Beacon Sunday Service December 3rd 2023

Sightness your loving kindness pour to the shots of work is right Jesus Christ my good imagine who could imagine so great of mercy what could have such boundless free the God of ages that come from glory to wear my sin the cross the cross has broken I am for king the king of kings calls me so I forever my name hallelujah brings the one who sent me free that has lost his body you have broken every change there thou victory your name Jesus Christ my home then came the morning that sealed the promise your buried body began to be out of the silence the roaring lies declared the grave and no claim is making them came and kingdom morning that fill the promise your buried we can to bring out of the sight the world lies declare the great has no pain Jesus in the pain oh one send me has lost it trip on me you have broken every change with salvation Jesus Christ my living Jesus Christ my living heart the hair the hero angel sing to the new king peace honor and mercy God and since reconcile.

Joyful nations right. Join the triumph of the skies with the gelic host proclaim. Christ is born in Bethlehem. Heart the herald angels sing to the newborn king. Christ by highest heaven Christ the Everlasting Lord made in time.

Off spring up the Virgins. Veiled in flesh the God has seen, hail the incarnate, man with men to dwell. Jesus emangel sing to the new born king. We hail the heaven born.

Hail the sun, righteousness and lies to all he breaks, risen with healing in his glory by man, born to raise our sons of earth, born to give and second birth, heart the herald angel sing to the newborn king. Now more time of first word, heart the herald, the herald angel sing, glory to the newborn king, honor and mercy, God and sinners reconciled joyful all years right, join the triumph of the sky with the gelic host proclaim.

Mark the Herald Angel sing to newborn king. Amen.

What is our only hope in life and death? And here's the question. What is our only hope in life and death? And together that we are not our own, but belong body and soul, both in life and death, to God and to our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. What a great truth. We just confess that we are God's possession, that we belong to him, and as his people, may we just continue to worship him and give him the glory, what is our role in life and death, Christ alone, Christ alone, that is our only confidence, that our souls to him belong who holds our days within his hands, what comes upon his command, while we'll keep us to the end the love of Christ in which we stand oh single our hope streams eternal sin.

Hallelujah. Now we never weist our hope in life.

God is good, God is God when it's his praise and goodness done. We are reaching love who holds our faith when feels around who sets up the storm who sends the waves that break the sky unto the shore, the rock of Christ. Oh sinluria, our hope springs eternal sin. Now and ever we done Christ our hope and my friend death to the grave to the grave.

What will we see?

What reward will heaven bring everlasting life when we will rise to meet the Lord, then sin and death will be destroyed, and we will peace in man as joy when Christ is ours forever, oh sin, high hallelujah, our hope springs eternal, oh sin, hallelujah, now but never we confess Christ our hope and life and death oh sin our hope streams eternal seed now we never become happy Christ our hope in life now we never wear Christ our hope in life demen and happy Sunday church at this time we are now going to uh have a confession of sin as we do corporately and brothers and sisters it's such a privilege when we get to come together and confess our sins all together.

Uh and similar to the songs that we just sang, and thank you so much, praise team, for leading us. This confession out loud is not only directed toward God, but it really acts as an encouragement toward one another. And so, church, can we turn our attention to the screen this morning and pray that the confession of sin? O Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love and trust him. We have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly, turning aside from the light of your word, to you, O Lord, belong mercy and forgiveness. For we have rebelled against you. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Please be seated.

Receive the assurance of pardon. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The blood of Jesus makes us white as snow. Amen.

As we just look towards the end of this year, it's it's quite amazing that we already are in the month of December. And I mean, look how lovely our our our church looks, right? I mean, it's it's so awesome. And I know that many of us, we really do enjoy this season of, you know, just giving. And we just had finished Thanksgiving, and I'm sure everyone's Thanksgiving was nice and hectic, and just in a few weeks we'll be we'll get to celebrate Christmas as a church. Um, but really, what I want to encourage us during our time of corporate prayer today is really just to ask ourselves how do we, as those who proclaim Jesus Christ, how do we look different from perhaps those that we go to work with on a day in and day out basis, to those that we go to school with, to those that we, you know, really just see uh in in different sort of spheres of our own influence.

And really, I think that the prayer today that I want to encourage us is just to reflect upon the reason for the season, right? I think each and every one of us, for those especially who have come up in the church, it's so easy to say, you know, Christmas, it's about the birth of Jesus. But maybe when we take time to reflect upon what our actions look like during this season, does it really reflect that? Are we more caught up about the gifts, about the get togethers, about just all the different things that that surround this, as opposed to being able to just take a pause and a moment to reflect that as a church, we're celebrating our Savior coming to earth as a man and taking form as a man, being both man and both God.

And so, as we just spend some time in corporate prayer this morning, I just want to invite each and every one of us just to meditate and just to really reflect on our own hearts and what our what our posture is as we just think about entering into this time of Christmas. And so, would you guys just join me in in a time of prayer as we just reflect upon uh this this Christmas season?

Our Father, we're we're gathered here today just to celebrate the things that you've done and this and to celebrate the things that you continue to do in our lives. Lord, as we just enter into this Christmas season, God, I pray that as a church, as the beacon, Father, that you would, through the leading of your spirit, just help posture our approach in our hearts. God, that you would just fill our hearts with gratitude in the fact that you sent your only son Jesus Christ to come down here to earth to take on the form of man, to face the same temptations as we face day in and day out. And Lord, we know how the story unfolds. We know that the perfect Lamb was ultimately sacrificed on the cross on our behalf.

Lord, to take upon our sins and our burdens. From those who came before us to those who will ultimately even come after us, God, knowing fully well that you have called each and every one of us here today, your sons and daughters, and you've demonstrated that through the act of giving us your only son Jesus Christ. Father, that is why we come and we celebrate you. That is why we're gathered here today, Lord. I know that for many of us, we come today with many burdens. We come today with things that aren't going well on the home front, or perhaps that there are our toils and trials that are happening at work, Lord. But Father, for for a moment, I pray that you would help us as a church just to posture our hearts and our minds and all that we are, and to just give you gratitude and thanks, Lord, for the things that you continue to do for your faithfulness and for giving us righteousness through Jesus Christ.

Lord, we thank you for that grace and your mercy that you continue to pour out upon our lives. And Father, I just pray that in return that we might be able to see truly the work of the Spirit be poured out upon how we just approach this season, Lord. God, would you just give us grace and more mercy to those around us? Would you allow us to love those that are difficult to love? Would you allow us, Lord, to be able to demonstrate Christ's love in all the interactions, Lord, that we have with the people that you place in our lives, God. Father, be with the beacon, be with the church. I pray, Father, that as we are just continuing to worship you today, Lord Jesus, that you would lead us, God, that you would convict us, that you would allow our hearts to be moved as we just receive your word, God.

And so, Father, pray that you would go forth from this time, and that oh Lord, that you may continue to move within us. We pray these things in your son Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, at this time, I'm gonna ask the children uh to go ahead and follow Teacher Sarah into the children's room. Be blessed today as uh teacher Stephen and teacher Sarah will be joining you guys shortly. All right, thanks. Um we'll briefly turn our our attentions now to the announcements. Um as you guys know, uh, we would love to continue to get folks to come and help out with the children's ministry. And so if you guys have capacity or you guys haven't already, the sign-up sheet is in the back. Uh, we will continue to have that updated.

Uh, and so as you guys uh have availabilities, please check your own calendars. But again, uh, we could always use an extra hand uh uh just to serving our our our children here. Uh I think there is probably one more announcement. There isn't another announcement, but I'm gonna just like you know, put it in there. On December 17th, we are having uh the uh our our our beacon Christmas party held at the Huang's residence. And so shortly after service, we're gonna go ahead and make way to uh the Huang's house where we will have our traditional, you know, white elephant sort of potluck, and uh it sounds like it's gonna be an office-themed uh party. So uh bring your button-ups, your ties, your slacks, whatever Dwight Shrew looks like, uh, and and we'll be sure to have it have a good old time there.

Um lastly, as you guys know, uh our offering options are listed here. And simply we just continue to ask that you guys give as the Lord leads you. And again, if you're visiting, please do not feel obligated to give. But again, especially in this season of Christmas, just continue to be reminded that um all that we have uh really belongs to the Lord. And again, just pray that your giving would be done with a cheerful heart. All right. With that said, uh, I have the uh distinct pleasure of introducing our guest speaker today, uh, Kelly Kira. Again, yeah, this is this will be a second time that he'll be preaching for us. Uh, grew up in a family of four brothers, uh poor poor um Mama Kira. Uh and Kim spoke uh again uh our earlier.

Oh, sorry, Kelly spoke with us uh I would say earlier this year. Um Kelly's married to Shelley and has two daughters, uh, Zoe and Piper. He's an elder at Lighthouse Community Church and runs a graphic design and printing business uh as well. So with that, uh, could we just uh please give a round of applause to our guest speaker today, uh Kelly Kira. Thanks so much. Well, thanks again for having me, and um it's uh it's a blessing and a joy to uh serve you. Yeah, today I wanted to look at the idea of hope. Um hope that we find in this Christmas story that we're we're beginning to think about and that that the Advent reminds us of. Um I remember as a kid I came in uh hope came in the form of a lot of different forms, um, right?

Candy in the stockings, uh playing with our cousins on Christmas Day. Um but the greatest form of hope for me came in the form of the Sears catalog, and I I know I'm old and probably none of you know what that is, but basically it's this giant phone book of everything under the sun. Um my mom would give us this catalog to look through to create our Christmas list from, right? And we would pour over this, right, with kind of the selfish glee. We would look at this cornucopia of toys, we'd flip through it, past the clothes, past the the housewares, past uh the girls' toys, finally to where all the boys' toys were. There was the Star Wars toys, right? Um there was the the walkie-talkies, a watch that was a radio, right?

And and there was then this holy grail of toys for me, and that was a go-kart, right? I wanted this go-kart. Uh, and there was even one with two seats, you know, and we have four brothers, so it'd be oh man, you can just imagine two of us just cruising around in this little go-kart. And just like the kid in Christmas story who wanted a BB gun and is repeatedly reminded that his he'll shoot his eye out. My mom was afraid that we would break our neck. But this story does have a happy ending. Did my mom finally give in and get us a go-kart? Absolutely not. If you know my mom, there's no way she was gonna do that. Um, but ultimately, I had to take things into my own hands, and almost 30 years later, I would I would find the go-kart at a garage sale, and I would build one for my brothers and I.

Uh, and I would give it to them at Christmas time. What is your ultimate hope for a new job, a house that your kids would get all A's and make the varsity team for a girlfriend or boyfriend, a husband, a wife, a baby. Walkie talkies and a watch that is a radio, which ultimately is basically like an Apple Watch now. Hope in the world's eyes and hope from a Christian point of view, it's very different. The world sees hope as wanting something that has the potential of happing, happening. For instance, I I might I want the Dodgers to win the World Series. This could happen. I want it to happen, but it won't necessarily happen unless maybe we get Shohei. But even in that, there's no guarantee. The definition of biblical hope is the expectation of a favorable future under God's direction.

It's the expectation of a favorable favorable future under God's attributes. Biblical hope is based on God and powerful, and he will accomplish what he has said. The measure one's hope should be dependent upon who we place our hope in. It doesn't depend on our energies or our abilities. It's a hope that is based not in what we can do or control, but in the almighty hand of God. God is the object of our hope and the giver of hope. Romans 15, 13 says, May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in believing so that the power of the Holy Spirit, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Watching the movie for the first time, you might squirm a little bit. You don't know what the end is. There's movies that I like to watch now over and over again because I, in part, I know that the ending is good and great. You know, for example, wonderful life, right? I watch that every year, and I know that there's a good and happy ending. God promised from the beginning that he would rescue his people from their sins. This promise, this hope would come in the form of a child, Jesus, whose birth we celebrate at Christmas. God's story is the best story, and it has a happy ending. Today we'll be looking at the announcement of this hope, the announcement of the birth of Jesus. So would you stand with me and turn in your Bibles to Luke 1, verses 26 through 38?

Again, a Luke 1, 26 through 38. And it says this.

And he came to her and said, Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the scene and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 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 bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. You will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to 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. And Mary said to the angel, How will this be since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age is also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who is called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to be let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. This is the word of the Lord. Please be seated. So just the key idea this morning is this hope in God who can and will keep his promises. Hope in God who can and will keep his promises. And there's three aspects of hope I wanted to highlight in this passage. First is this a hope anticipated. A hope anticipated.

Have you ever wanted something really, really bad? I read a story about the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. And it piqued my interest because my grandfather was part of this combat team in World War II. It was a Japanese American combat team. Yeah, it was American combat team, but it's basically made up of Japanese Americans. And the story was about a young girl in the Dashao concentration concentration camp. And she had survived for some years, holding out hope to be saved, to be rescued. But her hope came to an abrupt end when she was led out to a wall in front of soldiers with machine guns and a blindfold. But nothing happened. Because at that moment, the U.S. Army had come to the rescue and liberated those at Dasha.

The next thing this young girl saw when her blindfold was removed was a soldier with an Asian face, a member of the 442nd. This must have been altogether confusing, right? Where am I? What's going on? And yet this was the manifestation of the precious hope she had held out for years. In this passage, clearly, there's an arrival, someone important, someone hoped for. They have been hoping for someone for someone for some time. And in order to understand their hope, we need to first see what brought us to this point. Very simply, hope is needed because there's a problem. The problem is sin, and it comes very early on in God's word. Like the Christmas Carol says, long lay the world in sin and pining.

In Genesis 3, since. The plan was for us for us was a perfect relationship with God, taking care of this world. No hate, selfishness, no pride, just worship. But sin enters the picture. Satan enters the picture and man falls. Sin enters and nothing has been the same. And it's this reason for the problems that we have. For the big problems like war and economic turmoil. It's the personal problems we face, unable to forgive. Tension between parents and kids. Why we we fail as parents, why our marriages can struggle.

Not neutral, but enemies of God. But God always had a plan. Later in chapter 3, we see that God will bring a rescuer. Chapter 3, verse 15 says, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. This is called the proto evangelium, which means the first gospel. This is the first prophecy of the coming of Jesus. Essentially, God is saying, From Eve's offspring will come forth a Savior. He would come as a child whose birth we celebrate at Christmas. His heel will be bruised, meaning salvation will come with pain, Jesus' death on the cross, to pay for the sins of all of those who would place their faith in him and repent of their sins.

But Jesus' death will not be permanent, ultimately bring Satan's defeat. Jesus would rise from the den, conquering death and sin. And Jesus will crush Satan, the serpent and sin. And there was a hope because there was a problem, and the Savior had been hoped for upon for thousands of years. Throughout the Old Testament, God's people were looking forward to the Savior. They didn't know exactly what to look for or how he'd come, but they were eager to meet him. Can you imagine that weight, that anticipation? Even the sacrificial system of the Old Testament could cause people to look forward in expectation to the promised Savior. We know that when people sinned in the Old Testament, they were required to bring a sacrifice to the Lord, right?

In Leviticus 6, it says, and he shall bring to the priest as his compensation to the Lord a ram without blemish out of the flock, or its equivalent for a guilt offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord, and he shall be forgiven for any of the things that one may do and thereby become guilty. Some believe that sacrificing an animal brought forgiveness from God, but sacrificing an animal when a sin was committed was an act of obedience to God that demonstrated a faith in God. You see, it has always been about faith in God. In Romans 4 23, it talks about the faith of Abraham in the Old Testament. It says, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.

In fact, what the sacrificial system reminded people was that these animal sacrifices were insufficient, insufficient, and they need something better. So the sacrificial system caused people to look forward to a savior, to expect expectantly look to the history that God reminds his people of his plan to the promised rescuer. And here in Luke, we see him make good on his promises. One of those promises made, one of the prophecies about Jesus was that he would come from the line of David, right? In verse 27, it says, of the house of David. Jesus was the line of David, royal blood in a in an obscure little town. This fulfills the promises, promise in Jeremiah 23, verse 5. It says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord when I will raise up for day up for David a righteous branch.

And he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. I was teaching our Sunday school kids a while back about David. And while I was talking about how David was chosen to be king, but I also try to point out to them the importance of David because Jesus would come from his lineage. The old testament is pointing to hope in the coming Savior. The other promise we see fulfilled here in Luke is the is that Jesus would come from a virgin. Verse 26 says, In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph. In Isaiah 7.14, it says, Behold, the virgin shall conceive the bare son and shall call his name Emmanuel.

Emmanuel means God with us. God would come to the world to be with us through a virgin.

But just know that the virgin birth was important because, in part, because it was prophesized many years before. These are just a couple of prophecies that were fulfilled in the person of Jesus from the Old Testament. Overall, they said there was 300 prophecies fulfilled by Christ. And one person did the math, and I'm not really sure how, but they said, even if eight of these prophecies were fulfilled in one person, the odds would work out to one times ten to the twenty-eighth power. That's one with twenty-eight zeros behind it. And that's pretty astonishing. So for generations, people have looked for the rescuer, but he would not come in the way that they would expect.

No words, no miracles, just silence. So there's all this hope, all this expectation, and God has been quiet. But then God breaks his silence here in Luke, and we see the climax of God's plan for redemption, which brings us to our next point. A hope revealed. A hope revealed. God's plan would come in a most unusual way, an amazing way, a divine way. First, we're told that the Savior would come to a city called Nazareth. Right? In verse 26, it says, Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee called Nazareth. And this could hardly become be called a city, more like a town or a village. Growing up, people would often joke that my brothers and I came from the sticks, came from the boonies, where we lived out in Moor Park.

And it wasn't until probably junior high that we got our first taco bell. That was like a really glorious day for us. But Moorpark is really a metropolis compared to Nazareth. One author said that there was probably only a couple thousand people living in Nazareth at most. Nazareth, by the way, was very insignificant. It wasn't the seat of anything. It was an important place at all. There were east and west roads that ran from Europe across the Middle East into Asia. There were north and south roads that ran from Africa through narrow bananas called the Palace Palestine to the land to the north. But all of those roads missed Nazareth. Nazareth was a town in the area of Galilee. And it was very close to a Gentile population.

The area of Nazareth was described as mongrelized, basically a place where Jews and Gentiles came together. Let's just say among the Jews, Nazareth did not sit in high esteem. When Jesus was calling Philip and Nathaniel to be his disciples, Philip tells Nathaniel that the one they have been waiting for was from Nazareth. And Nathaniel says this in John 1 4 46, Nazareth, can anything good come from here? Yeah, we just see that it didn't have the best of reputation. The people in Judah disdained the Jews in Galilee and claimed that they were not kosher because of their contact with the Gentiles. They especially decides the people from Nazareth. But God in his grace chose a girl from Nazareth in Galilee to be the mother of the promised Messiah.

The king of the Jews would come to an obscure Gentile tainted region, almost as if to say, I have not come to save the Jews, just the Jews, but to be the savior of all who would place their faith in me. Next, consider what manner the message would come through. It would come through an angel. Right? In verse 26, it says, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God. If you'll remember, Gabriel has already made an announcement early in Luke to Zechariah. Gabriel tells Zechariah that he and his wife who are advanced in age and without children that they will have a boy, John the Baptist. And John the Baptist Baptist would ultimately prepare the way for Jesus. And here in our passage, Gabriel makes another visit to Mary.

And Gabriel's a special angel. Only two are named in the Bible, only two holy angels. Michael, who's associated with power and strength, sort of a super angel. And then there's Gabriel. Gabriel is a messenger, the supreme messenger. And Gabriel's two visits did have its differences, though. In Zechariah's case, the announcement came during the public worship service to the high holy place of Israel's capital. But for Jesus' announcement, it came to a no-name town, privately to a young, humble girl. The humility of Jesus' announcement matches the humility of his ministry. God becoming man, dwelling among us and dying a sinner's death is the ultimate in humility. We know being visited by an angel is a big deal.

Remember, as we mentioned earlier, God has been silent for as long for so long and chooses to break his silence with an angel. I think we need to try to remove the picture of the wings and the halo and think powerful heavenly creature. Both Mary and Zechariah react to this messenger from God as you could imagine, we all would in fear.

Through a divine messenger, through a powerful angel.

Verse 27 says, To a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. First, she's a woman.

Luke really highlights the role of women in ministry of Jesus' life.

And not just a woman, but a young peasant girl.

These boys and girls were essentially engaged shortly after they hit puberty so that they wouldn't have to fight for long the passage of adulthood. And as with other girls, she was probably illiterate, and her knowledge of scripture was limited to what she learned from home or in the synagogue. And on top of being young, she was a virgin. Right? 26 and 27 speak of Mary being a virgin. Matthew 1 18 says, when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. The idea of before they came together is this idea of being a virgin. I feel like this idea is sort of lost on us a bit, but many of us have heard because many of us have heard this for some time, but it's truly amazing to think that this young girl would become pregnant without the assistance of a man.

One author writes, now the conception of Jesus in this manner is unique in all of history of humanity. This is the only time this has or ever will occur. This is absolutely critical to the Christian message. This is critical to the gospel. Mary herself wonders how this is going to happen. But in verse 13, it says, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

She is in her engagement period, and she's betrothed to Joseph. And to be betrothed for a girl meant that there was this formal witness agreement. A price was paid by the father of the groom to the father of the bride, legally binding, referred to as a wife, to be pregnant out of wedlock, to violate a betrothal covenant was to commit what would constitute adultery. And this was punishable by death. According to the Deuteronomy law, she could have been stoned to death. What a scary position to be in. To be found pregnant in her engagement and to make matters worse, pregnant not by her fiance. I don't know, to bring this home, most of you probably know someone who was recently married. Now imagine that you find out that wife is pregnant by not the husband's.

A nobody in a nothing town in the middle of nowhere. But that is why it's so incredible. God used using the unexceptional to bring about his exceptional plan. So hope has been expected for for centuries. That hope is revealed in the most extraordinary way, and now we see a hope in the form of God of the Godchild. Jesus is really who this is all about. Without Christ, there is no hope, as Spurgeon says. I mean, without Christ, there is no hope. Yes, yeah, Spurgeon said. Mary is extracted instructed in verse 31 to name her child Jesus. It says, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. This comes from Jeshua. It was a familiar Hebrew name in Old Testament, and it meant Jehovah saves.

And this is what we celebrate at Christmas. God humbling himself, becoming a man. The God of the Umbrer, stepping into his creation as a baby with the purpose of living for 33 short, difficult years to be crushed for his people. Next he'll be called son of the Most High. John the Baptist was called prophet of the Most High. But a son has, however, has the Father's attributes. And by calling Jesus the son, by calling Jesus Son, the angel was putting Jesus on the level of God. Essentially telling Mary the baby baby she was going to have was equal to the most high God. And that was a pretty big deal. John MacArthur says this. They didn't argue that he was the son of man, human. They didn't argue that he was the son of David, royal blood.

But when he said he was the son of man, they killed him. Calling Jesus God was outrageous to the world. To the world, it was blasphemy. But perception does not make anything true. Jesus is God. And something else about Jesus point out here is something that we briefly discuss. Jesus was born of a virgin. And as our, as we already mentioned, the virgin birth was important because it was prophecy come true. But here we also see why it was critical to a cr um to a from to Christianity from a theological standpoint. The virgin birth was important because it reminds us that salvation never comes through the human, comes through human effort, but is the work of God. This was truly a miracle of God.

We already talked about how it was his plan from the beginning. The virgin birth was also important because it made possible the uniting of full humanity and full deity in one person. Jesus was fully God and fully man, and the orchestration of the virgin birth by the Holy Spirit made that possible. The virgin birth was also important because it made possible for Jesus to be both man without inheriting man's sinful nature. Because as one author wrote, though he must partake of the nature of man, yet not the corruption of that nature. You see, man is not just sinful, but with a sin nature. Jesus, miraculously born of a virgin, made it possible for Christ to have true humanity without inheriting original sin.

Verse 35 says, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child will be born, will be called holy, the Son of God. Did you catch that? It says the conception by means, by that conception by means of the Holy Spirit brings the holy Son of God. So ultimately, through the virgin birth, Jesus was able to be both man and God without man's sinfulness. But why is it important that Jesus needed to be a man? Well, here are just a few reasons that he needed to be a man. As sin entered through one man Adam, sin needed to be defeated by one man. Romans 5 17 says, For if for if because of one man's trespass, death reign through that one man. Much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Secondly, Jesus needed to be man in order to be a suitable sacrifice. He bore our sins and he took our place. Hebrews 2.17 says, Therefore he made, he had to be made like his brother in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. And lastly, Jesus needed to be a man to be a suitable mediator. Wayne Grudham said, we needed a mediator who could represent us to God and who could represent God to us.

This is Jesus, a Savior, mediator, Son of the Most High. Kind of in closing, what do we do with this hope? If you're not a Christian, let me plead with you, hope in Christ. You need him, you need your sins to be dealt with. Cannot be good enough. You cannot make it on your own. You need hope that is solid rock. Hope in Jesus. And if you are a Christian, if you're a believer, are you living in light of your hope for eternity? We need to remember the hope we have in Jesus and his eternal kingdom. Not just eternity in heaven, but eternity in heaven with God. Verse 33 says, and of his kingdom there will be no end. Do you live in light of that hope we have an eternity? Do you have a joy today because you have a hope for a long tomorrow with our Lord?

Do you persevere because life is a blip in the timeline of eternity? You share your faith with people because of the hope of because of the hope of God and his kingdom is ever present on your heart, and you want to share that hope with them, hoping that they will glorify God with you. Our hope determines who we are and how we live. Maybe this holiday season you can think about inviting family over to your house to share the Christmas story, the gospel. Maybe we can use the idea of being being eager to get gifts to teach your children about the anticipation so many generations had of the coming Christ. What about baking cookies or giving gifts to your neighbors? To build connections, showing love with hope of inviting them to church one day.

This is a while back, but I had got an email and a photo and was told that I was going to meet uh uh meet Kanako Kodama in three months' time. And man was I excited. Three months could not come fast enough. I prepared to meet her. Me and my family traveled a distance to her, nearly five thousand miles, and when I finally met her and held her in my hands, I was forever changed. Uh Kanako Kodama was the adopted was my adopted daughter Piper's given Japanese name. This can't encounter made so made so meaningful by who this little girl was. This new my new baby girl, and by the years I had waited for another child. Piper was no longer a photograph or e-mail, but a real, squishy, very pale baby.

Uh, the reason why I call her Mochi. But while in my situation it was what about I what about what I could do for this little baby for Mary and for Joseph, it was what this baby could do for them. It's what this baby could do for us. Not just a cute baby, but the baby.

A savior for Mary and all who would place their faith in him. He is the promise of God that he has made good on. He is proof of God's faithfulness. God was faithful in our greatest need, and he will be faithful in every way that he wisely deems. And let us remember the hope of hope, and let us remember hope in Jesus shouldn't be just about information, but about salvation and transformation. Let this good news, this hope fuel your love for God and for others. Let's pray. Dear God, we thank you that we have a hope that is unfading and secure in Christ. A hope for a future and a hope in this life to persevere and to thrive. Help us to dwell on that hope this after season. And let us move to let us let it move, let it move us to worship you, to love others well.

To reach out to those in our circles and share with them this hope. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much for the reminder of just what this season is really about. It is about Christ. He has come. He has uh been born, he's lived that perfect life on our behalf, and has died and risen again for our saints. And so what a great truth that we're reminded of. And we just uh continue to worship him this morning and just give him all the glory. So let's all rise and sing together that he is our first thing.

Jesus I dare not trust the trust and Jesus and hope is beyond I in Jesus blood and righteousness.

We may fall in the same life. Darkness sees when darkness seems to hide his faith.

Unchanging every high high stormy.

All it to stand before thy blessing of the benediction. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Amen. Amen. Go in peace.