy you. Adam and Eve plunged our whole world into sin because they were impatient with God. Because they thought they were smarter than God, that they could handle right now what God had reserved for them later. And because of that disobedience, that failure of the test, God kicked them out of His house. They could not be trusted to tend and keep God’s garden sanctuary, because they could not tend and keep their own heart.
  • It says in Proverbs 4:23, Keep thy heart with all diligence; For out of it flow the issues of life.
  • It says in Proverbs 16:32, Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit [is stronger] than he who takes a city.
  • It says in Proverbs 14:12, There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. And this our first parents learned the hard way.
• So what about you? Are you impatient? Are you quick to get angry? Have you learned yet that shortcuts are actually the long way around? Does your maturity match your age? Does the wisdom of your soul fit with the stature of your body?
• You see none of us can stop growing older even if we wanted to. But to grow in maturity requires a deliberate choice. A choice that you must make each day to follow Jesus or not. To obey your parents, or not. To obey God, or not.
  • God says to His people (after 40 years in the wilderness taking the long way to the promised land) in Deuteronomy 30:19-20, I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cleave to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days.
  • Paul says likewise in Ephesians 6:1-2, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”
• God wants you to grow in maturity, because maturity means life. Maturity means eternal life. And isn’t that what you want?
• If so, the boy Jesus will teach you. Here in our passage, we have Jesus at twelve years of age, with his parents, and without them. With supervision, and then without supervision for three whole days. And at the end of this scene, what does Luke tell us? And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.
• So what we can learn about maturity from the boy Jesus?

There are three principal actions that contribute to our advance in grace, and we’ll use these three actions as the basic outline for our text, and then note some lessons connected to these actions.

• In verses 41-45, we have the Public Worship of God.
• In verses 46-47, we have Personal Study of God.
• And then in verses 48-51, Obedience to God-Given Authorities.
  • Three actions: Public Worship, Personal Study, and Obeying God’s Authority, these are the three principal actions that Jesus models as the path to maturity.

41Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.

42And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.

• So first observe that Jesus has godly parents with godly customs, and therefore Jesus follows them in those customs.
  • Joseph and Mary have made it a habit every year to attend the Passover in Jerusalem. How much time did that take?
    • It’s about 90 miles from Nazareth to Jerusalem. And so to walk that distance would take at least 3-4 days or more depending on the pace and the roads. And altogether this would have been 2-3 weeks away from home, 2-3 weeks of not working, of living on the road, of lodging with strangers, or just sleeping in tents outside, and yet that journey was formative for God’s people, and something Joseph and Mary wanted to do together as a family.
  • We know from Exodus 23 and Deuteronomy 16 that grown men were required to appear before God three times a year (for Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles). And yet Mary and Jesus accompany Joseph on his journey, because they too want to appear before the Lord. They want to partake of the Passover and remember God’s great deliverance of Israel from Egypt.
  • So this was the custom of Jesus’ parents, and Jesus embraces these customs as his own.  Of course, according to His divine nature Jesus is the one who gave these customs, and now according to His human nature he gets to observe them.
• So parents, do you have godly customs? Do you prioritize the public worship of God over everything else? Do you “remember the sabbath day to keep it holy?” Do you honor God with the first fruits of your increase? Are you showing by your actions where you heart is. Are you teaching your children what is actually important to you?
  • If not, you are putting a stumbling block in the way of your children following Jesus. How can you say to them, “follow me as I follow Christ,” if you are not following Christ?
• Children, do you walk in the same godly customs as your parents? Do you choose not only to walk in them, but also to enjoy them and make them your own?
  • You have a choice about whether you will conform or not to the ways of God. And this is one of those places where you should not try to stand out, you should not try to distinguish yourself, you should not pretend or think you are too cool for church. Too cool to raise your hands and sing, or get on your knees and confess your sins. Corporate worship is not the place for individual personal self-expression, it is the place to conform yourself to the Word of God, and to the customs of the people of God, not to invent your own. These are the old paths, and God wants you walk in them.
• It says in Proverbs 4:10-15,Hear, my son, and receive my sayings, And the years of your life will be many. I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in right paths. When you walk, your steps will not be hindered, And when you run, you will not stumble. Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go; Keep her, for she is your life. Do not enter the path of the wicked, And do not walk in the way of evil. Avoid it, do not travel on it; Turn away from it and pass on.
  • This Jesus models for us by conforming to the customs of His parents, customs that He had no need to observe being God-in-the-flesh and yet observed for our example.
  • If ever there was someone who did not need to go to church, it was Jesus. And yet Jesus travels to Jerusalem, he observes the Passover, to teach us what we need. To teach us that we need to go spiritually up to Jerusalem, we need to ascend in our affections to the city of peace, to heavenly Zion, and by keeping that custom of seeking those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God (Col 3:1), we shall attain to that peace.
• So this is Lesson #1 from the boy Jesus: When your parents go to church, go with them joyfully. Go with them willingly. If they are sick and you can drive, ask if you go without them. Make corporate worship the thing around which everything else revolves, sanctify this day like God commands.
  • Can you say with the words of Psalm 84:10,For a day in God’s courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, Than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
    • Because that is the desire of a mature soul. And if you are old enough to sin, you are old to enough to be godly, but godliness will not happen on its own, you must choose to walk in the ways of the godly, and dwell where the righteous dwell.
• This brings us to a second lesson which we find in verses 43-45, and that is: Love God’s house even more than your parents do.

43And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it.

44But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.

45And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him.

• So observe first that Jesus is twelve when he stays behind in Jerusalem, he’s not 5. Joseph and Mary have made this trip many times before, for 11 years straight they have done so without losing the Messiah.
• Second observe, that Joseph and Mary traveled with friends and family, kinsfolk and acquaintance. There was a large caravan of people making this journey, and it would be very easy for Jospeh to think Jesus was with Mary, and for Mary to think Jesus was with Joseph. I am sure that this has happened to some parents in this room (I thought he was with you). Meanwhile little Johnny’s hanging out with the deacons cleaning up.
• Now it is one thing to get left behind, another to choose to stay behind. And one of the things Jesus is illustrating for us here is what he will say later in Luke 14:26, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
  • In other words, your loyalty and love for God must take precedence over your loyalty and love for anyone else (even yourself). As much as Joseph and Mary are godly parents and indeed far more godly than any of us, Jesus is more loyal to His Father in heaven and desires to linger with Him for as long as he can.
• So Children, praise the Lord if you have Christian parents who bring you to church. But do your parents proud and surpass them in your own love for God, in your own obedience to Christ, in your own humility and holiness and pursuit of God.
  • Nothing makes godly parents happier than seeing their children outdo them in godly and holy living, to turn out far better than we taught them. And so children, you have that choice. You have that responsibility. To whom much is given, much is required, and you cannot love God too much. This Jesus shows us, by staying behind in Jerusalem.
• This brings us to verses 46-47, where we see what Jesus did with his three days apart from His parents.

46And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.

47And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.

• First note that doctors here refers not to medical doctors but to the professional theologians or teachers of the law. These would be the most respected authorities when it comes to interpreting Scripture, and it is there, sitting in their midst, that Jesus hears, asks, answers and astonishes.
  • When Jesus has three days apart from His parents, what does he want to do? He wants to have a three-day Bible conference. He wants to be about His heavenly Father’s business, and that business revolves around discussing the Word of God with the wise.
• Now again remember, Jesus was already full of grace and truth, wisdom and knowledge from infancy. He was already the God-man. Luke told us earlier in verse 40 right before this scene, And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him [that at 40 days old].
  • So Jesus did not acquire divinity at some later stage of development, he was born Christ the LORD. He was born worthy of worship, and as the one In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3).
  • And so when Jesus is said to increase in wisdom in verse 52, this either refers to the increase of human experience, or the increase of revealing to other the wisdom he already has.
• And so here’s the lesson: If Jesus knows everything, and yet chooses to sit with fallible human teachers, to hear them, and question them, and answer them with understanding, then how much more do we who were born in ignorance and sin?
  • Jesus is already perfect, and so he is modeling for us how we can become perfect/complete/mature, even in our youth.
  • Paul says in Colossians 1:28 that the goal of his ministry is to “present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” And how does Paul intend to accomplish that? He says, Christ is in you, the hope of glory Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
  • So perfection comes from hearing good preaching, receiving stern warnings, and being taught in wisdom. And this is exactly what Jesus’ ministry will consist of as well.
• And so Children, are you making use of the preaching, teaching, and warnings you hear from this pulpit? Do you like the boy Jesus, seek out the wise and listen to them, and ask them questions?
  • Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:4, there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit.
  • And it says in Proverbs 24:6, For by wise counsel you will wage your own war, And in a multitude of counselors there is safety.
  • It says in Proverbs 13:20, He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: But a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
  • So young people, do you surround yourself with older wiser counsellors? Do you learn from and imitate the strengths and graces that are diversely shown in God’s people.
    • We are not all equally expert in the same field, we are not all equally wise and mature in the same areas, we need one another to see what we can’t see, and we should imitate the best qualities in every Christian we know.
    • The fool is the one who does not ask advice, who refuses to be taught what he does not know.
      • It says in Proverbs 18:1-2 of such people, Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment. A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.
      • It says in Ecclesiastes 9:17-18, The words of wise men are heard in silence more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good.
• So where can wisdom be found? Chiefly in Christ and keeping His Word.
  • It says in Psalm 119:24, Thy testimonies also are my delight And my counsellers.
  • And in Psalm 119:9 it says, How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.
• The purity of your life will only be as great as your taking heed to God’s Word. If you fill your mind with TV shows, video games, social media, and vanity, it will hollow out your soul. Whatever stokes your desire for carnal things you must forsake. You must avoid. You must hate. This is the love of God, to hate evil.
  • It says in Psalm 97:10-12, Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: He preserveth the souls of his saints; He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous, And gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous; And give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
• Finally we come to where Jesus is found by his searching parents.

48And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.

49And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? Wist [know] ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?

50And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them.

51And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.

• Here we see that Jesus is subject/submissive to God in the first instance, and to his parents in the second instance. This is the biblical order of authority for children. God first, parents second.
• No human authority is absolute, no king, no pope, no pastor, no parent, no husband or master. All authority is derived from God and is therefore limited by the Word of God. If ever we are commanded by our superior to sin, we say with the Apostles, we must obey God rather than man (Acts 5:29).
  • And so see how Jesus, the absolute sovereign of all and source of all authority, voluntarily submits himself to many imperfect and sinful authorities throughout his life. And he does this without ever sinning himself.
  • This is the mindset of Christ. It says of him in Philippians 2:6-8, Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
  • Jesus submitted to his parents. He submitted to Caesar. He submitted to Pontius Pilate and suffered for His righteousness. And because of this, it says in verses 9-11, Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The test of youth is, Will you be patient? Will you wait on God to give you the desires of your heart? Will you cheerfully obey the authorities He has placed over you, even if or when they are unjust, even when they hurt you, or sin against you? Will you forgive them? Will you love them? Will you refuse to revile them in return?

• Parents are not perfect. No human authority is perfect. But if the perfect boy Jesus submitted himself to God, and obeyed the authorities over him in the flesh (both godly and ungodly), then how much more should we who are not divine?
• Jesus so loved you that he suffered crucifixion to save you. He spent three days in death, to save you from death. And that is maturity in the fullest sense: To love deeply, and to suffer for those you love.
• Jesus says in John 15:13,Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
  • If you want to be mature then you must love unto death. For this is what Christ did for us, and what we must grow up to do for one another. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

O Father grant that we like Simeon, may now take up Christ into our arms by faith. That we may behold the light of his perfect humanity, the radiance of His divinity, and receive in ourselves the consolation of Israel, and having received this consolation, to then depart in peace, entering that blessed rest of the undivided Trinity, One God forever, Amen.

This morning, we come to the fourth and final song that surrounds the birth of Jesus. Thus far Luke has given us Mary’s Magnificat (My soul magnifies the Lord), then he gave us Zacharias’ Benedictus (Blessed is the Lord God of Israel,

For He has visited and redeemed His people), last week we heard the angelic Gloria, Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men! And now here at Christ’s presentation in the temple, we have one more hymn of prophetic praise. A hymn that helps us ponder the implications of the gospel, and why God became man in Christ.

• Now the way that Luke has arranged this final prophesy from Simeon, is by bookending it between two other important sections, so let me give you the outline of our text, and then we’ll walk through it together.

• Our text divides into three parts.
  • In verses 21-24 we have Christ observing the ceremonial law. Jesus is circumcised the 8th day, consecrated the 40th day, and this consecration becomes the occasion for adding two more witnesses to Christ.
  • In verses 25-35, Simeon bears witness and we have his song and blessing.
  • And then in verses 36-38, Anna bears witness and spreads the good news.
• So recall again Luke’s purpose in writing this gospel, he said back in Luke 1:4 it is so that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.
  • So just in case there was any doubt, he gives us an abundance of credible eyewitnesses in his gospel. We have Mary and Joseph; we have Zacharias and Elizabeth. We have angels and shepherds. And now we have Simeon and Anna. And the question God continues to confront us with in these opening chapters is, How will you respond to this news about Jesus? Will you stumble at the stumbling stone and fall, or will you rise again and build your life upon Him?
  • Luke has been marshalling witnesses from every age, sex, station, and social class. We have an urban priest and country shepherds. We have angelic armies, and a virgin girl. We have a married man and a widowed woman. We have young and old, male and female, and all are welcome in the kingdom of God.
  • However, as we will see, not everyone will accept the Divine invitation, not everyone will receive the gospel as good news. Indeed, the rest of Luke’s Gospel and on into the Book of Acts shall illustrate this point: that wherever and whenever Christ is proclaimed, people are divided in their responses to Him.
    • As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:15-16, For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?
  • So some people hear and become more hardened in their sins, some will even try to kill Jesus or whoever is preaching Jesus. But this is exactly how God’s kingdom advances and grows. This is what Simeon prophesies will happen when he says to Mary: Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against. People will speak against Jesus, they will mock at his cross, but the kingdom of Jesus shall conquer nonetheless.
• And so as joy-filled and wonderful as the birth of Christ is, there is also a specter of judgment here, there is a shadow of doom that hangs over those who reject Jesus. As the Puritans liked to put it, “the same sun and heat that melts the ice, also hardens the clay.” So what kind of material are you? Into what kind of heart and mind do you receive Jesus? Is your heart a place of love and affection, gratitude and hospitality, or are you hostile to Christ, do you chafe at His words, are you fearful to let Him see what is inside of you?
  • Simeon says to Mary in verse 35, (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
  • Who is Jesus? Jesus is the light that exposes things hidden. It says in Hebrews 4:12 that He is a twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Nothing can hide from Jesus.
  • Jesus is the light who shows you who you really are, and how hideous our sinful state is. This is in part what Christ comes to reveal, but he comes to reveal in order to heal. Jesus reveals our true condition (which is way worse than you think it is), in order to heal you from that terminal disease that is sin. And we see this manifest even from his earliest days, starting right here in verse 21 with his circumcision.

21And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

• Why was Jesus circumcised? Why did the one who is most perfect as a lamb without blemish, have a part of his perfect flesh cut off? Well for many reasons but I will give just four.
  • Reason 1. Because Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, that from Abraham’s seed a son of promise would be born in whom all the world would be blessed. And so just as Abraham was circumcised as a sign and seal of the righteousness of the faith (Rom. 4:11), so now Jesus is circumcised as the righteous son (the true Isaac) to whom Abraham looked in faith.
    • Jesus fulfills and brings to completion what circumcision always pointed to, the cutting off of the old Adam and the putting on of the new. The end of the old creation ruled by sin, and the beginning of a new creation in which righteousness reigns. This is why God commanded that circumcision be done on the 8th day, (which is also the first day of the week) to signify a new heavens and new earth, and a new resurrected heart.
  • Reason 2. Because as Galatians 4:4-5 says, Jesus was born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And so because circumcision bound a person to keep the Mosaic law, and yet none could keep that law perfectly, Christ comes as both lawgiver and law keeper and fulfills all righteousness for us. As Paul says in Romans 8:3-4, For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
    • So while the law was holy, just, and good (Romans 7:12) our flesh prevented us from keeping it in its entirety. And so by Christ carrying out all the law’s commands, he shows both the sinfulness of sin, and the righteousness of God’s law. Flesh cannot keep what the spirit of God commands, but Christ can keep it, for He is a man full of the Spirit.
  • Reason 3. Jesus was circumcised to prove the reality of his human nature. Jesus has a real body that can really bleed, that can really be cut, and cut off for us. And so against those who said that Christ had only an imaginary body (Manichee’s, Docetists) or that His body was heavenly material and not from the virgin Mary, Jesus is circumcised the 8th day to show his solidarity with the human race. Jesus is fully God, and fully man. Of the same exact nature with us, except without sin.
  • Reason 4. To remove any excuse the Jews might have for not receiving Him. They cannot claim he is a foreigner, or a Gentile, or an uncircumcised Philistine.Jesus is a true Israelite, a true Jew, a fleshly descendent of David, who can trace his lineage back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But as it says in John 1:11-12, He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
    • So Jesus was sent first to the lost sheep of Israel, but all who believe in Jesus are joined to Him as one flock under one Shepherd.

22And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord;

23(As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;)

24And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.

• So again, we see that Jesus’ parents are faithful law-abiding Jews. They submitted to Ceasar’s census, they paid their taxes in Bethlehem, and now they keep the law of Moses, first for circumcision, and now Mary’s purification and Jesus’ consecration.
  • According to the Levitical laws for cleanliness (Leviticus 12), a woman was ritually impure for 40 days after the birth of a son, and then when those days are accomplished, she is to bring a sacrifice to God according to what she can afford.
    • It says in Leviticus 12:8, And if she is not able to bring a lamb, then she may bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons—one as a burnt offering and the other as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean.
    • The reason a woman was ritually impure after childbirth was not because giving birth is a sinful act, but because every birth brings another sinner into the world. God was teaching Israel through the ceremonial law the doctrine of original sin, and that all sin, both original and actual, needs to be dealt with by sacrifice.
      • It says in Romans 5, As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned…For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)…For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. (Rom, 5:12, 17, 19)
• So although there was no sin or uncleanness in Jesus’ birth, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, still they carry out this ritual in accord with the law because this is what Jesus whole life shall be about: Exposing our sins and then atoning for our sins. Identifying with our guilt, while Himself being innocent. Offering to God what we ourselves cannot offer, a sacrifice more perfect than turtledoves and pigeons. All this Jesus does for us.
  • Now there are two witnesses to Jesus’ consecration, Simeon and Anna. And we can learn from both of them what true devotion to God looks like, especially as we reach the latter years of our life. So starting with Simeon, what kind of man was he?

25And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. 26And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.

• Simeon’s name means God has heard. He is just. He is devout. And he is patient. Patiently waiting for God to comfort His people. What does this comfort consist of?
  • It says in Isaiah 40:1-2, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, That her warfare is accomplished, That her iniquity is pardoned: For she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
  • Simeon knows that comfort means pardon, comfort means forgiveness, comfort means the end of this warfare and the beginning of everlasting peace. Simeon yearns for this consolation of Israel, and God has rewarded his yearning with a promise: Simeon will not die until he sees the Lord’s Christ, until he holds in hands the consolation of Israel.
  • Can you imagine waiting for the day when you shall see what you have hoped for? When all your longings and hope deferred become a dream fulfilled and a tree of life? Well, this is that day for Simeon.
  • It says in Proverbs 11:3, 5, the integrity of the upright will guide them, and the justice of the upright will deliver them, and here now the just and upright Simeon is guided by the Spirit into the presence of the Divine.

27And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law,

28Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God.

• Simeon holds in his hands the one who holds up the world. Simeon takes into his arms, the God whose everlasting arms are holding Simeon in his very being. This is the marvel of the Incarnation. That He whom heaven and earth cannot contain, chooses to be contained in mortal flesh. Chooses to be held by an old man who has been waiting for Him. And so for good reason Simeon blesses God and prophesies saying…

29Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart In peace, according to thy word:

30For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,

31Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;

32A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

• Simeon can say these words as he looks into the infant Jesus’ eyes. Simeon is saying these words to Jesus directly. Because Jesus is the Lord/Master in whose service Simeon has long been in. Jesus is the Lord who Simeon has been devoted to and waiting to see in the flesh. And now what Simeon desires is to depart in peace, to die, so that he can see that child’s divinity in full, so he can see in the next life what in this life he can only apprehend by faith, the beatific vision, to see the Divine essence through the Divine essence, face to face without a mirror or veil.
• Do you like Simeon desire to go and be with Jesus? To be done with the warfare of this life and all its sorrows, and to be joined more perfectly to Your heavenly Savior?
• Can you say with Simeon and the Apostle Paul, For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain?Are you, hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better,[but knowing that] Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you [for those under our care]?
• Are you homesick for heaven? Because that is the sign of true faith and a mark of true love. To want to go and be with Jesus.
• Simeon is a model of Christian justice, devotion, and patience.
  • Do you hate the injustice all around you, and do you long for the justice of God’s kingdom?
  • Do you despise the vanity of this lying world with its allurements, and do you long for the solid joys, the pure pleasures of the world to come?
  • Do we wait patiently for God’s heavenly consolation? For the peace that comes to those who wait in hope?
    • Jesus says in John 14:27, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
  • Simeon teaches us that our patience in waiting is not in vain, our hope shall be rewarded. Here in part, and in heaven in full.
    • It says in Isaiah 64:4, Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him.
    • And in Psalm 50:3-6 it says, Our God shall come, and shall not keep silent; A fire shall devour before Him, And it shall be very tempestuous all around Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, And to the earth, that He may judge His people: “Gather My saints together to Me, Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.” Let the heavens declare His righteousness, For God Himself is Judge.
    • Judgment is coming, but that same judgement is salvation and vindication for those who love the Lord. So do you look for Him in hope?
• How does Mary and Joseph respond to all this? Simeon’s holding their child in his arms?

33And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him.

34And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against;

35(Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

• Now observe that these ominous words to Mary are called a blessing. Simeon blesses Mary with this prophesy of people falling and rising because of Jesus, and a sword piercing her own heart.
  • This piercing refers to the pain she will suffer at how her son is treated. He will be rejected, condemned as a blasphemer, arrested and falsely accused, beaten, mocked, and murdered in the most humiliating way possible, a crucifixion.
  • Mary will be there when Jesus dies. She will suffer the agony of having to watch the person she loves most, her own son suffer, and that unjustly. Yes, a sword will pierce Mary’s own soul, but it will be the piercing sword in the hand of the Divine healer.
  • The cross will be a sign spoken against, but that same cross shall become the instrument of our redemption.
  • As Jesus says in John 3:14-15, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
• The cross reveals the thoughts of many hearts.
  • Do you believe that you deserve to be up there? That your sins are worthy of a most painful death and eternal damnation? Do you believe that this is what your sins deserve?
    • Many people do not believe that the wages of sin is death. Many people deny they are sinners, they deny the guilt of original sin. They deny that God is the Creator, that Jesus is a Savior, that he died and rose again, they deny that there is a future judgment, or a heaven and a hell. Many people live in denial.
  • The cross of Christ confronts people with what they actually think about God. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:18, For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
  • So what is the cross to you? Is it folly, or is it your salvation? Do you believe what God has revealed, or are you living in denial?
• This brings us our final witness of Jesus birth, and to a woman who truly lived for the world to come.

36And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity;

37And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.

38And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.

• What do we know about Anna? Anna’s name means Grace. And she has been given the grace of prophecy. She proclaims the word of God to those looking for redemption in Jerusalem. She is also a daughter of Phanuel, which means “the face of God.” Phanuel/Peniel was the place where Jacob wrestled with the angel and then said: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved (Gen. 32:30). Anna is also from the tribe of Asher, which means Blessed.
• We are told that Anna was of a great age. Depending on how you read the text here, she is either 84, or she has been a widow for 84 years, and then depending on when she was married, she could be as old as 105. So 84 on the younger side, 105 on the older side, but whatever the case, look at what she has done with all those years of widowhood.
• It says in verse 37, she departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. Anna lived to worship and serve God.

And so let us close by considering some of the qualities of Anna’s life.

• 1. Anna loved the house of God. Anna was a woman who could say in truth the words of Psalm 27:4, One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.
  • Anna was a woman of singular desire for God, and so when Jesus comes in, she gives thanks to God, for her eyes behold the very beauty of the Lord in the face of the infant Jesus. Anna loved the house of God, lived in the House of God, and so enjoyed the blessing of seeing God face to face.
• 2. Anna was a woman of self-denial. When she was young and unmarried, she was chaste virgin. And after her husband died, 7 years into their marriage, she devotes herself to religious service. Like Jacob who wrestled with God at Peniel, Anna a true daughter of Peniel wrestles with God in fasting and prayer. Anna denies her flesh that she may grow strong in the spirit. She gives herself to the hard work of constant prayer, because she knows, The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous woman availeth much (James 5:16).
  • In 1 Timothy 5 Paul describes two kinds of widows, faithful and unfaithful. And he condemns those widowswho cast off their first faith…and learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.
  • Anna is not one of these foolish women. She remains in God’s house, she speaks God’s Word, and she keeps her first faith holding fast to the end.
  • Anna is a woman of whom this world is not worthy, and there is much we can learn from her example.
• 3. Third and finally, Anna told people about Jesus. She, spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. Do we do the same?
  • The life of a widow who fasts and prays and lives at church, is not the life that most young people aspire for. It’s certainly not the American dream. But in God’s kingdom, the first shall be last. Jesus will say later in Luke 6:24-26, But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
  • Anna is a true prophetess; she is unashamed to tell the world about Jesus. She fasted and prayed and God fed her. God gave to this poor widow His heavenly consolation.May He do the same for you, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

O Father our soul blesses You for the birth of Your only-begotten Son. Grant that we like Mary may keep and ponder these things within our heart, and that we like the shepherds may return to our labors tomorrow, glorifying and praising You for all we have seen and heard. Bless now the preaching of these good tidings of great joy which shall be for all people, to the glory of the undivided Trinity, One God forever, Amen.

Well, this morning we celebrate Christmas in January. After five sermons in Luke chapter 1 to prepare us for Christ’s birth, we come now to that moment in which God Himself enters our world.

• Now unlike you and I who did not choose where we would be born, or when we would be born, or who our parents would be, or what circumstances might attend our birth, God selected every single detail of how He would personally enter His own creation. Here in these verses we have the Author of all entering His own story.
• Now for those of you familiar with the Christmas story, it can be easy to overlook just how odd this whole scene is. Of all the possible details that we might like to know about the birth of God, what does God draw our attention to?
• Notice that Mary and Joseph have zero words of dialog here. Jesus himself says and does nothing, except lay swaddled in a manger. Luke under the inspiration of the Spirit chooses instead to tell us about taxes, Caesar, angels, and shepherds. In fact, the only words of dialog in this scene are from angels to shepherds, and from shepherds to one another.
• Why is this? Why did God choose to enter our world this way and not another? This is the question we shall ponder together as we consider the mystery of Christ’s birth.

Our text divides into four basic sections.

• In verses 1-5 we have The Occasion for Christ’s birth.
• In verses 6-7 we have The Birth.
• In verses 8-17 we have The Celebration.
• And then in verses 18-20 we have The Contemplation of all these things.
  • The Occasion, The Birth, The Celebration, and The Contemplation.

1And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world (οἰκουμένην) should be taxed.

• Recall that Caesar Augustus (aka Octavian) was the first Emperor of Rome. And it was under his rule (27 BC – 14 AD) that the empire enjoyed a good measure of military peace, what would become known as the Pax Romana.
• As a sign of this “worldwide” dominion, all of Caesar’s subjects were required to register. This refers to some kind of universal census in order to be taxed. Verse 2 goes on to say…

2(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

3And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

4And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Beth-lehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

5To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

• So what is the political occasion of Christ’s birth? An empire-wide census, where the people of God, and the land that God had promised to His people is now under Roman dominion, they must pay tribute to Caesar.
  • This is exactly what God promised would be happen if Israel broke covenant with Him: Foreign powers would rule over them.
  • And it is under this foreign power’s decree that Jospeh and Mary must travel to Bethlehem, which also happens to be the birthplace of King David.
• So we have here a contrast being setup between two kings: the greatest of all earthly rulers, Ceasar Augustus, and the ruler of all creation, the Lord Jesus.
  • Whereas Caesar is taxing the whole world, and requiring them to travel to their hometowns to be registered. Christ, the Son of God leaves his home in heaven and comes down to earth. The one who created and owns everything (the cattle on a thousand hills, the breath of Caesar), subjects himself to Caesar’s taxation. And he chooses Bethlehem (which means House of Bread), as his birthplace. Why? Because Jesus is the bread from heaven, the bread of life, the one who gives to the world his own body and blood to redeem us from our sins.
    • As Jesus will say later in John 6:55-57, For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.
    • No man ever spoke this way, and no Caesar ever ruled this way. But Jesus is no mere man, Jesus is the God-man, and the God-man is a giver of life.
    • God says in Isaiah 55:8-9, My thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are my ways higher than your ways, And my thoughts than your thoughts.
• Summary: So whereas our thoughts take us to our own imagined ideal conditions in which we might like to be born, God chooses by different criteria. God chooses according to what will be most expedient for our salvation.
  • God chose this moment in time, to show us the difference between man’s ways and God’s ways, between man’s kingdom and God’s kingdom. Who is Caesar? Caesar is a taker. But who is God? God is a giver, whatever you give to God He gives back more. Caesar makes peace through force of arms; God makes peace through sacrificial love. Caesar exalts himself with worldly pomp. God humbles himself unto death on a cross.
  • Already the words of Mary’s Magnificat are being fulfilled.  Recall she says in Luke 1:51-53, God has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, And exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, And the rich He has sent away empty.
  • Even in the way God enters this world He preaches the gospel to us. He shows us that the way of salvation is by humility, meekness, and the trampling of human pride.
    • It says in Psalm 25:9, The meek will he guide in judgment: And the meek will he teach his way.
    • And Jesus will say later to the Pharisees in Luke 16:15, For that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. And this is true even in Christ’s birth.
  • So yes, Caesar has his kingdom and Caesar has his peace. But it is not the everlasting peace that only God can give. It is not the peace of a good conscience, of forgiveness and assurance, of a sincere faith, and love that proceeds from a pure heart. That is the true peace and true life that Jesus gives to the meek.
• This brings us to verses 6-7, where the birth of Christ is recorded. And notice how humble this scene is.

6And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

7And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

• These are all the details God wants us to know. Mary gives birth, Jesus is her firstborn son. Mary herself wraps him in swaddling clothes; indicating there is not a nurse there assisting her and/or the birth was rather painless. Mary herself also lays him in a manger (a feeding trough for animals). And why? Because there was no room for them in the inn, (the house). They are outside (in a barn or in a cave) where the animals are.
• This is God’s chosen way of entering His world. And He chose this as His nativity scene (His icon for our remembrance) to teach us about the higher ways of His kingdom, to reveal from the beginning of His earthly life, the meekness and lowliness of his own heart (Matt. 11:29).
• Let us attend to a couple details here.
• Why is God laid in a manger? What is signified by Christ laying in the place where animals eat grass and hay?
  • It says in Isaiah 40:6, All flesh is grass. And what has God chosen to assume and redeem though Christ? Our flesh. Our nature. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: But the word of our God shall stand for ever (Is. 40:8).And here in this manger what do you have? The Word made flesh. God made grass.
  • And so if Jesus is the food in the manger, then what are we?
  • Animals. Beasts. Sheep and Oxen. Goats and Rams. We are those creatures who listened to the Serpent, and who need the image of God restored in us so that we may share in God’s dominion.
    • It says in Isaiah 53:6, All we like sheep have gone astray.
    • It says in Isaiah 1:3 of our ignorance, The ox knows its owner And the donkey its master’s crib (manger); But Israel does not know, My people do not consider. In other words, the animals are smarter than us when we sin.
    • And likewise in Psalm 73 it says, So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee…Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: But God is the strength of my heart, and my portion [my food] for ever.
  • So God has chosen to cure us of our beast-like ignorance. To heal us of our animal passions and the irrational cravings of a carnal mind. And he does this by making Himself food for us. By assuming our flesh, and that without sin, and by making his pure and spotless body food for the lowly.
  • God chooses to lay where simple creatures may go to eat. The gospel is not that complicated, it is as simple as repent of your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus. Come and eat. And we see in the book of Acts that when simple people, like Peter and John feast and feed upon Christ, they become bold and wise unto salvation.
    • For Luke says of them in Acts 4:13, Now when the [Jewish leaders] saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.
    • So have you been with Jesus? Have you repented of your own willful ignorance of the grace of God? Have you forgotten who your Master is, and what will actually nourish your soul? Have you wandered like a sheep from the fold of God? If so, return. Those who come earnestly and honestly He will by no means cast out.
• So already at Christ’s birth, our future salvation is foreshadowed. Do you remember what will Jesus later sing from the cross? The words of Psalm 22 which recalls his birth. He prays, But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts. I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother’s womb You have been My God. Be not far from Me, For trouble is near; For there is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded Me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me. They gape at Me with their mouths, Like a raging and roaring lion…Save Me from the lion’s mouth And from the horns of the wild oxen! You have answered Me…The poor shall eat and be satisfied; Those who seek Him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever!
  • Notice that Jesus is surrounded by animals (literal and metaphorical) at his birth and at his death. Some surround him because of malice and envy like lions to devour. And others because they love Him and worship Him and want their soul to be satisfied.
• Moreover, we notice another detail that foreshadows the death of Christ. Where was Jesus born? Outside the house, because there was no room inside the house.And so also Hebrews 13:12 says, Jesus suffered outside the gate, outside the walls that should have welcomed him in. And so while in David’s hometown no room was found for David’s Lord, David’s Lord will later say, In my Father’s house are many rooms (mansions)…I go to prepare a place for you (John 14:2).
  • The God who is left outside in the dark of winter, is the God who shall die to turn every winter into a Christmas celebration, and to turn every season into a season of light and harvest, joy and gladness.
  • And this brings us to verses 8-17, where the first celebration of Christmas takes place. And notice who does God choose to share the news of His birth with?

8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

• Why does God choose shepherds to be the first recipients of this news, this gospel? For a few reasons:
  • 1. Because as Psalm 23 says, The Lord is my shepherd. God is the great shepherd of His people, and so he shares with his fellow shepherds (pastors) the news that they also shall teach.
  • 2.Because shepherds signify the Old Testament patriarchs to whom the promise of God’s kingdom was told.
    • What was David before he was king? He was a shepherd in the country of Bethlehem (just like these shepherds).
    • What was Moses before God spoke to Him from the burning bush? A shepherd, tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, priest of Midian (Ex. 3:1).
    • What was the vocation of Jacob and the original twelve sons of Israel? Joseph says to Pharoah in Genesis 46:32, the men are shepherds. And then two verses later we are told, they may dwell in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.
    • What was Abel, the first martyr and prophet according to Jesus? It says in Genesis 4:2, Abel was a keeper of sheep.
    • So God chooses shepherds and faithful shepherds at that (those who are keeping watch over their flock by night) to be the first witnesses and human messengers of Christ’s birth.
    • This is the fulfillment of God’s promise to David, Moses, and the shepherds of Israel.
  • 3. Because the job of a shepherd is to feed the sheep, and where is the best food, the greenest pastures and the stillest waters to be found? They are in wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And so it is most fitting that God sends the angels to tell them where this food is found. We read in verses 9-17…

9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

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

14Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, Good will toward men.

15And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Beth-lehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

16And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

17And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

• There is much here but let us just highlight a few words these angels proclaim.
  • In verse 10 we see this is good news of great joy. The Triune God is eternally joyful in Himself and through Christ that joy is extended to others. How many others? The angel says, this is good news of great joy, which shall be to all people. God’s gospel is a universal invitation to rejoice, all are invited to come to the King’s feast.
  • While Caesar Augustus sent forth a universal decree to be taxed, God sends forth a universal invitation to receive the greatest gift. What is that gift? Why should we rejoice?
  • The angel says in verse 11, For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
  • Three titles are assigned to Jesus: Savior, Christ, and Lord.
    • 1. Savior signifies the action of Jesus; He will save us from our sins. He will save us from the devil’s clutches. He will save us from eternal punishment. He will save us from our own fleshly desires. He will save us from ourselves. Jesus is the savior and His salvation brings us joy.
    • 2. Jesus is the Christ. Christ means anointed one. Jesus is the anointed king, the anointed high priest, the anointed prophet of God. He is the very word of God full of the Holy Spirit, full of grace and truth, He is the sender of the Holy Spirit together with His Father. Jesus is the Christ and those baptized into Christ are called Christians, little anointed ones.
    • 3. Jesus is Lord. That is, He is God. There is one God, eternally subsisting in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And Jesus is the Son who alone assumes our human nature. Fully human, fully divine, One Lord Jesus Christ.
    • To know Him and to understand Him, is the greatest of all gifts. And this is why the angels of heaven sing Glory unto him.
• It says in verses 13-14, And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, Good will toward men.
  • First observe that that word host means army. This is God’s angelic army come to announce the reason for the heavenly king’s birth. It is to make peace. It is show forth God’s favor (His good will). It is to invite the whole world to join them in singing, “Glory to God in the highest!”
  • Usually when an army shows up, that means war. That means battle. That means prepare yourself to fight. But when God’s army appears on earth, they come announcing peace.
  • And so from this moment onwards, the question becomes: How shall peace be made? How shall Jesus bring peace to a world living under Roman peace? What kind of peace does Jesus come to bring? How is the kingdom of God different from the kingdoms of this world?
  • These questions the gospel of Luke shall go on to answer. And as Colossians 1:20 says, He made peace through the blood of his cross. But at this moment in the story, there is only the promise of peace made, but no explanation how.
  • And this leads us to our fourth and final section of this passage, and where we shall close.

18And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

19But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

20And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

• First notice the response of all who hear this news. They wonder. They marvel. Do you wonder and marvel at birth of Christ? At the word of the angels, and the preaching of the shepherds?
• Second observe Mary’s response. God could have sent an angel directly to Mary (He had done it before), and He could have surrounded that stable in Bethlehem with angelic choirs. But instead, God sends the angel to the shepherds, his angelic choir appears to those out in the countryside. And it is the shepherds who come and tell Mary what the angels told them. These are the ways of God. He wants us to share in the sharing of good news, because in the sharing our own joy is increased.
  • And now here in Mary we see the joy of contemplation. The joy of gazing at the truth in our heart with delight. Mary treasures these things, she ponders them in our heart, she marvels at the mystery that she just gave birth to the Savior, Jesus Christ, the Lord.
  • And so do you like Mary treasure what you hear? Do you meditate upon the Word, wondering and marveling at the mysteries revealed. Do you apply these truths to your own life and struggles, temptations and fears, looking to Christ as the source of your strength?
• What is the very first action of the blessed man in Psalm 1? His delight is in the law of the Lord; And in his law doth he meditate day and night.
• It says in Psalm 119:97, O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day. Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: For they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers: For thy testimonies are my meditation.
• It says in Psalm 63, My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; And my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: When I remember thee upon my bed, And meditate on thee in the night watches.
• Saints of God, do you meditate day and night? Do you ponder and treasure the things of God? Because this is the way to blessedness. This is the way to joy. May God grant you such holy and constant meditation of Him, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

O Father, we thank You that in this world that is full of broken promises, You are the God who cannot lie. You are the God who always keeps His Word, who always keeps covenant, and who loves to show mercy to those who desire peace. Grant us Your peace now and forever, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

In the year 110 AD, about 80 years after Christ’s ascension on high, a Roman governor named Pliny the Younger wrote a letter to the Emperor Trajan. And in this letter Pliny asks the emperor what the policy should be for prosecuting alleged Christians. Already Pliny had executed some Christians for their refusal to burn incense to Caesar and curse Christ, but he says that if he were to keep prosecuting them in this way, “Many persons of every age, every rank, and also of both sexes are and will be endangered. For the contagion of this superstition has spread not only to the cities but also to the villages and farms.” Just two generations after Jesus died and rose again, and the Roman empire is full of Christians, young and old, rich and poor, male and female, country folk and city folk, all spreading their religion according to Pliny, like a contagion.

• In this same letter we also have one of the earliest descriptions (outside of the New Testament) of what a Christian gathering looked like. Pliny says, “They were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not to falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so. When this was over, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of food–but ordinary and innocent food.”
• And so here you have an unbelieving Roman official attesting that Christians would gather together for a potluck. They would meet early in the morning before the sun rose, and swear oaths to keep God’s law, and during their gathering they would sing to one another, “a hymn to Christ as to God.” Of course, this should not surprise us since Paul commands the church to do this in Ephesians and Colossians, he says, teach and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord (Col 3:18, Eph. 5:19). From the beginning Christianity has been a religion of singing. Singing to one another. Singing unto Christ as God.
• Now as far as we know, the 150 Psalms of David were the original hymnbook of the Christian church. But as time went on and the gospels were published and circulated, the church also started to put to music the inspired words of the New Testament as well, especially some of the first “hymns to Christ as God.” So by the time of the 6th century, Mary’s Magnificat was being sung in the liturgy, and also the text we have before us this morning, which is Zacharias’ song, now known as the Benedictus.
  • That word Benedictus is just the Latin word for Blessed, and it is taken from the first line of Zacharias’ prophesy, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel (Benedictus Dominus Deus Israël).
  • And so my hope for you this morning is that by understanding a little more the meaning of these words, these lyrics, you may be moved like Zacharias, moved by the Holy Spirit, to bless the God of Israel. For what we have before us in our text is an inspired New Covenant example, of what Psalm 103:2 tells us to do, Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits.
  • The Benedictus is all about blessing God for His many saving benefits. And it is those benefits we shall call to mind again this morning.

We are focusing in on verses 68-79, which is prophetic poetry. And this poem divides into two basic sections:

• In verses 68-75, Zacharias extols The Mystery of the Incarnate Lord.
• In verses 76-79, He extols the The Mission of John to Prepare People for that Lord.
  • So we have 1) The Mystery of the Incarnation, followed by 2) The Mission of John the Baptist, so let us walk through this text together.

68Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; For he hath visited and redeemed his people, 69And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;

• What does it mean to bless God?
  • To bless God is to confess with your mouth praise. And more specifically to praise God because He is most blessed (He is most happy). Blessedness is God’s very nature.
  • What makes a person perfectly happy is the perfect possession of a perfect good. And this God alone possesses in Himself, and He has created us to share in the happiness that He is.
  • So whereas you and I have a happiness that fluctuates according to the goods we have or do not have, and how permanent they are or are not, God is the only permanent and perfect good, and in this life we can only possess Him by faith, but in the next life we shall enjoy Him by sight. And this is what Jesus calls in John 17:3, eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
  • And so because God wants you to share in His own abundant happiness, He chooses to come down to us in the most personal way, not as an angel, not as a voice in a cloud, or a fiery mountain or a burning bush, or an invisible force, but rather in the man Christ Jesus, to visit and redeem us from our sins.
  • This is the reason why Zacharias blesses the God of Israel: For he hath visited and redeemed his people And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.
  • Here in these opening verses are contained three momentous actions of God.
    • 1. First, He has come down to visit us. This refers to the mystery of the incarnation, that the unborn child growing within Mary’s womb, is none other than the God of Israel in human flesh.
    • 2. Second we are told that the purpose for this divine visitation is, to redeem His people.
      • Just as the nation of Israel was in bondage in Egypt, slaves to Pharoah, treated as Pharoah’s property, just so the whole world was in bondage to Satan and sin, subject to death and in need of someone to pay our debt and purchase us out of slavery.
      • This is the new and greater Exodus Jesus comes to bring. Jesus is the Passover lamb, the New Moses. Baptism becomes our Red Sea crossing. Jesus is our new High Priest, of whom Hebrews 9:12 says, by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
      • And it says likewise in Colossians 1:13-15, that God the Father, hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.
      • So already before Jesus is born, Zacharias is prophesying the purpose for his birth, He was born to die, born to redeem us from our sins.
    • 3. Third, he extols the victory of Christ’s kingdom saying, And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.
      • This raising up of the horn refers to Christ’s resurrection and enthronement as king. It says in Psalm 132:17-18, There [in Zion] I will make the horn of David grow; I will prepare a lamp for My Anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame, But upon Himself His crown shall flourish.”
        • What is a horn but an animal’s crown. A vessel for pouring out oil (1 Sam. 16:1), an instrument to make the walls of Jericho crumble (Josh 6:5). The horn signifies power and beauty, strength and glory. In the book of Daniel, a horn signifies a king and the extent of his kingdom. And so who is Christ but the king of kings, who says after his resurrection in Matthew 28:18, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. And as we heard earlier from Psalm 72, his dominion shall be from sea to sea.
        • In Revelation 19 it says of Christ, And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
        • So who is Jesus? He is The Triumphant Horn of salvation. The reason we bless the God of Israel is because He joined to Himself our humanity to save us from the wrath to come. Jesus was born to die, He died to redeem, and He did not stay dead but rose victorious as king. All of this so that you may share in His blessedness, so that you can share in the eternal happiness that God delights to give.
        • So dear Christian, Does your soul bless the Lord? Can you say with Psalm 104:33-34, My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord. I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
        • Or have you forgotten His many benefits?
        • God gives you His word, and gives you these songs to help you remember what we are so prone to forget.
• This brings us to verses 70-73 where we are told that all of these benefits were promised by God in times past.

70As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, Which have been since the world began:

71That we should be saved from our enemies, And from the hand of all that hate us;

72To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, And to remember his holy covenant;

73The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,

• So here Zacharias takes us back to the beginning of the world and the patriarchs of Genesis.
• Who was the very first prophet and martyr for the faith? According to Jesus it was Adam and Eve’s son, Abel.
  • Jesus will say later to the scribes and Pharisees in Luke 11:49-52, Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.
• It is interesting that this name Zacharias which means “God remembers,” is also the name of the last prophet who was martyred in the Old Testament canon (2 Chronicles 24:20-22), and now the son of Zacharias, John the Baptist will become the last prophet to be martyred before the death of Christ.
  • And so what exactly has God remembered that martyrs like Abel and Zacharias foretold and which John the Baptist will also proclaim.
  • It is nothing other than God’s coming judgment. The day of the Lord. God’s punishment of sin both temporal and eternal. John says in Luke 3:17, His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.
  • According to Genesis 4, the blood of Abel cried out to God for vengeance, for the making right of Cain’s murderous wrong.
  • Likewise in 2 Chronicles 24:22 it says, And when [Zacharias] died, he said, The Lord look upon it, and require it. Require what? Require justice.
  • And so for those who refuse to plead the blood of Jesus, all that is left for them is Divine judgment, the receiving of what they deserve, God’s vengeance for every sin.
    • It says Hebrews 12:24 that Christ’s blood, speaks a better word than the blood of Abel, namely forgiveness. So for those who refuse the price of redemption Christ offers upon the cross, they are choosing instead to receive the wages of sin, namely eternal death.
    • If you do not repent of every sin and plead the blood of Jesus, you are as those who condemned Christ to death, calling God a liar and saying, His blood be upon us, and on our children (Matt 27:25).
    • The message of the prophets from the very beginning is that God is just and God is merciful, and if you do not fall upon His mercy seat, only justice remains. Well Jesus is that mercy seat, the only safe place to hide from the wrath to come. So who is your shelter? Who are you trusting in?
• Zacharias goes on in verse 71 to say that one of the results of Christ’s judgment is, That we should be saved from our enemies, And from the hand of all that hate us.
  • Who are those who hate the church? Who are those enemies from which we shall be saved? They are all those people and powers, spiritual and physical, human and angelic, political and ecclesiastical, who would oppose Christ and his people.
    • This includes men like Cain, who envy, hate, and murder their own brother. This includes women like Potiphar’s wife, who would try to seduce the righteous and then falsely accuse them. It includes evil rulers like Ahaz and Jezebel, who persecuted Elijah and enticed the people into idolatry.
    • It includes Satan and his demonic hordes. It includes our own sinful flesh and perverse desires. Anyone or anything that does not love and serve Jesus is counted an enemy of God, and all such enemies shall be defeated.
    • Some of those enemies were defeated 2,000 years ago. Some of those enemies God permits to remain for a time to test us, try us, and increase our faith. All of us who now love Jesus used to be His enemies, and so aren’t you thankful that Christ conquered you?
    • The gospel promise is a promise of deliverance from everything that hinders our happiness in God.Some of those enemies Christ destroys immediately, some he deals a death blow but allows to live on for a time, some of them await the final judgment and the lake of fire.
  • So while Jesus Christ the God-man is presently reigning over heaven and earth right now, that same Jesus is very patient, very kind, and as it says in 1 Timothy 2:4, God desires all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth, and that is why He tarries, that is why He permits so many enemies to continue for a season, that we may be converted to Him and bow the knee willingly before judgment day.
• So God has performed in Christ the mercy He promised to Abraham and our fathers. And when God’s mercy encompasses a person, it changes them from the inside out. It transforms us to desire what is truly good for us. In verses 74-75 we see what that truly good life looks like.

74That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies Might serve him without fear,

75In holiness and righteousness before him, All the days of our life.

• Recall this was our fifth diagnostic question last week. Do you desire from God nothing more and nothing less, than to serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness forever?
  • Because that is the desire of someone who has received God’s mercy.
  • Why did God save us from Satan, sin, and death? To bring us to a loving service of Him, in holiness and righteousness all our days.
  • Does not your heart yearn for this rest? This perfect peace? This freedom from all fears and doubts, liars and deceivers? Where there is secure tranquility and tranquil unity amongst the joy of myriads upon myriads of angels and saints more numerous than we can count?
  • This is the rest God promises to those who will not rest until they rest in Him. Is this the desire of your heart?
    • It says in 1 John 4:18, There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear. And so while in this life our love for God is very small and imperfect, and our capacity to receive His love is constantly assaulted by sins and fears, a day will come when we may cast aside this body of death and embrace in full the glorious love of our Redeemer.
• But in the meantime, He gives us a taste of these gifts in varying degrees. At present the church in our region is not suffering overt persecution, we may gather freely and worship God according to His Word. This is a great freedom, a hard-won freedom, that many Christians have never enjoyed.
  • But how have we used this freedom? Have we used it to grow in holiness and righteousness? Have we made every effort to become holy as He is holy, keeping ourselves unstained from the world, hating even the garment that is stained by the flesh?
  • When God gives His church a measure of liberty and then we abuse that liberty, He often removes it to teach us what that liberty was for. Do we want to be free so you can worship God? Or do you want to be free so you can just do what is right in your own eyes?
  • The freedom God gives is a freedom to become conformed into the image of His Son.Is this what you are doing with the freedom you have?
• If not, you are not alone, you are like many of the Jews in Jesus’ day. And God knows how slow we are to hear, and how dull our understanding is, how forgetful we are. And so from His mercy he sends a messenger to prepare people for what He intends to do. And this is what Zacharias extols at the end of this song.

76And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord To prepare his ways;

77To give knowledge of salvation unto his people By the remission of their sins,

78Through the tender mercy of our God; Whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,

79To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.

• Notice that we are not born walking in the way of peace. Someone needs to guide us there. And here we see how God guides His people, first through John, then through Jesus.
• What does John do? It says in verse 77 he gives knowledge of salvation unto God’s people, and that that knowledge consists in the remission of sins. The knowledge that you are a sinner and need to repent.
  • Remember that John is the son of a priest.  And it says in Malachi 2:7, For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, And they should seek the law at his mouth: For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.
  • And so John prepares people by preaching the truth. In Luke 3:3 we are told, And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
• And then Jesus comes, and what does Jesus do?
  • Jesus comes and forgives sins. How? It says in verse 78, Through the tender mercy of our God. Jesus is the fullest expression of God’s mercy. He is mercy in the flesh.
  • To show mercy is remove a person’s misery (their defects) insofar as you are able. But how able are we to heal ourselves? How able are we to change a person’s heart and all our own personal defects? How able are we to pay the debt for our own sins, nevertheless another person’s sins? We are totally unable. We are those who are sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death.
  • But who is Jesus? Jesus is God. Jesus is God’s mercy. Jesus is the one says, I came to seek and save the lost. Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance (Mark 2:17).
  • Jesus is God’s mercy come to heal you of your misery by His infinite power.
  • Paul says in Romans 8:3-4, For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
  • Jesus gives what no mere man can give. Jesus gives the Spirit of God. Jesus gives a transformed heart. Jesus gives a complete forgiveness, so that Romans 8:1 may become true of us which says, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. So what are you walking in?
• Jesus is the light of the world, the dayspring from on high, who guides our feet into the way of peace. That way of a peace is what Paul calls, “walking in the Spirit, minding the things of the Spirit and not the things of the flesh.” So do you have this Holy Spirit? Do you have God’s peace?

What will make Christianity spread like a contagion again? What kind of people will convert the Empires of our day, even as the Roman Empire was eventually conquered by Christ?

• It will be those who walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. It will be those who want to serve God without fear, in righteousness and holiness all their days.
• It will be those who refuse to bow down and burn incense to all our American idols, “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” Mammon, Pornography, Feminism, Technology. These are all idols to help us idolize ourselves. We want people to serve and worship us. We are our own gods. We want God to serve and worship us. This is what Satan wanted, and it is what he seduced Eve into grasping for, the fruit that will make us like God.
• What Satan offered with a lying tongue, God now gives freely and truly to all who believe on His Son.
• For Jesus Christ was hung like fruit upon the tree. And by grasping for Him you may take hold of eternal life. Your eyes will be opened to know true right and true wrong, and you may become like God sharing in His blessedness.
• For what does Paul say in Romans 8:29? He predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his Son. And in 2 Peter 1:4 it says that by trusting in God’s promises, we may become partakers of the divine nature.
• So while the world is busy exalting itself, worshiping itself trying to play god and rule others, the true God came down and humbled Himself, died for our idolatry, to make us partakers of His blessedness. To make us share in His divine life.
• If you know these saving benefits, then may you bless the God of Israel, now and forever, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

O Father we thank for Your Son, and we thank You for all those people who like John the Baptist, pointed us to Christ in whom alone is salvation and the remission of our sins. Grant that we also might grow and wax strong in the spirit, by the hearing of Your Word preached, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

It has been our custom that around the New Year, I preach a sermon on The State of the Church. And just as a you might go see the doctor for a routine examination, this sermon is that kind of annual check up on our health as a corporate body of believers. How are we doing as Christ Covenant Church? How is the broader body of Christ doing in our region and beyond? These are good questions to ask, perhaps not every week, but on occasion, and the turn of the year is a fitting time for this kind of big picture assessment and personal reflection.

• Now some people avoid going to the doctor simply because they don’t want to know whether they are actually healthy or not (“I feel fine!”). We don’t want them to run those tests, or draw our blood, or go poking around in our private places.
  • Or maybe you are one of those people who hates taking your car to the mechanic, because you know there’s always going to be something to fix or replace, belts and tires get worn out, and usually it all costs a lot more than we want to spend. And so we think, If it’s still running, why pop the hood.
• Well, this should not be the case when it comes to your soul. When it comes to the health of the body of Christ. Paul says very plainly to the Corinthian church, Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves (2 Cor 13:5).
  • And so with God’s help, we need to submit ourselves to His loving scrutiny. We must go and go often to the Great Physician and Healer of our souls and ask for His honest assessment of our true condition and state. That is what these State of the Church sermons are intended to help us discover about ourselves, and that means asking ourselves the (sometimes uncomfortable) questions that God’s Word places before us.
• So with that in mind let me give you the outline of our text, and then as we work through the first half of this passage, I am going to highlight five diagnostic questions that arise from this text, and which we should ask ourselves as a church.

• Our text divides into three sections
  • In verses 57-58, A Son is Born.
  • In verses 59-66, that Son is named John.
  • In verses 67-80, God is praised for what He will accomplish through John and through Christ.

• Recall the context. An angel appeared to Zacharias the priest 9 months ago. And while Zacharias was offering incense and prayers in the temple the angel Gabriel appeared and said to him, thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. (Luke 1:13-14).
• And here now that promise is fulfilled, even in spite of Zacharias’ unbelief. For 9 months he has been deaf and dumb, unable to hear or speak. And for the last 3 months, Mary the mother of God has been living under their roof. The unborn Jesus has been dwelling in their house. And now finally the time has come for the elderly Elizabeth to be delivered.
• And so as it happens when a child is born, news gets out. And it says in verse 58, her neighbours and her cousins heard how the Lord had shewed great mercy upon her; and they rejoiced with her.
• And this brings us to our first diagnostic question we should ask: Do we as a church rejoice in the mercy God has shown? Are we a church that has a reputation, that is known for our joy? When people visit us is it undeniable that we are a people who love the mercy of God and rejoice in His mercy?
  • Recall from last week that we said that all joy is contingent upon the intensity of our love. And so, where joy is lacking, love is lacking.
  • And so what are your joy levels like? Are you resolved in the year ahead to love God more intensely because you want to experience joy more intensely? You want for yourself and for others what the Apostle Peter describes who says, In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory (1 Peter 1:6-8).
  • The Christian life is a life of joy because even our trials are God’s mercies: to strengthen our faith, to purify us, to rid us of sin and all those desires that hinder our love for God in Whom is fullness of joy (Ps 16:11).
• And so, are we a church that is known for our joy and known for our love?
  • Jesus says in John 13:35, By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
  • And Paul says in Philippians 2:2, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
• It is by this love and joyful unity that the church becomes as a pillar of smoke by day, and a pillar of fire by night (Ex. 13:21-22) to show the world around us where the glory and presence of God is. We are God’s tabernacle in the wilderness of this world.
  • What is that pillar of smoke but the prayers and the lives of the holy saints? It says in Hebrews 12:1 that we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. And in Revelation 8:4 it says, And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.
  • And so this smoke and fire, this glory and light is given to signify the church’s love and joy in God. And where this love and joy is manifest, people will see it and wonder at it, and be drawn to Christ. For Jesus is our glory and we are His. And so how can we not rejoice in the mercy He has shown?
• So grade yourself. How are we doing in keeping the fires of charity roaring upon the altar? Does the smoke of our prayers ascend daily as a pleasing aroma to God because they are offered from a humble heart? Because this is the love offering God desires from His people, and Jesus says that it is by our love that people will know to whom be belong. We belong to the God who is love.
  • This brings us to verses 59-66 where this son of Zacharias and Elizabeth is named.

• First observe that there are two circumcisions happening here:
  • The first is in accord with Genesis 17:10-12 where God says to Abraham, This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations.
  • And so John as a son of the covenant promise, and Zacharias as one who has walked blamelessly before Lord, has John circumcised. And just as Abram’s name was changed to Abraham by this covenant of circumcision, here now the one they presumed to name Zacharias is named by God as John, which means, “Jehovah has graciously given,” or “YHWH has been gracious.”
  • This is the first circumcision, the cutting away of the flesh and the naming of a son in grace. And just as John precedes Jesus and the new covenant Jesus brings, so also John’s circumcision precedes a new covenant circumcision which will be of the heart, and the ears, and the lips of God’s people. And Zacharias is a foreshadowing of this spiritual circumcision.
• Notice that John has been alive for 8 days already, but still Zacharias is deaf and dumb, they have to make signs to him to communicate. And it is not until Zacharias himself names John (according to the word of the angel in Luke 1:13) that it says, his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God.
  • This is the spiritual circumcision of the spirit, and what fleshly circumcision always pointed to.
  • God says way back in Deuteronomy 10:16, Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.
  • And Jeremiah preaches to those who were circumcised in the flesh saying, Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings (Jer 4:4).
• And so recall what John’s ministry will be. Calling the Israelites, calling the Jews, to live out what their fleshly circumcision signified, namely to love God with a whole heart and to mortify fleshly desires.
  • This is why Paul can say to the Philippians in Philippians 3:3, For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
  • And likewise in Colossians 2:11-12 he says, In Christ you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
  • And so just as John’s baptism will anticipate Christ’s baptism, so also John’s circumcision anticipates the spiritual circumcision of Christ’s death.
  • And when the spirit opens our ears to hear, and opens our mouths to speak, and has cut away the deadness of our heart’s unbelief, what comes forth but praise?
    • As David says in Psalm 51:15, O Lord, open thou my lips; And my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
    • And in Isaiah 50:4-5 it says, The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God hath opened mine ear, And I was not rebellious, Neither turned away back.
• So notice, Zacharias is the first fruits of his own son’s ministry. Already God is turning the hearts of the fathers to the children. And the amazing thing about Zacharias, Elizabeth and John, is that together they are the original spirit-filled family. All of them receive the spirit of prophesy and become God’s instruments to testify of Christ.
• And this brings us to our second diagnostic question which is: Are our families, spirit-filled families? Do we all have the Word of God constantly on our lips? Do mothers and fathers and children alike hear the word, speak the word, pray the word, and sing the word? Because this is what God promised would take place in the New Covenant.
  • It says in Acts 2:17 quoting Joel 2:28, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. What is prophecy but speaking the Word of God, testifying to Christ, praising Him for His mercies which are new every morning.
  • A spirit-filled church needs spirit-filled families, and the way we receive the spirit is by having our ears opened to the word, our hearts softened to receive it, and our mouths opened to proclaim it.
• And this leads to a third diagnostic question we could ask. It says in verse 65 that after Zacharias praised God, fear came on all that dwelt round about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judaea.
  • And so we could ask ourselves: Do we “noise abroad,” do we make known to our little hill country of Centralia and Chehalis and roundabout, the mercy God has shown in Christ?
  • Are we as it says in 1 Peter 3:15-16, ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
  • Notice that when we are a people who live in hope, that hope becomes evident to outsiders, and then outsiders begin to ask, Why are you so hopeful? Why are you not stressed, fearful, and anxious about the future?
    • And to them we can say, I already died in Christ. I have already counted this world as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus. And so however bad things may get, or however good things may be, I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil 4:11-13).
    • Moreover my Lord Jesus told me, Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from [my] Father’s will. But the very hairs of [my] head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows (Matt 10:28-31).
    • When we are living out the hope of the gospel, doing as Abraham did, we become as those of whom this world is not worthy. For it says in Hebrews 11, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland…But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them… For here have we no lasting city, but we seek one to come (Hebrews 11:13-16, 13:14).
  • When the church lives in hope of this heavenly country, and orders all of its earthly affairs towards that end, the blessing of God rests upon His people. The gospel goes forth and triumphs, and true prosperity abounds.
    • It says in Proverbs 10:22, The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, And he addeth no sorrow with it.
    • Whereas those who love money and trust in uncertain riches, err from the faith, and pierce themselves through with many sorrows. (1 Tim 6:10, 17).
    • As Americans we are abounding with more material wealth than kings of old could have imagined. And yet we have been deceived by our wealth, we have trusted in riches, and lost our soul as result. That is what happens when you serve Mammon instead of God, or worse, serve Mammon in the name of God.
    • And so if the American church would recover a more potent witness to Christ, we must check our hearts and check where our treasure is. We all love and trust money more than we should. And we must declare war on this idol if our hope will become heavenly and not earthly.
• This leads us to our fourth diagnostic question which is: Do we treasure God’s Word within our hearts? Is our attention, memory, and comprehension of God’s Word a high priority for us?
  • It says in verse 66, And all they that heard them [referring to the news of God’s mercy and the birth of John] laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be! And the hand of the Lord was with him.
  • It is not enough to just hear the Word, we must also retain it and treasure it in our memory.How else will you be ready to give an answer for the hope within you? How else will you have hope unless God’s Word is constantly within your mind?
    • David says in Psalm 119:11, Thy word have I hid in mine heart, That I might not sin against thee.
    • And in Psalm 119:16, I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.
  • And so are we a church that memorizes Scripture because we value Scripture? And do we value it at the price that God values it?
    • It says in Psalm 119:72, The law of thy mouth is better unto me Than thousands of gold and silver. And of gaining wisdom and understanding it says in Proverbs 3:14-15, For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, And the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: And all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.
  • And so if you struggle with discontent, with covetousness which is idolatry, with love of money, then turn your attention to memorizing and understanding God’s Word. Because as Proverbs 3:17-18 goes on to say, Her ways are ways of pleasantness, And all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, And happy are all who retain her.
• Fifth and finally, observe what is at the center of Zacharias’ song of praise.
  • In verses 67-73 (the first half), he blesses God for visiting His people, for redeeming them, and keeping His covenant promises. In verses 76-80 (the second half) he prophesies of John’s ministry to prepare people for Jesus. But in the middle, in verses 74-75, he extols the whole purpose for God saving us, and what is that? That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies Might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, All the days of our life.

And so as we close, I want to ask this final diagnostic question: Is this our highest aim, and our greatest desire, and our burning ambition as a church? Do we want what God wants from Christ’s saving work?

• Do we want to simply serve him without fear? Worship Him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life?
• Does all our planning, and budgeting, and programs and ministries aim at this goal? Is this what Christ Covenant Church is all about? Serving God without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, All the days of our life.
• This is what the chief end of man is: to glory God, and enjoy Him forever. And so do this goal govern us. Does this goal order all our lesser goals and set them in right proportion?
• Is this your personal goal if God were to come to you and ask, “What do you want? I’ll give you whatever you ask up to half of the kingdom?” Is this your knee-jerk response, to say, “I just want to serve you God. I just want to be holy and to live righteously before you all my days.” Or as the Psalmist says in Psalm 73:25, Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
• May that become our true answer and desire more and more in the year ahead, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

O God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, teach our soul to magnify You, teach our spirit to rejoice in God our savior. For you have done for us great things, and holy is Your name, and so teach us to hallow that name, both now and forever, and Amen.

In Luke 1:4, we are told that the purpose of Luke’s gospel is, so that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.

• Thus far in Luke’s gospel you have been instructed about the miraculous conception of John the Baptist, and then you were instructed about the even more miraculous conception of our Lord Jesus who was conceived by the Holy Ghost and to be born of the virgin Mary.
• And now in our text this morning, Luke brings together these two pregnant women, the elderly Elizabeth and the young virgin Mary. And he brings these two women together under one roof, so that three people can bear witness to the Incarnation of God.
• Who are those three witnesses? They are: Mary, Elizabeth, and a 28-week John the Baptist, still in utero, all testifying to the Lordship of Christ.
• It says in Revelation 19:10,for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And in 1 John 4:2 it says, Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And so here in our text we have the Holy Spirit moving two women and an unborn baby to testify, and not only to testify but to rejoice at God’s entrance into this broken world.
  • This is the pattern of Luke chapters 1-2. Those who believe the gospel rejoice. The one person who does not believe (Zacharias) is silenced. Praise and prophecy follows from faith. True believing leads to true and lasting joy.
  • And so the question Luke confronts us with in this scene is: Does your faith give birth to real joy? Does what you believe about Jesus move you to say with Mary, my soul doth magnify the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour?
• This is what the Christmas season is all about. The inbreaking of God’s Son into our world of sin and misery. The inbreaking of real joy and certain hope into all of your present sorrows, pains, and fears.
  • And so as we consider this passage before us, I want you to take these three witnesses (John, Elizabeth, and Mary) as a guide to recovering your joy. And if you are someone who has yet to believe on the Lord Jesus as your Savior, may God grant you to taste and see this joy for the very first time. So with that in mind, let me give you the outline of our text.

• This passage is bookended by Mary’s travel plans.
  • In verse 39, Mary arises, leaves Nazareth, and goes to the house of Zacharias in Judah.
  • And then in verse 56, Mary abides there with Zacharias and Elizabeth for 3 months and then returns to her own house.
• And then in between those two details, Luke gives us a threefold witness to Christ.
  • In verses 39-41, John bears witness.
  • In verses 42-45, Elizabeth bears witness.
  • And then in verses 46-56, Mary bears witness.
    • And as we shall see, all three witnesses are marked by rejoicing.

• Recall from last week that Mary has just been told that she shall bear the Son of God through a virginal conception. And because a virgin child has never happened before, and because it would be both scandalous and hard to believe that such a miracle has occurred, Luke tells us that Mary arises in haste to abide with Zacharias and Elizabeth for three months.
• And what this three month stay does for Mary, and for us, is protect against the false accusations that maybe Mary and Joseph had been fooling around, or that this wasn’t a virginal conception at all and Mary committed adultery. So Luke illustrates and fills out what Matthew 1:25 tells us plainly, that Joseph knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son.
  • So after that first trimester when Mary returns to Nazareth, and her belly is starting to show, and people are starting to wonder and whisper, there are at least two respectable people who can testify that Mary has been with them this whole time. She has not known a man, the power of God has caused this child to be conceived. And later Joseph himself will add his own testimony that this child is virgin born.
  • So Luke is supplying us with witnesses, both angelic and human, that some of the other gospel accounts do not include. And again this is all part of his project to give us certitude in the faith. And by giving us certitude, to also give us more sure grounds for joy and hope.

• Recall the prophesy and purpose of John’s life and ministry. The angel Gabriel said earlier in Luke 1:15-16, he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb. [so already this is coming to pass] And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.
  • And so long before John can preach or speak or say “behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” he is already testifying to Christ. John is bearing witness to that newly conceived 1-week old baby living in Mary’s womb. That baby is God and because He is God that is cause to leap and rejoice.
  • And here John exemplifies a model of Christian faith. John believes without seeing. He rejoices at what he hears. Elizabeth will say in verse 44, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.
• And so notice that John’s leaping for joy then leads to Elizabeth being filled with that same Holy Spirit. Joy in John begets joy in John’s mother. This is how joy is shared.
  • God loves to use spirit-filled people to bring the Holy Spirit to others. And while John cannot yet testify with words, he can testify with his body, and his joyful leaping causes Elizabeth to be the very first person in the gospel of Luke to make the fundamental Christian confess, Jesus is Lord. We hear this testimony in verses 42-46.

• First observe what is completely absent from this scene. There is absolutely zero envy, jealousy, or rivalry between Elizabeth and Mary, or between Jesus and John. And this is unique in a world of self-important sinners. In a world of vain women who think too highly of themselves and are constantly comparing themselves with others.
  • To such women the words of 2 Corinthians 10:12 are apt, it says, but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.
  • What is 90% of social media but vanity and lies?
• Now if you think back to the Old Testament (before they had the internet), you’ll notice this problem of rival women with rival sons is as old as Genesis. And this strife between brothers and strife between mothers, dominates the storyline of Israel’s history.
  • There is the rivalry between Sarah and Hagar, between Rachel and Leah, between Hannah and Peninnah, between Isaac and Ishamel, Jacob and Esau, between Joseph and His brothers, between David and his brothers, between Solomon and Adonijah. And many more examples could be given.
  • But when the Holy Spirit comes and fills a person with divine charity, this evil spirit of envy and strife, of vainglory and pride, is crucified and vanquished. This is the change Christ came to bring about, and Luke makes it evident from the very start.
    • It says in Romans 14:17, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
    • And in 1 Corinthians 13:4-6 it says, Love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.
• So observe what spirit Elizabeth is of. Truth itself is living within Mary, and Elizabeth rejoices in that Truth. Divine love is growing in Mary’s womb, and Elizabeth rejoices in that love.
• Remember Elizabeth is the older woman and a blameless woman at that, and she has had her own miracle. And therefore, to Elizabeth a certain honor and praise is due. But Elizabeth is virtuous, and she recognizes the genuine superiority of Mary’s blessedness and Mary’s child and she counts it no slight against herself, but rather rejoices in Mary’s good.
  • While some women mighty feel like “Mary is stealing my thunder, upstaging me with her more miraculous child,” nothing of that attitude is found in Elizabeth. Instead, she rejoices at Mary’s greeting and announces, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And what is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
  • Notice, Elizabeth counts it an honor, a privilege, an underserved blessing that the mother of her Lord should come and visit her.
  • And so here Elizabeth (and later John) embody that ancient prophesy that “the older shall serve the younger,” and yet they do it with all joy, desiring to decrease that God may increase.
• And this really is the mark of a Spirit-filled woman, over against the envious woman. The spirit-filled woman is glad to decrease that God may increase. A spirit-filled woman is content with what she has. But the envious woman is focused on what she lacks, and then she murmurs and complains because life is unfair. No one likes me. No one is attentive to me. Envious people are me-centered people, and me-centered people are unhappy people.
  • And so while envy is sorrow at another’s good, love enables us to rejoice at the goods that others possess. And the more we love the blessedness of others, the more we share in that blessedness, their joys become our joys.
  • This is one of the great secrets to becoming more joyful: You must love those people that God loves and love when God blesses them. It is for good reason that the order of the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5:22 is, love, then joy, then peace. Love is the fountainhead of every spiritual good because love unites you to God who is the greatest good.
• And so learn from Elizabeth how true joy is born in the soul.
  • First you must cease from envy, you must repent of your self-seeking and entitlement. You must not covet. You must not love money.
  • Second you must give thanks to God for His goodness towards you. You must acknowledge that however imperfect or unpleasant your current state may be, it is still far better than what your sins deserve.
  • Third, you must love the Lord thy God with everything you are. Because all joy is contingent upon the intensity of your love. If you love God a lot, your joy will overflow. But if you only love God a little, or worse, love this world more than God, your joy will be easily taken from you.
    • Jesus says to his disciples in John 16:22, Therefore you now have sorrow [because he is about to die]; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.
    • That is the promise to those who keep Christ within their heart. You keep Christ there by trusting Him, hoping in Him, and loving Him.
• And so if you are a person who lacks joy, if you struggle tocount it all joy when you fall into various trials (James 1:2), or to Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! (Phil 4:4), thenstart by asking yourself, What do I really love? What do I truly value? And what is the intensity of the love that I have for God compared with all these other created goods?
  • The key to constant and stable joy is to treasure God more highly, and to love Him more intensely. Because that is treasure no one can take from you.
    • So learn from John to rejoice in pointing to Christ.
    • Learn from Elizabeth to love without envy, without comparing your blessings with someone else’s blessings.
    • And third learn from Mary to rejoice in God’s promises even before they are fulfilled. For this is what Mary does in her Magnificat of verses 46-55.

• Here in these verses, Mary shows herself to be a woman of the Word. Depending on how you count, there are at least 25 different allusions, references, or interpolations of the Old Testament in this song of hers. Far more than we have the time to show.
  • But to give you just a sample of how she brings together the entire Old Testament in this song, there are references here to Psalm 34, Psalm 35, Habakkuk 3, 1 Samuel 1-2, Genesis 30, Deuteronomy 10, Psalm 106, Psalm 111, Psalm 100, Psalm 103, Psalm 89, Psalm 75, Ezekiel 21, Job 40, Isaiah 41, 2 Chronicles 6, Micah 7, and that’s just a partial list.
• And so if you would desire to rejoice like Mary, your soul must first drink and drink deeply of the promises in God’s Word.
  • What is perhaps even more remarkable about Mary’s joy is that she did not have the New Testament Scriptures. Mary did not have Romans or Ephesians, The Gospels or 1 John.
  • And so how much more joy should we have who live on this side of God making good on His promises? When so many more have been fulfilled now that Christ has died and risen and ascended and sent forth His Spirit to fill the church. You and I have even more cause for joy than Mary the mother of God did. Because we live in the days of her Son’s reign. We live in a world where the gospel has conquered and shall continue to conquer till Christ returns.
• And so do you know the promises of God in His Word? Do you know just how gracious He has been to you, by causing your ears to here, even now, the greatest news this world has ever known. That in Christ Jesus, God became man, and now through Christ Jesus, you can be reconciled to God.

Every Christian has their own “Magnificat” that they could pen. And that is because every Christian can honestly say with Mary, “He that is mighty hath done to me great things.” Every Christian can say they are recipients of Divine Mercy.

• Remember that line from St. Augustine who said, “Mary is more blessed in receiving the faith of Christ, than in conceiving the flesh of Christ.”
• And so if you believe on the Lord Jesus, the same Son that Mary bore in her womb, is the same Son who takes up residence in your heart. And when God dwells within you, making you into His holy temple, joy is the supernatural effect, even a joy that cannot be taken from you anymore than God can be taken from you.
• And so do you receive this truth today? Do you believe what John, Elizabeth, and Mary believed? Because they had joy, and God wants you to have the same joy, so believe on the same Lord they believed in. IN the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

O God Our Father, nothing is impossible with You. And so grant that new life may spring forth in our hearts even now, a life of faith formed by love, which alone is pleasing to You and profitable for our salvation. Grant Thy Holy Spirit to overshadow us, even as it overshadowed the virgin, so that Christ may be perfectly formed in us, to the glory of the undivided Trinity, One God Forever, Amen.

From the earliest days of the Christian church, it has been necessary to believe and confess that the Lord Jesus was, “conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.” And this morning we come to a passage in Luke’s Gospel that is a foundational proof text for this article of faith.

• Our belief in the virgin birth of Christ is a truth we confess in the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Definition of Chalcedon, and it is a truth that unites all of Christendom (Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Orthodox alike). However, it might not be obvious at first why this truth matters. Of course, it matters because the Word of God teaches it, and therefore we must believe it, but how does the virgin birth relate to who Jesus is and what He came to do? Why did God choose to enter our world in this way, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary?
• Wel this morning, I want to begin to answer that question as we study this passage before us. And so let me give you the outline of our text, and then we’ll consider some of the implications of it.

Here in verses 26-38 we have a conversation between the angel Gabriel, and the virgin Mary. And this conversation unfolds in three parts:

• In verses 26-29, the angel greets Mary, and Mary responds with silent wonder.
• In verses 30-34, the angel prophesies that she will bear the Son of God, and Mary responds with faith seeking understanding.
• And then in verses 35-38, the angel explains how God will work this miracle, and Mary responds with Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.
• And what Luke is doing in this section is setting up a contrast between Mary and Zacharias (who we learned about last week). He is giving us a contrast between an old man and a young woman, between a priest in the Temple and a girl from the countryside. An angel appears to both of them with good news of great joy, a miraculous son shall be born, but the responses of Mary and Zacharias differ. And so as we walk through this text together try to note those differences, because Luke is teaching us, his readers, how we should respond when the most certain word of God is preached to us. So with that in mind, let us walk through our text.

26And in the sixth month [referring to the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy] the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth.

• Where is Nazareth? It is about 75 miles north of Jerusalem (about week’s journey walking), and about 15 miles west of the Sea of Galilee, which is where Jesus will later call his disciples.
  • Now we know from Nathanael’s comment in John 1:46, that Nazareth did not exactly have the greatest reputation. In modern day terms we would say it was “flyover county,” perhaps a place to pass thru but not a vacation destination. Nathanael says to Philip, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.
  • And so already God is teaching us a lesson here that will recur again and again in Luke’s gospel, and that is: God loves to take foolish things and shame the wise. God loves to use weak things to humiliate the strong. It says in 1 Corinthians 1:28-29, God uses the base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence.
  • It is not good for us to be proud and mighty and to boast in our beauty or strength, for all flesh is as grass and our beauty as the flower, but the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, is forever, unfading in its glory.
  • And so mark this theme of Luke’s gospel: God’s kingdom turns the kingdoms of men, and Satan’s kingdom upside down. God’s kingdom brings justice and equity where corruption and oppression has been institutionalized. When Jesus shows up on the scene pronouncing “Woes” and “Blessings,” he separates by His words those who love the evil status quo from those who love the ways of God. And the question then becomes for everyone: Which kingdom do you belong to? Are you with Christ or against him? Are you seeking first the kingdom of heaven, or seeking first your own?
• So Luke sets this truth before us up front by this act of God sending the angel to Nazareth of all places. Mary is living in that town from which nobody expects anything good to come, and it is from there that the only Good thing shall come. And so to those who may doubt the goodness of Jesus of Nazareth, we say to them with Phillip, “Come and see.”
  • So the angel Gabriel is sent to Nazareth, and in verse 27 it says he was sent…

27To a virgin espoused [betrothed] to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.

• Here Luke is connecting Mary and Joseph to the royal lineage of King David, and by doing so he is also connecting them to God’s promises to David which have yet to be fulfilled.
  • God says in 2 Samuel 7:16, And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.
  • And David himself wrote in Psalm 110, The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever After the order of Melchizedek.
  • And in Psalm 132:11 it says, The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; He will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.
• These promises the Jews had held onto for centuries waiting, Mary and Joseph among them. And Luke tells us they are of the house of David, which makes them candidates for begetting the promised messiah.
• However, there is a natural barrier to that begetting, namely the wedding hasn’t happened yet. Mary is still a virgin. This is the setup for the angel’s message in verse 28.

28And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

• Here the angel proclaims three things to Mary: She is 1) highly favored with God, 2) the Lord is with her, and 3) she is blessed among women.
• However, at this stage in the conversation, Mary has no idea what or why this angel has suddenly appeared to her, a virgin girl living in Nazareth. Moreover, such a greeting has never been given to any other woman in Isarel’s history. This is unprecedented for someone like Mary, who knows the Hebrew Scriptures. And therefore, in verse 29 it says.

29And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.

• Mary’s mind is racing, wondering, she is vexed at what she is seeing and hearing. Like Zacharias she is afraid, but unlike Zacharias she is ready to believe whatever the angel says. And so what does the angel say?

30And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. 31And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. 32He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: 33And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

• So after quieting Mary’s fears, and assuring her of God’s favor, the angel describes who she will conceive in her womb, and what his divine mission shall be.
  • 1. His name will be called Jesus, which means Salvation.
  • 2. He shall be great, which is always an understatement when you ascribe it to God. It says in Psalm 145:3, For His greatness is unsearchable, His ways past finding out (Rom 11:33).
  • 3. He shall be called the Son of the Highest. That is, divine in His sonship, from God in His eternal origin.
  • 4. We have this Divine Son’s mission described. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. This fulfills many prophesies in Isaiah, to give you just one it says in Isaiah 11:1, And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. Meaning, what David lost because of his sins, and what Israel had squandered because of their idolatry, the throne that sat in ruins shall be raised up by Mary’s Son. Moreover, how long shall her Son reign?
  • 5. The angel says in verse 33,And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.It was this same angel Gabriel who explained to Daniel 500 years earlier this coming of the Messiah (Daniel 9:21-27). It was also Daniel who saw in a vision this everlasting reign of Christ. It says in Daniel 7:13-14, I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
• For Mary as a pious Jew, and as one related to Elizabeth and Zacharias the priest, she would have most certainly known this prophetic hope. She would have been constant in praying for God’s promises to be fulfilled. And therefore, unlike Zacharias who should have known better than to doubt the word of the angel, Mary believes and has only one question.

How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

• We call this kind of question, “faith seeking understanding.” And this principle is the basis of all good Bible questions, and all good theological endeavors. If faith is not your starting point, you are destined to go astray, you are destined to entangle yourself in foolish questions, vain speculation, and empty controversies.
  • And so while Zacharias asked the epistemological question, “How shall I know?” Mary proceeds from faith in God as her first principle and then asks the ontological question, “How shall this be?” And there is a world of difference between these two intellectual states. It is the difference between faith that makes you strong, and doubt that makes you weak.
    • Zacharias doubts what his own eyes and ears are perceiving, and for such doubt he is silenced. But Mary hears and believes what she cannot see, and for such faith is lead to understand it.
  • It says in Isaiah 7:9, If you will not believe, Surely you shall not be established. Or as the Greek translation has it, If you do not believe, you will not understand.
  • And so Mary exemplifies this intellectual posture and attitude of trust that every Christian should imitate. Mary believes not only to understand, but in order to obey and cooperate. She believes the Word of God and then asks the question of application, How does this Word relate to me personally?
  • And because she asks this question from faith, and because it is a question worthy of her knowing, God gives her an answer.

35And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. 36And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. 37For with God nothing shall be impossible.

• This is the miraculous means by which Mary shall conceive the Son of God. Not through marital intercourse, not through any sexual act at all. Not by the will of man, but by the power of the Holy Spirit overshadowing her.
  • This word for overshadowing (ἐπισκιάσει) is the same word that is used in the Greek version of Exodus 40 to describe the glory of God filling the tabernacle. It says in Exodus 40:34-35, Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting, because the cloud overshadowed/rested (ἐπεσκίαζεν) above it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
  • Mary has become the literal physical dwelling place for God, and the place in which God’s glory shall be hidden for 9 months. And in this respect her husband Joseph is akin to Moses, who for the glory dwelling within her, does not enter.
    • We learn from Matthew’s gospel that God also sends an angel to Joseph to inform him of this miraculous conception and virgin birth. It says in Matthew 1:18-20, Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And then in verse 25 it says, And [Joseph] knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.
• So just as the first woman was created without intercourse, formed miraculously from Adam’s side, so now the Last Adam is conceived without intercourse, formed miraculously in the womb of the virgin.
• Mary is The Woman whose seed shall crush the serpent’s head. Mary is a New Eve, a New Mother of all the living, for the Son of God who is eternal life has chosen her to be His mother.
  • And lest the wonder of such a gracious promise give Mary any occasion for doubt, the angel adds to these words a sign of confirmation, the sign of Elizabeth’s miraculous conception. And then he seals that sign to her saying, For with God nothing shall be impossible.
  • How then does Mary respond to this answer? Because there is still a lot of things she does not understand. She does not yet know how Joseph will respond, or how they will need to travel to Bethlehem in 9 months. She is not told up front about the circumstances that will surround the child’s birth, and how Herod will try to kill him, and so they will need to escape to Egypt to protect their child. And rather than asking all those follow-up questions now with the angel in front o her, questions that you and I might be tempted to ask, instead she contents herself with what God has seen fit to reveal, and she says in verse 38.

Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

• These are most beautiful and lovely words. You can hear the meekness in her voice as she gives her consent. She declares that she is the handmaid of the Lord. In Greek this is δούλη, translated elsewhere as slave or bondservant.
  • So far from exalting herself as being worthy of such high favor, Mary regards herself as the lowly maidservant of the Lord. Later she will say to Elizabeth, My soul magnifies the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of His handmaiden; For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me, And holy is His name.
  • Jesus is Mary’s Savior, even though she is the Savior’s mother. Notice that Mary does not cease toacknowledge the gratuitous nature of this gift. It is not because she is so awesome that all will call her blessed, it is because He who is mighty has done great things for me.
  • This is in part why we as Protestant don’t pray to Mary, she would not want us to. She would say “take you prayers directly to my Son, the one Mediator between God and man, for my Son is my savior just as He is yours.”
• Mary exemplifies the attitude of Psalm 115:1 which says, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, But unto thy name give glory, For thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.

I want to close by returning to the question we asked at the beginning: Why did God choose to enter our world this way, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary? Let me give you just three of the many reasons for God doing this:

• 1. It was to demonstrate Christ’s real humanity. If the Son of God had just descended from the sky looking like a healthy 30-year-old man with a halo on his head, it would be hard to believe that he was fully man, of the same nature as you and I. As Hebrews 4:15 says of Him, He can sympathize with our weaknesses, and was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
  • And so to make us know just how close God wants to get to us, He assumes our very nature starting at conception, and joins that nature to Himself in a Personal Union, eternal God with time-bound man, unchangeable divinity with a growing humanity. And all so that we might be joined to Him. He partakes of our nature that we might partake of His (Hebrews 2:14, 2 Peter 1:4).
• 2. Jesus was born of the virgin Mary to demonstrate his full divinity. Only God can beget God, no virgin could do this however holy, with a man or without one. And therefore, the only explanation for the existence of Jesus is that He is God from God, light from light, the only begotten Son of the eternal Father. And because the Father begets the Son in a spiritual conception, so also it was most fitting that Mary conceive that same Son without carnal intercourse, but by the Spirit’s power.
  • As Isaiah 7:14 foretold, A virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, And shall call his name Immanuel. God with us.
• 3. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the virgin Mary to teach us how the miracle of salvation is effected in us.
  • As miraculous as the virgin birth is, the justification of the ungodly is an even greater miracle than this!
  • For consider the virgin Mary, she possessed God in her very womb, and yet without faith, that virginal conception would be no profit to her. Mary still had to believe in the Son of God dwelling within her.
  • St. Augustine writes that, “Mary is more blessed in receiving the faith of Christ, than in conceiving the flesh of Christ…Her nearness as a Mother would have been of no profit to Mary, had she not borne Christ in her heart after a more blessed manner than in her flesh.”
• So do you like Mary tremble and fear before the announcement of God’s high favor towards you? You are favored to hear the gospel of Christ. As Philippians 2:12 says, do you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling?
• Do you like Mary, believe in order to understand? Do you believe in order to conceive the same Word and Christ that Mary conceived and nourished in her womb?
  • As Paul says in Ephesians 3:17, That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. And in Colossians 1:27 it says, To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
• And finally, do you like Mary consent to the will of God? Does your heart say to Him, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.
• Salvation is God’s gracious giving of His very self to you. And so purify your heart for Him. Keep your soul chaste from idols and demons, lies and falsehood, so that as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:1, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
• May God’s Holy Spirit overshadow you, and dwell within you forever, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

O Father, we thank You for the miracle of grace, that takes away the reproach of our sins. Teach us now to believe more firmly the testimony of Your Word, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Well, if you have ever wondered what the longest book in the New Testament is, you just heard the first 25 verses of it. Yes, the Gospel of Luke is the longest book in the New Testament by word count (and the second longest is Luke’s sequel, the book of Acts). And so this morning we shall begin our journey through this gospel, although because of its length, we may take some breaks along the way, we shall see.

• Now what is unique about Luke is that it gives us many stories and details that no other gospel records.
  • For example, Luke alone tells us about the angel Gabriel appearing to Zacharias. Luke alone tells us about the angel appearing to Mary, and how she responds with her now famous Magnificat (“My soul magnifies the Lord!”). Luke alone gives us the “Song of Simeon,” which we sing as our benediction during Advent. Luke alone gives us the one story about Jesus as a boy, which all the other gospels remain silent about. Luke alone also contains some of the most famous parables like the Prodigal Son, and the Good Samaritan.
  • So there is a real sense in which Luke is the most detailed and comprehensive account of Jesus’ earthly life. An account that begins even before his birth, with the miraculous conception and naming of John, who according to the angel shall make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
• So this morning on this Second Sunday of Advent, in this season of preparing ourselves for the coming of Christ, I want to consider the question: How does God prepare His people for His own Son’s arrival? How does God make ready those faithfully awaiting the Messiah, and what we can learn from this inspired history that Luke records for us?
  • There are three answers to this question we find here in Luke 1:1-25. And they are
    • 1. By Sending His Most Certain Word
    • 2. By Answering Our Former Prayers
    • 3. By Reconciling Us to Himself and One Another
  • So let’s walk through this text together just focusing on those three answers. How does God prepare us for His only begotten Son’s arrival?
    • The first way is….

• God does through the Luke as the author of this gospel, and then also through many figures within the gospel story.
• First observe how Luke describes the reason for him writing this gospel. He says in verse 1 that others have attempted this work (like Matthew and Mark), and yet there is still so much more to say about Jesus. And because Luke has access to reliable eyewitnesses, referring to the apostles (ministers of the word), He says in verses 3-4, It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.
  • So notice that Luke’s intention is to give certainty/assurance to those who already believe and have been instructed (κατηχήθης, catechized).
  • This name Theophilus means “lover of God” or “friend of God” and he was most likely the patron who funded the writing and distribution of this work and the book of Acts.
    • Luke says in Acts 1:1, The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach.
    • So who is Theophilus? He is the “most excellent friend of God” and patron of these two important treatises, Luke & Acts, which together make up almost a third of the whole New Testament. So whatever it cost Theophilus to fund Luke’s work, I think we can safely say it was money well spent!
      • By way of application, we could ask ourselves: In what ways are we being friends and lovers of God like Theophilus? In what ways can we support and assist those laboring to make the truth known in our day? The ordinary way is by our tithes and offerings, but there also many other ways that we can be using what God has given us to further His kingdom. It says in Proverbs 22:9, He that hath a generous eye shall be blessed. And so are you aspiring to be generous like Theophilus?
  • So God prepares people for Christ by inspiring individuals like Luke and Theophilus to get in writing what the apostles and other people saw from the beginning. Written records matter! And back then writing was not cheap.
    • Given the contents of this gospel, Luke must have had to interview Mary, Elizabeth, Zacharias, and others. How else would he know what they saw, said, and thought within themselves? So Luke has his work cut out for him (he will need to travel and schedule meetings with these people), and then gather up all this eyewitness testimony in his library so he can them put into an orderly account.
    • And so notice that while “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim 3:16), the Holy Spirit uses many earthly means to write the Scriptures. He does not merely dictate to Luke the words to write, He uses Luke’s human efforts, education, and acquired skills of writing and composition to author this masterful and coherent narrative.
    • And so while human beings are involved in the process of writing Scripture, the result of Luke’s work is still the very Word of God, authored ultimately by the Holy Spirit with Luke as God’s instrument. In a similar way, whenever you preach the gospel to others, whenever you tell someone the truth about Jesus, you are functioning as God’s prophet, you are God’s instrument to bring people into the kingdom.
      • It says in Revelation 19:10, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And it is by testifying of Jesus that God fulfills the promise Joel 2:28, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.
  • So this is one of the ways God prepares people for Christ. By using fallible and mortal creatures to bear witness to the infallible and immortal truth of what God has accomplished in Jesus.
  • God does this by sending His most sure and certain Word, through human messengers.
• Second observe, that God also uses angelic messengers to prepare His people. And in verses 5-20 we have the angel Gabriel bringing good news to Zacharias the priest. And the message of Gabriel illustrates this second way in which God prepares us, and that is….

It says in verses 5-7, 5There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. 6And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 7And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.

• Here we are introduced to the parents of John the Baptist. The name Zacharias means, “God has remembered.” And the name Elizabeth, means “My God is abundant,” or “My God has sworn an oath.”
  • And so in the very names of this godly older couple are contained a message of hope and expectation that God will remember His Word. My God has sworn and made promises and He shall keep them. And yet despite Zacharias and Elizabeth being righteous before God and blameless, they are also barren.
  • This should call to mind for us the first promise of the gospel in Genesis 3:15 where God says to the Serpent, And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel. And so from Genesis onward there is this expectation that through the bearing of godly seed, salvation shall come, the Serpent shall be defeated and the curse undone.
    • And then starting in Genesis this pattern of barrenness that precedes a miraculous conception becomes a theme of the Old Testament. We might think of Abram and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel, Manoah and his wife (who gives birth to Samson), and perhaps most similar to our scene here in Luke 1 is the scene in 1 Samuel 1, where Hannah miraculously conceives and gives birth to the priest Samuel.
    • So according to God’s Word, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth (Psalm 127:3-4)
    • And in Exodus 23 and Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 7 God tells Israel that if they keep covenant with Him, none shall be barren, they will be fruitful, multiply, and prosper.
  • And so the fact that Zacharias and Elizabeth are now old and still without this blessing, made them “a reproach among men,” as Elizabeth says in verse 25. There was a kind of social shame and suspicion that maybe they had done something wrong to deserve this barrenness.
    • We might think of the disciples in John 9:2-3 who ask Jesus, “Master, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.
    • And so like the man born blind, Luke tells us that for Zacharias and Elizabeth, it was not for any personal individual sins that they lacked children. Instead, it was the consequence of living in a sin-cursed world, amongst a covenant breaking people. They are collateral damage of decades of Israel’s apostasy and in a most personal and painful way, unable to have children.
    • So the Bible has a category for people (like Job, or like Joshua) who are personally righteous and blameless, but who suffer various pains and evils of God’s curse. This could be 1) Because of original sin in Adam such that we all die, or 2) Because of national sins of idolatry and the corporate stain of bloodguilt, or 3) Simply because God is going to glorify Himself and strengthen our faith through the suffering He permits.
  • Whatever the case, Zacharias and Elizabeth are innocent and faithful covenant keepers, but who are members and part of a corporately/nationally guilty people. They represent the righteous remnant who dwell among an unrighteous people.
    • Luke frontloads this reality by telling us when this angelic appearance took place, it was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea. In other words, if Herod is the king, something has gone tragically wrong for the nation. If a blameless priest and a blameless daughter of Aaron are without the blessing of children, the nation must be under the curse of God’s covenant.
    • So this is an important distinction we need to remember as Christians. Some of our misfortunes and trials are direct consequences of our own sin and folly (we can draw a direct line between the two). But there are other times when we cannot. And so we need to remember this biblical category of the righteous individual who suffers the consequences of their nation’s corporate sins.
      • Christ is of course the perfect example of someone who is perfectly righteous and innocent, and yet who suffers the consequences of other people’s sins (even the whole world). As it says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
    • So we don’t always know the why for our lack of blessings, sometimes it’s us directly, sometimes it’s the result of Adam’s sin and living in a fallen world, sometimes it’s the consequence of corporate sins of our nation or family, but in either case, we always ought to be praying for and seeking after God’s blessing, trusting what the names of Zacharias and Elizabeth signify, God shall remember and My God has sworn, and He will make us abundant according to His promise.
• And so with this burden of barrenness weighing heavy on this blameless couple, God visits them in a momentous way: By an angel with a most certain word, and by answering the prayers Zacharias had prayed from long ago.
• It says in verses 11-13 that while everyone was praying outside,And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. 13But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.
  • John’s name means “The Lord is Gracious.” And by this angelic announcement we have the answer to the constant cries of the Psalms and Prophets who say to God, Be gracious unto me, O Lord. Have mercy upon your servant. Do not forget thy covenant which You have sworn of old. In answer to that hope and longing, God gives a son named, “The Lord is gracious.”
• However, observe that Zacharias does not respond with joy and thanksgiving. This otherwise blameless priest suddenly has a crisis of faith.
  • Perhaps his heart had grown weary from hoping against hope. It says in Proverbs 13:12, Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.
  • Perhaps Zacharias was so sick with sorrow that even an angel appearing to Him does not rouse him to believe. What a state of despair to be in that even an angel from heaven does not awaken your faith.
• In verse 18 he says to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.” It’s as if Zacharias has forgotten his own history, his own priestly lineage, he has forgotten that his God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who has done this thing before! Zacharias has forgotten God’s Word, forgotten his own prayers, and so God answers him with a sign that matches his unbelief.
  • It says in verses 19-21,And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings. And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.
    • The angel’s answer to Zacharias is (I think very humorously), “I am Gabriel (my name means Man of God or God my strength), I stand in God’s presence. I visited Daniel 400 years ago. And God sent me to tell you these things. Are you so dumb as to not believe me? Oh yes, you are, and so silent you shall be for 9 months, until God’s word is fulfilled.”
• Summary: So how does God prepare His people for Christ? First, He sends His most certain word, through human messengers, through angelic messengers, and Second, He is so gracious that He answers the prayers of someone who is experiencing a crisis of faith. And this should be a great comfort to us.
  • Maybe it was ten years ago that you prayed with great faith and fervency for the conversion of a family member, or for healing, or for a spouse, or to conceive children.But because nothing seemed to happen, heaven appeared silent, you stopped praying, you lost heart. And so the question I ask you today is: Would you believe it if God answered that prayer from ten years ago, today? Would you believe that your former prayers of faith are still heard by the eternal God, even if you are presently struggling with doubt in the now?
  • It says in Isaiah 49:14-16, But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, And my Lord has forgotten me.”[And God says in response] “Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me.
    • Although a mother may forget her own child, God shall never forget you. And it is this truth that God uses to stir up and renew our faith and our hope, to renew our prayers and zeal to ask for great things that only He can give. How many of need to repent for our unbelief? Even as we are praying Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
    • It says in Numbers 23:19, God is not a man, that he should lie; Neither the son of man, that he should repent: Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
  • God never forgets His promises or His people, and He loves to prepare us for new blessings by answering even our former prayers.
• Third and finally, we see from Gabriel’s message to Zacharias that John’s ministry will be to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. And if we look at Gabriel’s prophecy about John, we see that God also prepares us….

Gabriel says in verses 13-17, And thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

• First notice that God thinks you need time to prepare yourself, to prepare your heart, so that when Christ comes (whether for salvation or judgment!), you are ready to receive Him with joy and faith.
  • It says in Isaiah 59:2-4, But your sins have built barriers between and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue hath muttered perverseness. None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: They trust in vanity, and speak lies; They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
  • And so because your sins and lies imprison you, they shut your eyes to God’s goodness, He sends messengers on ahead of Christ, to call you to repentance. To give you a heads up that judgment day is coming, and you need to get right with the Lord and those you have sinned against before you die.
• And so John’s ministry is to be the “Turning Point” for Israel. It is a ministry of repentance and reconciliation, between God and between men. Repentance has a vertical dimension that reconciles us to God, and it has a horizontal dimension that reconciles us to one another. True repentance includes both of these dimensions.
  • Now there are three turnings that Gabriel prophesies shall result from John’s ministry.
  • 1. In verse 16 it says, many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.
    • This is the first and foundational repentance for judgment day. Turn your attention to the LORD God. Worship God. Fear God. Obey God. Do everything for the glory of God. Without this turning to God you will die in your sins.
  • 2. In verse 17 it says, he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children.
    • This is the healing of generational strife between fathers and their children. However disobedient the children may have been, however prodigal and foolish a son or daughter may be, the sign of a repentant father is that his heart yearns with compassion for his children. His heart reflects the heart of God the Father, as it says in Psalm 103:13-14, As a father pities his children, So the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.
    • And so fathers, what is your heart’s disposition towards your children? It is easy to love an obedient son, a respectful daughter, but what about when they are disobedient and disrespectful? Do you still love them the way God loves you?
    • Is your discipline of them just and equitable and intended for their good, or is it just venting your anger, or avenging your own wounded pride?
    • God knows our frame as imperfect fathers, and so He gives us clear instructions like, Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged (Col 3:21).
      • And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph 6:4).
      • And in 1 Thessalonian 2:11-12, Paul says You know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.
    • The sign of a man who is at peace with God, is that he is tender-hearted towards his children, and seeking to be at peace with them insofar as it is possible. So fathers, is your heart turned towards your children?
  • 3. Also, in verse 17 it says that John will turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.
    • This refers to the turning away from folly and the pursuit of earthly gain at the expense of heavenly treasure.
    • We are given a few examples of such turning a few chapters later when John begins preaching.
      • It says in Luke 3:10-14, So the people asked him, saying, “What shall we do then?” He answered and said to them, “He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.” Then tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than what is appointed for you.” Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, “And what shall we do?” So he said to them, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.”
    • So these are the fruits worthy of repentance. For soldiers and tax collectors it did not mean quitting their jobs, it meant doing what is just and fair without taking advantage of other people. And for those not in positions of authority it meant looking out for those in need.
      • As Paul says in Galatians 6:10, As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

This is how you make ready for Christ’s coming.

• 1. When God sends His Word, choose to believe it. This Gospel contains eyewitness testimonies to real historical events, that God orchestrated and authored for your salvation. Do you believe this?
• 2. Renew your prayers. Repent of your unbelief. Don’t be like Zacharias who was struck dumb for doubting the word from the angel, a word that was intended to bring him joy. Don’t miss out on the joy God wants to give you by praying fervently and hoping in His Word.
• 3. If there are people you are out of fellowship with, who you have wronged or sinned against. Seek out their forgiveness. Jesus says in Matthew 5:23-24, Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
  • What does God want more than your tithes and offerings and sacrifices? Reconciliation between estranged brothers. This is how you prepare yourself for God. And so may we, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

O Father, we thank You for this precious letter, that you inspired the Apostle Paul to write to Titus, and which You have preserved for the church’s benefit, so that we hearing it today, 2,000 years later, might learn from the church in Crete, that we might discern what Your unchangeable will is for your holy people. So please bless now the preaching, the hearing, and the keeping of this Word of faith, for we ask this all in Jesus’ name, Amen.

This morning, we come to the happy conclusion of Paul’s letter to Titus. And whenever you get to the end of a book in the Bible, it is often worthwhile to go back and reflect on how that book began and why it was written in the first place.

• Recall that Paul is writing a personal letter to his spiritual son Titus, and this letter is all about how to govern and care for the church.
  • And because this question of church government and discipline is important for the whole church to know about, Paul intends this letter to be read publicly within the many cities and congregations on the Island of Crete.
  • And so while this letter is addressed to Titus as a spiritual ruler, we see in the final verse of this letter (Titus 3:15), Paul proclaims “Grace be with you all (plural),” referring to all the saints in Crete.
  • So just in case the Christians in Crete are uncertain about Titus’ authority, preaching, and doctrine, they have this letter from the Apostle’s pen to confirm his ministry among them.
• Recall also the reason why Titus was left in Crete in the first place. Paul says in Titus 1:5, For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee.
• So now that we have studied this letter in its entirety, we can more fully appreciate everything that was wanting and lacking in Crete.
  • 1. First and foremost, they were lacking a qualified eldership, and so chapter 1 was spent detailing Presbyterian government and what a bishop/pastor must be.
  • 2. Second, was this problem of false teachers, of whom Paul says in Titus 1:11, their mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.
  • 3. And then after addressing this lack of leadership in the church, he spends the rest of the letter addressing what is wanting amongst the saints. And so in chapters 2-3 he addresses every class of people within the church: older men, older women, younger women, younger men, servants, and then all Christians in their relation to the civil government and the outside world.
• And this brings us to Paul’s concluding words and salutations here in verses 8-15, which contains specific instructions for Titus more personally but also has principles that the whole church ought to know and embrace.
  • So while this section is directed primarily at the pastors and elders in the church, it’s still important for all the saints to know these things and to be aware of them.

• In verses 8-9, Paul contrasts what is good and profitable with what is unprofitable and vain, and therefore to be avoided.
• In verses 10-11, He tells Titus how to deal with heretics who persist in what is unprofitable and vain.
• In verses 12-15, He directs Titus to fulfill some of his presbytery duties to assist other ministers.
  • So we have here: 1) What to avoid, 2) How to deal with heretics, and 3) How to help other ministers.

8This is a faithful saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men. 9But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.

• So looking at verse 8, what is this faithful saying that Titus is to affirm constantly? It is nothing less than the doctrine of God’s grace that leads to good works which is what he just explained in the verses prior, and which has been then theme of this whole letter, the marriage between wholesome doctrine and wholesome living, God’s grace that leads to gracious action.
  • So unlike the Cretans who are “always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons,” Christians are to be submissive to the civil government, hardworking and peaceful citizens, and they are To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men (Titus 3:2).
  • So Christian conduct should look radically different from the unbelieving world around them. There should be an obvious difference between the light and the dark. However, lest we get too high on our horse as children of the light, Paul also wants us to constantly remember our former state, our former sins and ignorance, and the grace of God shown to us in spite of that ignorance and sin and the eternal damnation we all justly deserve.
  • And so the faithful saying that Titus must affirm constantly is that salvation is Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; [so] That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying…(Titus 3:5-8).
  • So that’s the content of what Titus and every Christian needs to keep front and center. Last week we said that this is the truth that makes us gentle and meek, patient and kind. And then in sharp contrast to this truth, which is most good and most profitable, there are all kings of falsity, diversions, and distractions that we must learn to avoid.
• Here in verse 9 Paul lists 4 things for Titus (and every pastor and parishioner) to avoid:
  • 1. Avoid foolish questions.
    • So yes, this means that not all questions are good questions. Some questions are bad. In 2 Timothy 2:23 Paul says likewise, But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.
    • How do you determine if a question is good or foolish, wise or unlearned?
      • Well first ask yourself, “Will knowing the answer to this question increase my faith in God, my love for God and my neighbor, and my ability to be a blessing to others?”
        • If the question and answer does not have any relevance to the duties God has assigned to you, then there’s a pretty good chance it is either a foolish question, or just a question for another time, or for someone else to ask and answer because it is relevant to them. Knowledge is not equally profitable to every mind, a child often needs a very different answer than a grown adult.
        • And so we must be on guard that our quest for knowledge or new understanding, is not a distraction from the actual duties and clear commands we already know and understand.
        • A husband can spend his entire life learning to obey and do better at Ephesians 5:25, Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.
        • And yet many husbands overlook what is most plain and clear and relevant to their own duties before God, and become fixated on doctrinal minutiae and debates, when what would really please God is turning off the TV, putting down the phone or the book, and holding their wife’s hand for a change, looking her in the eyes, and asking how is your soul?
        • There is a proper order to acquiring real knowledge. Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord, with obeying the clear commands of God, and only after that do we proceed to other matters.
          • As David says in Psalm 131, Lord, My heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: Neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.
        • So we must be careful to avoid foolish questions, or searching out things too high for us.
  • 2. The second thing Paul says to avoid is genealogies.
    • Again notice, this is a fixation upon what is less relevant in Scripture at the expense of what is most important. The Jews were known for memorizing lists of names from Abel to Zerubbabel, and yet they neglected and lacked knowledge of why those names mattered.
      • Jesus points out this same problem in Matthew 23:23, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
    • And so because Christ has come as the fulfillment, culmination, and end of the genealogies in Scripture, and because Christ is himself the Last Adam, and the head of a new humanity, debates about “who begat who,” and tracing your own bloodline to this tribe or that one is now irrelevant as far as the kingdom is concerned.
    • And so while there is a place for honoring and remembering our earthly fathers and mothers, baptism gives us a new identity and a new community in Christ, and that takes precedence and priority over everything else that we may ever discover about ourselves. It does not matter at all whether you have Abraham’s blood running through your veins, what matters is whether you have Abraham’s faith living in your heart.
      • As Paul says in Galatians 3:26-29, For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
      • So while carnal men and carnal women entangle themselves with things of the flesh, genealogies, blood and soil, the Christian is to avoid such fixations that distract from faith, that distract from Christ, and which only stir up identity politics, bitterness, and war. If the result of such “study” and “research” is you boasting in the flesh, or vilifying some people group, then it is by definition not of the Spirit. And such things Titus and everyone else should avoid.
  • 3. & 4. The third and fourth thing to avoid are contentions, and strivings about the law.
    • This especially refers to squabbles over what you can eat and drink, touch or not touch, and which of the Jewish ceremonies were still binding on believers.
    • We learn from the church council in Acts 15 that this question was already debated and settled, and therefore it would be unprofitable and vain to rehash that same debate over and over again, rather than just obeying the decision that was determined.
      • Again, remember that the devil loves to distract you from obeying, by calling into question the Word of God. How did the serpent seduce Eve? By sowing doubt in her heart, “Did God really say?”
    • There is a time and a place to argue, debate, and defend the truth, but only if and when God has called you and equipped you to do that. Titus was a minister, and yet Paul says, avoid these kinds of strivings and contentions about the law, because they are a waste of time and will not profit anyone.
      • Moreover, the kinds of people who want to argue these things are warped in their mind. And the most loving thing to do for them is not argue, not engage them.
        • We need wisdom to know how to apply Proverbs 26:4-5, Answer not a fool according to his folly, Lest thou also be like unto him. Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own conceit.
      • Debates with fools can easily consume hours of people’s time and attention and that without profit. Especially when what they should be doing is their God-given vocation, exercising dominion, raising their children, and serving others.
  • So if pastors and elders are to avoid these four things: foolish questions, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law, then how much more the rest of the congregation? If it is not profitable for Titus, it is definitely not profitable for you or me.
  • This bring us to our second question which is, How should Titus deal with the people who don’t listen, and who persist in what is unprofitable and vain.

10A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject; 11Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.

• So notice that Paul is aiming at a kind of pastoral efficiency for Titus and the elders in Crete. He is insistent that they do not waste time debating with heretics, but rather warn them twice, and after that reject them.
• Now here we might ask, what exactly is a heretic in this context?
  • This word for heretic could also be translated as a divisive man, or a schismatic, they are someone who causes division and usually is trying to gain followers for his own novel views.
  • Paul gives a similar warning about such people in Romans 16:17-18 he says there, Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
• So a heretic is someone who seeks to divide the church and gain for themselves a following. They are often fixated on some secondary or tertiary doctrine, or have invented some new doctrine contrary to the faith once received (often it’s some weird view of marriage, sex, or eschatology), but of course they do it all in the name of “true Christianity,” or being “more biblical” than the apostles were. Beware of such people.
• On the outside, these men are often likeable and persuasive, Paul says it is with good words and fair speeches that they deceive the hearts of the simple. They use Bible verses just like the Devil did. They are smooth talkers, confidence men.
  • And so the way you find out if someone is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, or just a sheep who has been led astray by a wolf, is by confronting those errors and admonishing that person.
  • If they are obstinate and not teachable, you give them a second warning. And if they still refuse after that, Paul says mark and avoid them. This might be a public censure from the elders or presbytery, or it might be excommunication, but usually these people end up separating themselves from the body by their own choice, they avoid accountability, and then wander (like a wolf) around the fringes of the church.
• So this is the biblical process for church discipline when someone is being divisive. We do not instantly kick them out, but after two warnings, they must be rejected.
• Paul adds in verse 11 three common qualities of such divisive people. 1) They are subverted/perverted, meaning they have ruined themselves, they have abandoned the straight and narrow path of Christ. 2) They sinneth, not just any sin, but willfully and knowingly so because they’ve been admonished twice but have refused to repent. And then 3) he says such heretics are self-condemned. By dividing themselves from the “one holy catholic and apostolic church,” they witness to their own destruction. And it says in the WCF, they are now outside the church where “there is no ordinary possibility of salvation” (WCF 25.2)
• Now one of the things I really appreciate about you as a congregation, is that you often ask us, me or one of the other elders about whether so and so is a sound teacher or not. And in these days of internet pastors, podcasts, platform builders, and the buffet of heresies that are just one click away (you thought pornography was bad, their soul destroying heretics all over YouTube) you need to be very careful who you follow and listen to.
  • As a general rule, if a person is not accountable to a real church with a real elder session that actually exercises real church discipline, that is at the very least a red flag.
  • Secondarily, if that person has a financial motive to generate traffic to their channel, there are now all kinds of perverse incentives to stir up controversy, to be provocative and edgy, just to game the algorithm. Again, that doesn’t automatically make someone a heretic, but it is something to factor in as to what someone’s real motives might be.
  • And then third, if that person does not meet those 16 qualifications to be a teacher in the church, in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, living above reproach, meek and gentle with all, then there’s a good chance something is off, and they may not be worth subjecting your soul to their instruction.
• Summary: Titus and all of us are to avoid foolish questions that are vain and unprofitable. We are also to avoid divisive people (people who murmur and complain like Korah and his company did against Moses, and then were destroyed). Don’t become a divisive person, and don’t follow those who are contentious, or soon you will be divisive and contentious too.
  • As it says in Proverbs 22:24-25, Make no friendship with an angry man; And with a furious man thou shalt not go: Lest thou learn his ways, And get a snare to thy soul.
• This brings us to our third and final section of this chapter, and the end of this letter.

12When I shall send Artemas unto thee, or Tychicus, be diligent to come unto me to Nicopolis: for I have determined there to winter. 13Bring Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey diligently, that nothing be wanting unto them. 14And let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful. 15All that are with me salute thee. Greet them that love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Amen.

• Here we have an assortment of presbytery duties that are assigned to Titus.
  • In verse 12 we see that Paul is planning to send Artemas or Tychicus (he’s not sure yet which one) to replace Titus on Crete, so that Titus can then join Paul in Nicopolis for the winter.
    • This means that Titus’s days are numbered in Crete, and this would be another reason to not waste time on heretics and foolish questions. He has a bunch of elders he has to examine and ordain, false teachers to kick out, and whole lot of work to get done before winter.
  • In verse 13, Titus is told to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey, meaning pay for their expenses, give them lodging while they visit, replenish any needs they have so they can keep on going as ministers of the gospel.
    • This is something we try to do as a church when we have guest preachers visit us, or traveling evangelists like Keith Darrell. We want to show them hospitality, assist as we are able, and then send them on their way to keep preaching the truth.
  • In verse 14, Paul says that the church needs to have a kind of budget for these ministers, especially in a day without phones or email or knowledge of when exactly someone might arrive. In the ancient world there was no Air BnB, no cars or airplanes, and so traveling a was very dangerous and risky venture, especially by ship to an Island like Crete (as Acts 27 records for us).
    • And so Paul wants the church to maintain good works for necessary uses. Other translations have, And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need.
    • So are we prepared and budgeted for what God might send our way? Have we made plans and created margin for assisting those doing gospel work?
      • It says in Proverbs 10:4-5, A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame. So what kind of son or daughter are you? Are you devoted to good works so that you have something to share with others?
      • We are likewise encouraged to be generous in Ecclesiastes 11:1-2 which says, Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.
  • And then finally in verse 15, Paul gives salutations and the blessing of grace to all those that love us in the faith. And then he seals that blessing with the holy kiss of Amen. Let it be so.

And so as we close this sermon and this series in Titus, I want to ask you some questions that God has confronted us with throughout this small but punchy letter.

• 1. Does your life adorn your doctrine? Does the way you live harmonize with the truth you profess? Does your conduct make people want to believe the things you believe, Or does it turn them off to Christ and the church by how you present the truth?
  • Recall that Titus 2:10 told us to, adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.
• 2. Do you know and are you aware of, what your particular sins and temptations are, and have you declared war on them? Remember how Paul addressed every man, every woman, old and young, servants and pastors, to acquire virtues and avoid vices that are common to our sex, age, and stage in life.
• 3. Are you being careful to maintain good works? Are you bearing fruit so that if an urgent need arises, you are ready and prepared to meet it?
  • Recall that Titus 2:14 says, that Christ gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
• All of us have many areas in which to grow, in our doctrine, in our zeal, in becoming more gentle and meek to all.
  • And what Paul wants you to remember and affirm constantly, wherever you are at in this journey, is that this is a journey of grace.
    • As it says in Psalm 32:10, Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; But he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him.
  • The gospel is not that “we are so good and look at how awesome we are,” it is that God is so good, God is so kind, and look at how awesome God is.
  • Our testimony to the world is that we ourselves were once very lost, we ourselves were not long ago miserable creatures, hating God and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.
  • God’s mercy is the only grounds of our boasting. And so may you say with the Apostle, and may you say with Jeremiah, let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord (Jer 9:24).
  • In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Remember, O LORD, Your tender mercies and lovingkindesses, for they have been ever of old. Lead us now in thy truth, and teach us, for You are the God of our strength, and for You we have waited all the day. We ask now for Your Holy Spirit, through Christ Jesus our Lord, One God forever, Amen.

In Matthew 5:5, the Lord Jesus proclaims to the world, Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. And in Psalm 25:9-10 it says, The meek will he guide in judgment: And the meek will he teach his way. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

• Last week we said that here in Titus 3, the Apostle is teaching us how to become meek and gentle even as Jesus was meek and gentle.
  • What is gentleness? Gentleness is that virtue of moderation that seasons us, tempers us, makes us courteous and kind. Gentleness transforms the inner spirit and attitude from which all our words and actions come forth.
    • And thus, it says in Proverbs 15:4, A gentle tongue is a tree of life.
    • And in Proverbs 15:1, A soft answer turneth away wrath.
    • So gentleness is like a filter that purifies the streams of our heart. Without it, we end up polluting ourselves and defiling the people around us.
  • And then connected with gentleness is this special virtue of meekness, which has as its goal and object the moderation of anger. Meekness curbs our natural desire for vengeance and keeps it within the bounds of God’s law. Meekness causes us to slow down and listen before making a snap judgment.
    • As we just heard from Psalm 25:9, Who is it that God guides in judgment and teaches his way? The meek.
    • Likewise in Proverbs 19:11 it says, The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, And his glory is to overlook a transgression.
    • Without meekness we can easily become tyrants, bullies, passive aggressive or just active-aggressive. Without meekness we punish people from unjust anger rather than sincere love.
    • And if you are uncertain about which spirit you are of, James 3:14-17 gives us a picture of this difference between a meek person and a self-willed person. He says,But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Do you see the difference that meekness makes?
• And so against the pettiness of our own flesh and the world outside, Paul says here in Titus 3:2 that Christians are, To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men. And so the question before us is this morning is: How do you acquire these virtues of gentleness and meekness, when you live in Crete (or America), with liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons as your neighbors and rulers? How can you not be angry all the time when people are promoting such evils in the public square, promoting abortion and the murder of the innocent, lauding sexual perversion and the corruption of children, and blaspheming our thrice Holy God who holds their life in His hands? Is this really the time for meekness and gentleness? Are such virtues even worth having in our day?
• Well Paul has already anticipated our objections (our whattabouts and what ifs). Paul knows firsthand the evil and obstinance of the unbelieving world, of corrupt government officials, of false friends and deceivers inside the church and outside it. He has fought with beasts at Ephesus. He’s been stoned and imprisoned multiple times. He has been unjustly arrested and falsely accused as a “disturber of the peace.”And yet Paul has somehow not become jaded. He has not become insensitive or unfeeling; he has not lost his love or compassion for others.
  • Instead, he is able to say in 2 Timothy 2:10 with chains on his wrists, I endure all things for the sake of the elect that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Paul did not know who the elect were, but he knew the means by which God calls the elect to Himself, namely though the preaching of the Word. And so this he does.
  • He says likewise to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:23-24, 31, the Holy Spirit testifies [to me] in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God…Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.
  • O to be like Paul, to be unmoved by trials and difficulty, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing. O to be like Paul, and to have counted all things as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ. Don’t you want that for yourself? Because God wants it for you. God wants you to be conformed to the pattern of Jesus so that your gentleness and meekness and joy can go undefeated.
• So if you desire that (as you should), Paul explains how you can become that kind of person here in verses 3-8. And here he gives us four reminders that if you take to heart, will make you gentle and meek towards all.
  • Now the first reminder we considered last week is to remember your own weakness/fragility. Remember your life before you met Jesus. And if you’ve always known Jesus then just imagine what life would be like without Him. Paul says in verse 3, For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
  • And therefore, however evil and perverse that other person may be, or the world outside may be, that is the world of which you yourself were once a part. That is the world which you would still be living like, but for the grace of God. Moreover, that is the world that God so loved, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
• So how do you conquer your anger issues? How do you overcome your bitterness towards your parents, your sibling, your spouse, your co-worker, or whoever? The Bible says, the first step is to acknowledge who you were without Jesus, who you are now with Jesus, and who you would be today apart from Jesus. Because if you can start to really see that other person you don’t like the way God sees them and God sees you, as a great sinner in need of greater mercy, then there is a place for meekness and gentleness to grow.
  • Now that’s just the first step towards meekness and probably the hardest one, “to know thyself truly and know thy sins really.” But we don’t stop there, because God does not stop there or leave us in our sins. What does He do?
    • This brings us to the outline of our text wherein Paul reminds us of the total salvation that God has wrought for us in Christ. And there are three glorious aspects to this salvation which He extols for us here in this text.

• In verses 4-5a, Paul reminds us of the reason why God saved us.
• In verses 5b-6, he reminds us of the instruments God uses to save us.
• In verses 7-8, Paul reminds us of the evidence or results of God’s saving work.
  • Why does God save us, How does God save us, and What results from that salvation. These truths we need to be reminded of.

4But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, 5Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.

• First observe the source of your salvation, it is nothing less than the kindness and love of God. And because God is unchangeable (He says in Malachi 3:6, I am the Lord, I change not), therefore God’s essential love for you does not wax or wane, increase or decrease depending on the day of the week, or the hour.
  • Just as the clouds do not actually change or affects the sun’s heat or stop the sun’s shining from itself, just so your sins cannot stop God from loving you. What sin does is blind your eyes, obscures your vision, sin deceives you into thinking that God is something other than a God of pure love. This was the devil’s deception in the garden, and he never stops telling this lie: “God is not actually good.”
  • But against such demonic lies it says in 1 John 4:8, God is love. And in Numbers 23:19 lest we imagine God to be just like us it says, God is not a man, that he should lie; Neither the son of man, that he should repent: Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
• And so to scatter those clouds of sin and deception that were obscuring our vision of Who God truly is, the Son of God came down from heaven to be the light of the world. As it says in John 1:4-5, In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
  • This is what Paul means when he says,the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared. What God always is, was, and shall be, appeared in a new and more powerful way by the incarnation of that God in the man Christ Jesus, in his life, his death, in his triumph over the grave. And so now wherever and whenever this gospel is preached and believed, there is a new appearance/epiphany of truth, of God’s love and kindness being made known.
    • This is the gospel of God, and it is the immoveable ground that made Paul unmoved in adversity. By believing this truth we cast our anchor in the most secure harbor: in Christ, in the love of God, in heaven where our hope and treasure remain.
• And then lest we forget this holy ground and source of our salvation, Paul then refutes a common error. An error we too often mutter to ourselves, although we are usually too pious to ever say it out loud. And that error is to think something like, “Yah know, I’m a Christian, and I’m not really that bad, or at least I’m not as bad as him, or her. And God, He’s pretty blessed to have me as one of His people. I guess I kind of actually deserve this grace.”
  • Isn’t it amazing how quickly we can forget the absolute gratuitous nature of grace, that we did nothing to deserve it, quite the contrary, we did everything to not deserve it. What are the wages of sin? Death. Did you sin? Yes. What did God give you? Eternal life, forgiveness, the promise of resurrection glory. Does that follow given your sins? No, not unless grace has intervened.
  • It says in Romans 11:6, And if election is by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace.
  • And so lest we ever forget the graciousness of grace, Paul says in verse 5, [salvation is], Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.
• So to connect this back to becoming meek and gentle with others. How does this help us? If it was according to God’s mercy that He saved you, and not because of any inherent goodness or loveliness or actions on your part, then the only thing that separates you from an unbeliever is the mercy of God. And therefore, it would actually be unjust for you to not be merciful to them, when God has been abundantly merciful to you. Bceause to whom much has been given, much is required, and look at all that God has graciously given you?
  • Jesus says in Matthew 5:45, God makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust alike. And so, be merciful, just as your Father in Heaven is merciful, then you will called a child of God.
• Summary: This is the second step in becoming meek and gentle. First you remember your own sins, and second you remember the mercy God showed to you in spite of your sins.
  • This brings us then to verses 5b-6 where he answers the question…

5Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

• Observe the three instruments of God’s mercy:
  • 1. The washing of regeneration
  • 2. The renewing of the Holy Spirit
  • 3. That Spirit is given through Jesus Christ our Savior
• What is this washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost? This refers to baptism and all the spiritual realities God gives us in baptism.
  • Here Paul is describing the fulfillment of what was promised in Ezekiel 36:25-26 where God says, Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
• What does God do for us and to us in baptism? He washes away our sins, He removes our iniquities, He gives us a new name, a new nature, so that we are as re-born, re-generated into spiritual children of God.
  • Recall what Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God…Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. (John 3:3, 5)
  • So when the Apostle Paul was converted, what did Ananias tell him? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord (Acts 22:16).
  • And at Pentecost, what did the Apostle Peter proclaim to the Jews, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:38).
• So baptism is not merely an external ritual of washing with water, it is also the interior washing away of your sins. And when your sins are washed away, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in your heart, God makes His home within you, and as it says in 1 Corinthians 6:19, God makes your body to be a temple of the Holy Ghost. If you are baptized, what are you now? You are a sanctuary for God’s presence.
  • Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:11, But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
• So consider then how unfitting it would be, to have God dwelling within you, the whole Trinity of persons sealed upon your forehead, and then as God’s holy sanctuary, to then go out and sin against someone else.
  • And so if you would become meek and gentle as Christ is, Paul says, first remember your fragility, second remember God’s mercy, and then third remember your baptism. Remember your regeneration and rebirth in the Spirit.
  • In Romans 6:2-4 it says says, How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
• So if you still struggle with anger and impatience and other works of the flesh, then return to the truth of your baptism. Have you forgotten that your identity is Jesus, and that Jesus and sin are mortally opposed to one another? How long will you go on quenching the Holy Spirit, ignoring his inner promptings to stop compromising, to stop flirting with sin and to surrender to Jesus completely?
  • It says in Galatians 5, that gentleness and meekness are the fruit of the Holy Spirit, whereas the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
  • So what spirit are you of? The world, the flesh and the devil, or the Holy Spirit which was given you in baptism?
  • Finally, in verses 7-8, Paul tells us what results from our baptism.

7That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 8This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.

• Observe there are three results/effects of Christ baptizing us in the Holy Spirit.
  • 1. First, we are made just by His grace.
  • 2. Second, we are made heirs of eternal life.
  • 3. Third, we are made careful to maintain good works.
• You can see also the pattern here of faith, hope, and love.
  • By faith we are justified and enabled to live a life of justice, rendering to God the worship and honor due to him, and to our neighbor the debt of love.
  • And then what grows from that gift of faith is hope: That we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. As it says in 1 Peter 1:4, He hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.
  • And then because our hope is secure in heaven, love compels us to be careful to maintain good works. Because by them we do what is good and profitable for everyone.
• This is the divine logic of why we, speak evil of no man, are no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.

So as we close I want you to think about that person (or persons) you struggle to be patient with. Who do you need supernatural strength to love, with meekness and gentleness? And then go through these four reminders:

• 1. Remember the old you, and all your sins.
• 2. Remember God’s mercy to you in spite of your sins.
• 3. Remember your baptism, and all that it signifies.
• 4. Remember the promise and future hope that awaits you, eternal life.

God says these things I will that you remember and affirm constantly. And so may we, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Lord God Almighty, our heart and our flesh cries out for You the living God. And so flood our souls now with a fresh awareness of Your mercy. Grant that in hearing Your Word preached we may taste and know the sweetness of salvation, the salvation You have wrought for us in Christ, for the glory of the Trinity, One God Forever, Amen.

We’ve made it to chapter 3 in Paul’s letter to Titus and we are on the home stretch now towards finishing this little book together. Now, do you remember what the major theme of this book has been? Early on we said that Titus is all about the marriage between sound doctrine and sound living, between right belief and right action.

• While many people try to divide and divorce truth from reality, faith from practice, a Christian must not separate what God has joined together. Yes, we can distinguish the truth in our heads from the actions of our hands, but what God wants for you is a life that is united in one single purpose.
  • As it says in Psalm 86:11, Unite my heart to fear Thy name.
  • And in 1 Timothy 1:5 it says, Now the end/goal/purpose of the commandment is charity [love] out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.
  • So unless you are loving God with singleness of heart, and loving one another for God’s sake, you have not yet internalized the faith that you profess. Paul says in Galatians 5:6 that, “the only faith that counts for anything, is the faith that works by love.”
• And so for the first two chapters of this book, Paul has been showing us HOW faith works by love in all the different arenas of our life.
  • In chapter 1 we saw how faith works by love in the Church and its government. We had multiple sermons on Presbyterianism and the qualifications to be a presbyter/bishop.
  • And then in chapter 2 we saw how faith works by love in the Home, in our household relationships. We had sermons for old men, old women, young women, young men, and servants.
  • And now here in Titus chapter 3, Paul teaches us how faith works by love in the Wider World outside, especially in our relationship with the civil government, and unbelievers who we may not like.
• And so I have titled this sermon, “Saving Our Former Selves,” because as we will see in these verses before us, the way we live in this world toward unbelievers can either be a stumbling block to them ever coming to Christ, or our lives can be the means by which God brings them into the fold. So with that in mind let me give you the outline of our text.

This morning our focus will just be on verses 1-3, and then next week we will take up verses 4-8.

• In verse 1, God tells us how to live under civil government.
• In verse 2, we are told how to live with people who are evil.
• In verse 3, we are given the reason why for our living graciously towards all.

1Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work,

• First observe that Paul charges Titus to “put them in mind.” That is,remind the church in Crete of everything I am about to say. They’ve been told this before and they need to hear it again.
• Why? Because we are forgetful creatures. We are those people who can walk through the Red Sea on dry ground, eat miracle food from heaven, drink miracle water from a rock, and then five minutes later say we want to go back to Egypt, “O how slavery would be so much better than this.”
  • Of such sinful nostalgia Ecclesiastes 7:10 warns us saying, Do not say, “Why were the former days better than these?” For you do not inquire wisely concerning this.
  • And so God warns us of both 1) forgetting His gracious actions and commandments, and 2) also ofcommitting the “grass is greener” fallacy.
    • Sure, maybe some things were better back then (leaks and onions and Egyptian vegetables), but many things were probably worse (making bricks without straw seven days a week).
    • Our memories are highly selective and often unreliable. Jeremiah 17:9 says, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? And Psalm 19:12 says, Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults.
  • And so really the only safe path to take given our fallen and finite state, is to remember God, to keep His word constantly before our eyes, and then to be faithful to that Word in the here and now (the present!).
• The Babylonian King Belshazzar was rebuked by Daniel for his pride and forgetfulness. And so after Daniel re-tells to him the story of his father Nebuchadnezzar’s conversion, he says to Belshazzar, the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways you have not glorified! And it was that very night, that Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans was slain (Daniel 5:30).
  • It says likewise in Psalm 9:17, The wicked shall be turned into hell, And all the nations that forget God.
  • And so we must not forget the God who is the very life of our soul. We must not forget the way He has told us to live, in the church, in our marriages, in our parenting, and in the world.
  • And so Paul says here in verse 1,put them in mind, remind the church, and then he repeats himself again in verse 8 saying, these things I want you to affirm constantly.
    • So what is Paul doing in this this section of Titus? He’s putting everything in “bold letters.” This is important to remember.
• Now there are three reminders here in verse 1 that Paul says need to be constantly affirmed, and they are:
  • 1) Be subject to principalities and powers,
  • 2) Obey magistrates,
  • 3) Be ready to every good work
• So unlike the Jews, who had a history of stirring up rebellions against the government, Rome (or whoever was over them), and unlike the Cretans, who themselves had a history of insurrections, seditions, and murders under the Roman yoke, Christians are to be good subjects of whatever civil powers they find themselves under. This means obeying their lawful commands, and only ever refusing to submit when they command us to sin.
  • Practically, this means first acknowledging what Romans 13:1 declares to be true, that there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Meaning, God is sovereign over every square inch of this earth, there is no power outside of Him, and all powers in heaven and earth are subject to Him. And this includes evil rulers, pagan emperors, and reprobate Pharaohs.
    • As Jesus said to Pilate’s face in John 19:11, You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above.
    • This was true in the New Testament and Old Testament alike, as Daniel declares in Daniel 2:21 saying,God changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings.
• And so obeying and submitting to our civil powers, begins with acknowledging the Sovereign who rules over them, and to whom they (and we) must give an account. And because the government’s authority is derivative, delegated, and limited by God’s law, Christians can live in subjection and obedience to them, knowing that our obedience is ultimately to Christ.
  • And so when people try to deny the authority of the civil government, what they end up denying in practice is the sovereignty of the God who placed them there.
    • Who was it that allowed Babylon to rise and to fall? God.
    • Who was it who allowed Egypt to oppress and enslave the Israelites? God.
    • Who is it who holds the past, present, and future of our nation in His hands? It is God.
    • It says in Proverbs 21:1, The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever he will.
    • This truth should be of great comfort to us, regardless of who is presently in office. If God could turn the most powerful man on earth into a beast (as he did with Nebuchadnezzar), if God could convert pagan idolaters and turn them into guardians of His people (as Daniel’s visions relay), then of course God can change the hearts of our leaders. God can make them to serve Him in holiness and fear as Psalm 2 commands.
• Summary: The biblical view of civil government is not that it is a necessary evil, but rather that it is a necessary good to restrain evil. This is why in Romans 13:2, Paul goes on to say, Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
  • So while there are no perfect or sinless earthly authorities or governments, there are also no perfect and sinless fathers, husbands, or masters. And yet what does God still command in His Word?
    • That children submit to and obey their imperfect and sinful parents.
    • That wives submit to and obey their imperfect and sinful husbands.
    • That servant submit to and obey their imperfect and sinful masters.
    • And that Christians submit to and obey the imperfect and sinful civil government.
• Whatever complaints we may have about our national, state, and local leaders, similar complaints and more could be lobbed at Caesar, Rome, and the Cretan mayor. It was under Rome after all that the only sinless and perfect man to ever walk the earth was unjustly executed (He was crucified under Pontius Pilate). And yet still God tells His people immediately after that, to still obey and submit to those civil authorities.
  • Now we need to remember in all of this the goal of our submission.
    • It is as 1 Timothy 2:2 says, So that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
    • In other words, we want peaceful conditions for gospel work. We want time and space for the leaven of the truth to work through the loaf of society.
• It says in 1 Peter 2:13-17, Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men—as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
  • So does your attitude and conduct towards the unbelieving civil government reflect this conviction? That God is ruler over them, that God can change them in an instant, and that the powers that be are only there because God has permitted them to be there. Moreover, when they are evil it is for our chastisement and discipline.
    • Calvin says that, “a wicked prince is the Lord’s scourge to punish the sins of the people, let us remember, that it happens through our fault that this excellent blessing of God [referring to civil government] is turned into a curse.” A wicked people deserves wicked rulers, and we are not a God-fearing land anymore.
  • So do you pray for your government more than you complain about them? Because God is not mocked, a land will reap what it sows. And so the church must intercede and pray for men like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be elevated to high station.
  • We ourselves should desire to become excellent in our work, doing good works, so that Proverbs 22:29 comes to pass which says, Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings.
    • Men like Daniel and Joseph were excellent at their work, godly, wise, and virtuous, and because of this God elevated them to high station and influence.
• So in verse 1 Paul says, Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work. And then in verse 2, he describes what our words and actions should be towards the civil magistrate, and everyone else.

[Put them in mind] To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.

• Here we have two prohibitions followed by two exhortations, and they are all universal, meaning they apply to all people at all times in all places.
• That means this includes what you say in your text messages, emails, group chats, and on social media. Wherever you communicate with others, these four rules apply.
• The two prohibitions are:
  • 1) Speak evil of no man, that is, don’t slander, don’t gossip, don’t lie, don’t intend to harm anyone with your words to them, or about them.
  • 2) Be no brawlers, that is, don’t be quarrelsome and argumentative. Don’t be combative with people who think differently than you. Don’t be that contrarian who always has to have the last word and does not know when to keep silent.
    • Against such people it says Proverbs 29:11, A fool uttereth all his mind: But a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.
    • And in Proverbs 18:6-7 it says, A fool’s lips enter into contention, And his mouth calleth for blows. A fool’s mouth is his destruction, And his lips are the snare of his soul.
  • So unlike the fool who fights and runs his mouth, what should a wise Christian be?
• Here we have the two positive exhortations:
  • 1) Be gentle, that is, be moderate and mild in all your words and conduct.
  • 2) Show all meekness unto all men.
    • What is meekness? Meekness is that virtue that moderates/curbs anger so that you can judge justly what is due to another. Anger is that passion that can obscure our reason, and so we need meekness in order to be just and fair.
      • This is why in Galatians 6:1, Paul says Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.
  • So observe again there are no exceptions to who we must be gentle with and meek towards. Exactly how that gentleness and meekness should be manifest will differ depending on the circumstances (who the person is, what their crimes are, etc.), but as always Jesus is our example, and Jesus says in Matthew 11:29, I am meek and lowly in heart, and then that same gentle Jesus later pronounced woes on the Pharisees and overturned the tables of the moneychangers, and all while remaining meek and lowly.
  • So zeal is not contrary to gentleness. Strength is not opposed to meekness. The scribes and Pharisees deserved more chastisement than they got from Christ. Jesus was being merciful in his justice, denouncing them only insofar as was good for them and to those around them.
    • Jesus says in Matthew 5:5, Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth,
    • And Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:24-26, the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
  • So note the goal and purpose of our meekness, it is so that people will stop opposing themselves and the God we love. It says in Proverbs 15:1, A soft answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger. And so we want to maintain meekness and gentleness because we are representing a God who is meek and gentle.
• Now all of us could stand to grow in this area. We all have someone (or many people) in our lives who we find it hard to be gentle and meek towards.
  • Maybe it’s your spouse, or your children, maybe it’s a coworker or a friend. Maybe it’s your in-laws or a relative that you just struggle to get on with.
• Whatever the case, how do you become more gentle and meek towards those people.
  • Paul gives us the answer, starting in verse 3, and continuing through verse 8. So as we conclude we will just consider the first part of Paul’s answer, which could be summarized as, remember your own weakness.

3For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.

• Look at the person you used to be. Look at the person you still are today (even with God’s grace, look at how much sin still remains in you!).And now imagine for moment, your life apart from Christ. Imagine who you would be, where you would be, what your life would be like if you never met Jesus.
  • Many of us would be dead, divorced, homeless, strung-out drugs, alienated from our families and friends, drowning in misery with no way out.
  • Some of us would be extremely wealthy, rich and powerful, and enjoying the spoils of worldly success. Some of us would think we had “made it,” gained the world, only to lose our soul.
• Paul says we also, we ourselves (speaking from his experience), used to be estranged from God, breathing out threats and murder, deceiving ourselves, numbing our minds and bodies, trying to get rid of that hollowness we feel, the anger, the shame and the stain on our soul.
  • Who would you be apart from Jesus? A child of the devil, believing and spreading his lies.
  • That thought of you are apart from Jesus, should both terrify you and make you far more compassionate and patient with others.
• This is what will make you more gentle and mild: Having a sober estimation of yourself, your former life, and God’s gentleness and mildness towards you (then and now). If we forget that, we are the man in Jesus’ parable who was forgiven an insurmountable and unpayable debt, only to turn around and demand that everyone give us our due.

In Luke 7 Jesus is dining with Simon the Pharisee, and a woman comes in and starts to wash his feet with her tears. Simon in his mind looks down on this woman, this capital S “Sinner.” And Jesus says to Simon: “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?” Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.” Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” Then He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

• Do you know how much God loves you? Do you see just how much God has forgiven you, “your sins which are many!”? Because Jesus says, to that extent, is how much you will love God in return, and from that love for God, also love those fellow sinners you may not like.
• So behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, who took away your sins. Behold the spotless lamb, meek and mild, silent before his shearers. This is the God who came down to die for you, and so will you not love Him and obey Him in return?
• IN the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Father, we praise You for the grace You have given through Your Only Begotten Son. We thank You for sending the Holy Spirit into our hearts, the same Spirit who authored and breathed forth the Holy Scriptures, and through which we are taught and led to eternal life. Please renew now our faith and joy in knowing You, as we hear Your Word preached, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

This morning, we are picking back up in Paul’s letter to Titus. And after giving everyone in the church a list of things to work on, vices to avoid, virtues to pursue, we come now to this most beautiful doctrinal interlude. An interlude that contains within it the totality of grace in the Christian life.

• Here in verses 11-15 Paul extols the appearance of God’s grace in the past, He magnifies that grace which continues in the present, and then he lifts our minds to the consummation of grace which we shall possess and enjoy in the future.
• And so I have titled our sermon this morning From Grace to Grace to Grace, because when you love Jesus, and when you walk with Jesus in the power of the Spirit, everything in life can be received as grace.
  • As Paul says in Romans 8:28, All things conspire (work together) for our good to them that love God and are the called according to His purpose. And what is that purpose God intends for you, His saints? That we might be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom 8:29).
• And so you can consider the first two chapters of Titus up to this point, as describing what true conformity to Jesus looks like in practice. Paul has described what this looks like if you are a Bishop/Elder, an older man, an older woman, a younger woman, a younger man, or even a slave/bondservant.
  • No matter who you are, regardless of your age, your sex, your education, your station in life, high or low, God has a plan to conform you to His Son. The same Son who is the king and heir and ruler of all creation.
  • This means that faith in Christ joins you to the royal bloodline.
    • As it says in Revelation 5:9-10, And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
    • And in 1 Peter 2:9 it says, But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
• So when you were baptized into Christ, and took the name Christian, which means “little Christ,” “little anointed one,” “saint,” you became a co-heir with Christ, a royal son or daughter, and that means, you must learn now to walk the same royal road that Jesus did.
  • Where did that road begin? In Bethlehem, with humble beginnings, with persecution and poverty, fear and flight. That road then led to years of obscurity in Nazareth, humble and hidden. Until the time appointed when Christ’s public ministry began, and the Most High Son of God became the most lowly servant of all.
    • As it says in Philippians 2:8, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
    • This is where the royal road leads, up to Golgotha, down into the Hades, and only then to the ascent of glory and resurrection. There is no crown for those who carry no cross.
    • As Jesus says in Luke 9:23, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
• Now if that sounds hard, or even impossible with your natural strength, you are absolutely right. No one can follow Jesus, carrying their cross to the end, unless a supernatural power is given. The Bible calls this supernatural power grace. Grace in its most general sense is: God’s action in man that leads us to salvation. Grace is therefore an effect of God’s mercy, something given to us that is undeserved, and apart from receiving that grace, there is no hope for anyone.
• And so this morning I want us to consider how grace enables us (animates us) to take up our cross daily and follow Jesus. And so I’ve divided our text into three sections.

• In verse 11 we have The Appearance of Grace.
• In verses 12-13 we have The Instruction of Grace.
• In verses 14-15 we have The Operation of Grace.
  • So with that outline in mind let us now walk through our text together.

11For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

• First observe that by this word “For” or “Because,” Paul establishes that God’s grace is the foundation and the reason why Christians live differently from the world (grace is the ground of all holiness and the only soil where salvation can grow).
• In verse 10, just prior, he had told servants not to purloin/steal, but rather to show all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. And so now he is giving us that doctrine of God our Savior which grounds all our good works.
• Second, observe that God’s grace has now appeared to all men.
  • This is not to say that God used to be really mean and strict, but now He’s relaxed and lightened up a bit. No, God has always been and always will be unchangeably gracious and merciful.
    • It says in Psalm 36:5, Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.
    • It says in Psalm 136 again and again, His mercy endures forever.
    • And every week we hear from Psalm 103 which says, The Lord is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy….The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children.
  • And so do not ever think that God’s nature or essence has ever changed or can change. No, God is unchangeably and everlastingly good. That one who calls himself, “I AM THAT I AM.” HE IS VERY GOODNESS ITSELF.
  • However, just as the serpent deceived Eve by calling into question God’s authority and goodness (“Did God really say?” “Why would God forbid such a good-looking fruit?), so also for many years after the devil blinded men to the truth about God.
    • As it says in Romans 1:21-25, Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
  • So while God was always shining in grace and goodness towards men, as people like Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, and the patriarchs attest, the majority of the world preferred the darkness of sin. They preferred to believe a lie about God, and worshipped idols. And it is in this sense that God’s grace had not yet appeared to all men like it would when Christ would come. The sun was always shining, but the clouds of sin had not yet parted.
  • And so it says in Galatians 4:4-5, But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
  • And therefore, the first words of Jesus public ministry in Mark’s gospel are, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15).
  • The coming of God the Son into this world, to preach and live and die and rise, is how God’s grace is made apparent to all men. As that great motto of the reformation announced: After Darkness Light.
    • And in the wonderful Christmas hymn, the Sussex Carol, “All out of darkness we have light, Which made the angels sing this night: “Glory to God and peace to men, Now and for evermore, Amen!”
• Summary: The incarnation of God, and the death of Christ upon the cross, is how grace is manifested in a new way, a way more explicit, more undeniable, more clear to our dull minds and senses, and it is that good news of great joy (of Christmas day and Easter morning) that shatters the lie of the devil that God is not actually good, that God is not actually present and active and concerned for this world.
  • And so if you ever doubt or wonder, “Is God gracious,” “Is God merciful?” read the gospels! Look at God in the face of Jesus Christ. Look at the cross, look at his sufferings, look at the empty tomb! Because if you believe that Christ is risen from the dead, you will be saved. And it is that light of faith that scatters the darkness.
• Now if that is the Appearance of God’s grace in the past, what then does this grace teach us in the present?

12Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

• When you are baptized, you are enrolled whether you like it or not, into the School of Grace. In this school Christ is the Headmaster, He has rules you must keep, but always there is grace sufficient to help you.
• Never does Christ command us to do anything that is not for our good. And here Paul sets forth the entire moral system of Christ’s School of Grace in just two verses. So what does grace teach us?
  • First, that you must deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. That is, You must leave your sinful baggage at the door.
    • As it says in Colossians 3:3, you died, and are now hidden with Christ in God.
    • And in Ephesians 4:20-24 it says, remember how you learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
    • So to deny ungodliness is to renounce every sin you have ever committed against God (and anyone else), and to resolve fresh each day to avoid repeating those sins, and in the event that you stumble, you confess them to God immediately, running to Him as your gracious Father in heaven.
  • Now once you have denied and renounced the devil and all his works, you must then affirm and pursue the new life Christ has for you. And this life consists of three things, Paul says, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.
    • First, we live soberly in relation to ourselves. This means subordinating our will to God’s will, our mind to God’s mind, and our lower passions to that renewed mind and will within us.This is how we live soberly in the fear of God.
    • Second, we are to live righteously, or justly towards others. This means doing what Paul says in Romans 13:8, 10, Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law…Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
      • And as Jesus says in Matthew 6:33, But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness (or justice); and all these things shall be added unto you.
      • So we are to be sober in relation to ourself, we are to be just/righteous in our relation to others, and then….
    • Third, we are to live godly in relation to God.
      • It says in 1 Timothy 4:7-8, train yourself unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth a little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
      • So godliness is the life and joy of heaven begun on earth here and now, in the present world.
• But how do you enjoy this heavenly life during your earthly sojourn in this valley of tears? Well verse 13 tells us. It is by Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.
• What is this blessed hope? This blessed hope consists primarily in two things:
  • 1. The souls’ glory in seeing God.
  • 2. The body’s glory at the final resurrection.
• Of this first glory of the soul, Paul says in Philippians 1:21-24, For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.
  • And in 1 John 3:2-3 it says, Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
  • So while eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, what God has in store for those who love Him, what we do know is that: 1) it is far better to be with Christ in Heaven than to be here, and 2) that we when see Him face to face, we shall be like Him. His glory will radiate through our soul, perfecting us.
    • As Hebrews 12:22-23 describes it, But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect.
    • The saints in heaven are perfect in happiness, content in God, and reigning triumphant with Him. In heaven there is no fear, no disturbance, no sorrow, no pain. Only the pleasant enjoyment of the Holy Trinity, of the man Christ Jesus, of communion with myriad upon myriad of angelic hosts, and friendship with every elect saint who has departed.
    • Jesus portrays this heavenly reunion in Matthew 8:11 saying, Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.
    • So imagine talking with Noah, Daniel, Job, Paul. Sharing conversation with your loved ones who died in the Lord, meeting the children who died in miscarriage or childbirth, whom Christ has welcomed into his bosom.
    • All the things that don’t make sense now, shall be understood then. And it is that heavenly feast with billions of beatified souls, that awaits those who look to that blessed hope.
• Moreover, that glory of the souls in heaven is not the end of the story, but only the intermediate state as we await the second coming, the final judgment, and the receiving of a new and imperishable body.
  • Of this blessed hope of resurrection, it says in 1 Corinthians 15:41-53, There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
  • So when are you feeling glum, depressed, discouraged by how hard and painful this life is. Lift your eyes to this blessed hope that awaits you. Beg God to give you a heavenly perspective on your earthly woes so that you can endure them with joy and finish your race well.
    • It says in Romans 8:24, For we are saved by hope.
    • And in 1 Peter 1:3, that according to His abundant mercy [God] hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…
  • So Lift up your heads, O ye gates; Even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; And the King of glory shall come in. (Psalm 24:9).
• So God’s grace has appeared in Christ, God’s grace teaches us to live in hope with Christ, and then finally in verses 14-15 we see how grace operates through Christ.

14Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. 15These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.

• So how does grace operate within us?
  • First, it redeems us from the bondage of sin. Christ pays the debt we owe to God’s justice, and frees us from the guilt and eternal punishment we deserve.
  • Second, Christ purifies us unto himself. That is, he actually renews our nature and cleanses the very essence of our soul. So that no longer is there is a stain on our conscience, and an inability to do what pleases Him. Instead, we are given a new heart, a new spirit, that wants to please God, wants to do right, and more and more gains mastery over our the flesh.
    • Later in Titus 3 Paul will describe conversion in this way saying, According to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
• So when God gives saving grace, He actually changes us at the deepest levels of our being. While we were born dead in sin, incapable of saving ourselves, God from love chose to resurrect us. He gives us grace to begin the Christian life, and He gives us grace to finish.
  • And so the mark of a born-again Christian, living in grace, is that we are zealous for good works.
    • Meaning, we don’t merely do good things reluctantly, or indifferently, with a sluggish attitude. But we do good works with zeal for God burning in our hearts.
    • We are zealous for good works because God is zealous for us.We do good to all because God is good to all.And as Jesus says in Luke 6:35-36,But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.
• So have you been born again? Does zeal for God and good works and mercy towards others describe the default attitude of your heart?
• If not, then remember the infinite debt of sin that God has forgiven you. Remember how patient, gracious, and kind He has been to you, even when you were obstinate and blind.
• There is a reason Paul charges in Titus in verse 15 saying, These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee. And that is because we are constantly in need of reminders of grace.
  • We need to be reminded of the appearance of grace, the teaching of grace, the operation of grace and how it looks in practice.
  • It says in Hebrews 3:13, But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
• And so are you receiving daily exhortation from the word of God? Are you meditating day and night upon the law of the Lord? Are you filling your mind with thoughts of heaven, that cloud of witnesses, the saints gone ahead, the Last Adam, the man from heaven, whom you shall stand before and give an account for every careless word? Are you living in the light of eternity, or has the darkness of sin obscured your vision and dampened your soul?
• We all need to be stirred up each day to love and good works, to fresh zeal and new hope.

I close with a quote from Martin Luther, who commenting on verse 15 exhorts us all to keep the Word of Christ constantly before our eyes. He says,

“They think that the devil is dead, and they do not know their domestic enemy, who goes about [as a lion seeking someone to devour]. Therefore the flesh snores daily. It has new laws, contrary to faith and love. Therefore one must not stop teaching and exhorting with the same Word, because Satan harasses us every day with his flaming darts (Eph. 6:16). Those who are not harassed are possessed. Therefore every Christian has trials every day. His faith, his hope, and his chastity are tried. What are we to do? Let us teach, let us expound, let us inculcate the Word, let us exhort. Holy Scripture has this grace, that it does not teach in vain. If only one opens the Book attentively, it does not depart without fruit but sets a man straight, purges away his evil thoughts, and brings in good ones. If the evil thoughts return, let him open the Book again. Therefore, Scripture is called in Romans 15:4, a book of patience.”

• May God grant that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

O Father, we hate vain thoughts, but Thy law do we love. Before You afflicted us we went astray, but now being corrected by Your discipline, we do keep Your word with a whole heart. So teach us now Thy statutes, Thy testimonies, which are our delight. Through Christ Jesus our Lord who reigns together with the Holy Spirit, One God, world without end, Amen.

In our Lord’s famous Sermon on the Mount, he warns in Matthew 7 about the danger of judging the sins of others. He says in Matthew 7:1-2, Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And then he goes on to tell us that the only way to judge your brother rightly, is by first seeing yourself rightly, and that requires looking into the mirror of God’s law, judging yourself strictly and honestly by that law, and then repenting of whatever sins you have committed against that law.

• Jesus puts it this way in Matthew 7:3-5, And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
• So according to Jesus, there is a right order in which judgments should be rendered. First, we must judge ourselves and remove the sins that obscure our vision (the planks), and only then can we see clearly to help someone else with their lesser sins (the specks).
• Now what Paul has been doing here in Titus chapter 2, is telling all the different classes of people in the church, where they ought to look first to find and remove the planks in their eye.
  • Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit has been listing the common virtues we ought to pursue, the common vices we ought to avoid, and pointing out the unique tendencies and temptations of older men, older women, younger women, and now this morning younger men and servants.
  • And so we can consider this chapter as a kind of checklist for our own self-examination, and a pointer to help us do what that great sentence in the Westminster Confession of Faith declares, “Men ought not to content themselves with a general repentance, but it is every man’s duty to endeavor to repent of his particular sins particularly” (WCF 15.5).
  • What Titus 2 is all about is giving us a starting point to find our particular sins, not to condemn us, but so that we can be set free from our favorite shackles and chains and prison cells, so that we can confess our sins to God, and then be able to see God and our neighbor more clearly.
    • Remember how Jesus begins his Sermon on the Mount. He starts by telling us what a life of beatitude in a fallen world consists of. He says, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. (Matt 5:3-8).
    • The person who wants to see God, has to start by seeing the real ugliness of their own sin. For only then can we begin to appreciate that God came down in Christ to die for our sins, to save us from our sins. And only then can we move from pursuing what is right, not as slaves from the fear of punishment, but as sons of God and from love for our savior.
    • This is what Paul means when he says in Titus 2:10 that the whole underlying rational for our repentance, and our good works, and our pursuit of virtue is so: that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. So does your life bring glory and honor to Christ, or does it give the world cause to blaspheme and reproach Him?
• Through this letter, Paul has been flagging and tagging different parts, groups, and members of the body, and this morning he continues his diagnostic with an exhortation to young men and to servants.

Our text divides into four basic sections, but only three of them will we treat this morning.

• In verse 6, Paul charges the young men to be sober minded.
• In verses 7-8, he charges Titus to be an example to the younger men.
• In verses 9-10, he charges servants to be obedient to their masters.
• And then in verses 11-15 which will be a future sermon, Paul extols the grace of God in Christ.

6Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.

• This virtue of sobriety (σωφρονέω) is a virtue that Paul assigns to every class of people in the church. Back in Titus 1:8 he made it a qualification for a bishop/elder. He assigned it the older men in Titus 2:2, to the older women and younger women in Titus 2:4 and 2:5, and now this is the one thing he charges the younger men to focus on: be sensible, be sober minded.
• We said that this Greek word σώφρων/σωφρονέω, can be translated many ways but it captures the idea of being thoughtful, self-controlled, prudent, discrete, and temperate. It is a moral virtue of the mind that governs and directs our thoughts, our words, our passions and actions. To be sober is to know what is right and pleasing in the eyes of God and then to subject your will and bodily appetites to God’s will.
• Now the sins that militate against this virtue are legion. But I will just highlight a few that tend to ensnare young men.
  • It says in Proverbs 18:16, Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.
  • And in Romans 12:3 Paul contrasts the pride of conceit with sobriety saying, For I say…to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly.
    • So young men, we all tend to think far too highly of ourselves, far too often of ourselves, and imagine that the world exists to serve us and our pleasures. We think too much about what other people owe us, and we tend to think too little and too lowly about others and what we owe them. This is the narcissism and conceit of immaturity, and we must all grow out of this.
    • Pride is that great sin that blinds us (obscures our vision), and it is the first plank we ought to confess to God regularly, daily, frequently, and often. Underneath almost all other sins you can find this sin of having an inflated view of self, it is why we exaggerate the faults of others while minimizing our own.
    • Pride avoids taking ownership, except when doing so will make us look good. And so heed the words of Jesus who said in Matthew 23:12, Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; but he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
    • With humility is honor, and God promises in Psalm 138:6, Though the Lord is on high, Yet He regards the lowly; But the proud He knows from afar.
  • Some of the other common sins that war against sobriety are: laziness, lack of diligence and follow through, procrastinating, complaining, making excuses when things are hard or are taking longer than we would like, being impulsive, being self-willed rather than seeking and heeding godly counsel. And on and on I could go.
  • The book of Proverbs is really the handbook that young men should be keeping upon their chest. You ought to be reading Proverbs every day as a young man, because in it is all kinds of encouragement to build and channel your strengths, and all kinds of warnings and cautionary tales for what to avoid (foolish friends, liars, thieves, the easily angered, the seductive woman and more).
  • It says in 1 John 2:14, I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.
  • So young men, you are the future, God made you strong and aggressive and powerful for a reason, because He wants you to lead. But you need the wisdom of God’s Word and godly examples to direct that strength for good and not evil. Consider a few examples:
    • It says in Proverbs 28:20, A faithful man will abound with blessings, But he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.
      • So don’t gamble, don’t go to the casino, don’t bet on sports, or try any other get rich quick schemes. God will not bless it in the end. Instead find honest work that you can become excellent at.
    • It says in Proverbs 12:24 says, The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: But the slothful shall be under tribute.
    • And Proverbs 22:29 says, Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings; He shall not stand before mean men.
• So young men, amongst whom I count myself, get wisdom from Proverbs, get wisdom from older godly men, for as God himself tells us in Proverbs 4:7, Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: And with all thy getting get understanding.
  • It is this supernatural wisdom that teaches us to be sober.And it says in Proverbs 19:8,He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul: He that keepeth understanding shall find good.
  • And in Psalm 34:12-14 it says, Who is the man who desires life, And loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, And your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it.
  • This is the sober life that God blesses and rewards if you will patiently seek Him.
• This brings us to verses 7-8 where Paul charges Titus to be an example to the younger men. Proverbs is good, but we also need to see Proverbs enfleshed, incarnated, lived out, and this is where elders especially should be a good example to the young men.

7In all things shewing thyself a pattern (type) of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, 8Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.

• So here Titus is charged to both live well and preach well. In living the elders ought to aspire to be examples of good works. And because doctrine/teaching is our most public work and duty, Paul says we need to especially take care that four things characterize our teaching.
  • 1. First, our doctrine is to be without corruption. Meaning the content of what we preach is the pure and undefiled Word of God, and that not mixed with falsehood or mere opinion.
  • 2. Second, that our teaching is with gravity. Meaning it is firm, weighty, reliable, immoveable.
    • It says in 1 Peter 1:24-25, For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
    • So the Word is weighty in a world that is vain, and therefore our preaching and lives should reflect that weight of glory we proclaim.
  • 3. Third, our teaching is to be with sincerity. Meaning we are honest, upright, without flattery or deceit. If God’s Word says it, we have to say it, even if you we know you don’t want to hear it.
    • This is why Paul says in Galatians 1:10, For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. God’s servants must be sincere.
  • 4. Fourth, our doctrine is to be with sound speech that cannot be condemned. Meaning our preaching can be crosschecked and verified by comparing Scripture with Scripture. Moreover, we do our best to not give any unnecessary offense or intentionally try to scandalize our hearers.
    • It says in Romans 1:16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
    • And so while we try to not offend anyone by our words or lives, we also recognize that truth is offensive to liars, light is offensive to the darkness. And so we want our light to shine brightly, in gravity, sincerity, and truth. And so that as Paul says in verse 8, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.
    • Our lives and doctrine should shame our adversaries.

9Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again; 10Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.

• In the original context, servants (δούλους) here almost certainly refers to what we would today call slaves, or bondservants, and these were often people who had no choice about who their master was, or where and how they earned their keep. And in some cases, they would never have an opportunity to be free, they were the lifelong property of their masters.
• Now it is one the great blessings and effects of the gospel that this kind of slavery is no longer prevalent in our land, but it can also dull the force and power of these exhortations if we forget the state of these slaves to whom Paul was writing.
• Paul is addressing people who for whatever reason (whether justly or unjustly) have little to no choice or opportunity to be their own master.
  • Perhaps the closest modern equivalent would be the person who has no economic upward mobility, they are wage slaves, or debt slaves, or they are stuck in a dead-end job. Or perhaps you still owe years of service to the military or some corporation. Whatever the case, God has a special word to those who feel trapped at the bottom of the economic totem pole. And what is that word?
• He gives 3 specific exhortations:
  • 1. Be obedient (or submissive) to your own master, and to please them well in all things.
    • This means obeying cheerfully and promptly all their lawful commands, and the only exception is if they command you to sin. So yes, you must not obey if they tell you to lie, or steal, or do something dishonest, but that is because both you and they have a master above them, namely God to whom you both will give account.
      • Paul repeats this command in Ephesians 6:5 and Colossians 3:22 saying, Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God.
      • And again in 1 Timothy 6:1 he says, Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.
      • Christian servants, Chistian employees, really should be the best workers. And this would especially stand out on the Island of Crete when Paul says that the culture there is that, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons (Titus 1:12).
      • What Paul wants is for all the Cretan masters to be forced to admit that “Christians are always truthful, honest, good, and hardworking.” Is that the reputation you are winning for Christ at your job?
  • 2. The second exhortation is for servants to not talk back to their masters. This phrase, “not answering again” refers to that impulse of children and inferiors to want to argue with and contradict their superiors, rather than just silently doing what they are told.
    • This is a long-lost virtue in our egalitarian age where we think every voice needs to be heard, every decision made by democratic committee. But that is not what Paul tells servants to do. He says don’t be that fool who always has some comment to make.
    • It says in Ecclesiastes 5:3, a fool’s voice is known by his many words.
    • And in Proverbs 10:19, In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise.
    • Don’t be the servant who tries to tell his master how to do his job. Don’t be the employee who imagines he could run the place better than the boss. Perhaps you could, maybe you can, but has God put you in that position?
    • Consider the example of Jacob serving under Laban’s tyranny. God took care of Jacob and blessed him, while Laban was rebuked. Or consider the example of Joseph, who served well in Potiphar’s house, God took care of Joseph, and elevated him above Potiphar, but only after being tested, again and again.
  • 3. Third and finally Paul says, not purloining (or pilfering), but rathershewing all good fidelity (trustworthiness).
    • Purloining is what we would today call petty theft, or skimming off the top. The idea is that a person takes what their employer or master is unlikely to notice. And then he usually rationalizes or justifies that stealing as not really being stealing because the amount is trivial, or because the servant really deserves it.
    • But this is that seemingly little sin, that like a small leak in a great ship can sink it.
    • This sin and crime of pilfering is rampant in our world. Companies now have to just budget for all the petty thefts that they know will happen from their own employees. And because this crime is so common, it becomes easier and more tempting for Christians to do it, because everyone else is, and often without consequence.
    • But of such behavior, Christians should have no part. And indeed, this is one of the easiest ways for a Christian to set themselves apart in this dishonest world, don’t pilfer, but show all good fidelity. See the good of your employer as if their good is your good. That’s what the golden rule commands of us, and that is also how faithful servants get promoted and elevated to high position.
    • When you refuse that impulse to take advantage of what your employer can’t see, God who sees all, shall reward you openly. Sometimes in this life, but always in the next.
    • Recall how Jesus describes the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 25. He says, For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.
      • This life is like God giving different amounts of talents, position, and goods, to different people, and then going away to see what they will do with what He has given.
      • To those who use and invest those talents well, he says, Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.
      • But what does he say to the person who is unfaithful, who pilfers away the time and gains no profit for his master?
      • It says in Matthew 25:26-29, But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.
• This is a sober warning to all of us, whatever our state and position in life. All of us must give an account to God, for how we have stewarded the time he has given, the status he has given, the body and mind he has given, and opportunities and resources he has placed around us.
• What none of us are allowed to do is complain that he has five talents but I only have one. None of us are allowed to grumble that he or she came from money and good Christian family, and I came from poverty and a broken family. God knows, and God sees, and God shall judge and reward accordingly.

So by way of conclusion and example consider Christ. He is the eternal Son of God, perfect in wisdom and power and might. And yet he humbled himself to be born into a world that we ruined, ruined by our sin, our selfishness, our pride, and our conceit.

• And while He could have left us in our sins, and rendered to us the just punishment of eternal death, it says in Philippians 2:7, He made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And because of this, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
• If God Himself came down to serve and save you, are you so proud that you cannot serve and be faithful to God, and to those He has placed above you?
• May God help us to adorn the doctrine of God our savior, with all meekness, humility, and submission, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

O Father adorn our soul with gladness, make our lives to mirror the life of Jesus, who from love for You, laid down His life for us. Conform us now to the image of Your Son, as we hear his word preached, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

A few weeks ago, in our first sermon on Holy Women, we asked the questions, What is beauty? And, What makes something beautiful?

• In answer to those questions, we said that beauty is that which gives pleasure upon being seen, and we said that what gives pleasure to our sight is the beholding (the apprehension) of three qualities: 1) Unity, 2) Due Proportion, and 3) Splendor. When we see that something is 1) united as an integrated whole, 2) ordered and well-proportioned in all its parts, and 3) that it has good color and appropriate brightness/clarity, we cannot help but say that that thing is beautiful.
• Now this morning we are going to consider 4 more virtues that God wants the older women to teach the younger women, and which if acquired have the potential to make a woman beautiful in the eyes of God. Those virtues are enumerated in verse 5 of our text and they are: 1) Chastity, 2) Domesticity, 3) Goodness, and 4) Obedience to one’s husband.
• Now before we consider each of those virtues in depth, I want to highlight why I said that these virtues only have the potential to make a person beautiful in the eyes of God. That is because without Jesus, without genuine love for God as THE REASON WHY you are pursuing these things, no changes you try to make will be of any ultimate value to you. It will not serve your salvation if Christ is absent from your efforts.
  • As we heard earlier from 1 Timothy 2:15, women will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control. That is a big IF.
  • To put it another way, the “trad life” without Jesus is just another way to hell. Conservative politics without Jesus can only get you so far. Yes, we must reject the feminism of our age. Yes, we must oppose the many assaults on the natural family. But recovery of good traditions and family values must be animated by an authentic love for Jesus, otherwise, what we are? We are Pharisees, cleaning the outside of the cup when the inside is still filthy. Or worse, doing what Jesus condemns in Matthew 15:6 when he says to them, Thus have ye made the commandment of God void by your tradition.
  • Christ wants a vessel that is clean inside and out. And how do you clean the inside of your soul? It says in Acts 15:9, God purifies our hearts by faith. Faith is what make all things pure to the pure.
  • It says likewise in Hebrews 11:6, without faith it is impossible to please God.
  • And in 1 Corinthians 13 Paul says, without charity, I am nothing.
    • So you must always keep before your eyes those things most essential, namely the ultimate WHY of your actions, the WHY of your pursuit of chastity, or homemaking, or goodness, and submission.
    • It it’s just because you want to fit in at Christ Covenant Church, okay, but that isn’t the same thing as living faith. Or if it’s just because you want to rebel against the absurdities of our technocratic globalist age, again that is not the same thing as faith working by love. What must motivate our acquisition of new virtues is that we simply want to please God. We love Jesus and want to make him happy. That’s Christianity 101 and we must never forget it.
    • Heaven and Hell hangs on that distinction. And so I want you to hear this sermon within that larger gospel frame. It says in Colossians 1:17 that in Christ all things hold together. Meaning, without Christ, your life, your efforts, will fail and fall apart.
    • So what is the gravitational center of your soul? Is it truly Christ crucified, resurrected, and reigning, or is it your petty self? Is what your words and actions revolve around the Holy Spirit of God, or is it worldly desire? This is the warfare of all the saints between virtue and vice, and this is the contrast Titus 2 is setting up for the Christians in Crete. Paul is describing for them what a life that harmonious with gospel can blossom into.
  • And so with that in mind let us consider these four virtues each in their turn.

Again, we read in verse 5, Paul says to Titus. I want the older women to teach the younger women to be chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. So the first virtue we have here is chastity. What is chastity?

• This word chastity comes from the idea of chastising/disciplining your natural desire for pleasure, especially physical or sexual pleasure.
• To be a chaste woman then is to keep your sensual appetites in subordination to the law of God. This means no adultery, no fornication, no sex outside of marriage, no wanton lustful looks, no seduction, no romantic attachments to people who are not your husband. More positively it means desiring union with your husband as one of the great blessings of marriage, and then also desiring spiritual union with God through a chaste soul.
  • Of bodily chastity, it says in Hebrews 13:4, Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
    • That is to say, sex within marriage is a wonderful gift (it is honorable), but outside of marriage it brings shame, it brings destruction, it defiles you.
  • Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7:2-5 that regular intimacy within marriage is also a protection against sin. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
    • So chastity is this virtue of sexual contentment and benevolence. It is seeking your spouse’s good above your own, and acknowledging that your body belongs to the person you are one flesh with.
    • This also means being patient with one another when sickness or providence prevents you from coming together.
    • It means imitating the example of Job, who says in Job 31:1, “I have made a covenant with my eyes; Why then should I look upon another?”
    • A chaste woman moderates and directs her passions, so that the words of Song of Solomon 7:10 become true of her, I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me.
• We learn in 1 Corinthians 6 that what we do with our bodies has a direct impact on our spiritual condition. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:18-20, Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
• We learn also in 2 Corinthians 11:2, that sexual chastity is the analogy for spiritual chastity. Paul says to the whole church, For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
  • So your physical chastity is to be ordered towards your spiritual chastity, because our bodies belong to God, our spirits belong to God, Christ died to purchase us entirely, and thus we want to remain pure for Him. So chastity is how we keep covenant with God and the person we are married to, it is sexual fidelity.
  • This brings us to our second virtue which is…

• In Greek this is just one word, οἰκουρούς, which means to keep watch like a guardian over the household.
  • So when the KJV has “keepers at home” the idea is not passive, as if you are on house arrest and cannot leave, being kept at home, but rather that you are the one doing the keeping, actively watching, managing, fulfilling the household duties. You should think of Adam in the garden, his job was to tend and keep it. Just so a woman tends and keeps the home.
  • Other translations go with, “homemakers” (NKJV), or “working at home” (ESV), or “fulfilling their duties at home” (NET). And so I think our English word domesticity/domestic helps capture this idea of homemaking as an art, and as a vocation.
• In 1 Timothy 5:13-14 Paul says something similar about why he wants the younger widows to get married, And besides they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not. Therefore I desire that the younger widows marry, bear children, manage the house (οἰκοδεσποτεῖν), give no opportunity to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
  • So God wants women to manage the house under their husband’s authority, not wandering about as busybodies. If you recall our four sermons on the Proverbs 31 woman, that passage and those sermons are really an exposition of what this single word domesticity can look like for a Christian woman (this is a huge category). So go back and listen to all those if you want more details on this subject.
• For now, just observe that our culture is at war with this virtue, and has set up major economic, legal, and social obstacles to the very existence of productive households. Many women would love to be homemakers (working at and from home), but it’s just not feasible for many families.
  • So sometimes people ask me, “Is it a sin for a wife to work outside the home?” And my answer is usually very disappointing because it’s usually something, “well it depends, how much time do you have?”
    • If the woman is willfully neglecting her duties before God as a wife and mother and homemaker, then yes, that is sin (and something needs to change!). But there are also circumstances where it can be good, lawful, and wise, for a woman to earn wages, even from some outside employer, especially when that work is in service of the household and does not prevent her from doing her most essential calling.
    • It really is a question of your priorities, your duties, your stage in life, the ages and number of your children, your skillset, your husband’s vocation, and your current financial commitments. It is also a question of your trajectory. Maybe you are still paying off certain debts, and Psalm 15:4 applies to you which says, He who swears to his own hurt and does not change.
    • So depending on what those prior commitments are, and whether or not you can be released from them, God has a plan for your flourishing (He always meets where we are not only where we should be), but it might require sacrifices (in fact it almost always does!), it might require a change in your standard of living, or where you live, or how big your house is, it might require a plan with multiple phases to it.
    • Whatever the case, it is here that you really ought to seek out wise counsel. Pray with your husband, pray for your husband, ask God to guide him so you have a shared vision for your life and future together.
    • And as you sort through that counsel remember the words of James 3:16-17 which says, For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
      • If that is the spirit in which you are seeking heavenly wisdom, God will show you the way.
  • God knows your heart. He knows if you are abdicating your duties and being selfish, or honestly desiring to fulfill them. Keeping the home is a duty he assigns to you as wives and mothers. So embrace it, aspire to get better at it. Treat your homemaking like the art that it really is, and remember the words of Colossian 3:23-24, And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.
• So older women set the example here, teach the younger women to be domestic, and to serve Christ in and through keeping the home.
  • This brings us to our third virtue which is goodness.

• And this virtue does not need too much explaining. Goodness, like beauty, is a transcendental. And we define goodness as simply that which is desirable. Goodness is that which is desirable.
  • Jesus says in the gospels that God is very goodness itself. His nature is goodness all the way through. This is what Jesus means in Matthew 19:17 when he says, Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.
  • So any creaturely goodness that we possess down here is only a participation of God’s more perfect and heavenly goodness that He is. And therefore, the more we align ourselves to God and His will, the more good that we become.
    • Again, this is why faith and love are so essential if you want to become good. As it says in Psalm 16:2, I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.
• In practice this looks like not repaying evil with evil, insult with insult, but rather like God, being patient, kind, compassionate and merciful.
  • Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:15, See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all.
  • He says likewise in Ephesians 4:31-5:2, Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
• What is Goodness? It is the best smelling perfume a woman can wear. It is desirable in the eyes of God, and makes you more desirable to your husband.
  • Fourth and finally, Paul says, the women are to be obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

• Here is perhaps the hardest of all virtues for most women, to submit to and obey your husband, when you do not agree with him.
  • And this is really the test of faith (through many trials we must enter the kingdom). Do you believe that God knew what He was doing, when he made this a universal command for marriage? Did God not know that men are sinners? Did God not anticipate that your husband would sometimes (or often) get it wrong? Do you think yourself wiser than God, and that you can setup marital roles better than He can?
  • Countless Christians pay lip service to the doctrine of headship and submission,but many women have never obeyed their husband, cheerfully, reverently, honoring him from the heart. Maybe you have submitted begrudgingly, on the outside, you’ve done the thing, while inside you are furious, resentful, and bitter. Is that Christian submission? No. If that is you, you need to seek forgiveness from God and your husband for that kind of attitude.
  • So I could give here all the appropriate warnings to husbands about not exasperating your wife, and being unreasonable, but that is not this sermon. And if you look at our text, Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit does not add any qualifications to this command. He just says it and moves on. And so here we can practice not being wiser than God? Let’s just hear it, obey it, and not make excuses.
    • Remember that warning from earlier in Titus 1:16, Paul says there are people in the church who profess that they know God; but in works they deny him. Do don’t be the woman who denies God by refusing to obey her husband.
    • Don’t pretend that your situation is somehow always the exception to the rule. Here’s the general rule: Unless your husband is commanding you to sin, God says obey him.
    • And if you wonder what to do when your husband is not obeying God, God also has an answer for that. It says in 1 Peter 3:1-2, Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives, when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear.
    • Fear of what? Fear of God. Because remember it is God you are submitting to when you obey Your husband’s lawful commands.
    • Remember the argument in 1 Peter 3 starts way back in 1 Peter 2 with the command for all Christians to be in subjection to the civil authorities.
      • Peter says, Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men—as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king (1 Peter 2:12-17).
• This is the same logic as what Paul says here in Titus to the women. Women are to be obedient to their own husbands, so that the word of God be not blasphemed.
  • Our marriages are either shining testimonies of the gospel, or they are cause for people to blaspheme. Those are the stakes.
  • So how seriously do you take the word of God? Do you trifle with it, do you scoff at it, do you pick and choose which things you want to observewhile ignoring those things that would inconvenience you?
• Jesus says in Matthew 5:16, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
  • Martin Luther once said, “through faith we are justified, through good works God is glorified.”
  • So young women, wives, glorify God by honoring your husband from the heart. Not with eyeservice as pleasing men, but truly as pleasing God.

• Imagine these four virtues are like precious stones buried in the earth. 1) The pearl of Chastity, 2) the diamond of Domesticity, 3) the emerald of Goodness, and 4) the ruby of Obedience.
  • What faith in Christ does is discover these virtues, it digs them out of the ground,it cuts them into the right shape, and polishes them to show off their splendor. Faith beautifies the virtues.
  • And then what love for God does is bind them all together, like gemstones perfectly set within a golden crown.
  • And what your life here is meant to be, is the seeking of that crown so that by it, God may be praised, hallowed, and glorified.
  • It says in Revelation 4:9-11, Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: “You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.”
• Ladies, God created you for glory, to reflect His infinite beauty, and so pursue these virtues from faith and love, for the glory of Christ, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

O God of grace, to whom all majesty belongs, bestow upon us now the warmth and radiance of thy heavenly light. Send forth the brightness of thy Spirit into our dark and frigid souls, revive in us again the roaring fires of charity, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

When a girl is young and unmarried, she has all kinds of hopes, dreams, and expectations for what her future “real life” shall one day be. Depending on the kinds of novels she reads or does not read, depending on the kinds of movies and shows she watches or is not allowed to watch, depending on the kinds of stories that capture her imagination in youth, she will inevitably develop some very (either) reasonable or unreasonable expectations for what falling in love will one day be like.

• Perhaps she imagines her future husband will be handsome, tall, and wealthy. Oh, and a Christian, of course. Perhaps she imagines meeting him when she is just about to graduate college (or high school, depending on the girl). Whenever it happens it is at a time most convenient for her. By then, she is 22 (or 18, or 28, whichever she prefers), she knows who she is (or at least thinks she knows), she’s an educated young woman who has made her parents proud. He has a job and can afford to take care of her, her parents like him. So, they get married. Awhile later they have a child. And then another child. A few more years go by a few more children arrive, and suddenly this formerly young unmarried girl is living that “real adult life” she was always looking forward to.
  • And it is then that the question becomes: How does real life match up with those youthful expectations? Does it meet them? Does it fall short of them (or exceed them)? Is life easier or more difficult than you thought it would be?
  • Whenever reality falls short of our expectations, we are tempted to become disenchanted, discouraged, disappointed. And while that can actually be good for many people who have unbiblical or unrealistic expectations for their life, for the Christian, God intends for us to live a life that is constantly enchanted by the Holy Spirit.
    • This word enchantment comes to us from the Latin incantare, which literally means to sing into. And the idea is that a person can be filled, either by evil spirits, the music of the world, demons, and sorcerers, OR, it can be filled by the Holy Spirit, as Paul says in Ephesians 5:19-20, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
    • That is what Christian enchantment is supposed to look like. Moreover, this is what God expects to be normative amongst His holy saints (you and me), not the exception. According to Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3, basic Christianity is more like a musical than anything else. And the fact that God gave 150 inspired songs to sing, is proof that this is the case.
    • So what is the soundtrack of your life? What is the music and melody and lyrics animating your soul each day? Is your life enchanted by the beauty of God and His infinite wisdom, or is it bewitched by the things of this world that are passing away?
• Now I begin with this idea of enchantment, because in our text this morning, Titus 2:4-5, God has 8 specific exhortations for young wives and young mothers. For this class of younger women who are often tempted to become disenchanted, and discontent with their husbands, their children, and their very busy and sleep deprived lives.
  • Marriage and motherhood can be a most romantic and rewarding vocation, if you are virtuous. It can also be a hell of your own making if God is far from your thoughts.
  • And so God, knowing exactly what you need to hear, assigns 8 virtues for younger women to pursue, and which if pursued, shall re-enchant them to a life of joy and thanksgiving in the Holy Spirit. That is the true enchantment God wants for all His people.
  • And so this morning we are going to look at just the first four of these virtues, and then in a future sermon we’ll look at the last four. So let me read again verses 4-5, and recall that these are all things the older women are to teach the younger women. This is the core curriculum for biblical women’s ministry.

Verses 4-5

4That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, 5To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

The first four qualities the older women must embody and then teach to the younger women are:

• 1. Sobriety
• 2. Love for her husband.
• 3. Love for her children.
• 4. Discretion
  • So let us consider these together.

• If this sounds like a virtue we have already studied, that is because we have. More than any another virtue, Paul has made this a requirement for bishops/pastors (Titus 1:8), for the aged men (Titus 2:2), for older women and younger women (here in Titus 2:4), and this same virtue is the one thing Paul will charge to the younger men. He says later in Titus 2:6, Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.
• So God thinks we need this virtue and we need it badly, therefore he repeats it again and again, and in fact he assigns this virtue to the young women twice. Our fourth virtue which in English is translated as discretion shares the same root as what is translated here as sober. So what exactly is this virtue?
  • At the most general level, this Greek word for sober urges us to be self-controlled. Meaning we have self-possession and self-mastery over our desires, our emotions, our thoughts and our appetites.
  • So young women, how much do you possess yourself? How much control do you exercise over what you say and don’t say? How much responsibility are you taking for your own thoughts, words, actions and the things you allow to influence you (friends, media, entertainment)?
  • When you sin, do you own your sins all the way to the ground? Or do you imitate the first woman who blamed the serpent, who chose deception, and refused to take ownership for disobeying the one thing God told them not to do?
    • It says in 1 John 1:8-10, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
• Self-control/sobriety means you do not deny or diminish your free agency as an image bearer of God (as a moral creature). The Bible says it is in your sinful nature to blame others, to blame your circumstances, and our culture loves to cater to that blame shifting mentality (men blame women, women blame men and everything in between).
  • In our land today (in large part because of feminism), there is a false gospel out there that says,“All women are victims. And because of your sacred status as victim, you are thereby absolved from any responsibility for anything bad you may have ever done. Any sins or actions you do after your baptism into the cult of victimhood are justified because of the greater evil that was done to you. You are just a product of your environment, society is to blame.”
  • But think about what the does to women? It shuts the kingdom of God in their faces. It robs women of their dignity, of their moral agency, and of the freedom they could have if they confessed their sins completely and honestly to God. Yes, people have and will sin against you. Yes, there are real victims. But without confession of what you have personally actually done, you cannot ever be free! The wages of sin is still death, and death cannot be escaped except by the precious blood of Jesus. You have to plead the blood, and that means pleading guilty! Have you done that?
• The way this false gospel usually plays out is that some woman is genuinely sinned against (sometimes very grievously), but then she is told and counseled to use that real sin against her as the forever excuse and justification to cover for all her sins. But what is that? That is a fake and false justification. It is fig leaves, and fig leaves cannot clothe you, at least not permanently, you need the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to you.
  • Jesus never said, “Truly truly I say to you, If someone sins against you, you may sin back without guilt.” Or, “So long as your sins are not as bad as their sins, you don’t have to confess them.” No, Jesus is constantly telling us, look in the mirror. Look at the plank in your eye. Look at yourself, your sin, and nobody else. And then come and look at me, look at my cross, look what I have done for you!
    • We see in John 8, with the woman caught in adultery, what happens when a woman truly knows her sins, she knows she is justly condemned,Jesus says to her, “Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?” She said, “No man, Lord.” And Jesus said unto her, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”
    • There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Rom 8:1).
• Against Christ, against Romans 8, there are many false gospels out there, fig leaf gospels, that tell you to hide from the light, to cover and blame everyone else. Of such people who teach these false gospels it says in 2 Peter 2:19, While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.
  • Paul says likewise in 2 Timothy 3:6,For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins…
    • The devil wants to keep you women loaded down with sins. He hates forgiveness. He abhors absolution. He detests that part of the liturgy where I say, because you have confessed your sins, holding nothing back, it is my joy to announce to you that your sins are forgiven through Christ!
    • The devil wants to make you entitled, embittered, and full of resentment, not just because it makes you miserable, but also because it makes you more easily manipulated by his demonic hordes. But Christ has come to set you free. And that freedom comes by sober confession, by not holding anything back, and casting yourself upon the mercy of Christ.
    • It says in 1 John 3:8, He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
• And so against all those false fig leaf gospels our there God says, teach the young women to be sober. To be self-controlled in submission to the Word of God.
  • This brings us to the second and third virtues which I will combine together because they overlap.

• In Greek these are just one-word virtues, φιλάνδρους, signifies affection for one’s husband, or better yet, affection for your man.
• And φιλοτέκνους signifies affections for one’s children.
• Now we might wonder, is it really necessary for God to say this? Aren’t affections for your husband and children natural affections that every woman has?
  • Yes and no. (Yes in potency, not always in act.) Love is supposed to be a natural affection, but there are many people who have declared war on their own nature. This is what LGBTQ+ is, this is what elevating your career over your own children is, it is a war against nature that cannot be won, because God is the author of our nature.
  • And so love for husband and children needs to be explicitly stated as the standard God has for wives and mothers, so that you can actively cultivate this within yourselves.
    • Affections are like a vine on a trellis, they can be directed, formed, and taught where to grow. It says in Psalm 128:3, Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the very heart of your house, Your children like olive plants all around your table. That is the romance of a Christian home. It has an affectionate and fruitful wife like a vine the center.
    • So ladies, your husband is the head of the house, but you are the heart, so what kind of heart do you have? Is it respectful towards your head, tender towards your children (those little olive shoots), is affectionate, forgiving, joyful? Or has your heart grown cold towards your husband, and irritable towards your children? What is the adornment of your heart? Is it hot with anger, cold with bitterness, or warm and welcoming like the arms of God?
• While love is meant to be a natural affection common to all, the Christian life is no merely natural life, it is a super-natural life, what the Bible calls a “living in the Spirit.” And what distinguishes natural love from supernatural love, is that supernatural love (charity) loves someone simply because God loves them, full stop.
  • While natural love is based on what we may find appealing in someone (they’re handsome or cute or pretty), supernatural love is a participation in God’s love, and God’s love causes loveliness in other people. God’s love is gracious and bestows goodness where it is lacking. And there is a world of difference between those two kinds of love. To love someone for their own inherent loveliness, and to love someone in spite of their lack of loveliness. In what way has God loved you?
  • Supernatural affections come to us, when we first recognize our own wretchedness, the ugliness of our own heart, the perversity and pride of our own thoughts, and then we see just how much God has loved us in spite of ourselves. And when we truly know just how affectioned God has been towards us, then we can see other fellow sinners in that same light.
  • Charity sees people (even our husband and children) the way God sees them, as broken image bearers in need of healing, and as people who God loved so much He sent His own Son to die for them.
  • The gospel should change the whole reason for why we love people.Grace should elevate our natural loves to become supernatural loves.
    • Jesus describes this in Luke 6:32, 35, But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them [mere natural affection]… But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.
  • And so ladies, if your husband or children are ungrateful and evil does it excuse you from loving them? No. It just means you need to remind yourself that God loved you, and was kind to you, when you were/are ungrateful and evil. If God has loved you undeservedly, then you can show affection for your husband and children even when they do not deserve it.
  • That’s a life of grace, and that is the kind of love that makes usexperience union with Jesus, because our hearts become one with his.
    • It says in 1 John 4:16, 20-21, And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him…If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother [or spouse or children], he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
• So do you love your husband simply because God loves him? Do you love your children simply because God loves them? Because that kind of supernatural gracious love has the power to transform your entire household, your family’s future, not to mention your own personal destiny. So ladies, if you are the heart of the home, how healthy and affectionate is it?
  • Finally, we come to our fourth virtue which is discretion. And as I said earlier this is basically a species of sobriety/self-control, and so we’ll touch on this very briefly.

• It says in Proverbs 19:11, The discretion of a woman makes her slow to anger, And her glory is to overlook a transgression.
  • So wives and mothers. Are you slow to get angry? Because that is a fruit of discretion. Are you thoughtful and deliberate with your decisions, or are you impulsive? Discretion is that virtue that keeps you from doing and saying things you will later regret.
• It says in Proverbs 11:22, As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout, So is a lovely woman who lacks discretion.
• And of how to acquire this virtue it says in Proverbs 2:11, When wisdom enters your heart, And knowledge is pleasant to your soul, Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you.
  • So is God’s wisdom in your heart? Is the knowledge of Christ, his cross and his glorious resurrection pleasant unto your soul? Because that is where discretion comes from. Keeping the gospel of God upon your heart all the day.

• It is easy to become disenchanted in this world of sin and evil and death. But what makes the Christian life an enchanted life is our blessed hope in the Savior: that Christ Jesus has conquered death, He rose the third day, he ascended to heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and He shall come in glory to judge both the living and the dead.
• It says in 1 Corinthians 2:9,Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man [or woman] The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.
  • So what do you expect from God in the future? Whatever it is, the Bible says that your future “real life,” eternal life, will far exceed your greatest expectations. As it says in Romans 5:5, our hope shall not put us to shame. You will not be disenchanted in heaven.
• C.S. Lewis once pointed out that for the true believer, this present life is as close to hell as we shall ever get. And so while our pains and sorrows are great, they are as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:17, light and momentary compared with the exceeding and eternal weight of glory that is to come.
  • However, for the unbeliever, for those who deny God and reject Him, this life is as close to paradise as they will ever get. For the unbeliever, this is heaven, and that should break your heart.
• So what kind of perspective do you have on your present difficulties? And do you see them the way God wants to you see them? As tests to make you more virtuous, as purging to make your soul radiant. God is inviting all of us back to a life of hope in Him, which when we have such hope, makes our life enchanting again through the power of His resurrected Son. May God grant you such gracious enchantment, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

O Father of all goodness, fountain of all life, pour forth now Thy Holy Spirit into our hearts, fill us up again with love for heaven and heavenly things, that we may attain to that vision of You in the age to come, through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.

Do you know what a beautiful soul looks like? Do you know what spiritual beauty is, and how to acquire it?

• In 1 Peter 3:3-4, the Apostle begins to answer this question by saying, Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel—rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.
• Notice that the Apostle describes here two places that beauty can be found. First, there is an external beauty of the body, the hair, the jewelry, the clothing, all things the eye can see.
  • According to the classic definition of beauty, beauty is simply: that which gives pleasure upon being seen.
    • If it delights you when you see it, that is what we call beautiful.
  • We could go further on and discover that there are three qualities that make something pleasurable to our eye, which the best theologians identify as:
    • 1. Unity.
    • 2. Due proportion.
    • 3. Splendor.
  • Where there is Unity of the whole, Due Proportion of the parts, and Splendor in color, when these three come together our eye cannot help but enjoy the sight.
  • That is just how God made us as image bearers, and indeed we image/reflect a God who is the source of every beautiful thing and even beauty itself. All the beautiful things we see down here are imperfect participations of the perfect beauty that God is.
• Now if physical/external beauty is that that which gives pleasure upon being seen, how then might we define this spiritual beauty that the Bible talks about, which is invisible to the naked eye?
  • I think what 1 Peter 3 and other passages suggest is that spiritual beauty is that which gives pleasure to God when God sees.
    • It says in 1 Samuel 16:7, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
    • And in Hebrews 4:13 it says, there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
• So the God who sees all, knows all, and judges the beauty or ugliness of every human heart, has told us in His word how we may become beautiful in His sight (How we may please Him). And that is what this section of Titus 2:3-5 is all about. It is a guide for the women in the church to adorn themselves with a spiritual and imperishable beauty which is then reflected in their words, their actions, their attitude, and yes even in how they dress and do their hair.
  • And so our focus this morning will just be on verse 3, so let us hear these words again and then examine them in depth.

Verse 3

3The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;

Here Paul sets down four areas where the older women are to be exemplary in their conduct. And we should notice that all four areas fall under the special domain of the virtue we call temperance/modesty. This also happens to be the virtue most closely connected to making things beautiful.

• Recall that beauty consists in the unity, due proportion, and splendor of a thing’s form. And what temperance/modesty does to the soul is:
  • 1) Unify the heart’s desires, and gives us integrity (wholeness, soundness in faith)
  • 2) It maintains and keeps the due proportion between what is excessive and what is deficient.
  • 3) It (modesty) seeks what is honorable in every situation and circumstance, and it is that honor/fittingness that gives splendor to a thing’s form.
• So consider now these four areas Paul speaks of through this lens of temperance and modesty.
  • 1. As regards a woman’s clothing and demeanor, Paul says she should be in behavior as becometh holiness. Some translations have “wearing holy attire.”
  • 2. Second as regards their words Paul says they are to be, Not false accusers.
  • 3. Third as regards their bodily appetites, Not given to much wine.
  • 4. Fourth as regards the content of what they teach to others, they are to be Teachers of good things.
    • So let us take these exhortations one at a time.

• Some translations have reverent in behavior, or as wearing holy garments, and the idea is that a godly woman is to conduct herself like a priestess serving in the temple of God. Whatever work a woman does at any age, when done for the glory of God, is holy work.
  • As Paul says in 1 Timothy 4:5, it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
  • So young ladies (especially those at CKA), when you put on your school uniform and study to honor God (not merely to impress your peers, or to make your parents and teachers happy), that is clothing that has been sanctified to the Lord, when you are wearing it to honor Christ.
  • Likewise you mothers who are in the trenches, wearing the overalls, the messy apron, the dirty jeans and shirts stained with the children’s snot and vomit, when you work in your household as unto the Lord, you are wearing the pure garments of a priest.
  • Remember the Proverbs 31 woman. It says, sheworks diligently with her hands, and her clothing is fine linen and purple (Prov 31:22). What does the fine linen signify but purity of heart. And what is the purple but the royal splendor of a princess who has God as her King.
• Under the old covenant, God specified the exact fabric, colors, gemstones, and clothing that a priest must wear when doing his priestly duties. And under the new covenant, where all of us have been made kings and priests unto God by faith, what are we commanded to wear?
  • Romans 13:14 says, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
  • Ephesians 4:24 says, put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
  • It says in Revelation 19:8 of the bride of Christ, And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
  • These are the garments that God wants holy women wear: Good works, holy works, purity and reverence.
• When that is the inner disposition of the heart, a woman will then adorn herself outwardly as becometh holiness. Or as Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:10, wearing that which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works.
• And so Paul assigns to the older women in the church this important duty of being good examples in behavior and dress.
  • It is not easy to dress both modestly and tastefully in our perverted age. Just look at what our culture promotes in its magazines, movies, and TV shows. Look at what is sold online and in the clothing stores. And so we need to have grace for one another as we figure this out, and this is where mothers and grandmothers should be models to the next generation: teach your girls what reverence for God looks like inside and out.
  • Modesty is the governing principle, and then you need wisdom to apply that principle to your wardrobe.
  • Whatever the garment, Christian women should wear that which honors Christ. The external appearance should be a reflection of a quiet and gentle spirit. Are you pursuing this?
    • This brings us to our second exhortation which is that…

• Older women must not be false accusers. In Greek this word is διάβολος, a person who slanders or condemns others. And it is this same word that becomes the very name for the devil in the New Testament. Paul is saying to the elder women in the church, “Don’t be devils!” And he would not have said this unless it was a unique temptation for older women to imitate the devil in his slander.
• What does the devil do? He loves to find faults. He loves to exaggerate other people’s sins (while minimizing his own), and then he weaponizes and publicizes the sins of others (whether real or made up) to stir up strife between the brethren. Many churches have been divided and burned down by such devilish women. Women who are judgmental, envious, and lie. If these women did not exist, Paul would not have told them. “Don’t be this way.”
  • It says in Proverbs 26:20-22, Where there is no wood, the fire goes out; And where there is no talebearer, strife ceases. As charcoal is to burning coals, and wood to fire, So is a contentious person to kindle strife. The words of a talebearer are like tasty trifles, And they go down into the inmost body.
    • It is a vice of our nation to love gossip, to assassinate people’s character in public and online forums, and we have built entire industries around this sin: we call it “the news,” we call it “Facebook,” we call it “political activism.” And what is this but a forum for breaking the 9th commandment? Thou shalt not bear false witness.
  • Jesus says of such talebearers and liars in John 8:44, You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
• So a godly woman must shun in herself evil thoughts about others. A holy woman must become deaf to evil reports, and she should be quick to shut down gossip when she hears it.
  • It says in Proverbs 11:13, A talebearer revealeth secrets: But he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.
  • Likewise, it says of the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31:26, She openeth her mouth with wisdom; And in her tongue is the law of kindness.
• The tongue is a fire that is hard to tame, but by the power of Christ, our tongue can be sanctified to burn for God. This is what the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost signifies, that instead of using our tongues to circulate evil, we now use them to circulate good news.
  • We want people to say of us what is said in Acts 2:11, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
  • Is that what people say of you? That praise and thanksgiving and wisdom are upon your lips? That does not happen be entertaining evil thoughts.
• It says in Proverbs 10:19, In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise.
• And in Proverbs 14:1 it says,The wise woman builds her house, But the foolish pulls it down with her own hands.
  • So to the women of the church God asks: Are you building up your house or tearing it down? Are you submissive to your husband, reverent in your speech, or are you nagging him and the children like a dripping faucet?
  • God warns in Proverbs 15:25, The Lord will destroy the house of the proud, But He will establish the boundary of the widow.
• So where there is modesty of speech, a woman’s house becomes a pleasant home. But where there is a contentious spirit, nitpicking, fault finding, “nothing’s ever good enough,” there is enough stress to send you to an early grave.
  • To be a false accuser is neither good nor safe for anyone’s health including your own.
  • This leads us to a third exhortation which is about regulating the body’s appetites…

• An older woman must not be given to much wine.
• Here the warning is against self-indulgent living. For a woman whose domain is the home, wherein food and wine is kept, there she will have the temptation to eat and drink to excess.
  • While wine is a good creation of God given to make our heart glad (Psalm 104:15), we must never become enslaved to wine, or have our powers of judgment impaired by it.
• There is a reason our culture has coined the term “winemom,” to describe the epidemic of women who are using alcohol, pills, and other substances to escape from and cope with the challenges of modern life.
  • And so Paul exhorts Christian women to not be winemoms, to not be numbing themselves to the trials of motherhood or grandmotherhood, or widowhood, the trials of aging, of a bad marriage, or of the loneliness so many women feel. Wine is not the answer.
  • Instead, the best remedy to isolation is twofold: 1) living in the fear of God, and 2) being active in service to others. God sees when nobody else does. God knows when you deny yourself and when you indulge your appetites. And God rewards those who give themselves to much sacrificial service rather than being servants to their own belly.
  • Take Anna the prophetess as an example of such holy living. It says of her in Luke 2:36-38, She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow for eighty-four years. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to the Lord and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.
    • And so the widow Anna, who spent all her life praying and fasting and worshipping God, was rewarded for her faithfulness by getting to see the infant Jesus. To see with her own eyes the incarnation of the Son, who was the answer to all her prayers of faith.
    • What Anna experienced in her old age, is still only a foretaste of the glory to come. For Jesus says in Matthew 5:8, Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
    • God is the reward of those devoted to Him. And thus we are told in Ephesians 5:18-19, And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
    • That is far better than being enslaved to wine.
    • Fourth and finally…

• Paul charges the older women to be teachers of good things. Next week will study what some of those good things are, but for now just observe that God assigns a real teaching function to the older wiser women in the church. They are to be as mentors to the younger women, as verse 4 goes on to say.
• So while God forbids a woman from teaching or preaching publicly in the church, it says in 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Corinthians 14 she is to remain silent in this regard, still they are commanded to teach the younger women. And that means doing so in private (outside the assembly of the saints) and in other single-sex groups, Ladies Fellowship, Women’s book studies, in the home, etc.
  • This is because some things are better said to women from women, especially when it comes to these issues of clothing, hair, modesty, childbearing, and running a home.
• So to the younger women in the church, are you seeking out the “mothers in Israel,” to ask them for advice, to befriend them, to learn from them, to ask them questions about how to navigate the challenges you are facing?
  • Are you making use of the wealth of experience that exists in this body? Because I tell you, there is a lot of wisdom here if you will search it out.
    • Proverbs 4:7 says, Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom.
• And to those who are the older women in the church, do not think you are not needed here. Last I checked, there were 97 children in our church under the age of 18, about half of those are girls, and then add another 25 or so adult women who are under the age of 40, and that adds up to roughly 75 people in our church who are in the category of “younger women.”
  • So this need for mentorship, friendship, encouragement and prayer is not going away anytime soon. And so take it upon yourself to pursue wisdom even in your latter years, and then love one another across the generations, as mothers and daughters, as grandmothers and granddaughters serving the same Lord.
  • Consider the sweet friendships between Naomi and Ruth, Elizabeth and Mary, find those who possess the virtues you lack and need, and learn from them. Those who diligently search for wisdom will find it. As Proverbs 13:20 says, “She who walks with the wise will become wise.”

What does spiritual beauty consist of? It is having a unified and well-proportioned soul. It is having your mind enlightened by the splendor of God. Your will submitted to and united to God’s will. Your appetites subordinated and governed by the Holy Spirit, so that as it says in Romans 8:29 you are, conformed to the image of his Son.

• What makes a person truly beautiful is total conformity to Jesus. And so to men and women of every age, I charge you to behold the beauty of Jesus. Look at his perfect life, his obedience to his Father, his wisdom as 12-year-old dwelling in his Father’s house. Look at his life of obscurity during his teens and twenties. And then behold his baptism at 30, his resisting every temptation, his constant compassion for the lost, his combat with the Pharisees, his sacrificial love for his disciples and the whole world, loving them unto death.
• No man has ever lived a more beautiful life than Christ. And it was a life of humiliation, abandonment, betrayal, false accusations, and ultimately being crucified by the very people he came to save. This is what spiritual beauty looks like. This is what a unified and well-proportioned soul endure for glory of God.
• May God grant us the beauty of being conformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another. IN the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Father, we thank for your Son and our Savior the Lord Jesus, true God and true man, who in his humanity adorned his teaching with perfect living, and has taught us by word and deed how to please You. And so help us O Father by the same Holy Spirit in which Your Son walked. For we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

This morning, we begin a new section in Paul’s letter to Titus. And while chapter 1 was primarily about church government, and what a pastor must be and do to silence heretics, chapter 2 contains what a pastor must teach and exhort within the church.

• Now within the church Paul identifies multiple classes of people who need distinct moral instructions. Different people need different things said to them.
  • In verse 2 he starts with the older men, then the older women, then the younger women, then the younger men, in verses 9-10 he addresses servants, and then in chapter 3 we will see he exhorts the whole church.
  • Now someone might read all these lists of qualities and actions and instructions and then wonder:Why all this moralizing and telling Christians how to behave, when Christianity is (I thought) all about belief?
  • To this we must answer that right belief and good behavior are not enemies but rather best friends. God commands that faith and works go together, both are gifts of grace.
  • Recall from an earlier sermon that we said the theme of this letter is The Marriage Between Sound Doctrine and Sound Living. And so to quote the Lord Jesus, “What God has joined together, let not man separate (Mark 10:9, Matt 19:6). We must not separate faith from works, belief from behavior.
  • Paul tells us in Titus 1:16 that there were people in Crete who were doing this very thing, He says, they profess that they know God; but in works they deny him.
  • And so contrary to these mere professors of Christianity, Titus is to instruct the church in how to (as he says in verse 10) adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.
    • Or as Jesus puts it in Matthew 5:16, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
• And so what Titus 2 is all about is adorning, beautifying, glorifying the grace of God with a gracious life.
  • For as Paul will say in verses 11-14 of this chapter, For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
  • And so if you want to become and stay a pure person to whom all things are pure, first Christ must wash you in baptism and give you the gift of faith. And then having been purified by the Holy Spirit, you are to keep in step with the Spirit, bear the fruit of the Spirit, and it is that new life in the Spirit that Paul is speaking of here.
    • What Paul says to Timothy in 1 Timothy 5:22 applies to all of us: do no be a partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.
  • And so this morning we will consider what a pure life in the spirit should look like for an older man, and then in future sermons we’ll do the same for older women, younger women, and so forth.
  • And so our focus this morning is just on verses 1-2, so let us hear these verses again.