Mi rac u lous Message Advent 2017 Sermon Series Kenwood Baptist Church Pastor David Palmer December 24, 2017 TEXT: Luke 2:1-20 Merry Christmas! It's good to be together in the Lord's house. I was trying to remember the last time that we had four services in one day. I couldn't remember a time, but I am thrilled to be here together. We been looking this Advent season through four scenes of the Gospel of Luke in an Advent series called Miraculous. You remember that we began with the definition of miraculous as: something that occurs through divine or supernatural intervention, or manifesting such power; something highly improbable and extraordinary and bringing very welcome consequences. We have looked together this Advent season at the birth of Jesus, the miraculous Son; we have looked at Mary's song of praise for a miraculous Savior; we looked last Sunday at Zechariah's prophecy of a miraculous King; and this morning we look together at the heavenly host as they proclaim good news of a miraculous Message for all people. There are actually two very different messages in our passage today: one of them is familiar; one of them is new. One of these messages is forced; the other message is offered. One of these messages ultimately comes from below; the other comes from above. It is critical as we hear the Word of God this morning that we are able to distinguish between these two messages, and we will be called at the end to reject the one and embrace the other. Let s look at our text this morning. This is the Word of the Lord. Page 1 of 10
Luke 2:1 begins by locating us in time: In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. The Greek word underneath decree is a dogma. It is an edict, a declaration, and the content of this declaration in the ESV says, that all the world should be registered. You will notice the prominence of this term registration. This is not a conference, but this image occurs four times in the opening five verses of Luke 2: Luke 2:1, that the world would be registered ; Luke 2:2, This was the first registration ; Luke 2:3, All went to be registered ; Luke 2:5, Joseph went to be registered with Mary. The translation of this last phrase, though, differs in different English versions. The ESV that says: that all the world should be registered. When we look at the venerable King James Translation, we read these familiar words: that that all the world should be taxed. I know that we are in the season of tax reform that brings joy to some and sorrow to others. Taxes seem familiar to us, and this image suggests to us that this is just about money. When we look at the NIV version, there is a different rendering of this ending of the first verse of our text: that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. This term, census, carries with it a different meaning and nuance. It's a reckoning of population. It's not just about economics, and this final phrase is rendered very differently in the NIV that it is a census of the entire Roman world. I think maybe the best translation of all is in the New American Standard Version. It says: In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited world. This opening verse gives us message number one. Message One is a decree, a dogma, an edict, a message, but it is a message for the inhabitable world, and this message was communicated in a variety of media. Did you know that this December marked the 25th anniversary of our most frequent form of communication today? It was 25 years ago, December 1992, that the first text message was sent. Did you know that we have been texting for 25 years? The first text message was sent from engineer Neil Papworth to Vodafone director, Richard Jarvis. Today, we are used to it. The average American sends and receives 72 texts a day. Every minute of this sermon, there will be 15 million texts sent worldwide. By the time this worship service ends, 22 billion text messages will be sent on planet earth. The very first message was two words, December 1992: Merry Christmas. I want to challenge you early in this sermon, that every time you start texting, you remember what the very first use of that technology was. In antiquity, Caesar Augustus didn t have the capacity for SMS, so he used the communication paths that were available. To communicate this message widely, coins functioned as the text messages of the ancient world, and this is one of the most common coins of the reign of Caesar Augustine. You will see on the one side a striking figure, a handsome portrait, idealized, heroic stance, the hair is perfect, the facial lines carefully constructed. Who is this? We see on the Page 2 of 10
other side an inscription marking the identity of this person as Caesar. The Latin further along the inscription identifies this person as DIVI with a dot marking a separation of words and F for filius, that he is Caesar of the Divine One, the son. This figure approaching him looks like a goddess, and indeed it is. She is holding in her hand the Civic Corona to crown him with the wreath of victory for saving lives. It is a king heralded by palm branches, and note carefully what she is standing on, because she is standing on planet earth. The ancients knew it was round! The earth is marked with longitudinal and latitudinal lines, and you see in the center of the earth there is a square-shaped area that marks out the inhabitable earth. This goddess name is Oikoumene, representing the inhabitable earth. Not only was this message, Message One in our text, communicated through common objects, this coin is a denarius. It's the daily, most commonly used coin. It's a working man's coin. People would trade these coins and use them thousands of times a year and receive the message that the inhabitable world is under the dominion of one person who brings peace. Not only was this message communicated through daily items like coins, it was communicated in the highest artistic registers. One of the most fabulous pieces of art from the first century is now housed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria. It is called the Gem of Augustus, and this gem is about 7 1/2 inches tall and 9 inches wide. It is a beautiful, carved, Arabian onyx stone of incalculable value. This stone has two tiers on it. If you look closely, the top panel depicts Caesar dressed like a god. He is in heroic stance. To the one side is the goddess Roma, and note that Caesar and the goddess Roma have their feet on a shield because the weapons of war have ceased. On the far side, there is a chariot, and Caesar's descendants are there with the winged goddess of Victory in the background. But, that same figure on the coin, Oikoumene, goddess of the inhabitable world, is approaching him again to place that crown upon his head. Behind him stands Oceanus, god of the seas, and seated is the goddess of abundance, fertility, and blessing. As Caesar receives the crown, this crown of victory, from Oikoumene yet again, we see that there is a disk right in front of his face with the sign of the Capricorn, a zodiacal Page 3 of 10
sign, signaling the dawning of a new age. This will be an age of prosperity, an age of peace, with a savior who brings peace. The peace of this savior is explained in the bottom panel which shows his victory. The bottom panel depicts the Roman gods fighting alongside Roman soldiers. There are seated barbarians with their hands tied behind their backs and a woman being dragged by her hair. This is Roman victory, the defeat of their enemies. Romans celebrate their victory and accomplishments on the battlefield, and you see the soldiers in the far edge of the panel. They are raising up the central beam that they also used for crosses, except this beam is raised up and set up with military weaponry and then becomes an object of worship. It's the same message on a daily-used coin, on a piece of art. While such expensive works of art would be seen by only a few, Augustus constructed a very elaborate, maybe his most elaborate, public version of this message for everyone to see. After winning the Roman Civil War, he set up an altar of peace, the Campus Martius, a beautiful, ornate altar. The altar is surrounded by an ornate frieze with panels. This is the front side. The altar is actually inside were sacrifices burned continuously. The outer rim communicated the message with sculptures, and this would have been painted in antiquity. You can see images of abundance on the front side, and the backside depicts peace, prosperity, and blessing. When we zoom in on one of the panels of the Altar of Peace, we see this peace depicted with tremendous artistic skill. The woman in the center of the picture represents peace, represents prosperity, the ending of hostility. You will see that vines grow, acanthus plant streams up the side panels: fruitfulness, abundance. She is holding fruit in her lap. On the one side, you see the winds, the winds of the sea as the crocodile under is underneath. On the other side, you see the swan taking flight and the winds of the skies. Beneath her feet, you see the animals, the ox and the lamb, are lowing. You see the Page 4 of 10
children moving to suckle at this woman. Peace and prosperity underneath the one who rules the inhabitable world land, sea, and sky. What do you do when you conquer your enemies? Ancient kings, rulers, and generals all have the same thought, and that is to plunder their enemies goods. Caesar s last great victory was in Egypt, and so to communicate the dawning of a new age of peace, he did something extraordinary. After achieving victory in Egypt, he went down to Egypt and moved the obelisks that the ancient pharaohs had built. He moved the obelisk of Psammeticus II, which was a 71- foot-high solid piece of red granite. That is twice the size of the ceiling in this sanctuary. Even the non-engineers among us would figure that's got to be heavy. How do you move something like that? Well, you build a special boat designed to carry it, and you move it from Egypt and set it up in Rome. You put on top of it (which you can t see quite as clearly in this image because I wanted to give you a sense of the size and scale of this) a bronze globe, and then you set it up. Huge throngs of people in Rome came to see it. He set it up in the Campus Martius, and he used this obelisk as the pointer of a massive sundial that would reckon time for the city of Rome, the largest city in the world at that time. Then he positioned it so perfectly that the shadow of the obelisk that tells you what time it is of day and the season so that the shadow of the obelisk with the round globe-shape would fall pointing dead center into the Altar of Peace on the day of days: September 23. Of course: it s his birthday! The reaction of the Roman world was awe. Contemporary accounts describe how people were overwhelmed by this message: Peace through a savior! Good news for all the earth! The Greeks who too have a sense for ceremony give us our best-preserved reaction. A certain proconsul named Fabius Maximus decreed a way of reacting. These were his words. This inscription is in the Berlin Museum today and the inscription is known as the Priene Calendar. The inscription says this: Since providence, which has ordered all things and is deeply interested in our life, has set in most perfect order by giving us Augustus, whom she filled with virtue that he might benefit humankind, sending him (note carefully) as a savior, both for us and for our descendants, that he might end war and arrange all things, and since he, Caesar, by his appearance excelled even our anticipations, surpassing all previous benefactors, and not even leaving to posterity any hope of surpassing what he has done, and since the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning of the good tidings (the gospel is the word used) Page 5 of 10
for the world through him. Proconsul Paul Fabius Maximus discovered a way to honor him that was hitherto unknown among the Greeks, and that was to reckon time from the date of Augustus nativity. This inscription reflects a decree, reflects a monumental project of architecture, reflects artistic conventions of the highest social status, reflects the message communicated in the daily coin a message of a savior who brought peace to the world. That is Message One. The scene shifts in Luke 2:6 back to Bethlehem, and we receive from the Word of God Message Two. Message Two takes place in Bethlehem: And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. It was the time came for an important birth. Luke 2:7 tells us: And she gave birth to her firstborn Son and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths and laid Him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. Note it's cloths, not clothes. It was a significant birth a child born, laid in a manger abject poverty, humility. The scene then shifts in Luke 2:8: And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. The shepherds were the lowest class of people. They didn't even have a place to sleep; they were sleeping outside. Luke takes care to emphasize that they were dwelling in the open air. They were watching their flocks at night, and this second message now comes with power. It was a new message; it was announced from above. In Luke 2:9 we read: And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. They were overwhelmed. The biblical idiom is that they feared a great fear. They were overwhelmed by this angelic presence, a message that has a heavenly origin. It comes from above, not from below, and the angel says to them in Luke 2:10: Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. These two messages stand in conflict. They are both offering a gospel for all people with a savior figure at the center. The only problem is that only one of them is true. The angel says, I bring you good news of great joy for all the people, and the content of this gospel is heralded in Luke 2:11. It is one of the most dramatic announcements; it is one of the boldest lines in the New Testament that Luke, who is the only Gentile author of the New Testament, a Roman citizen deeply familiar with Message One, has the courage to report the angelic announcement of Luke 2:11: Page 6 of 10
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. That you, praise God, is the second person plural all of you. For to all of you today is born a Savior, and that Savior is identified as Christ the Lord in the city of David. This message, announced from above, that a Savior has been born, has come into the world, born in the city of David, and the sign of this Savior is not a lower panel with humanity being dragged by their hair. The sign of His advent is humility wrapped in cloths, laid in a manger, and the message is given to the lowest class of the society. They hear this, and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host. Luke tells us literally here that it was a multitude of the heavenly army. That's actually the language that was used. It's not a multitude of the heavenly host like just a lot of angels. The word that Luke uses is that they are the heavenly army. The heavenly army comes in and attends this one angelic voice. Oh! of all the moments to be on planet earth, at a specific time and place! This has got to be one of them. If you could choose your lodging for that night, would you choose the Imperial Palace, or would you want to be asleep in the open field? I want to be asleep in the open field to hear the chorus of the heavenly army say two things: Glory to God in the highest! What would that have sounded like? Can you imagine? The heavenly army thunders, Glory to God in the highest, and then issues the real, imperial decree that cannot be rescinded: Peace on earth! Peace on earth to men on whom God's favor rests! There are two messages in this passage. I said one of them is new. This is the new one. One of them is familiar. I know many of you came in this morning and thought, Oh, another sermon on Luke 2, the Christmas season. Let me tell you, Christmas is compelling. I woke up at 4:30 this morning thinking, When do I get to start preaching? This is compelling: Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth. Some of us are familiar with the version of this angelic greeting that has three elements: glory to God in the highest; peace on earth; and a third, goodwill to men. Let me clarify, for that is a text variant. It is the difference of one letter in the Greek New Testament and the King James Version, which had that one letter different based on the Byzantine Majority text. This one letter makes the difference between goodwill as a noun or as an adjective, describing the people. The best, earliest, most reliable manuscripts have it as modifying the people. That is why there are only two elements to the announcement: glory and peace, but it is peace on earth. It is on people with whom God is pleased. I said one message is forced; the other is offered. It is offered: peace on earth. The reaction of the shepherds you know we don't have a monumental inscription from the shepherds. It's doubtful they could even read or write, but their reaction is something that you don't need to go to the Berlin Museum to see, because their reaction is still felt. It is felt in this very sanctuary. When the angelic hosts went back to heaven, the shepherds said, We have got to check this out. They said in Luke 2:15: Page 7 of 10
Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. Have you resolved to go and see what the Lord has done, or are you still standing at a distance? They went with haste; they went quickly; they searched eagerly. Have you gone and searched eagerly? They found the Baby, and when they saw the Baby, they told everyone who was gathered there the things that had been told to them. Can you imagine these uneducated, rough shepherds saying, You know what? The heavens split open, and we heard the army of heaven speak of this Child. Luke, who is a master of detail and yet gifted at understatement, says in Luke 1:18: And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. All who heard it wondered or marveled. They were amazed. Are you amazed at Message Two? Mary treasured these things in her heart, and the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had seen and heard, just as it had been told to them. The shepherds departed after seeing Christ the Lord, the Savior. They returned with the joy and celebration of that first Christmas. My challenge to you this morning is a binary one. It's simple, actually, but it will take everything you have. I want you to reject Message One and embrace Message Two. I know some of you are putting up your homiletical defenses right now, and you're thinking, You know, I've never struck a coin like that. I've never had a gem made with me dressed halfway, crowned with a laurel of victory. Come to think of it, I've never transported a 71-foot-high obelisk from Egypt. But, actually, the substance of Message One lives with us today. Think of your text messages. It's a conservative estimate that you send and receive 72 a day. What s the content of it? Does it echo the first use of that technology, Merry Christmas? or is the text message really with self at the center? What do we make with the resources that are entrusted to us? What are our public aspirations? Do we trust in man? Are we relying on man to bring peace by vanquishing our political enemies? We may have grown to think less of dragging them by the hair. Do we hope in a new political era or tax reform to bring peace to the world? Are we relying on ourselves, or are we relying on a message that comes from above? Message Two is still available. It offers a King who is God in human flesh, born in Bethlehem, laid in a manger, who made Himself known first to working-class people sleeping outside in fields. This King is attested by an angelic army who proclaims Him as Savior and Lord, and His nativity does mark the dawn of an entirely new age. This Child would grow up and begin His public ministry by openly proclaiming these words in Mark 1:14,15: The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel. Page 8 of 10
This King's victory would be achieved by a Roman cross, like in the gem, except instead of a cross hanging with military armaments, this King would hang on that Roman cross to achieve the lasting victory to bring you peace and bring me peace. When He died upon that cross, the gospel writers tell us, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom, and the earth shook. A Roman centurion, who was there was so tired and familiar with Message One, looked at Him. He saw the earthquake; he was filled with awe, and he said in Matthew 27:54: Truly this one is the Son of God! Step out from the parity, the false message that comes from below, and be transformed by receiving the gospel of the Savior who comes from above. As magnificent as was Augustus construction in the Campus Martius with the obelisk telling the time, pointing to the Altar of Peace on his birthday, Pliny the Elder, the first century naturalist scientist, historian, tells us that Augustus sundial stopped working 40 years after he set it up. Pliny speculates why. He says: It just stopped working accurately. Maybe the sun changed its course, or maybe the obelisk sank in the marshy ground, or maybe an earthquake shifted the ground. The man-made Message One stopped telling time accurately. We know that 40 years after Augustus set it up, the ground did shake. It shook when Jesus died on the cross and three days later. Hallelujah! This is why Message Two keeps enduring. The gospel writers tell us that it was dawn of a new day, the first day of the week, and Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb and behold, there was a great earthquake. The earth shook, yes it did. The earth shook, and an angel of the Lord who was there to herald His birth came and descended from heaven and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was white as snow, and the guards trembled, and the angel said again in Matthew 28:5b-6: Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay. This is the one who brings the dawning of the new age. Message One will reappear. It will present itself to you in daily coins, in artistic production, and man-made objects. It always comes from below. It will always offer you salvation through a man. It will always offer you victory, hope, peace through political solution that will inevitably bring violence on others, and it will always be false. Message Two is why I got up at 4:30 and couldn't wait to share, because Message Two is true. Have you received it? Let s pray. Lord Jesus, oh, we herald You this morning. We herald You, King of kings and Lord of lords. Lord Jesus, You did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but to be revealed in Page 9 of 10
Your very incarnation, that You came down from heaven to seek and to save, to give Your life as a ransom. We worship You this morning, for You truly are Son of God and Savior of men. Lord, I pray that there would not be a single person this morning that would leave still trusting the scam of Message One. Lord, we ask now that You would stir our hearts to receive Message Two. It is true. Its luster will never fade. We do not need to see its evidence in a museum, but we can look all around us now, and we can join the two billion people this morning gathering to worship Christ. We can join with the innumerable multitude from every nation saying, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Oh, we love You, Lord Jesus, love incarnate, love divine. We magnify Your Name. Hallelujah! Merry Christmas! Amen. Page 10 of 10