God Enfleshed, Part 1

Well, the summer is coming to a close. And soon it will be time for the most wonderful season of the year. And that's Christmas.

My wife and I were in Maui celebrating our 40th anniversary and there were several stores that already had their Christmas decorations already up. And I thought, I must be living on the wrong island. And it's time to move to Maui.

All that to be said is that Christmas is a season more than it's just a day. A lot of our holidays are just that, a holiday. But Christmas, in all reality, is a season.

It is a season as the Bible describes it in just four words. The word became flesh. That's the Christmas story as defined by John in John one, verse number 14.

The word became flesh. Christmas is about God being enfleshed. It is the most monumental statement in all of Scripture.

It is the most memorial statement in all of Scripture. There's nothing more important than the word becoming flesh. Everything about your life is wrapped up in that phrase.

That phrase about God's enfleshment is the most crucial statement in all of Scripture. It's a statement that's wrapped up in anticipation. Why, because Simeon lived in anticipation of becoming Messiah.

Messiah. The Bible tells us that he was given a promise, that he would not die until he saw the Lord's Messiah. So Simeon's whole life was one wrapped up in anticipation of God's enfleshment, God becoming man.

The same was true with Anna the prophetess in Luke 2. She was looking and longing for the redemption of Jerusalem. And so she would spend the bulk of her existence in the temple praying and talking to people about the coming of the Messiah.

Her whole life was about anticipation. That's not to say that Elizabeth and Zacharias lived in anticipation because they had the forerunner coming before the Messiah. And then of course there was Mary and Joseph.

They would live in great anticipation of the birth of the Messiah. So God's enfleshment is wrapped up in anticipation. But it's also wrapped up in adulation.

Great praise, great honor. For the angel would come and there would be glory that would shine all around. And they would talk about the good news that brings great joy.

And the shepherds, when they had gone to Bethlehem, to the manger, the stable, and seen and heard all that had been spoken, they went away in great adulation, praising God. Because God's enfleshment is wrapped up in anticipation. It's wrapped up in adulation.

It's wrapped up in adoration. Think of the Magi. They had to travel hundreds of miles following the supernatural star that would lead them to a house where the Christ child was.

And they would come and bow before the Christ child and give him gifts. And they would worship him. Because God's enfleshment, the king coming, is wrapped up in adoration, adulation, and wrapped up in anticipation.

It's also wrapped up in affirmation. For the shepherds would go and they would leave and they would go in haste to see this word that was spoken to them, to affirm all that was said. And having arrived at the stable, there would be this affirmation of all that the angel had spoken to them.

And they would praise the name of God. God's enfleshment is also wrapped up in articulation. Because God becoming man is what salvation is all about.

So the good news that brings great joy is the good news of the gospel. And it was articulated by the angel who said, for to you to this day in the city of David has been born a savior who is Christ the Lord. To understand the good news that brings great joy, then you must come to understand that God's enfleshment is about the savior who is Christ the Lord.

But God's enfleshment is also wrapped up in attention. Mary would ponder all these things up in her heart. Having heard from the shepherds, having carried the Christ child in her womb for nine months, having given birth to the Christ child, she would ponder all these things, treasure all these things up in her heart, paying very close attention to all that was said.

And even upon bringing the Messiah to be dedicated to the temple some eight days later, and Simeon taking the Christ child into his arms, he would speak about how this son would be the rise and fall of many and bring great sorrow to Mary. So she would give supreme attention to all the words spoken to her about the Christ child. See, it's a season more than just one of anticipation and one of adulation and adoration.

It's a season of affirmation. It's a season of articulation. It's a season of attention.

It's a season of appreciation, a season of appreciation. Thanks be unto God for his indescribable gift. 2 Corinthians 9, verse number 15.

It is quite the season. It's a season that centers around fulfillment, fulfillment prophetically and fulfillment personally. In other words, if God fulfills everything perfectly prophetically, then he will fulfill everything perfectly personally in your life and mine.

In fact, if you think about just the word fulfillment, if you have your Bible, turn with me to Luke's gospel, the first chapter, and let me show you about this fulfillment of God's enfleshment. Eight times in Luke 1 and Luke 2, it speaks of fulfillment. It says in verse 1 of Luke 1, these words, inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things fulfilled among us.

Maybe your text says accomplished. It's a word that means to be fulfilled, to come to completion. Luke is concerned that he talks about that which has been prophesied, that which has been promised, that which was foretold has been fulfilled.

And then in verse number 20, after Zacharias had a hard time believing what the angel told him about the birth of the forerunner, it says, and behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time. Again, everything around the Christmas story historically and prophetically is about fulfillment. And then it says in verse 23, when the days of his priestly service were fulfilled, Zacharias went back home.

And then you go to Luke chapter 1, verse number 45. Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord. Mary speaking, or Elizabeth speaking to Mary and why she was so blessed, because she believed that there would be a fulfillment, not just prophetically, but personally.

And then in verse 57, now the time was fulfilled for Elizabeth to give birth and she gave birth to a son. Chapter 2, verse number 6, while they were there, the days were fulfilled for Mary to give birth. Chapter 2, verse 21, and when eight days had been fulfilled before circumcision, his name was then called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Verse 22, and when the days of their purification, for their purification according to the law of Moses were fulfilled, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. You see that? It's all about fulfillment. Everything about God's enfleshment, everything historically and prophetically is about a fulfillment.

Something that was foretold is now going to happen as spoken. Everything had been planned. Everything was precisely on schedule.

Nothing was too early, nothing was too late. The Bible tells us in the book of Galatians that when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son born of a woman, born under the law that he might redeem those who were under the law. It was a perfect time because everything was fulfilled prophetically.

But because it was fulfilled prophetically, it was fulfilled personally. And so many times we misunderstand this because one of the great prophecies of the Old Testament is found in the book of Jeremiah about how the Messiah, the Christ child, God's enfleshment would be the sole satisfaction of man. In other words, the Messiah is the satisfier of man.

Because he fulfills prophecy, he also fulfills everything personally in your life and in mine. For instance, the psalmist says in Psalm 16, in your presence is fullness of joy. Christmas is God's enfleshment, the word becoming flesh. And tabernacling, dwelling among us. Emmanuel, God with us. In your presence is fullness of joy.

And that's what Christmas is. It is the coming of the Christ child. The great anticipation of the presence of God among us whereby we will experience the fullness of joy.

Psalm 107, verse number 9. For he has satisfied the thirsty soul and the hungry soul he has filled with what is good. He satisfies the thirsty soul and the hungry soul he fills with his goodness.

This is the Christ, this is who he is. Yet like most people today, so it was in yesteryear, that Israel just did not grasp the fullness of joy in their God. And they had seen so many miracles.

They had heard God speak. And yet for some reason, somehow, they would forgo the fulfillment that God would want to give them to seek fulfillment elsewhere. Baffling.

In fact, let me review it for you once again. Because it's in the book of Jeremiah. And in the book of Jeremiah is a prophecy about the satisfier of man. Given to a group of people that refused to be satisfied by their God.

That that's how graceful God is. That's how loving God is. That he would give this prophecy about how he would satisfy man even though man was dissatisfied with him. And so in Jeremiah 1, verse number 16, God says, I will pronounce my judgments on them concerning all their wickedness whereby they have forsaken me and have offered sacrifices to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands.

I'm gonna pronounce judgment upon my people. They're about to go into captivity. Jeremiah, as you recall, prophesies right before they enter into Babylonian captivity. And so God is pronouncing judgment upon them.

They have forsaken me. The one who wants to satisfy their souls, they have forsaken. Verse 4, chapter 2.

Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord, what injustice did your fathers find in me? That they went far from me and walked after emptiness and became empty. That's a great question.

Well, what is it about your people, Israel, that would cause them to walk after that which is unfulfilling? That which is empty. And then remain empty. And then kind of like it there.

Who does that? Israel did. And so it says in verse number 6, they did not say, where was the Lord who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through land of deserts and of pits, through land of drought and of deep darkness, through land that no one crossed and where no man dwelt. I brought you into the fruitful land to eat its fruit and its good things, but you came and defiled my land and my inheritance. You made an abomination.

God says, I did everything for you. I took you through a scorched place. I took you through a nasty place. I brought you out of bondage and I brought you into a fruitful land.

I gave you the best of the best. And yet, you became an abomination. The priests, the religious establishment, they did not say, where was the Lord.

Well, if the priests don't, the people aren't. And those who handle the law, they did not know me. The scribes, the leaders of Israel, they didn't know who I was.

The rulers, they also transgressed against me and the prophets prophesied by Baal and walked after things that did not profit, that in no way on God's green earth would fulfill them. But that's what they did. Why? How can that happen? How is it that God would allow his people just to walk away like that and live any way that he wanted, to go after emptiness and remain empty, remain dry and barren?

Maybe that's you today. I don't know. Maybe there's this dryness of soul that you're experiencing, this barrenness of soul that you're experiencing, this thirst that cannot be satisfied by anything of the world. And you've gone after emptiness only to remain empty.

But yet, yet you stay there. Who would do that? Israel did. They remain there.

So the Lord says, I will contend with you, declares the Lord, and with your sons, sons, I will contend. He says, for cross to the coastlands of Kittim in sea, go as far east as you, or as far as west as you possibly can, and send to Kadar, go east, and observe closely and see if there has been such a thing as this.

God says, I'm gonna contend with you. I want you to go as far west as you possibly can. I want you to go as far east as you possibly can. I want you to go as far east as you possibly can, and everywhere in between, and see if you can find anything like this.

I will contend, you will not. You won't find anything like this. He says, has a nation changed gods when they were not gods? No.

Had the pagans changed their gods? Nope, they still worship Baal. They still worship Ashtaroth. They're empty gods, but they still worship them.

They did not forsake their empty gods. They stayed with them. They did not turn their back on false gods.

But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit, does not fulfill. In other words, my people who serve the one true God, and there's only one. There's only one God, I'm it, and they have forsaken me.

While all the pagans stick to their gods, even though they're false, and will not renege on them, and they remain empty, my people who had the one true God forsook me. And turn their back on the God who would fulfill their lives.

So verse 12 says, be appalled to heavens at this and shudder. Be very desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Evil is defined in the text not as immorality, not as drunkenness.

Evil is defined as seeking joy and fulfillment outside of the one true God. That is evil in God's eyes. That is abhorrent in God's eyes.

That somehow you would go after other gods, or you would forsake me, the one true God, in order to find fulfillment in life when there is no other God but me. And there is no other one who can fulfill you but me. But that's what you did.

So God says to the heavens, be appalled. My people have committed these two evils. They have forsaken me and gone after that which does not profit.

Do you know anybody like that? Anybody in your family like that? Maybe it's you, I don't know. You have forsaken the true and living God to go after that which brings no fulfillment. But yet there's no repentance, no change, no turning.

Then, verse 17, have you not done this to yourself by your forsaking the Lord your God when he led you in the way? He said, you did this to yourself. I didn't do this to you. This is all on you.

If you're miserable, it's on you. If you're unfulfilled, it's on you. If you're empty, that's you.

It's not me, it's you. You did this to yourself. Verse 19, your own wickedness will correct you and your apostasies will reprove you.

Know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God. And the dread of me is not in you, declares the Lord God of hosts. You don't fear me, you should, but you don't.

Verse 22, although you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your iniquity is before me, declares the Lord God. Oh, you try to wipe yourself clean. You try to wipe off all the filth. You try to get rid of all the dirt. You try to rid yourself of the stain, but you can't. Because only the blood of Christ can do that.

Only salvation in Christ can do that. Your sin stain is so deep that there is nothing earthly that will remove it. And yet, God gives them hope.

And yet, God gives them an opportunity. Over in Jeremiah 31, verse 17, this is the way it says. There is hope for your future, declares the Lord.

Really? Yeah, there's always hope. Hey, listen, as long as you're breathing, there's hope. As long as your heart's pumping, there's hope. As long as you're vertical, there's hope. See, and God says, there's hope for you. There's hope for you.

And how does that hope come? Ah, verse 22, how long will you go here and there, oh, faithless daughter? For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth. Barah, to create out of nothing. I'm going to do something unique, never before seen, never before done.

Your hope is in the future, because in the future, I'm going to do something that has never, ever been seen before. A woman will encompass a man. And this is the prophecy that all the rabbis before the birth of Christ would testify that the Messiah's mother would be without an earthly father.

That a woman would encompass a man. In other words, the woman would have in her womb a man. And not just a normal man, but geḇer, a mighty man, a strong man.

Same title used of the Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel. That a woman would encompass a man. There's hope in your future.

What is that? God's enfleshment. The Word will become flesh and dwell among you. The hope is in the coming of the Christ child, the Messiah.

And so it says in verse 25, ready, here it goes. For I satisfy the weary ones and refresh everyone who languishes. That's the satisfier of man.

That's the Messiah. The one that's wrapped in the womb of a woman, this mighty man, something never before seen on planet Earth, and never to be seen again. A one-time event that God would be enfleshed, that God would become man and dwell among us is Israel's future hope.

And I will satisfy the weary one. I will refresh everyone who languishes. Chapter 32, verse 38, listen to this. They shall be my people and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me always.

Remember back in chapter 2? The problem was they do not fear my name. They don't fear me. There's no dread of me in them. Oh, but when the Christ child comes, when the Messiah comes, when God is enfleshed, I will give them one heart and one way.

They may fear me always for their own good. And for the good of their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

And I will not turn away from them to do them good. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from me. That's so good.

He's gonna keep you from turning away, going after emptiness. I will rejoice over them to do them good. Wow.

I will rejoice over them. And the Messiah is gonna rejoice over his people. And I'm gonna do them good and will faithfully plant them in this land with all my heart and with all my soul.

I'm all in, 100%, it's all me. For thus says the Lord, just as I brought all this great disaster on this people, so I am going to bring on them all the good that I am promising them. Wow, what a statement.

The satisfier of man. The promise given to a nation who had forsaken their God and turned their back on him. He says, I'm still offering you hope.

And the hope is wrapped up in the enfleshment of God. God becoming man. God's presence among us.

In my presence is fullness of joy. I am the one who satisfies the thirsty. I'm the one who fills the hungry with that which is good. No one else can do that. That's who I am.

Solomon, the wisest and wealthiest man of all, said in Proverbs 13:12, hope deferred makes the heart sick. But desire fulfilled is a tree of life. And only Christ can fulfill the desires of a heart. It becomes like a renewed, reinvigorated life. Because of what Christ does.

And so, twice in the New Testament, there's a quotation from the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 28, verse number 16, in which Paul, in Romans chapter 10, and Peter, in 1 Peter chapter two, would quote.

When it says, behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a costly cornerstone for the foundation firmly placed. And he who believes in it will never be disturbed. He who believes it will, Isaiah 28:16 says, will never be in a hurry.

In a hurry, yeah. In a hurry to leave. Why, because you're never disturbed.

Peter says, he who believes in him will never be disappointed. You see, there is no disappointment in God's enfleshment. There's no disappointment in God becoming man.

Because he is the satisfier of man. He is the one who wipes the slate clean. He is the great God who forgives.

That's what he does. So the prophet Haggai, he would write to a nation who so desperately needed to understand the importance of following the Lord and serving the Lord. He would write to a nation who was consumed with building their own houses and not investing to the house of God. Those who were into their own selfish desires and not into God's desires.

He says in Haggai 2, verse number 6, I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the desire of all nations, and I will fill this temple with glory.

Here, the Messiah is called the desire of all nations. Because he fulfills all the desires of man. The desires that man so desperately needs fulfilled. He is the desire of the nations.

And I will fill this temple with my glory, my presence, my beauty, because in my presence is fullness of joy. And then the prophet Malachi said in chapter 3, verse number 1, behold, I am going to send my messenger, and he will clear the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight.

Behold, he is coming. The messenger of the covenant is the Messiah, the one in whom you delight. He is the desire of the nations.

He's the satisfier of man's soul. He is Israel's only hope in the future. He's our hope.

He's God enfleshed. He's God becoming man. That's why he's called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.

Man's greatest need was forgiveness. Man's greatest need is not information. If that was the case, God would have sent us an educator.

Man's greatest need was not technology. God would have sent us a scientist. Man's greatest need is not money.

God would have sent us an economist. Man's greatest need is not pleasure. Or God would have sent us an entertainer.

Man's greatest need is forgiveness. So God sent a savior to save his people from their sin. And yet the church, the modern church has bought into the commercialism and the consumerism of the day.

As if God's enfleshment is not enough, that somehow it has to be enveloped to something bigger than what it possibly could be. And the modern church, like churches of old, have all gone the way of the world because the gospel presentation was just not enough. For most churches.

I mean, it wasn't enough for Israel. And God had promised them that he was going to be enfleshed and be among them, but they rejected him. And so the modern church has thought, well, if Israel rejected him, maybe we should try something different.

Charles Spurgeon would address this over 100 years ago. 100 years ago, way over 100 years ago. He said the age of novelties would seem to have discovered spiritual power in brass bands and tambourines.

The tendency of the time is toward bigness, parade, and show of power. Jesus had preached the gospel to every creature, but men are getting tired of the divine plan. They are going to be saved by the priest, by the music, theatricals.

Well, they may try these things, but nothing can ever come of the whole thing but utter disappointment and confusion. God, dishonored. The gospel, travestied. Hypocrites, manufactured by the thousands in the church. Well, the church just being dragged down to the level of the world.

Over 100 years ago, Charles Spurgeon said that. What would he say today of churches that have Easter egg hunts on Resurrection Sunday? If you have an Easter egg hunt on Resurrection Sunday, the holiest weekend of the year, I will tell you that the other 51 holy days are not holy. In your church. I'm just gonna flat out tell you that. That's the truth.

75 years ago, Harry Ironside said this about the church. The church of God has gone into the entertainment business. People must be amused that as the church needs the people's money, the church must supply the demand and meet the craving. How else are godless hypocrites to be held together? So the picture show and entertainment, take the place of the gospel and the solemn worship of God. And thus, Christless souls are lulled to sleep and made to feel religious while gratifying every carnal desire under the sanction of the sham called the church. In the end, well, what an awakening in a Christless eternity.

What a statement. As a church moves closer and closer to AI, we wanna remain BI. Artificial intelligence versus biblical intelligence. You wanna be people of the book, people of the word, people of the truth, making sure you understand what the Bible says. The word became flesh.

That is the theological aspect of the Christmas story. It's the story without the historical narrative. It's the story without Mary and Joseph.

It's a story without Bethlehem. It's a story without shepherds. It's a story without angels.

It's a story without the magi. The story without a cradle. God becoming man, God's enfleshment.

The word became flesh and dwelt among us and we, John says, beheld his glory. Wow, his glory? How did John behold his glory? The glory full of grace and truth. And he goes on to say in John one that because of that there was grace upon grace.

In other words, there was a overflow of God's grace upon man, a never-ending succession of grace because that's the God, that's the God who was enfleshed. And this one who was enfleshed explains the Father to us. Exegetes the Father.

This is the one who describes for us God the Father because he's God the Son. God's enfleshment, the greatest statement in all of Scripture, the word became flesh. It's our hope.

There is no other hope because there is no other God. And that's what we rejoice in. Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for today and for all that you do and just the opportunity, Lord, to celebrate you. Lord, you are everything. And I pray for every man, woman, boy, and girl in the room or one day listening through some kind of media operation.

I pray, Father, that you would work in their hearts to drive them to their knees, to trust and believe in the one true God, the satisfier of man, the one who from the very beginning of time had a plan to become man and dwell among us. What a plan. It goes way beyond our human comprehension.

It was the greatest of all plans. And for that, Lord, for those of us who know you, we will be eternally grateful and thank you forever. In Jesus' name, amen.