SPEAKER_00: The sermon text for today is from Matthew chapter 1, verses 18 through 25.
SPEAKER_00: You can find this passage in the Blue Pew Bible on page 1468.
SPEAKER_00: Please listen as I read God's word.
SPEAKER_00: This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about.
SPEAKER_00: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: But before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
SPEAKER_00: But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife.
SPEAKER_00: Because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
SPEAKER_00: All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet.
SPEAKER_00: The Virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us.
SPEAKER_00: When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.
SPEAKER_00: But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son, and he gave him the name Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Here ends the reading.
SPEAKER_01: Hope you had a good Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: And I got to eat some good food and uh hang out with family.
SPEAKER_01: Uh be honest, how many of you really enjoy the snow that's out there right now?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, lots of you.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you don't care for it as much?
SPEAKER_01: Quite a few of you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I I like the snow.
SPEAKER_01: It's just everything about the snow.
SPEAKER_01: It's just the like the driving in it, and it's the shoveling it and snowblowing it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care for that much, that part of it.
SPEAKER_01: But it's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: So at least it has that going for it.
SPEAKER_01: If I haven't uh had the chance to meet you yet, my name is John, and I get to serve as the lead pastor here at Elmwood.
SPEAKER_01: And uh once again, there may be uh another voice uh welcoming you, saying we're so grateful that you would spend a Sunday morning here with us.
SPEAKER_01: As we come to look at these verses today, I want to invite you to join me in word of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: God, as we come into a season where we think about your incarnation in a focused way, we ask God that you would help us uh this year to experience you in new and fresh ways.
SPEAKER_01: We ask that as we think about who you are and what the incarnation, your birth means for us, that you would uh give us a greater sense of clarity into who Jesus is and what he's done for us.
SPEAKER_01: And we ask God that you would uh please just awaken our hearts in new ways to who you are.
SPEAKER_01: Be with us now in this time.
SPEAKER_01: We ask, Holy Spirit, that you would uh open the eyes of our hearts, open our minds.
SPEAKER_01: God, give us receptivity to the ways that you would like to bring challenge or conviction into our lives today.
SPEAKER_01: We desire our lives to be conformed into the image of Christ, and we ask you, Holy Spirit, to do your work this morning during this time.
SPEAKER_01: We pray all this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: This morning we are beginning a new series of messages titled Behold.
SPEAKER_01: And what we are doing is we are going to be looking at the life-shaping power of fixing our eyes on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the idea behind this series is quite simple.
SPEAKER_01: What we behold will determine how we behave.
SPEAKER_01: Now, we don't typically use the word behold very much in conversational English unless we use it in something of an ironic way.
SPEAKER_01: Um but the word simply means to look at.
SPEAKER_01: It means to stare at something, it means to fix your gaze on something in a kind of wonder and awe.
SPEAKER_01: And so when someone says, Man, you gotta check this out, what we do is we behold.
SPEAKER_01: When someone says, feast your eyes on this, what we do is we behold.
SPEAKER_01: Here's another example.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, at the end of each school term, our girls asked me to decorate a cake.
SPEAKER_01: I have, uh I think a few years ago I shared one of these cakes that I decorated.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but at the end of each school term, they asked me to decorate a cake, and they always asked me to decorate it based on something that they learned about during the course of that term.
SPEAKER_01: And so then during the end of our term celebration, I always present this cake, and so we're sitting down, we eat dinner, and then I go into the other room and finish decorating it, and I bring it into the room, and of course it's hidden, no one has seen it, no one knows what it looks like, and I bring it in, and after a very long dramatic pause, I reveal the cake, and we all behold the wonder of my amateur artistic skills, if you can even call them that.
SPEAKER_01: When this last term ended, our children they don't ask me for easy things.
SPEAKER_01: The first one was the Mona Lisa.
SPEAKER_01: The most recent one, they asked me to draw a picture on top of a cake using frosting icing stuff of the guy who tight roped over the Niagara Falls pushing a woman in a wheelbarrow.
SPEAKER_01: So this is what they got.
SPEAKER_01: See, you've all just beheld, you've all beholded the glory of my uh artistic skills.
SPEAKER_01: Uh this may be a very cheesy example of this, and it is for sure, uh, but that's what beholding is.
SPEAKER_01: Beholding is being taken in by something, it's having your attention captured by something.
SPEAKER_01: And I think we all know this, that there's a kind of beholding that's completely on the surface.
SPEAKER_01: For example, beholding my quote-unquote cake art.
SPEAKER_01: You look at it for a second, and maybe you're drawn into it and you want to, you know, look at how good it is, and then you move on with your life very quickly from it, right?
SPEAKER_01: But we also know that there is a kind of beholding that is a deep heart-level beholding.
SPEAKER_01: And that kind of beholding shapes how we live, it shapes how we behave because what we behold will determine how we behave.
SPEAKER_01: So, for example, if you are a single person and you meet someone that you are really attracted to, you behold that person, and oh boy, does that change the way that you live?
SPEAKER_01: If you behold a life of success and approval and popularity and accomplishment and achievement, if you have in your mind's eye a picture of that beautiful life and you behold it, that is going to change the way that you live.
SPEAKER_01: If you behold the kind of life that can be yours through more money or more or better or newer possessions, you think of the comfort and the convenience and you know all that stuff that comes with more money and more possessions.
SPEAKER_01: If you behold that life, that is going to change the way that you live.
SPEAKER_01: And this is because what we behold, the things that our heart loves, the things that our hearts find beautiful and compelling, those things that we behold will determine how we behave.
SPEAKER_01: The goal of this Advent series is very simply to help us behold Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Each week we're going to look at an aspect of Jesus' identity, and together these sort of little pictures, these snapshots, these vignettes are going to give us a fuller picture of Jesus, who is the only one truly worthy of our beholding.
SPEAKER_01: So who is who is Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: The way we're going to answer that question this morning is this He is the one the prophets foretold.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the one the prophets foretold, and in our time today, where I want us to leave and to land is beholding him.
SPEAKER_01: Beholding him as the one the prophets foretold.
SPEAKER_01: So you heard in the text, as it was read this morning from Matthew, that uh Matthew, the one who wrote this account of Jesus' life and ministry, he's convinced.
SPEAKER_01: He's totally convinced that the birth of Jesus is the fulfillment of what the prophet Isaiah wrote about some 700 years prior.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why he talks about Jesus' birth and then says, Yeah, this all happened to fulfill what took place in Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: And so the question that we should uh wrestle with this morning and explore is, okay, what exactly does Matthew see in Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: In other words, in what ways does Jesus fulfill Isaiah chapter 7?
SPEAKER_01: To try and answer those questions, we actually tricked you.
SPEAKER_01: We had Matthew, the sermon text, read.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna spend our time this morning in the book of Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: So if you haven't already, because you didn't know about this, open a Bible to Isaiah chapter 7.
SPEAKER_01: It's found on page 1024 in the blue Bible that you find in front of you.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're just gonna look at these verses to get a sense of what does Matthew mean when he tells us that Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah 7?
SPEAKER_01: What does he mean when he tells us that Jesus is the one the prophets foretold?
SPEAKER_01: So this morning I want to walk through these historical events found in Isaiah, and as we do so, we're gonna organize our time around a couple different headings.
SPEAKER_01: And the first heading is this the threat of invasion.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what's happening in Isaiah chapter 7.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what's happening geopolitically in Isaiah's day.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a king named Uzziah.
SPEAKER_01: We're told in Isaiah 6 that King Uzziah died.
SPEAKER_01: He ruled over the southern kingdom of Judah for 52 years, which is a long time to rule and to reign.
SPEAKER_01: But he died, and then by the time we get to Isaiah 7, we see that his grandson Ahaz took over king of Judah.
SPEAKER_01: And so Ahaz is reigning down in the area of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: And what's happening is that the two nations north of where Judah is have decided that they are going to form a political alliance and they are going to launch a military campaign against Judah so that they can basically wipe Judah out and they can conquer it and they can divide up its land among themselves.
SPEAKER_01: So that's that's what's happening.
SPEAKER_01: There's a threat of this invasion from their neighbors to the north.
SPEAKER_01: And as you would expect, Ahaz and the people of Judah are very frightened by this.
SPEAKER_01: They're terrified by this.
SPEAKER_01: And we read in Isaiah 7, verse 2, it says, the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.
SPEAKER_01: So the kingdom of Judah is living in a time of political uncertainty.
SPEAKER_01: They're living in a time where there's this threat against their existence that's being posed by these other nations.
SPEAKER_01: And it's into that uncertainty that God speaks a message of comfort, and he speaks a message of hope to Ahaz and to the people.
SPEAKER_01: So in verse 4, God says, Be careful, keep calm, and don't be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be afraid of these two smoldering stubs of firewood.
SPEAKER_01: And then God goes on to say, Why they shouldn't be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: He says, They have plotted your ruin, saying, Let us invade Judah, let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabiel king over it.
SPEAKER_01: Yet this is what the sovereign Lord says.
SPEAKER_01: It will not take place.
SPEAKER_01: It will not happen.
SPEAKER_01: So there's this threat of invasion from these other nations, but God speaks a message of hope and says, Don't worry, it's not going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: Now, to someone in Ahaz's situation, and to someone who is just a resident of the nation of Judah, this is precisely the news that you want to hear, is it not?
SPEAKER_01: This is wonderful news to hear.
SPEAKER_01: And look at how God says, goes even further than just saying this.
SPEAKER_01: He says in verse 10, ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or the highest heights.
SPEAKER_01: So God says to Ahaz, I'm telling you that their plan to invade you and to destroy you.
SPEAKER_01: Their plan is gonna fail.
SPEAKER_01: It's not gonna work.
SPEAKER_01: And I know that you may be skeptical that this message may be too good to be true.
SPEAKER_01: So what I'm gonna do, Ahaz, is I'm going to give you a sign.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to ask me for any sign that you want, something big, something small, ask me for any sign.
SPEAKER_01: I want to prove to you that I'm on your side and that you have nothing to fear.
SPEAKER_01: God gave Ahaz a sign blank check.
SPEAKER_01: And Ahaz said no.
SPEAKER_01: So we see this threat of invasion that's followed by an act of disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: God says, Ask me for any sign.
SPEAKER_01: Ahaz in verse 12 said, I will not ask.
SPEAKER_01: I will not put the Lord to the test.
SPEAKER_01: Now on the surface, that sounds really spiritual, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: It sounds like, man, Ahaz is just like, man, what a mature person.
SPEAKER_01: I just doesn't want to test the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It looks really spiritual on the surface, but this is actually an act of defiance.
SPEAKER_01: Because remember, God was the one who said, Ask me for a sign.
SPEAKER_01: And Ahaz disobeyed the Lord's instruction to him.
SPEAKER_01: So Ahaz said, I don't want to test the Lord, so I'm not going to ask for a sign.
SPEAKER_01: And of course, the irony in this is that in refusing to test the Lord, what did he do?
SPEAKER_01: He tested the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: You're like, Ahaz, duh, just ask for a sign.
SPEAKER_01: But he doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: He refuses to.
SPEAKER_01: And the question that that comes up in this is why would he refuse an offer like this?
SPEAKER_01: You know, I don't know about you, but I would be thrilled beyond words if God ever extended this offer to me and said, ask for anything you want, I want to give you a sign.
SPEAKER_01: I would give sometimes anything for that.
SPEAKER_01: So why did Ahaz turn it down?
SPEAKER_01: Well, all the commentators and the scholars and Bible nerds that write about this, uh, pretty much all of them say the same thing, and they're saying that it's because Ahaz and his political advisors had already predecided that they were going to make a political alliance with the nation of Assyria.
SPEAKER_01: So it's two nations to the north, three nations are threatening to invade them.
SPEAKER_01: And so when when a bully comes and threatens to beat you up, you go find someone bigger.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what they were gonna do, is go to the nation north of those nations, to the nation of Assyria, to make a political alliance so that Assyria would uh provide provisions and protections for them against these other nations.
SPEAKER_01: So instead of trusting the word of the Lord, when God says it's not gonna happen, don't worry, trust me, ask me for a sign, instead of following the instruction of the Lord that came through Isaiah, he trusted his own political maneuvering instead.
SPEAKER_01: He did what was right in his own eyes instead of listening to the good instruction that God gave him.
SPEAKER_01: And so, in response to this disobedience, God then spoke a word of judgment, which we're gonna see right now, is accompanied by a sign.
SPEAKER_01: So we see the threat of this invasion, this act of disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: Ahaz refused to follow God's instruction, and as a result of this, God gives a sign of his judgment.
SPEAKER_01: So listen to verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: So Ahaz in verse 12 said, I will not ask, I will not put the Lord to the test.
SPEAKER_01: Then in verse 13, Isaiah said, Hear now, you house of David.
SPEAKER_01: Is it not enough to try the patience of humans?
SPEAKER_01: Will you try the patience of my God also?
SPEAKER_01: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.
SPEAKER_01: So God tells Ahaz, I want to give you a sign.
SPEAKER_01: Ahaz refuses, and God says, Fine, I'm still gonna give you a sign.
SPEAKER_01: But the sign I'm gonna give you is no longer a sign that you should receive as a message of hope.
SPEAKER_01: It's a sign of my coming judgment on you.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord Himself will give you a sign, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will call him Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if your Bible's like mine, you've got a footnote on Emmanuel, which tells us that word means God with us.
SPEAKER_01: And can I just tell you, to the people in Isaiah's day, God with us is not good news.
SPEAKER_01: Because God is coming to his people in judgment.
SPEAKER_01: So he says, She's gonna give birth to a son and call him God with us.
SPEAKER_01: You see, what God says to him is this this sign, this symbol of my judgment, is a sign pointing towards this nation of Assyria that you are looking to to deliver you and to rescue you, is actually going to be the instrument that I use to bring my judgment upon you for your disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: So he says, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_01: Then in verse 17, the Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your fathers a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah, he will bring the king of Assyria.
SPEAKER_01: So the king of Assyria is coming, which is not good news for the people.
SPEAKER_01: The king of Assyria is being used by God as his instrument of judgment.
SPEAKER_01: And if this wasn't as clear to us in chapter 7, if you flip a page over to chapter 8, you read God telling his people, okay, Assyria is coming, and you may try and come up with a smart plan to resist them, but he says in verse 10, devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted.
SPEAKER_01: Propose your plan, but it will not stand, for God is with us.
SPEAKER_01: And it's the same word, Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_01: So Assyria coming to uh coming against the nation of Judah is God with us.
SPEAKER_01: And if we're if we're reading, paying attention as we read Isaiah 7, it should be obvious to us that birth of this son in Isaiah 7 is not good news.
SPEAKER_01: God with us is not good news when he's with us to judge.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're like me, you you read Matthew and you're like, oh, it's this wonderful account of the Christmas story, and oh, Emmanuel, God with us, and you're like, man, uh I want to go, you know, double-click on that little uh link that Matthew left us there by quoting from Isaiah 7, I'm gonna go read Isaiah 7.
SPEAKER_01: And then you read Isaiah 7, and if you're like me, you're left scratching your head uh thinking to yourself, what in the world does Isaiah 7 have to do with Christmas?
SPEAKER_01: Like, if this child who is born of this virgin in Isaiah 7 is a sign of God's judgment, why would Matthew quote this verse to talk about the birth of Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't seem to make any sense.
SPEAKER_01: And we have to remember that when we're given those little verses to double-click on, those quotations, they're not just ripped out of their context and cherry-picked to make a point.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew wants us to double-click on that and actually go back and read the whole section in which that verse is found.
SPEAKER_01: And so if we look at Isaiah 7 and 8 only, it doesn't make any sense why Matthew would quote this, because the Son is a sign of God's judgment.
SPEAKER_01: But we have to remember that in the prophets, especially, when God speaks a word of judgment, he always speaks a word of hope.
SPEAKER_01: He always speaks a word of deliverance.
SPEAKER_01: And so listen to how Isaiah chapter 9 begins.
SPEAKER_01: And this is where we get into some familiar Christmasish territory.
SPEAKER_01: So look in verse 2 of Isaiah 9.
SPEAKER_01: The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.
SPEAKER_01: And those living in the land of deep darkness.
SPEAKER_01: A light has dawned.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 4 For as in the days of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressors.
SPEAKER_01: Every warrior's boot used in battle, and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.
SPEAKER_01: When Isaiah speaks of God's future deliverance from and out of the nation of Assyria, he speaks about it with such certainty that he uses language that's present tense language.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about a future event, and he says, the people walking in darkness have seen a great light.
SPEAKER_01: He says, God has broken the rod of their oppressors.
SPEAKER_01: So in chapter 7, God promised judgment on his people, and the sign of that judgment is the birth of a child.
SPEAKER_01: In Isaiah 9, God promises the opposite.
SPEAKER_01: He promises hope and deliverance and restoration.
SPEAKER_01: And what do you suppose is the sign of that deliverance?
SPEAKER_01: Listen to Isaiah 9, verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: For unto us a child is born.
SPEAKER_01: To us a son is given.
SPEAKER_01: And the government will be on his shoulders.
SPEAKER_01: He will be called wonderful, counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
SPEAKER_01: Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.
SPEAKER_01: He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing it and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.
SPEAKER_01: The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
SPEAKER_01: So in Isaiah 7, the birth of a son is the sign of God's judgment.
SPEAKER_01: And here in Isaiah 9, the sign of God's deliverance is again the birth of a son.
SPEAKER_01: And you see this scene that started with this offer, this extension of hope, disobedience, and then the sign of God's judgment, and now things have been reversed, and God promises to bring his deliverance to his people.
SPEAKER_01: And as you read about this son in Isaiah 9, what becomes what should be pretty clear is that this is no ordinary child.
SPEAKER_01: When you read about this child, this child is spoken of using language that is God language.
SPEAKER_01: This child is said to reign on David's throne now and forever.
SPEAKER_01: So his dominion and his reign is not just here and now, it is forever.
SPEAKER_01: This is no ordinary child.
SPEAKER_01: He's called wonderful capital C counselor.
SPEAKER_01: Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
SPEAKER_01: This is no ordinary child that is spoken of in Isaiah chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: This is God Himself.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why Matthew, when he looks at the birth of Jesus and is telling us that story, his mind goes to Isaiah chapter 7.
SPEAKER_01: See, he's not just inviting us to recall the judgment of Isaiah 7, he's inviting us to recall the deliverance and the hope of Isaiah 9.
SPEAKER_01: That scene that started with judgment and ends in hope and deliverance, that's what he wants us, that's what he wants us to see.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew wants us to behold Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He wants us to behold the one who can provide an even greater deliverance than we read about in Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: Because deliverance in Isaiah's day is spectacular, it's important, it's necessary, it's so good, and it's also there's a better kind of deliverance out there.
SPEAKER_01: See, in Isaiah, we read about how God would deliver his people from the threat of Isaiah, Assyria, rather.
SPEAKER_01: But what Matthew clues us into, what Matthew tells us, is the fact that we face an even greater threat than any foreign military or human enemy.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to how Matthew says it.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to how he describes the birth of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: She will give birth to a son, and you will give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
SPEAKER_01: The threat of our sin is so much greater than the threat of any foreign military or human enemy.
SPEAKER_01: Our sin is the greater threat.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says that we are enslaved to it.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that in our own strength we are powerless against it.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not that sin is some sort of outside force that just acts upon us and we have no control over it and we're just victims of it.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that, yes, uh we we sin by nature, meaning sin has infected our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a kind of born with it corruption that exists inside of each human heart.
SPEAKER_01: So we sin by nature, but we also sin by choice.
SPEAKER_01: So to put this just as maybe crassly as I can, we give ourselves over to sin because we want to.
SPEAKER_01: We give ourselves over to sin because it feels good in the moment.
SPEAKER_01: We give ourselves over to sin because there's an immediate payoff that blinds us to the horror of what our sin actually is.
SPEAKER_01: We give into it because there's an immediate payoff that, if we are honest, is more valuable to us than intimacy with God.
SPEAKER_01: And so we sin, yes, because we're so deeply corrupted by it, and it infects every part of our life, and also we sin by choice.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says that's the bad news.
SPEAKER_01: And unless God miraculously intervenes, our slavery and our addiction to sin will lead to our eternal ruin.
SPEAKER_01: But listen again to the good news.
SPEAKER_01: She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus, who is the one who Isaiah foretold, in Jesus, God himself took on human flesh and became like us in every single way, except he did not sin.
SPEAKER_01: He lived in perfect obedience to the Father, meaning, yes, he followed all the rules, yes, he he behaved the right way in every situation.
SPEAKER_01: He lived a perfect life of obedience to the Father, but he also perfectly delighted in the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning he loved the Father with his whole heart and mind and strength.
SPEAKER_01: He lived a sinless life, and then when he went to the cross, he experienced the complete and utter forsakenness that we deserve because of our sin.
SPEAKER_01: And then we're told that he rose on the third day, and in doing so, he proved that sin has no power over him.
SPEAKER_01: And the good news of the gospel, the good news that's possible because of the birth of Christ and because of Christmas is that for those of us who have been united to Jesus by faith, sin no longer has power over us either.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came and Jesus died so that we would no longer be enslaved to it.
SPEAKER_01: And so that we would no longer bear the consequences of our sin.
SPEAKER_01: This good news, it reaches into and affects every single part of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And instead of giving you a list of things to do this morning, I want to invite you to behold him.
SPEAKER_01: Behold the one the prophets foretold.
SPEAKER_01: Behold Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Behold the one who saved us from our sin.
SPEAKER_01: When we look to the manger and to the cross, we see and we behold God's love for us.
SPEAKER_01: Look to the manger and see the greatness and the magnitude of the love of God.
SPEAKER_01: There was no outside force that coerced God to rescue us from our sin at great cost to himself.
SPEAKER_01: There was nothing that coerced him to send his son to save us from our sin.
SPEAKER_01: He simply did it because that's the kind of God he is.
SPEAKER_01: Look to the cross and see the place where God defeated the power that sin once had over us.
SPEAKER_01: See how seriously God takes our sin.
SPEAKER_01: And behold the one who gave his life in place of ours to deliver us from our sin.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, behold the one who saves us from our sin.
SPEAKER_01: In a way, the communion table is a physical act of beholding.
SPEAKER_01: It's physical because it requires we get up out of our seats and physically with our bodies come forward and receive the elements which represent the broken body and shed blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And so every time we come forward down the aisle and we receive those elements, we are again beholding the work of God for us on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: We're beholding Jesus and the love of God for us that's poured out through his death on our behalf.
SPEAKER_01: As we come to the communion table today, I want to invite you to take a moment for silence, for confession and reflection, and then we will come celebrate Christ together.