[Darris McNeely] Every year, when I teach the fundamental doctrines to a group of young people, one of them that I always spend more time on is the nature of God and Jesus Christ. Then there’s a concept in that great topic that has always and continues to intrigue me. It is the very idea of salvation that what God has purposed is that essentially it's this, that spirit became flesh, that flesh could become spirit. That is the essence of salvation reduced to a very succinct phrase. Spirit became flesh that flesh could become spirit. That is the essence of salvation. That is the great story of the Bible perhaps. Bible has many great stories in it but this is a great one. And as I think we all recognize, many of those stories in the Bible have been hijacked and stripped off their divine meaning by traditional teachings down through the centuries and the actual core meaning of what God is, what God is doing, what man is, what man has the potential to become has been lost. But the Church of God has a mandate to proclaim these stories as the true Gospel and to teach the truth about them. Let me tell you one of those stories. Turn over to Luke chapter one if you will and let's look at one of those stories that bears on this idea.

Beginning of verse 26 of Luke chapter 1, it is a well-known story for us well but let's look at it with a different lens today. In the six month it says in verse 26 Luke 1, the Angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth to a virgin patrolled to a man whose name was Joseph of the House of David and the virgin's name was Mary. And having come, the Angel said to her, “Rejoice highly favored one. The Lord is with you, blessed are you among women.” But when she saw him she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold you will conceive in Your womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:26-33).

In this announcement there is a great story. Actually, there are several great stories here. The world tells this story in the wrong manner, in many different ways and at the wrong time. But we should understand this story of all people because this story of Jesus Christ’s first coming helps us understand and to prepare our lives for his second coming. Understanding the first coming helps us to understand his second coming. It is a great story and it bears telling at any time and it bears our understanding everyday of our life regardless of the, regardless of the day it always has a great meaning for us. I think we understand that we as Christians do not set aside a specific day of worship on the birth of Jesus Christ; nonetheless, the actual birth of Jesus is a specific touchstone, a deep spiritual understanding that affects our everyday worship of God, and our lives and helps us prepare for that time of his pairing yet ahead of us.

What I'd like to do is help us understand this story better by looking at four different concepts, four keys that we can draw from this story, that can help us understand it in a deeper way, and to allow us to better understand God's expectations for each one of us as we look for and hope for the second coming of Jesus Christ. Let's look at the first key.

The first key to the story is that God is true to his Word, even in the dark times. God is true to his Words even in the dark times.

God is the author of time. He created time, by creating the universe, and the stars and the moon, and the Earth, and the Sun, and how all of that in our realm revolves around each other creating the days and the months and the years God created that. And He is also because He created time, God is the master of timing in history, and in your life and in mine. Very important concept to understand.

Let's look at the timing in regard to the actual birth of Jesus Christ when spirit became flesh and dwelt among us. The first century was a time of darkness and doubt this period now 2000 years ago. For the Jews and Israel, they had no written oracle or a recognized message from God for about 400 years. And in fact, it had been over 500 years since the angel Gabriel who we just read appeared onto Mary had made this announcement, it had been over 500 years for the Biblical record since we have the appearance of Gabriel appearing to the prophet Daniel, when Daniel was in Babylon. And now, in terms of the record 500 years later, Gabriel appears again as a great messenger angel with this particular message.

A lot of time, a lot of history for God’s people of Israel and the Jews in particular had passed in that interim time and now in the first century, they were under the yoke of Rome. Rome was the master of the world. The Jewish fortunes were at a low ebb. And in fact, as they looked for and yearned for the him, the fulfillment of all the prophecies from the Old Testament regarding a Messiah, they were expectant but also the rest of the world at that day was expectant as well. We have records as far back as Plato the Greek philosopher, other Roman writers, Virgil for one who wrote from some of their records, we have the making statements that they too were looking for some answer from God and their mind god with a little G. But they were looking for meaning and for someone to appear. Virgil the Roman poet got so desperate for a savior to appear that he actually attached the concept to Caesar Augustus, the young Octavian who founded the Roman Empire and wrote glowingly about him that he would bring order to the world which he did in a fashion that was called the Roman Order which was rather hard and that of iron and it’s that order that we find here in the story that is opened up for the time of the birth of Jesus Christ and the Jews were under that yoke. And they were wondering how long of eternal as they looked for the prophecies, the promises of a deliverer known as a Messiah.

But God is the master of timing and He was not late even though hundreds of years had passed by. In Galatians 4:4, we are told that Christ was born in the fullness of time, that God as Paul writes sent forth His son born of a woman in the fullness of time. It was the right time. It was the right moment in history for this to take place. It was a pivotal intersection of the history of a Roman peace, a Greek language and even a Jewish synagogues that were scattered throughout the Mediterranean world for the Gospel to be planted which the Gospels and the book of Acts tell us happened. It was a time when a descendants of David, and in the name of..in the people of Joseph and Mary, could be called to the town called Bethlehem, of all places. And answered to the decree of a man named Caesar as we're told in Luke 2:1 as a decree went out to Caesar Augustus that the world would be registered so they went and did that.

The timing of the decree, the timing of the city, the timing of the two people, and of the time was exactly as God had ordered it. And so on the story God pulls Joseph and Mary 70 miles away out of their home at the hands of an unbelieving gentile to fulfill His Word. To show us as we look back and now and can piece together the story from the inspired Scriptures that with God, His enduring faithfulness is absolute, it is impeccable and its timing and it is sure. As James would write, “There is no shadow of turning with God. It is precise and it is accurate and it is always on time.” And that is a profound anchoring truth of understanding for us that God will always answer His promises, our pleas, our requests at the right time and the right way and never be late even though we might think that He would be late. We look at time in a different way than God does. And we will cry out at times and time the refrain of the Psalms how long eternal hide thou away, not always understanding and perhaps forgetting at times as we are human and that God has a purpose, and every aspect of our lives as we had yielded ourselves to Him.

Figuring out why God does not answer our prayers in the manner and the timing that we think is one of the great mysteries of life. And the more we go through our trials, the more we deal with the issues of life the more times we ask the great questions, why me, why now, why has this happened. Even at times why my child, why my family - all of those are human questions that we ask along with how long eternal.

When we look at this story, we can put our lives in the context of how God works. He works in an exact method of timing and when it might even look the darkest for each of us, the darkest moment for our personal existence. God is still working something out in our lives as we yield to Him and as we patiently wait. He is still hearing and His answer is there perhaps is much waiting for us to grasp that answer and what that true answer is really is and what is being built into our lives. A character and a refinement that is on the par of this great story itself which took 100 of years, millennium to work its self out and is still not yet finished as we anticipate Christ’s appearance. And so, it was a dark time. It was a dark moment in the history of God's people just as it might seem a dark time for us today at times as we preach the Gospel, as we seek to do God's will we can wonder does anyone here what we are saying. As Isaiah said who has heard a report. And yet we have heard it, you have heard it and many additional individuals are hearing it and God is impeccable in His timing.

This story also gives us a second key to understanding, because it anchors us in the reality of total sacrifice. Total sacrifice.

A sacrifice begins with God. In Philippians 2:8, Philippians 2:8, we read that Christ being found in appearance as a man humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death even to the death of the cross. Verse 7 tells us that He made himself of no reputation by taking a form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men. He was in the form of God as verse 6 tells us. Jesus had been divine. Jesus had been spirit and Jesus became flesh. First conceived in the womb of a woman, a virgin and then finally born into the human realm. And He did not think that to be robbery. He divorced himself of divinity. He became dust to begin as a baby in swaddling clothes or today we might perhaps refer to them as pampers.

Spirit became flesh to be wrapped up in material cloth. The same God who had no bounds, was bound for a moment by the wrappings of His own creation and that was a tremendous sacrifice, that was total sacrifice on the part of God. We don't always stop to think about that at times in what Philippians 2 does tell us in regard to humbling himself and coming down in that way and again that's really at the crux of the question that I marvel at continually as I impart the subject of who God is what God is doing and who Christ is and was and what He is doing and marvel at that core thought that the purpose of salvation is that spirit became flesh, that flesh might become spirit. That is our hope of salvation. But it started with an act of total sacrifice on the part of God.

Now, the story here is not just of what God sacrificed, it's also what humans had to sacrifice. The two principle beings of this story - Joseph and Mary had to sacrifice as well. Gabriel came to Mary as we read who was a virgin patrolled to Luke [Joseph]. They had committed to each other but they had not consummated the marriage. And now all of the sudden, she was pregnant. And Luke who records it, remember was a doctor he gives a factual, accurate account of the human story, the human part of the story here.

A virgin conceived, unbelievable how could this happen all in the fulfillment of a long-known Scripture. Mary was willing to sacrifice her good reputation as a virgin and she did sacrificed it not that she willingly did that, she was overcome by the Holy Spirit she conceived but then as she heard all of this, she essentially said let it be. She accepted what had come upon her and what life had dealt her at that moment. She accepted it. Let it be she said. And that was a remarkable matter in all in itself, because for the rest of her life, her physical reputation would be tainted by that action. There will always be questions regarding the birth of her first child, who was the father. And she had to live in a small town with that. We all know what small towns are like and how people talk in small towns. Sometimes it’s good to be from a small town, as the song goes to be born in a small town. But small towns have their ways and Mary had to live with that in that village of Nazareth for the rest of her life. They would throw charges against Jesus when He was a man. We're not going to fornication they said on one occasion. “Where is Your Father? Who is Your Father?” they thought. She was trouble but she let it be. She accepted it and she kept it all in her heart.

Joseph, he had a sacrifice too, all of his good plans and he chose not to put her away. He could have done so legally, the customs and the laws at the times, but he didn't do it. He married her. He took the child he raised it and he sacrificed himself and his life was forever changed from that point on. As a carpenter, as he made his living, he had to perhaps see the looks, hear the smirks, catch a…snatch a conversation that might be made in the marketplace or in the taverns or wherever it was that he passed as Jesus was growing up they questioned his parentage and even questioned Joseph's manhood. Again, small town ways. These two people essentially had to lose their life in order that they might gain life. Their same son would teach others the same thing later on. That if we are to have life we have to be willing to lose our life. And they lost something in their life in that way and it was a sacrifice in those examples.

When we focus on the birth of Christ at any time and in any way as we should, it reminds us that we are called to live a life of sacrifice ourselves. Romans 12:1 tells us that we are to be living sacrifices before God. To lay down our lives, we do our human plans, some of our own dreams and reasonings, to suffer even the disdain of mankind for the plan of God. We have to be able and willing to do that. Christ who is the worker of miracles Himself commenced His life as a miracle to a young women and a young man at the intersection of life. And that is how that happened.

It reminds us of the sacrifice that we will have to make and have had to make, and to deem them all worthy that we might gain life in the hope of life because embedded in this story are the elements of first of all the greater sacrifice that God would make to come down as a human being which is again perhaps challenging for us to understand at the human level, but all of us should be able to relate to the sacrifice of Joseph and Mary and what they had to live with and what they had to deal with in their own life. This becomes very personal when we think of the total sacrifice that is required for us to prepare ourselves for the actual coming of Jesus Christ and our hope of salvation in the future.

There's a third key to this story that is also very important and pinpoints our ongoing need for humility. When you look at the story back in Luke chapter 2, we find that as they had responded to the decree of Caesar for senses returned to their hometowns as they were doing at that time, they made that journey and they came and in verse 7 it tells us that Mary brought fourth her first born son, wrapped him in a swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. People were on the move at that particular time. It was the season of the Holy Days. Trumpets, Tabernacles and that pilgrim season and so it coincided with that, mass movement of people. And on top of it, Caesar threw in a census that where some might have made the journey they would’ve been compelled to and so it coincided with that and everything was full. And so there was no room at the cheapest hotel, called it a Scottish Inn, a Motel 6, a little mom-and-pop wishing well type hotel. I used to pass a motel over in Indiana as you get out in the country you get away from the Holiday Inn Expresses and the Hampton Inns and there are still functioning small family motels across the country, and some of them were in various states of repair. I used to pass one called the Wishing Well Motel over in Indiana and I always marveled not only at the name but just looking at it and seem to be well kept up and they always had cars there because of their rates people’s particular proclivity for those, but we have our expensive hotels, we have our cheaper hotels.

For Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem at that season, there was nothing. And it was the equivalent probably whatever they wound up in, the manger whatever it was, a barn, a place where the angel or the animals were, the equivalent for us today I guess is if you couldn't find a room at a small country motel, they might put you out in the shed where all the implements are stored the more and the implements for raking and taking care of things around the property. That would be the equivalent perhaps and you would say, “Well, I'll take that. If it's midnight and you're tired and you are hungry and you just want a place to lay your head.” This is where they wound up in a place that no one else would take. And so that set the scene for the circumstances into which Jesus was born. In a city that held the prophecy to hold that place where Bethlehem was to be and there was no place for the Son of Man to lay his head. Even as He entered this world, frankly His birth and the earthly example of that reminds us that humility, the sometimes a femoral quality of humility that we desire and strive for is really not a onetime happening, it's not an event.

Humility is a way of life. Christ came into human life in very humble circumstances and lived that way. It was humility that allowed a shed, a cow stall or whatever it was to be the place where God as a helpless baby first came. Where shepherds came to look upon and where He was found. It was not even the first rung of the ladder of the respectability in any societies, pecking order, where He was found. And it was very, very challenging and very difficult circumstances.

Child birth for all that we to date, sometimes it's taken for granted that childbirth is fairly routine. A woman might go into labor, I hesitate to even say that way, it's not really routine ladies, but I recognize but sometimes labor and delivery can be very short, sometimes it can go on for several hours or a day or more. But there's a tension, there are…great care is taken. You can choose to have your baby born at home. You can choose to have your child born while you are sitting at home in a hot tub or in some type of pool of water which some do today. Or you can opt to go to the hospital and some of the birthing suites today at hospitals are five-star hotels. And you order off of a menu and there's multiple rooms a place for a father to stay and they're very nice.

Jesus didn't come into anything like that. Child birth in the 1st century was a very, very dangerous matter, at best. Some of the stories I've read about that in some of the readings I've been going through lately about the Roman Empire, it was an ordeal. And as we see from the story, Mary's location was not optimal. It was not sanitary, and for all we know there were no other attendants there, and so it was dangerous. There can be complications. And it was by intent I was reading through the story and looking at it, certainly we're not told the day. We're not even told the time of day. You get the indication that it was at night. Again, that it's not explicitly said but the star lead the wise men to them ultimately at night which was likely at a later time and even when Joseph got the command to flee into Egypt. They left at night. So, we don't know for sure but it was not heralded other than by the angels, and by God's purpose, and those who came were humble shepherds, humble shepherds. Again, it wasn't the mayor of the city. It wasn't the city council that welcomed the King of Kings into this world.

Humility, this example helps us to understand and perhaps come to a realization that as we look for God ourselves, we've got to be able to always look for God in the right places. And the right places where God will be may not always be where we think He should be. Here God came into this world in very humble surroundings. Where no one would have thought the Messiah - the son of David, the prophesied One - to be born out back unattended, unknown, except by a few who had actually angelic voice told them to go to them and then later found by a wise man who followed a star, a heavenly sign. But the person in the street in Bethlehem didn't know what happened there that night, that day, that season. And they weren't looking for God.

As we look for God, we got know where to find Him, and we got to understand that as God fulfills His purpose, the people who come into our lives with whom we call reverend, with who we fellowship, the people we come among, are by God's choosing, not necessarily by ours.

One member told me one time he grew up in a culture that was very, very segregated, to use that term, and he was white, and of a particular class of within that culture there is even some of the other whites. But as he elected to come into the church and follow God's way of life, it so upset his family that his father couldn't believe that he was throwing in his lot with these, as he put it, kind of people. And then he learned to serve those that his race was over where he grew up. The people that we are called to be among, the circumstances where we find ourselves at times in this life are not of our choosing, but they are of God's just as the circumstances and the events of the birth of God into mankind were of God's choosing, very humble, and we have to accept that. And we have to be spiritually encouraged and invigorated by that reality that we don't lose sight of that.

There is an ongoing need for humility.

The fourth key of this story is that rekindles our desire to honor God with our best everyday of our life.

The story of the wise men that visited Christ after his birth is told in Matthew's account not in Luke's account, Matthew's account is sometimes looked upon as the kingly gospel because lineage of Christ is traced through King David there and the accent is on the fulfillment of that particular part of God's promises and the covenant and then these wise men. However, many of their words, the account doesn't tell us and where they came from it doesn't tell us. It tells us just the circumstances they were and that they followed a star whatever that star was - a conjunctions of planets, a unique star that was there for the moment, we don't know. The account doesn't tell us. There's all kinds of other suppositions, but it was a fulfillment of other prophetic Scriptures. In Isaiah 16:3 the kings would come to the brightness of your rising it says. And so what happened here, as these wise men sought out who they were looking that they even came into a contact with the King Herod, the Great who wanted to know all what they knew. They found Herod and he said, “Well, you know, whenever you find this individual, let me know. Let me know. I would like to pay homage as well.” So when he pieced all of this together the wise men weren't there at the same time as the shepherds were but they did ultimately find it as that star came to rest over the house. We know what they did more importantly they came to honor a prophet who was not honored by anyone else even in his own country at that moment.

And ultimately, they were wise men who sought out God. They didn't wait for God to seek them out. Whoever they were or wherever they came from, they were wise enough to seek out God as we must be. We must be wise enough to continue to seek out God. And they knew that the headlines weren't being made in Jerusalem in a king’s house but in Bethlehem, a backwater town just a few miles from Jerusalem and out of the way. And they came and they honored God for who He was and they came and they honored God with the best that they had. What we are told is that they brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Three gifts, all fit for a king. Gold obviously is fit for a king. It's fit for you and I too. We love to wear gold. We love to receive something of gold. If we listen to all the commercials that are on the television telling us how to really invest our money and to protect ourselves from any future economic calamity, gold is what we should be buying and holding and investing in. It is the eternal commodity of wealth and a symbol of a king, and a currency of state no matter what the surroundings. But, they brought that to whom they recognized as king. And they brought frankincense, a very costly ointment and fragrance, something that often was given to a God as part of an offering in its use. It was used there and it was a fragrance that dealt with a mixed with other fragrances seem to allow what was then concocted to stay and last longer. And then myrrh was brought a spice for man. It was actually used to anoint a body for burial. It was also used as an anointing oil. You read about it in chapter back in Exodus chapter 30 its described an holy anointing oil used to anointed the priests.

And so, Christ certainly had that role ahead of Him in His life as a high priest and certainly as a king and as a man and would’ve been used no doubt as part of the ointments and fragrances that were rubbed upon His body after His death. But these wise men brought this before God. And as we read this story we look at it, I think the question for us to ask ourselves is, "Do we honor Jesus Christ?". Do we honor God the Father today with our best? As we look and read this story and are taught about it and prepare ourselves for the second coming of Jesus Christ. Do we honor God with our best? Not necessary gold and anointments, but a spiritual gold and frankincense and myrrh. That makes us appreciate in aware that our service and fellowship is with God. As much as with any shepherd or other wise person who made their visits.

Do we come when we come before God with each other in services, in prayers each day? Do we come with the best in our hearts, the best in our minds, the best in our thought, and the best of our lives? I indeed think that many do. And again, what we learn from the story is that we have to seek out God and offer him the best of ourselves, of our total dedicated commitment, to indeed be living sacrifices, of a way of life the reflects God. And to yield ourselves to Him as the king of our lives, as our passover, as our Savior, in an existence that permeates every aspect of our life in a lasting manner, just as any fragrance, frankincense, or myrrh, or any other fragrance might be as we devote ourselves to a high priest who lives today and intercedes for each of us.

Those are the questions for us to consider. That's what we must understand. God still requires these gifts of us. We are told in Micah 6:8 that what does God require justice, mercy, and humility. Justice, mercy, and humility, and that is a lifetime of understanding and dedication and commitment. Sacrifice, humility, a total commitment and an understanding that God, his timing is impeccable, always on time in our life and even in the darkest moments of our lives, the most challenging and trying times of our lives, God is always there and God is always hearing us and he's there for us. At times for us in the church as members and even for the ministry of the church at times things can be a bit dark, melancholy, challenging.

We all go through those moments and it's in those moments that it is this great story that God is working out in our lives that is embodied in this great story. That opens up the path and the understanding of salvation that can lift us more than anything else at any time, any day, any season of our life and should be at the heart and core of our whole existence and our whole-being. Because this story really begins to I think expand and open up this great issue that God is working out, that I began with here this morning, that spirit became flesh. And then died, was resurrected and went back to spirit, which is what Jesus did.

And that great process was enacted out beginning with the birth of Jesus, carried out through his life, his death and then his resurrection is the means by which you and I have the hope of going from flesh to spirit, eternal life, immortality, and sharing the glory of God which is the hope of our salvation. It is a wondrous, awesome, encouraging, humbling thought to spend our lives thinking through and coming to understand and making sure that it is at the heart and core of our life. Which is why when I teach it on a regular basis to a fresh group of students or have the opportunity to talk about it, the core thought of the process of salvation, and the love that God had to want to share his life with His creation, eternal life and the means that He set in motion to make it possible.

It’s a great story. It is the story of our lives. It is the story. And it is what we should be living, breathing, and proclaiming as the true story with the true elements of what and who God is and what He is doing. You see, this story told in Luke and Matthew, the birth of Christ really doesn't end there. It ends in John Chapter 1. That's not often associated with that but it really is and it doesn't really end but it then incorporates that in John 1:1 where it says that, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” And the Word and then was life in verse 4 and life was the light of men. In verse 6, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. And all that story began to unfold. And this began to be a thought in the mind the Logos, the one who became Jesus, and the one who became the Father to share their life with their creation. And that is at the heart and the meaning of our life.

And it is there in this event that the birth of Jesus into the world that we have the crux of the meaning of life. God came in the flesh, joined spirit to flesh that we might have the means of sharing eternal life with God in His family. And Christ's life as the Son of Man, is for everyday of the year, every season of the year, every day of our life, and for every season of our life. Let's always be encouraged by that and thus never lose sight of that great story.