Christ Church Washington D.C.

The word Advent is from Latin and it means coming or arrival. During Advent, we as Christians wait and prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ and this includes both his birth as well as his return. Right now, we are all waiting for Christmas just a few days away in which we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ into this world and as we wait, we prepare for this celebration in various ways.
We bake cookies. We buy gifts. We decorate our homes. We have parties. We drink cider. We sing carols. We have daily Advent readings. We watch maybe It’s a Wonderful Life, maybe Charlie Brown Christmas. There are many ways we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
The second coming of Christ, we prepare for that accordingly as well. One day, probably a long way off, we don’t know, Jesus Christ, having died, been buried, raised from the dead, and ascended into heaven, taking His seat at the right hand of God the Father, will physically return to this earth in His glorified body as the judge of both the living and the dead.
And so for us, at His second coming, we will be raised in glorified bodies like Jesus, and we will give an account of ourselves to God. He will judge us for our works. We will be given rewards based upon which works last. But ours as Christians is a judgment of salvation,
rather than condemnation, and we thank God for that. But how we live as Christians between now and then, or between our birth and the day we die, matters. And this is where waiting and preparing for the day in which Jesus Christ returns as judge is important. And this is where Advent is helpful. In our sermon text for today from Luke 1, the angel Gabriel is sent from God to a city of Nazareth to give a message to a virgin named Mary.
And this took place in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy with John. Now, the city of Nazareth was apparently not well thought of. It looks like, in fact, it was known for being especially corrupt. If you remember from John, whenever Philip told Nathanael about Jesus of Nazareth, you remember Nathanael’s response was, can anything good come out of Nazareth?
It was in Nazareth that Jesus marveled over their unbelief. And it was in Nazareth where everyone in the synagogue, we’re told, was filled with wrath at Jesus. And they drove him out of town and they tried to throw him down a cliff, but he got away. This no good, corrupt city is where Mary and Joseph lived and where God sent the angel Gabriel to give this very important message to Mary.
This was betrothed to Joseph, who was of the lineage of King David. And during those days, a betrothal or an engagement included a legal agreement, and this was well ahead of the wedding ceremony itself. During the time of betrothal, the man and the woman were considered husband and wife, though they had not yet come together until the wedding. This is why in Matthew’s account, Joseph, during this betrothal time and before they came together, is referred to as her husband.
This is also why we’re told he considered divorcing Mary whenever he found out that she was pregnant. His natural first assumption would have been that she was unfaithful because virgins don’t get pregnant. But this time, a virgin does get pregnant, which is part of the unique greatness of Jesus Christ, as we will consider in a moment.
This is where we begin to see the unique greatness of Jesus Christ. It is true that there are some people whom we know personally, or some that we know of, that we would say he or she is great.
I can truly say my dad was a great man, for example. But no one is great in the way that Jesus Christ is great. The first thing we see here about Jesus is that he was born of a woman. Mary would conceive, we’re told, in her womb, and this shows that Jesus is a real man. Being a real man is nothing special in and of itself, but it is whenever we read a few verses down that he would be conceived of the Holy Spirit,
as well as when we consider the next part of verse 32, where the angel Gabriel says of Jesus, He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest. It is immediately clear that this man, Jesus, would be no ordinary man, and that His greatness is on a completely different level than anyone else. Being born of the Virgin Mary and being conceived of the Holy Spirit and being called the Son of the Highest and the Son of God means,
that Jesus is not only man, but He is also divine. By nature, He is God. This is unique. In this one person are two natures, God and man. Jesus is both truly God and truly man. As the Chalcedonian Creed says, which we actually recited earlier,
without confusion, without change, without division, and without separation. Jesus remains both divine and human without mixing the two together to become some kind of a third thing. In becoming a man, in no way did He cease being the eternal Son of God. He is not half man and half God.
Jesus is a real union. That Jesus is truly God and truly man, two natures in one person without any confusion, division, separation, or change. This is a truth that is very difficult for us to put our minds around and to understand completely. But this is part of the unique greatness of Jesus Christ. And what is even more amazing is that He, the eternal Son of God,
and flesh for you. Without this union of two natures and one person, there would be no salvation. A sinner like every one of us cannot save another sinner. Jesus became like us, but without a sin nature. And He bore the penalty of God’s wrath on the cross for our sins. And He serves now as the mediator between God and man on our behalf. And in this way, Jesus and Jesus alone.
Saves us from our sins. As George Herbert wrote, in Christ, two natures met to be your cure. Jesus Christ is truly unique, truly great. Even the name Jesus, they were to name Him Jesus. That was a common name at the time. But for this Jesus, there is unique significance. The name Jesus means something like Yahweh saves. This is true of this Jesus.
The angel in Matthew 1 was sent to Joseph. The angel told him to name Him Jesus. And the reason was given because He will save His people from their sins. The one who is eternal and divine, through whom all things were created. The one who upholds the universe by the word of His power. And the one whom all the angelic creatures in heaven worship as they say to one another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of His glory. This is the one who humbled Himself and took on flesh and died in our place to save us from our sins. And thus His name is Jesus. Yahweh saves. Next, the angel Gabriel says of Jesus in verse 32, And the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. This means that Jesus is King.
There are many rulers and presidents and kings all throughout history. But again, Jesus is unique because He is not just any king. He is God’s anointed king. We notice here from the angel Gabriel that it is the Lord God who will give Him the throne, give the throne to Jesus. As mentioned earlier, Joseph was of the lineage of King David. And in 2 Samuel chapter 7, the Lord promised David,
Now that’s a big promise that God made to King David, like a thousand years ahead of Christ. But Jesus is the fulfillment of this promise.
And just as David’s rule was earthly, so Jesus’ rule includes the earth as well as heaven. And I think this is important because if we don’t understand this, then we will think that Christianity only has to do with eternal salvation and with heaven, which it does. But if we don’t understand that his rule also includes the earth, we’re going to fail to understand that his kingship,
has everything to do with this earth and what takes place on this earth each day, even what we hear going on outside. But of course, there is a difference between the earthly rule of King David and King Jesus. Whereas David’s rule was limited to this earth, as well as limited by time and by geographic location, Jesus’ kingship has no limits. For as the angel Gabriel continues,
Jesus has everlasting and total authority and dominion. His reign over the house of Jacob includes us, the church. If you recall, God made a covenant with Abraham many several thousand years ago and with his offspring. And we’re told repeatedly through Scripture that God is the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.
And we know that it is those of faith who are children of Abraham, including us. We who are in Christ, the true Israel, are blessed along with Abraham so that Jesus’ reign over the house of Jacob forever includes us, his church. But his reign is not limited to us, his people.
Think of every single arrogant man or woman who thumbs his or her nose at Jesus. And there are many of them. Yes, Jesus’ reign even includes those people. We remember that wonderful passage from Philippians 2. At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
This includes every single person that you pass by in this city. Or as we’re told in Daniel 7 of the ascended Messiah, then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people’s nations and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one that shall not be destroyed. And as the resurrected Jesus Himself said just before He ascended back into heaven in Matthew 28,
All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. His rule and reign include everyone and everything in heaven and on earth, and His dominion is forever. Again, this speaks of the unique greatness of Jesus Christ. And this is why we must never bow to any person or organization or culture or political power.
So take comfort in that. As the rest of these verses unfold, Mary didn’t question, notice, who would be born. It’s kind of an interesting thought that that wasn’t her big question, like, who am I going to give birth to? That wasn’t what she was concerned about. She was concerned about how He would be born since she was a virgin.
And I don’t think we need to read into this that she was doubting what the angel Gabriel told her. We do see the difference whenever the angel came to Zechariah, and then he couldn’t speak until his son was born. But here with Mary, there’s no indication that she doubted what the angel told her. But when she asked, how is this going to be, it may indicate that she was simply wanting to know, is there anything that I need to be doing for this? Because I’m a virgin.
Now that’s not a whole lot of detail that she’s given. But it was enough for Mary. And after the angel Gabriel told Mary about Elizabeth, a relative of hers who was also pregnant in her sixth month, even though she was well advanced in years and even though she was barren. And then the angel,
Mary tells her nothing will be impossible with God. Mary’s response in verse 38 was, behold, the maidservant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. You see, Mary knew the unique greatness of her God. Now, surely she still had questions about all that was taking place. I mean, this is a big deal, right? This is a huge deal. This is center of
history kind of a deal. And so she still must have had questions. Surely she was thinking what others might say about her being pregnant while she’s going around claiming to still be a virgin, right? She must have known that this would be something for Joseph to have to work through and process, thinking maybe he might want to divorce me because he’s going to think I must have been unfaithful. She must have known that her own reputation,
was going to possibly be ruined. But Mary was a simple servant of the Lord. And if the Lord said it, then she expected it to be so. As a servant of the Lord, it is evident that Mary knew Scripture. Now this should be something true of us. We’re servants of the Lord. We should be familiar with Scripture. Instead of being surprised about the unique child that she would give birth to,
about the Messiah and what He would be like, and she lived with the expectation that one day God would send Him to the earth. We can also see from the Magnificat, which comes a few verses after our text for today, that much of what she says there is very similar to Hannah’s prayer in 1 Samuel 1, whenever God gave her a barren woman, a son who was the prophet Samuel. Though Mary did not have the complete written word of God,
though Mary didn’t have even copies of the scriptures that she could carry with her to the synagogue, and though her unique son was not yet born, and therefore she had not yet seen the fulfillment of these things, she was a woman who was shaped and formed by the word of God, and with the expectation and desire that things are going to happen just as God says they’re going to happen. Mary was a simple servant of the Lord.
And the same is true of you and of me. And we have the advantage of having the complete written word of God. And we have the advantage of living 2,000 years on the other side of this. Jesus Christ, the one who is uniquely great, has come and He has won. Right now, all of His enemies are being made a footstool for His feet. The final enemy to be destroyed is death, and this will happen at Christ’s return.
When we will be raised in imperishable, glorified, physical bodies like Jesus. And between now and then, the kingdom has come, and the kingdom is growing. This means that things are not getting worse. They are getting better over time. The process is slow, and there are ups and there are downs, but Jesus told us Himself, He told us,
He says, it’s going to be like leaven. It’s going to just slowly permeate everything over time. And what this means is that we do not live in a world that’s going down the tubes. And nor is there any work that you and I do for the kingdom that is insignificant. I mean, when we arrived here today, there’s a group of people busy setting all this stuff up. I mean, that can kind of go unnoticed, but
that is not insignificant. Everything we do for the sake of the kingdom is significant. You see, part of Jesus’ unique greatness is that His entering into this world as a man doesn’t simply affect us as Christians in our own private lives, both now and into eternity, which that in itself is great enough. But He and His reign affects everything. The nations,
are His. Right? Read Psalm 2. This city is His. His reign is public. It is impossible for Jesus Christ to be ignored, to be pushed to the side, to be viewed as insignificant. This is proof. When the angel Gabriel told Mary that her son would be great, he wasn’t exaggerating. This is not
some cliche, make you feel good type of a message. When the angel Gabriel said, this son will be great, he meant this son will be great. In serving Jesus, you are serving the greatest there ever was, is, or will be. And this is exciting stuff. This means that as we serve him, we’re never spinning our wheels.
This gives us every motivation for keeping our hand to the plow, obeying the king, and remaining faithful where God has placed us, and with the lot that he has sovereignly given to us. So men, as you go to work each day, no matter what your work is, do it for the glory of God. Show up on time. Work hard. Work with integrity.
Go to work like you are serving the king because you are. Husbands and fathers, love, lead, and provide for your families well and with the strength God gives you. Wives and mothers, submit to your husbands. Raise your children for the glory of God, even though each day can seem monotonous. Keep doing those normal, daily, very important things that God has given you to do.
Children, keep obeying your parents in the Lord. Have a good attitude. Be thankful that God has placed you in the family that He has placed you in. To you as a congregation, God sent an angel to Nazareth, that no-good, corrupt city, with a message that Christ was to be born to a virgin from that no-good city.
Good things can come from God to any city, including this one. Washington, D.C. is a city that needs good churches. You know this. I trust that there are some good churches in the city. I hope so. I also know that there are many bad ones with gay flags out front to prove it.
In this city is not an easy task. Praise God from what I hear, little reports that I hear, things are going well. And I think this is a testimony to that today. The Lord is blessing this work. But I know that if they haven’t come already, there will be moments and seasons of discouragements. That will happen. There will be time when it feels like everything is uphill.
And it’s all hard work and there’s not much reward. And maybe at times the progress will be very slow. There are people in this city, surprise, who don’t want you here doing what you are doing. And as the church grows, opposition will increase. But these are good signs. Because this indicates that the kingdom is advancing and the enemy is terrified.
I want to encourage you to continue coming to worship each Lord’s Day. Be active in the service by rising and kneeling and reciting and singing loudly, even if you mess up loudly. And taking communion and listening to the sermon and giving hearty amens. I want to encourage you to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. I want to encourage you to be quick to forgive one another.
And to let love cover a multitude of sins. Dear saints, keep doing what you’re doing. Keep pounding the drum. Keep getting up each day and living faithfully that day and then do it again the next day. Do it on this Lord’s Day and then do it again on the next Lord’s Day. Why? What is your motivation? What is it that keeps you going even when it becomes hard and discouraging?
and frustrating, and it feels like you are spinning your wheels as a faithful Christian in this city. From today’s passage, it is because of the unique greatness of Jesus Christ. There is no other like Him. He is great, and He is your salvation. He is your life. See Him as He truly is. Give thanks. Be encouraged. Be grateful that He has
come, and He has won for you, and He will return. And each day, press ahead in faithfulness to Him as His simple servant. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank You for the coming of Jesus Christ, our Savior, into the world. May we serve our King faithfully through the power and enablement of Your Holy Spirit as we pray and work towards the advancement of Your kingdom in this world.