Good morning. It's good to be here back with you all, even if just for a brief period, a couple of days. Our sermon texts for today are twofold. We're going to be looking at Luke chapter 2, verse 21, and also 1 Timothy chapter 3, verses 14 through 16. I'll be mainly focusing on Just a theme that runs through these, the humanity of Jesus, but we'll read both texts. So please stand for the reading of God's Word. First Luke 2, 21. And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the child, his name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And now 1 Timothy chapter 3. These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly. But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory. Let's pray. Lord God, our Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your promises to us in it. We thank you, Father, that you have promised that if we ask for good gifts, if we ask for the Holy Spirit, you will give it. We ask that you would do that now, Lord, that you would enlighten us and illumine us with your spirit so that by your word we might know you, we might love you, that we might worship and obey you even more fully. We pray, O Lord, that the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts would be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. For Jesus' sake. Amen. Please be seated. So today, is Epiphany Sunday. You might know that because there's still Christmas decorations up. This is the day in which the Church for centuries has commemorated the appearing of the Star of Bethlehem, announcing the appearing of the Morning Star, the Messiah, our Lord Jesus, and of the Magi coming to worship the young child. We read in Matthew's Gospel that the Magi came from the East, they learned of Christ's nativity from Herod in Bethlehem, and followed the star to Jesus' home, presenting him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and offering their worship to him. In this story, the Abrahamic promise is finally fulfilled, or at least begins to be fulfilled. The Gentiles are called, as we read in Isaiah 60 in our salutation, they come to the light of Jesus and all the nations are blessed and are saved by and in him. I've decided to go a little bit different direction with epiphany, however, and instead of considering the prophetic fulfillments of Jesus' coming, to rather consider his person and humanity, which, in fact, are also fulfillments of the promise made to Abraham. In your seed, God tells Abraham, all nations will be blessed. Jesus is this seed of Abraham, as Paul affirms in Galatians 3.16. Now to Abraham and to his seed were the promises made. He does not say, and to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to your seed, who is Christ. This seed of Abraham is a person, a literal historical descendant who would appear in the line of humanity and be born into human history. Now, some of you may recognize that the phrase from the sermon title, Behold the Man, is not found in the Christmas or Epiphany stories at all, but is actually taken from the account of the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus in John 19. After Jesus was delivered to the Romans, Pontius Pilate sought to demean Jesus before the Jewish rulers and prove him and demonstrate him to be less than a king. After Jesus was brutalized by the soldiers, Pilate brought him out beaten and bloody and exclaimed to the Jews, behold, the man. The man, not the king, Jesus was presented in order to demystify and ultimately depose him. However, I would like to present Jesus to us today, not as an ordinary man, but as a rather extraordinary man, the most unique man, in fact, in history. The Incarnation of Jesus is the singular event in history that forever changed the world, setting Jesus apart as the only Savior, the only King, the only Mediator, and the only Judge. The texts today in Luke and Timothy on the surface may seem to be unrelated. One offers an account of Jesus' circumcision and presentation, and the second declares the glory and mystery of His Incarnation. And as I mentioned, my aim today will be to give attention to the humanity of Jesus, to which his circumcision and naming and presentation to the Lord at eight days old all testify, which show Jesus' obedience and humility, as well as the beginning of his sufferings for our sake. The most fundamental question any of us will ever answer is, who is Jesus? In Jesus' own words to his apostles, Who do you say that I am? Our response to this question in word and deed reveals both who we are as well as determines our earthly and eternal destinies. So my intent is to present Jesus first considering his circumcision and presentation and then more broadly his humanity and the implications of the incarnation for us and for the world and offer a biblical response to the question who is Jesus. Now, the Feast of Circumcision is celebrated by many churches on New Year's Day, which is the eighth day of the Christmas season. In Jesus' circumcision, three things are apparent. First, Jesus is a child of the covenant. Second, Jesus is fully human. And third, Jesus foreshadows his own sacrifice. First, Jesus is a child of the covenant. Jesus submitted himself as an infant to the rigors of covenant life. He chose to be an Israelite, a chosen child, with his name and his obligations imposed upon him. In Genesis 21, Abraham names Isaac after his birth and the text then follows with his circumcision at eight days old. Isaac's identification was covenantal and personal at the same time. In fact, Isaac's identity could not have been personal without being covenantal. Isaac was identified as God's child and so received the name that God had called him. God echoes this in his words to Israel when he says in Isaiah 43, 1, I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. In Luke 1, we see John, John the Baptist, formerly named at his circumcision at eight days old. John's identification is first as God's child named by him. Jesus submitted to a name. given to his parents, actually to both his parents. And he's the only one, I believe, in Scripture that had his name revealed to both mother and father. Jesus submitted to identification in the covenant. And our initiation into God's covenant is our identification as well. In baptism, it is often asked of parents, what is the Christian name of this child? It is God who names us. He is sovereign. Our identity as humans cannot be found apart from his creative work nor his redemptive work. We don't birth ourselves. We don't name ourselves either. Peter Leithart has a wonderful article he wrote a number of years ago called, Do Baptists Talk to Their Babies? And he shows some of the inconsistencies of Baptist theology in this area. We become because God has caused us to be, both to be born and to be born anew into Christ. Jesus also not only submitted to the rigors of the covenant, he submitted to the covenant law. It says in Galatians 6.4, he was born of a woman, born under the law. Jesus took on all the obligations of obedience to the Levitical system of ordinances and ceremonies, which we're told in Hebrews consists of food and drink and various washings. And second, in submitting to circumcision, Jesus took on all the obligations, not just of the Levitical system, but of the whole covenant and complete covenantal obedience. In doing this, Jesus showed that he was under and willing to keep the laws of God, which our first father, Adam, and we were unable to keep. In Romans 3, we read, whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may become guilty before God. Jesus, born under the law, was not guilty, however. He was innocent and voluntarily took our own guilt as lawless covenant breakers. Jesus submitted to conception in the womb as well, the constraints of earthly existence, and to a physical body. In doing so, he became fully human. Jesus did not shun human existence. The Word became flesh, we're told, in John 1.14. Christ Jesus, in Philippians 2, we're told, emptied himself, was fashioned as a man, and he was made like us in all respects. Now, this helps us understand that man's main problem is not metaphysical. It's ethical and covenantal. We sin not because of our environment or our bodies. We sin because of our choice and our desire to break covenant and to be God. To the Greek world, flesh was at best a lower form on the scale of being and at worst an evil hindrance to ascending on that scale of being that we're supposed to desire to be rid of. But Jesus demonstrates and affirms flesh is not evil. And Rushduni points out in some of his works that man's war is not flesh versus grace, but sin versus grace. As a man, Jesus came in a body to redeem our bodies, which were originally made very good and will be remade in his image at the resurrection. The early church was forced to wrestle with the implications of this doctrine. Jesus was fully man and fully God. A number of leaders in the early church taught, however, that Jesus' deity was questionable. Rather than being God and equal to God, Jesus was said to be merely a creature of God. That's the Arian heresy. So who is Jesus? The church had to answer. Who do you say that I am? If Jesus is not God, then he's not to be worshipped. If he is, then he should be praised and worshipped and adored by the church. As Aaron Barber. PCA pastor said the ultimate goal is not theological truth. The ultimate goal is doxology. It's worship. It's not just theology. Theology ought to lead to doxology. It ought to lead to worship and obedience. The goal of our knowledge is that we might grow in our love and worship and obedience to God. Right doctrine leads to this and right living. we become like what we worship. And if our worship is misplaced in a false Jesus, our lives will be misplaced as well. So the Council of Nicaea was convened in 325 AD to address this question of who is Jesus. And over 200 bishops met to answer this question. The answer was formulated in what we now know and recite as the Nicene Creed. And one of the key phrases of that is, he's God of God, the light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made. This is taken not quite directly but fairly closely from Paul's letter to the Colossians in which he says this. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things and in him all things consist. So he is not a thing, he is before all things. He created all things, therefore he cannot be a thing. He is not a creature, he is creator. In one of our Christmas hymns or carols we sing, O Come All Ye Faithful, and some of the words there are directly taken from this creed. Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing. Very God, begotten, not created. And then we sing, oh come, let us adore him. So the church addressed this and formulated the Nicene Creed. But not long after this, the question arose, if Jesus is divine, then is he really human? If we are to worship Jesus as God, how are we to consider his humanity and his fleshly nature? Again, who is Jesus? So the Council of Chalcedon was convened 126 years later in 451 AD to answer this question. And their definition of Jesus Christ is found in the handout that I think should be out there. If you haven't picked it up, I'd encourage you to get it. Trinity Church in Coeur d'Alene, where we've been attending, reads this each Advent. It's actually been really a blessing. And I'd like us to read this together. If you have it, read it along with me. If you don't have it, listen to someone next to you and we'll read this together. So let's go ahead and start. Therefore, following the Holy Fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body. of one substance with the Father as regards His Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards His manhood, like us in all respects apart from sin. as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood, begotten for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer, one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation. the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ, even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of Him, and our Lord Jesus Christ Himself taught us, and the Creed of the Fathers has handed down to us." Quite a mouthful. A lot of deep theology and deep biblical ideas there. This, I think, somewhat maybe complicated formula or creed, as you might tell, in sum, teaches that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine. Saint Leo declared regarding Jesus' nativity, and he wrote this about this time, thus in the whole and perfect nature of true man was true God born, complete in what was his own and complete in what was ours. So he was complete. Now, how can this be? God and man together at once complete and yet distinct. That's a good question. One pastor has said, when we face things like this in scripture, such as divine sovereignty and human responsibility, or the nature of Jesus being both divine and human, our duty is to confess what the scriptures plainly teach and not to do the math. We'll end up driving ourselves crazy. And as John MacArthur says, find yourself under your bed reciting the Greek alphabet. There's just no way of deciphering it. The key phrases, I think, here that are really useful for us are kind of in the middle section here, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation. Without confusion means that there's no mixing or blending together of the divine and human nature. Jesus is not a hybrid being. His human nature and divine nature each maintain their integrity as human and divine. And these natures are both unique to each other. They're complete in themselves, yet exclusive and distinct. Jesus is also without change. In the Incarnation, Jesus' human nature does not become divine or become more than human. Nor does his divine nature devolve into human nature. The divine nature of God does not suffer a blow to his divinity. God does not become less than God by taking a body. He doesn't un-God himself. Jesus, the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, took on human nature without change. Without division, Jesus is not divisible into two beings. He's one part God and one part man. While Jesus is not a hybrid being, there's no part of Jesus that is one nature and another part of Jesus that belongs to another nature. He doesn't act as God at one point in time and man at another. As Pastor Rich Lusk has said, all of Jesus does, all that Jesus does. Without separation, neither Jesus's human nature nor his divine nature are detachable from his person. We can't untangle or unravel Jesus. His divine and human natures are inextricable and united. He is one Christ as the Creed tells us. And the Athanasian Creed which we recite occasionally affirms this as well. It says, although he is God and man, yet he is not two, but one Christ. Not one, not by the conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by the taking of the manhood into God. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person. And we'll get to in a minute why this is important. But I do want to note that the Athanasian Creed joins together the doctrine of the Trinity with the teaching of Christ's humanity. You may recall that the Athanasian Creed addresses quite fully the fact that we have a triune God that we worship, that the Father and the Son and the Spirit are not one another, they are distinct, but yet we have one God, one Almighty, one Eternal, not three. And I think this demonstrates that our Christology, our idea of Jesus, our doctrine of Christ, and our understanding of God, our Trinitarian doctrine, are interdependent. The Trinity is without confusion. God the Son, God the Father, God the Spirit are not blended or merged into one mono being. They're distinct persons in the Godhead without change. God the Father, Son, and Spirit don't become different people or change into one another. Even after the incarnation, There is no change in the Godhead. One person doesn't become or assume the personhood of the other. Jesus Christ, we're told in Hebrews 13, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Trinity is without division. God the Father, Son, and Spirit are indivisible. We say in the Great Shema, the Lord, the Lord our God, is one. The Father has life in himself. The Son has life in himself, as does the Spirit. We worship a three-in-one, and we ought not to conceive of them as parted, nor be so oriented toward one person that we ignore or fail to worship the other. Without separation, the triune God is not a group of separate beings. They're one God. And Jesus can say this with integrity. He says, he who loves me will be loved by my father. We will come to him and make our abode with him. There's plural nouns there in John 14. Jesus is telling Judas, not Iscariot, what he will promise to those who love him. He who loves me will be loved by my father. We will come to him and make our abode with him. The triune God comes to dwell with us. Now, this has implications in a number of areas, and I want to address one specific one that is preeminent in our culture today, and that's gender and sex distinctions. If we just take those four phrases, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation, and think about the morass that we're in today, I think we might be helped. Without confusion, The sexes cannot be blended together. There's no genderless humanity. We are male and female, unique and distinct, without change. The sexes cannot be changed. Try as we might, we're created with a sexual identity that's fixed. The only way to change it is artificially, by surgery and hormones. Without division, male and female cannot be divided and made completely distinct and independent. Mankind as a race of beings is mutually dependent on the existence and interaction of male and female. And without separation, ultimately male and female are not separated, they together make up humankind. God made them male and female. In His image, that's what it says, God made man in His image, male and female He created them. Humanity does not exist apart from the two sexes. And I would suggest to you that a return to a firm and self-conscious reliance on Chalcedon and the Church of Christ would go a long way toward righting our sinking cultural ship and regaining both a healthy respect for the uniqueness as well as the independence of the sexes. I think Chalcedon has implications for human and social interaction as well. In marriage, you probably can see both sexes, both husband and wife, are equally ultimate in one sense, right? They're equal in essence, they're equal in substance and subsistence. They're different, definitely, but they're equal and cannot be seen as apart from one another. Same thing in family, in business, in the church. There are differences, as I think Pastor Cherry said, we have differences in form and function, but equal in essence. There's the idea of the ontological being versus the economic being, that we function in different ways and in different areas, but we're equal. And this has implications as well for how we view the government, the state. And I bring this up because it's a preeminent issue as well in our day, especially as we consider what's happening to our brothers in China, right, who are being persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ and seen as a threat to the state. Chalcedon in the Incarnation means that God is not abstract, but he is personal and present and all-powerful. As the God-man comes to earth, Jesus has the title to all creation. Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 2.5, there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. And note that Paul does not call him the son of God, Christ Jesus. He declares him to be the man, Christ Jesus. Jesus as man is the divine ruler of the world. Thus, no institution of man can set itself up as absolute or divine, either church or state nor family, etc. All institutions are under Jesus Christ. He cannot be ignored. As we just read in Colossians, all things are made for him and through him. And in our day, I bring this up because the most preeminent of institutions appears to be the state. whether empire or monarchy or public or democracy or dictatorship, all authority seems to be, or we think sometimes, is given to the government, to the state in heaven and on earth, rather than seeing this through the eyes of scripture as Jesus having all authority. Ethics, wealth, wisdom, truth, beauty, goodness, all are ascribed as gifts of the state in a civil order. Instead of the state being the guardian of liberty given to man by God in Christ, the state is seeing as being the source of liberty and mankind's savior. The Chinese government, as I mentioned, and the rulers of this age around the world seek to dethrone Christ. The writer of the Psalm, Psalm 2, answers this or asks the question in his answer of who Jesus is. He says, why do the nations rage and the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his Messiah, saying, let us break their bonds asunder and cast away the cords from it. And the answer is he who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. The rejection of Yahweh and his Messiah leaves man no other choice but man as his own savior and often man as his own savior through the state. As the Jews in their rejection of Jesus Christ proclaimed, we have no king but Caesar. This is what we're left with. As my favorite movie has a scene in it, in which Masala and Judah Ben-Hur are having a dispute about whether or not Judah is going to assist Masala. And Masala says, you only have two choices. You either help me or oppose me. You're either for me or against me. And Judah properly answers, if that is the choice, then I am against you. Now his response was ungodly, and that's the rest of the story, but that portrays the choice, right? It's either Jesus or man. It's either God or the state. And lest you think this might be an exaggeration, consider the words of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, one of the fathers of the French Enlightenment, whose political influence we still see and experience and feel today. Rousseau said this, when the entire nation is in danger, a thing which is a crime at other times becomes a praiseworthy action. Leans toward conspirators is treason against the people. The state in regards to its members is the master of all their goods. The sovereign, that is to say the people, may legitimately take away the goods of everyone. He goes on to say the most general will is always the most just and the voice of the people is in fact the voice of God. As soon as the legislative power speaks, all resume their equality. Every other authority falls silent before it. Its voice is the voice of God on earth." He says, the legislator is a true genius, the kind that creates and makes everything from nothing. Wow. As our former president said after his inauguration, we are the ones we've been waiting for. which is absolute and despicable heresy. Chalcedon destroys these. God in the person of Jesus Christ has come into history and has redeemed mankind in Jesus, the man, the mediator. Rushduni has this to say, Chalcedon established the Christian foundation of Western culture and made possible the development of liberty. Chalcedon handed statism its major defeat in man's history. In terms of the Greek perspective, salvation is not an act of grace, but rather of self-deification. Moreover, the central institution in history becomes the state because the state is the highest point of power in history, manifests the nascent or incarnate divinity of being, either in the body politic, the rulers, or in their offices. He goes on to say, Chalcedon, first of all, separated Christian faith sharply from the Greek and pagan concepts of nature and being. It made clear that Christianity and all other religions and philosophies could not be brought together. The natural does not ascend to the divine or to the supernatural. The bridge is gulfed only by revelation and by the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Salvation, therefore, is not of man, nor by means of man's politics or any other effort of man. As long as the old pagan view of being prevailed, the state could be the divine human order. Divinity became then so greatly immanent or incarnate in the state that there was no appeal beyond the state. The state was, at least for its day, the final order. In the scheme of things, man was simply a political animal, a social animal. He was definable in terms of the group, the body politic. Man had no true transcendence nor any ground of appeal against the state. In this condition, liberty was non-existent. Permission from the state to exercise certain areas of activities could exist, but not a liberty apart from and beyond the state grounded in man's creation by God. Jesus declares that all authority is given to me in heaven and on earth. Jesus owns every inch of space, every atom of creation, every thought, every idea, every reason, every endeavor. It's all authority. Not some, not parsed, not divided. All. And Jesus, this means, owns you. Everything about you. Your soul, your mind, your spirit, your body, As Paul says, you were bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are God's. Finally, in Jesus's circumcision, he submitted to suffering, to his own blood being spilled. Christ's blood was shed at this event in receiving his name and his title, Jesus Christ. Jesus, who will save his people from their sins. In his helpless infancy, naked and speechless, this name, above all names, was conferred upon him. Milton writes a short poem called The Circumcision. He says, he who with all heaven's heraldry while there entered the world now bleeds to give us ease. Alas, how soon our sin sore doth begin his infancy to seize. For we by rightful doom, remedy-less, were lost in death, till he that dwelt above, high-throned in secret bliss, for us, frail dust, emptied his glory, even to nakedness. And that great covenant which we still transgress, entirely satisfied, and the full wrath beside of vengeful justice, bore for our excess, and seals obedience first with wounding smart, this day. But ere long, huge pangs and strong will pierce, more near his heart. Not only did Jesus receive his name and title at this event, his circumcision became a precursor to his lifeblood poured out for us at Calvary, which confers his name and title on us, his people. Matthew Henry says, Our Lord Jesus was not born in sin and did not need that mortification of a corrupt nature or that renewal unto holiness, which were signified by circumcision. This ordinance was, in his case, a pledge of his future perfect obedience to the whole law in the midst of sufferings and temptations, even to death for us. Isaiah 53 tells us that Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Jesus knew suffering, temptation, pain, betrayal, loss, sadness, more than any other human has ever experienced. And he endured all these things for our sakes. He prays to the father in John 17, and for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified by the truth. In Hebrews we read, Therefore in all things he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to aid those who are tempted. Seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Jesus Christ has come. The word was made flesh and tabernacled among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Let us therefore come boldly to his throne, not only seeking his promised help in time of need, but come to give him praise and honor and worship for his glorious work of incarnation, his perfect life, his suffering, his resurrection and his ascension and intercession on our behalf. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. Amen. Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you for our Savior. We thank you for his suffering. We thank you for his circumcision. We thank you that he was manifest in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, preached among the Gentiles and received up into glory. We bless you for conferring upon us his name and title, his glorious salvation, his righteousness. We ask, Lord, that you would continue your work in us as you've promised to finish and complete the work that you have begun. We ask that you would do that even now as we enter into your presence in communion. In Jesus' name, amen.