Sermon Transcript:
It's that time of year where I'm sure if you live around here, but I would assume they're doing it just about everywhere, that you probably got one of these in your door as some folks made their way around. And what I hold here in my hand is an invitation. It's an invitation from the Jehovah's Witnesses to join them in their search for truth. It says that right on the inside. It says on the front of this here brochure, it's also an invitation to the memorial of Jesus' death.
This coming Saturday, April 12th, 2025. Notice it's not an invitation to celebrate Easter. In fact, Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate Easter. They don't celebrate Christmas. They don't really celebrate Thanksgiving, any major holiday. They don't celebrate birthdays even. Because they believe that these things do not fit true Christianity. They say if Christ did not explicitly tell us this, celebrate certain things, Christmas, Easter, birthdays, whatever, if he didn't command us to.
celebrate those things, then there is no reason biblically that we should celebrate them. Now, I can't argue with that logic. I think that there are biblical means and biblical kind of paths of wisdom that we need to have when we celebrate major holidays, especially secular holidays. You know, Easter especially, it's one of those things where very quickly it can become Easter eggs and candy and all this, when in fact, you know, we know what Easter is supposed to be. Christmas, the same thing, it becomes presents, it becomes getting together and big meals and stuff like that, when in fact we know and celebrate the birth of our Savior. And so.
there's wisdom to be had with just, if the Bible doesn't say it, then don't do it. And I kind of agree with them on that. But the thing I really take issue with is this, that they don't do certain things or they don't approach, especially Easter, the way that, you know, the Christian church approaches Easter, is because, you know, like I said, it's not biblical. There's a lack of biblical instruction. But when the Bible is full of Christ's claims to be God,
they apparently don't see those. That, you know, if you go on their own website, under the question, do Jehovah's Witnesses believe in Jesus? They write, quote, Yes, we believe in Jesus, who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. We have faith that Jesus came to earth from heaven and gave his perfect human life as a ransom sacrifice. They go on. His death and resurrection makes it possible for those exercising faith in him to gain everlasting life.
This sounds pretty good so far. We also believe that Jesus is now ruling as king of God's heavenly kingdom and will soon bring peace to the entire earth. And they quote Revelation 11 on that. Wonderful. However, and this is still the quote, we take Jesus at his own risk. when he said the Father is greater than I am. And they quote John 14, 28. So we do not worship Jesus as we do not believe that he is almighty God, end quote.
Jesus says, I and the Father are one in John 10, 30, but I guess that's negligible. Jesus says, before Abraham was born, truly, truly, I say to you, I am. Paul, by the power of the Holy Spirit, identifies Jesus as God and Savior in Titus 2, 13. Paul does it again in Colossians 1. Even God himself identifies his son, Jesus Christ, as God in Psalm 2, 7, Psalm 45,
Matthew 3, 17, and Matthew 17, 5. And if that's not enough for you, even at Jesus' death, the thing which... They're so quick to commemorate, to celebrate, to put on a pedestal. At his own death, you remember a Roman centurion cries out, upon witnessing the majesty and the power that's sent forth upon Christ's death, the Roman centurion cries out, truly this man was the Son of God.
Luke 23, 47. A non-religious soldier can see Christ's deity on display just in how he died. And yet one of the most outspoken and I'll say persistently false religions of our day, can't put those pieces together. Good riddance, I say to that. And I say that because today's study is going to illustrate to us.
exactly why we all aren't Jehovah's Witnesses. With even a cursory glance, At our passage that we're going to look at in Luke 1, we can wholeheartedly reject the false teachings about Christ purported by this fake Christian sect that is Jehovah's Witnesses. So if you would, come back with me to our study in the Gospel of Luke. Now we find ourselves at this time about a third of the way through a conversation we started last week, a conversation between a girl named Mary and an angel named Gabriel.
A girl, as verses 26 and 27 told us last week, who lives in Nazareth, is engaged to her Jewish man named Joseph, and as the text indicates repeatedly, is a virgin, meaning she is yet to have consummated her marriage with her to-be husband, Joseph. And it is to this nondescript, rural Israelite woman that God once again, turning the wheel of redemptive history, sends another, or the same angel, might I say, to announce, verse 30,
The angel said to Mary, Do not be afraid. We read this, and the power of this moment is often lost on us because we know what comes after. We exist 2,000 years later, or we've had 2,000 years of church history, 2,000 years of scholars, 2,000 years of Christmas celebration after Christmas celebration after Christmas celebration, in which we know Mary is a favored woman.
We know Mary is a blessed woman because of the things that happened to her. But if we put ourselves in her shoes for a moment, let's just consider the impact of this moment. Behold, verse 31, the angel says, behold, essentially, which just means pay attention. This is going to be big news. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. Gabriel says, Mary, the Lord is with you.
It's a good thing. eternal power, you will bear a son. Now, do you remember what Gabriel said to Zacharias when he gave him a promise that is remarkably similar to this? He said the same thing, do not be afraid, give the child this name, Luke 1.13, do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son, kind of the same thing, and you will give him the name John. But here's what's different about those, and here's why I bring it up.
The angel told Zacharias, your wife will bear you a son, but what does he say to Mary? You're going to do it, you'll be the one. You know, whereas it takes two to take two in Zacharias and Elizabeth's situation for them to bear a son, all he tells her here is that it is you will be the one conceiving and you will bear this. Son, you're the one in charge-ish.
Because he gives her a little bit of a caveat on how it's going to work. But he says, this isn't your husband. He's not going to be with you to bear this child. You're not going to be the one bearing a child for your husband, Joseph. Instead, you will conceive and bear the child. And as you can imagine, just think of how that conversation might have gone. Yes, Mr. Angel, I get it. Yes, I hear what you're saying. But as Luke was so quick to point out in the two verses before our passage today, he said, a virgin named Mary. And then it goes on and it says, Mary, who was a virgin.
And he makes the point so that we get it. And so to that, the angel would say, all right, I get it. You keep emphasizing it. But then Mary might also maybe kick back a little bit and say, all right, I get it. Even if I'm a virgin now. But even then, I'm not even technically married. Yes, I'm engaged. But I'm not even married yet. I won't be maybe for three months, six months, nine months, a year, whatever. It's usually a year at max. So she might not even be able to consummate her marriage to bear a child. And yet the angel says, you know, don't worry about it because you don't need your husband.
You're just going to conceive. You're going to do it. It's as simple as that, Mary. And to think of how that would kind of roll across her ears in this time. It's as simple as you will conceive and bear a son. And if you can't see how simple it might be, it might be helpful to know maybe a bit of an Old Testament promise. Given probably 738 centuries ago in 8th century B.C., God spoke these words to the prophet Isaiah.
And these are familiar words for all of us because we read them around a certain time of year when a child is to be born. And each and every time we come up here and we read Isaiah 714. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, there's that behold again. Again, calling attention to it. A virgin will be with child and will bear a son, and she will call his name Emmanuel. Now, is anybody here the kind of person that you can't remember a thing unless you write it down?
You either write it down or your note in your phone. I'm a big Google Calendar person, ties everything together. And so you have to put it somewhere or else you have no clue or you won't remember what it is. Well, God wrote this promise down through the prophet Isaiah, eight centuries earlier, so that when the time came, we would remember. And I can assure you, Mary knew this promise, and she's probably like us, in that she didn't understand just exactly what it was saying, and surely she didn't think she was going to be.
the virgin in the middle of the verse who would be the fulfillment of Isaiah 7. But she knew the promise. She would have known just growing up in Israel, in Judaism, even as a... a woman who would not be offered, you know, the education of men, the training of men, she would know the promise of Isaiah 7 because it was a messianic promise. It was a promise of the Messiah who was going to come and rescue Israel from their sins, and so everybody knew the promises that talked about the Messiah. And so she would know the Lord in sending His Messiah would give a sign,
and that sign would be a virgin will bear a child. She would also know at the end of the verse, it says, and she will call His name Emmanuel. We all know Emmanuel, God is with us, or God with us. But here in Luke 1, somewhere, here in Luke 1, it says, you shall name Him Jesus. So in Isaiah 7, the child was to be God with us. But in Luke 1, the child is to be Jesus, Yeshua, Iesus, meaning God.
God delivers, God saves, he is salvation. And so not only would the child of Isaiah 7 be God incarnate, God present with mankind, but when he becomes present, his name will be salvation. The God who is with us is also the God of salvation. And that is the child that the virgin would bear. Yahweh saves is the name.
And there's a whole lot of other names for this child. I just had it up here for us. We all know this one, a very familiar verse, Isaiah 9, just a few chapters later. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, or Prince of Peace. So this promised child of Mary, this promised child that will be born to a virgin, which is the God of salvation, We still can't quite put the pieces together on how that's going to work.
This child is God with us. This child is the Lord's salvation. This child is a wonderful counselor. Again, this is the child they're talking about. This child, this son born to us, implying his humanity, is also mighty God. And somehow, as the son, it says he is at the top of the verse, the son is also the eternal father. Now, how does that even make sense? And he is, as we sing at Christmastime, the prince of peace, all in one package.
And coincidentally enough, the angel follows up what he says to Mary by expounding on everything we just talked about in the context of this verse, on his name, on who he will be, on what he will be like. He will be great, verse 32 begins, and he will be called the son of the Most High. And remember, Gabriel told Zacharias that his son John, was going to be great. in the sight of the Lord. He gave a caveat. He said, he'll be great, all right, in God's eyes. But we don't get that caveat with Jesus.
It's just, he will be great. He is flat out just going to be great. His greatness will be intrinsic to who he is, to his nature, to his DNA. Whereas John's greatness came from God's view of him, him, Jesus's greatness comes from God being him. And here's why. He'll be called Son of the Most High. Most High is a Jewish title. We don't refer to God that way. We usually just stick with God, God the Father.
That's kind of a safe bet for us today. But in Judaism, he was called the Most High because it was a reference to his divinity. It was a reference to his deity. It was a reference to his godship. It was a reference to his height over humanity. God himself identifies himself in that way in Isaiah 55. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways. So the most high title refers to that reality.
It refers to his separation, the distance, the holiness that keeps God greater than all things. In Luke 176, John the Baptist is called a prophet of the most high. And then it says, as the prophet of the most high, he will go on before the Lord to prepare his ways. And so what that's doing is it's connecting John as a prophet of God, prophet of the most high. And when it says he goes before the Lord, it's saying that the Lord is the most high. So it's identifying God as the most high.
Acts 748, in his great defense before the Sanhedrin, Stephen, godly Stephen, refers to God the Father as the most high. Hebrews 1, Melchizedek, an Old Testament priest. And King is identified as a priest of the most high. And even Jesus himself refers to God the Father by this title in Luke 6.35. So all together in the scriptures, God is identified as the Most High God. So the implication there being for Jesus' sake, if he is Son of the Most High, what does that tell us about him?
He is the Son of God. I will say it again, per our introduction, per some people who apparently cannot get that message. He is Son of God. Son implying the nature, the DNA. Yes, your son, your child, your offspring can have different personality, a different expression. But at the end of the day, they are of the same nature. They are, for us, human. And so in God's case, if it's the Son of God, he would bear that deity.
And that's exactly what Isaiah and Gabriel are telling us. And so as the eternal Son of God. Verse 2. Verse 32 continues. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David. So this divine human child, God with us, virgin-born source of salvation named Jesus, to piece all that together, will also, add it to the list of superlatives,
be a king from the throne of David, from the line of David. And so as you can probably pick up, there's another Old Testament reference in there, as we all know who David is. But I'm going to bring us to 2 Samuel 7 to touch on that. So in 2 Samuel 7, if you're not familiar with much of David's life, a time comes in David's life when he's done warring. Many, many years ago was when he gave Goliath his kind of instant lobotomy with a stone.
And all the wars. He's done fighting. He's fighting the Philistines. He's probably, he's already done. Just a lot of the warring, the stuff of his youth. And so 2 Samuel 7 brings us to a time when it says, A time came about when King David, a time came when he had rest from all of his enemies as king. And so he decided to settle down, to kind of slow the pace down of Israel. And he wanted to build a temple for God. And this is a big moment for Israel because God had never had a temple.
And so he tells his prophet Nathan, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but God dwells in an ark. And he's saying that because he says, that's not right. How come I'm up in this lofty building and yet God lives in this matchbox, compared to what we have for ourselves? And he says, I want to change that. But before he can do anything, the Lord says to him, what we're going to read here, and listen close to this, because this promise, this statement, this passage, is referred to and quoted and given throughout the Bible.
over and over and over. And it's crucial to understanding, you know, redemptive history, the full circle of what God is teaching throughout the Bible. It's talked about in Luke 1, Matthew 4, Matthew 21, 22, 26, Acts 13, Acts 15, Romans 1, Romans 15, Revelation 3, 5, and 22. All of it talking about, I think, the six verses we're going to read, starting in verse 12 of 2 Samuel 7. The Lord says to David, when your days are complete,
so when you die and you lie down with your fathers, David, I will raise up a descendant after you, your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, he, the descendant. David wanted to build it, but God said, no, he will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men,
and the strokes of the sun. Now we're going to discuss, it's called the Davidic Covenant. It's one of the major covenants of the Bible. We all know when God flooded the earth with Noah, Noah, he made a covenant with Noah and said,
I will never do that again. And here is the proof that I won't do it again. The rainbow. That was one of the first covenants. Then he gave the law. That was another covenant. And this is one of them, the covenant he made with David. And we're going to talk about it much more when we get to Luke 1, 46 and 55. And then the end of Luke again, Luke 1. Because Luke goes into it so much more. But for today, I just want us to understand this. After reading all of that, I want us to understand, that this is what God told David. At this instance, God said, It will be a descendant of yours whose throne I will establish forever.
Starting with you, David, and through every single one of your children, good or bad, and we know there was plenty of bad children if you keep reading, I will make sure that your house and your kingdom shall endure forever. Key word, your throne will be established forever, the very end. So it should make sense then why Luke makes it a point to tell us that Joseph, the adoptive father of Jesus, marries to be husband, the male head of his household,
the one through whom all authority, through whom all royal lineage, through whom the blood of being the heir of somebody would pass through, that Luke makes it a point to tell us that she was engaged to a man named Joseph who was a descendant of David. we know that Joseph wasn't actually his biological father. So then how would the rain or the airship pass to him? Because it would have to go through blood. Well, Luke also tells us in Luke 3, and he actually alludes to it here as well,
that Mary was in the line of David. So both of his parents are in David's line, and therefore as the adopted child of Joseph and the biological child of Mary, Jesus could sit on the throne of his biological and royal father, David. And I tell you kind of all that historical stuff, to tell you that this child will be the fulfillment of that covenant. This child is the one to whom God will give the throne of his father, David, which is the throne of Israel, the throne of God's nation.
This child will sit on the throne of all of God's control. And it goes on that he won't just be David's ancestor, but he will reign over the house of Israel or the house of Jacob forever, which is just... It's saying the same thing from a different point of view. You know, every Israelite knew David as the king that he was, but every Israelite also knew Abraham and his son, Isaac and his son, Jacob. And they were the fathers of Israel. And he's saying, even the fathers of your nation, you will sit at the head of their house.
And because you're sitting at the head of their house, because I'm going to fulfill this promise to you, because in Daniel 7, when speaking of the Messiah, God says, and to him will be given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples and nations of men of every language might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away. And his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. Because of that promise given there, because of the promise of 2 Samuel 7, because of every other promise in the Old Testament, end of verse 33, his kingdom will have no end.
God promised to this girl, again, think of the context, think of where she is, think of where we're sitting. It's just in her living room. The angel came through the door. He's telling her these things. God promised this girl that the child whom she will bear will be great. He will be the son of God, son of the Most High. That God, through this child, will fulfill the covenant he made to David centuries, probably 10, 11 centuries earlier. And ultimately, he will be the king, not just of Israel, not just the house of Jacob,
but his kingdom will be eternal. And it will stretch beyond all kingdoms. It will stretch beyond all time. It will last longer than any other kingdom we have ever known. Folks, this child here, this is our God. This is Jesus Christ whom we live for and seek to serve every single day. This is Jesus whom, as Hebrews 1 says,
Hebrews 1 says, whom God has... The same Jesus through whom all things of all time, of all creation, are currently being upheld by his sustaining power. The same Jesus whom after he died on the cross and made for the purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of God on high.
And because all of those things are true, because he is the perfect fulfillment of the Davidic covenant, of the promise of the house of Jacob, because he is literally the son of God, which means he bears the nature of God and the manifestation of God and all that he is, because all of that is true, Hebrews 2 says, for this very reason, we must pay much closer attention to what we heard. So that we do not drift away from it. Verse 2, For if the word spoken through the angels proved unalterable,
which is just a reference to Old Testament truth, a reference to the law. For if the law given through the angels proved unchanging or unerring, and every single transgression and disobedience and sin therefore received a just penalty, if all of that is true, how will we escape? Notice the word escape. If we neglect so great a salvation. The writer of Hebrews is saying if all of these things are true, if everything I just told you about Christ,
if everything that this angel Gabriel just revealed to Mary about Christ being God, Christ being the Son of God, Christ being human and God, Christ being everything that God is in nature, of Christ being the one who will succeed the throne of David, of Christ having an eternal kingdom in which he will reign not only over Israel, but over all of the world. If all of that is true, then what excuse do we have to neglect so great a truth? In effect, God is telling us if all of the Old Testament and redemptive history comes to a head with this child promised to Mary,
if all of it comes to Him, what excuse do we have, what things in our life are going to keep us from serving Him? He is the virgin-born Son of Isaiah 7. He is the mighty God and eternal Father of Isaiah 9. He is God with us. He is the Son of the Most High. He sits on the throne of His Father David, ruling over Israel now and forever, over an eternal kingdom with no end. If all that's true, then how is it manifesting itself in our lives?
How does our life show that we're not neglecting so great of truth? For Mary, it was hearing the angel's spoken words and trusting God. But that's probably not true. not the case for most of us. I have personally never had an instance a vision, an angelic sighting, anything like that in which God spoke to me in that way. He did that in the New Testament. I'm sure he still does it today on a much less frequent basis, but that's not how he'll speak to us, I'd say.
for the most part. In our case, we have, God's written word. We have this so great a salvation and more, recorded right here. It's all right there for us to know, to understand, to read. And what that means is we can't spend our days waiting around for angels. We can't expect that every single time God wants to use us, he's going to send an undismissible.
image of something glorious to get our attention, to spark our minds of how great a salvation we have. We can't, neglect, the great salvation. Listen to this quote from Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking on his call to ministry.
to serve God and humanity and the feeling that my talent and my commitment could best be expressed through the ministry. At first, I planned to be a physician. Then I turned my attention to the direction of law. But as I passed through the preparation stages of these two professions, I still felt that with an undying urge to serve God. And humanity through the ministry. So during my senior year in college, I finally decided to accept the challenge to enter God's ministry.
I came to see that God had placed a responsibility on my shoulders. And the more I tried to escape it, the more frustrated I became. If you are a Christian, God is doing already a tremendous work in your life. Ephesians 2.10 tells us. And he is speaking to us in ways that he speaks to no one else. He speaks to you with individuality. With specificity that can only apply to you and your circumstances and your life.
And everything about you that makes you, you. Personality included. He has a special ministry, a special gifting, a special purpose. That no one else in this entire world could fulfill except you. In your relationship with Christ. Like MLK Jr., we have, as a Christian, we have inner urges. That inner urge to express itself in a burning desire to serve God. That's what makes a Christian. It's that burning desire.
So how do we respond to it? How do we cultivate that flame? There's a New Testament phrase to fan into flame the gift of God, which is just New Testament vernacular for how are you giving some oxygen to that desire? How are you fanning that flame? How are you feeding what God is trying to do to you, through you, and with you so that you can have the impact that God wants you to have, not just in you to deepen your faith, but maybe in others to deepen their faith,
maybe in the church to deepen the church's faith, maybe in the community to bring Christ to somebody who needs it. I like the wording he used. He says it is a responsibility upon my shoulders. And that's what it is. it is. I think we often see serving God as a, you know, there's Christians and there's people who serve God. There's pastors, you know, there's dedicated people. But the reality is that every one of us has that responsibility. And it isn't like checking off our to-do list. It is, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, it is satisfying that burning desire. It's satisfying that longing of our soul.
as we live for the satisfaction of our creator. And so is that the cry of our heart? Is that what gets you out of bed in the morning? Because it is, I mean, I'm not, as just a Christian, that's what it should be. I mean, that's what drives me in everything I do. That's what Paul says, Philippians 3. When talking about his relationship with Christ, he said, I consider everything. He doesn't say work. He doesn't just say, I consider the things I don't like in life. He says, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose.
sin I have sinned. Now, that's a truly Christian perspective on life, that everything else would be a loss because you know that the greatest thing we possess is our knowledge of Christ. Are we willing to live like this? This isn't just reserved for the holy rollers.
It is the hope of Christians. Are we willing to share this hope? Now, when we go to people and they ask us what thing do we value most in life, is it that surpassing worth of knowing Christ? Are we willing to take this good news to those that need to know of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ? My prayer is that this would be the defining motivation of our church. I think Mary obviously has. this perspective, even as the world, think of the world she was in. When she was going to bear this.
son, it would mean to everybody that she committed adultery because she didn't have this son with Joseph. It would mean that she was going to be shunned by her community for what she did. It meant that she was going to bear a child out of wedlock. It meant that she was going to do all of these things that were so frowned upon by even the peers, her parents, the people whom respected her. But she was going to have to trust God that what he was doing through her was his plan for her. And this, I'm sure, is the perspective she kept of the own child whom she bore. And so I pray.
that that would be our perspective as well. Let me pray for us. Lord, knowing you is of, as you say, surpassing worth. Far too often we think knowing you is just, you know, it's what drives our political beliefs. Or knowing you is what drives maybe just how we treat that boy. But Lord, the reality is that knowing you is of the most supreme knowledge we can ever possess.
And we know you more as we study your word. We know you more as we talk about you, even in your infancy stages in Luke 1. We know more about you as we study what you said to David in the Davidic covenant, what you said to Isaiah, that you would be a mighty God, a wonderful counselor, eternal father. We know all of these things point back to one singular person, and that is our God. And so if he's our God, if he's the one we claim, if he's the one who drives our lives,
then let that be our focus. If not, then Lord, we won't. We won't live for you. Our actions won't show it. Our emotions won't show it. Our priorities won't show it. But if we are, Lord, our hearts, like MLK Jr., like Paul in Philippians 3 will cry out, how much a desire. We had to know you my prayer lord is that that would be true of all of us from young and old But that would be our desire to know our savior and it's with that prayer in mind and it's with that desire.
That we preach this message to those not only here But in our community that we lift these things up to you And pray it in your name. Amen
