Today, the story and title is The Incarnation Was Always the Plan. Or to flesh that out a little longer, The Incarnation Was Always the Plan. The incarnation was always the plan. I don't think anyone in here doubts that. Right, Philip? Is that right? No, I don't think anyone here doubts that that was always the plan. But for some reason, some people aren't so sure, you know. Then others say, well, the incarnation was the plan, but the crucifixion was not always the plan. How did they get that? But no, that also was always the plan. The text, again, is Luke 24, 26-27. We read it earlier. I'm going to read it again. This was after the resurrection. just after. And so no one, you know, hardly anyone knew that there had been a resurrection yet. And so some of these disciples of Jesus were walking on the road to Emmaus and they were dejected because Jesus, whom they had thought would perhaps usher in a new kingdom of the Jews crushing the Romans, they were met by Jesus on the road. And he says, why do you look that? Why you say, haven't you heard? Are you crawling out of a corner somewhere, sir? Didn't you hear about all the things that happened to this man, Jesus? And then he explained to them everything about himself from the Old Testament. Was there a New Testament yet? No. There hadn't been any of the New Testament written yet. Jesus had just been crucified and raised from the dead. No one knew yet, hardly anyone. Jesus explained it to them and he said, Luke 24 verse 26, was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to come into his glory? And the expected answer is yes, it was necessary. So beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things written about himself in all the scriptures, meaning all the Old Testament. So, it was always a plan, and was it not necessary? Yes, it was necessary. It was necessary. Looking at this idea that the Scriptures are about Jesus, okay? The Old Testament Scriptures are about Jesus. This is mind-blowing to some. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 9.9. 1 Corinthians 9.9. 1 Corinthians 9. So, Paul is talking about himself. He does it now and then. Why? Well, because he was maligned and he was, what's the word? People would tell tales about him and spread rumors about him and say things about him that were not true, libel, defamation of character, libel, what's the word? Gossip, but anyway, I forget the word, the legal term. So sometimes he had to say a few things in his defense, And in chapter 9 of 1 Corinthians, he's doing that. And he says, yes, I'm going to... He says, verse 3, my defense to those who examine me is this, to those who examine me. That was a kind way of saying those who say bad things about me and judge me, okay? But they have examined me and found me wanting. He says, He says, do we not have a right to eat and drink? They complain about everything I do. I eat and drink. Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife? Even as the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord in Cephas, that's Peter, you know that they travel to the churches and they bring along their wives and Peter had a wife. He was the Pope supposedly, but he had a wife. Okay. Or do only Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working. Oh, so these other apostles, they don't work. Don't I have the right to not work? They get paid, and I have to work for my food to eat and drink. Verse 7, who at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense? He's in the army of the Lord. Paul's really right out there in the front line, Paul is. And he says, I'm serving the Lord, and I'm not being paid. Who plants a vineyard and does not eat the fruit of it? If I start a church, shouldn't they be paying me some money? Or who tends a flock and does not use the milk of the flock? I am not speaking these things according to human judgment, am I? Or does not the law also say these things? Okay, now here comes our text that I was heading towards, not our text today from Luke, which says that the Old Testament Scriptures are written about Jesus. Well, here we come, here it comes. Verse nine, for it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing. That's the law. Paul says, God is not concerned about oxen, is he? And the expected answer is no, he's not concerned about oxen. Now, obviously God is concerned about oxen, but it's hyperbolic here. But the degree with which God is concerned about his new covenant is so much greater than his concern for oxen. God's concerned about oxen, but his concern about the pastor or the apostle is much greater, okay? Does God care for animals? Yes, but guess what? Because Jesus was coming, and Jesus was going to be slain, God told the Jews to kill oxen, and to kill lambs, and to kill goats, and all these animals that were slain for the purpose of pointing us towards Jesus. And so God's concerned about animals, but God told them to kill animals. They were not doing anything wrong. I mean, there are times when you have to kill an animal because it has gored somebody. Okay. I think that's in the law too. Right. In Moses law, but, uh, but perfectly good. In fact, preferably perfectly unblemished animals are brought for sacrifice. Perfectly good animals are brought for sacrifice and slain because of the new covenant that's coming. Okay. It's pointing towards Jesus. And so when Paul says, these laws that you read in the Old Testament, they have a different meaning from what you think, okay? You think God's concerned about oxen, but that's not what it's about. Let's see what it says. So verse nine says, for it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing. And what was the point? Well, the ox is doing all this work, Maybe he should be allowed to eat a little bit. Well, he's doing that instead of putting a muzzle over him. So he's doing all the work, but doesn't get any food. So that was the seemingly the purpose of it. But Paul says God is not concerned about oxen. Is he? No, he's not. Or verse 10, is he speaking altogether for our sake? What? He's talking to New Testament Christians in that verse, in that Old Testament verse that says, don't muzzle the ox when he's stretching the grain. Paul says that was for us in the New Testament. Okay. Yes. For our sake, it was written because the plowman ought to plow in hope. and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops. So now he comes back to himself and Barnabas. If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? So this is not, today we're not talking about paying the pastor, okay? What we're talking about is interpreting the Old Testament That's what I'm talking about today. When we look at the Old Testament, we can't limit the meaning to how the Jews at that time, no doubt, saw the verse, okay? We have to say, what does it mean for the Christian in the New Testament? This verse about not muzzling the ox, according to Paul, was written for us, not for the Jews. It was written for us to pay the apostles and to pay the pastors, okay? So we need to remember that that's the Old Testament. So when Jesus was walking on the Emmaus Road, okay, in our text in Luke 24, and he says, was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to come into his glory? Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things written about himself in all the scriptures. No doubt, there were some verses he took And man, their heart burned because they were amazed at the way Jesus, they didn't know it was Jesus yet. He was telling them what in the Old Testament was talking about himself. And they were amazed. Their hearts burned within them as he explained the scriptures about himself in Moses and the prophets, see? So the Old Testament takes on new meaning now that we have Christ. Christ has brought a new covenant and he brings us a different understanding of the old covenant than may have been understood by most during that time. So the question comes up, you know, was it necessary for Christ to be incarnate? Well, that was the whole purpose of making man, essentially. God made man so that eventually Christ would become man. Think about that. Why did Christ make marriage between men and women? Because Christ and the church would be married. So God gave us marriage between men and women so that eventually we would understand what it meant for Christ to be married to the church. Everything that is in existence in the Old Testament and now somehow relates to Christ and the church. And so that's one item, is marriage. As I said, just the existence of man at all. Why was it necessary for Christ to become man? Well, there was no other purpose to make man, but that Christ would become man, and then God would be glorified through that. And ultimately, of course, that man would glorify God. But there's multiple purposes. But man was made, it says about Jesus in Hebrews, I'm not sure where it is, but it says that a body you have prepared for me. the prophecy of the incarnation of Jesus, a body you have prepared for me. God prepared a place for Jesus. He planned it from the beginning of creation. And it was necessary and always the plan that Jesus would come. And so this coming of Jesus, who's the Lord of Glory, is once again illustrating what God is doing for his glory, which is that he takes himself, his glorious, majestic self, and somehow he becomes a man. It's amazing. This is glorifying to God, and it gives us pause to think that He would do it, yes, for His glory, but for our benefit, the benefit of the people that were in rebellion against Him. Why did He have to do it? I mean, we see the big picture, but the step along the way is that there was a need for it. I don't think most people, most people don't think they're that bad. Have they not seen what God did because they're bad? He killed his own son because they're bad. Because I'm bad, God killed his son. So I'm pretty bad if God would kill his son over me because I'm that bad. Praise the Lord that he would do that. And so, not only of course that, but it required that he would become a man. God cannot die. God cannot die. But a man can die. Jesus had to become a man to die so I would have life. He had to become a man. It was always the plan. The whole purpose of creation surrounds the creation of man, the pinnacle of creation in God's image in such a way that God could become man. There had to be some level of godliness in man that God could then become a man. God didn't become something else, okay? God became a man. And so man's in God's image, praise the Lord. Before the fall, we were not corrupt we were corruptible though okay having been saved and then once we receive our new creation bodies to go with our new creation soul our resurrection bodies we will be incorruptible like like God is incorruptible, of course, and so we're not returning to the state we were when we were like Adam, corruptible. When God comes, Jesus returns, we will be changed. We're not there yet. We'll be changed. In the twinkling of an eye, the last Trump, I went to see Messiah last night. My son, Anthony, was one of the chorus basses. He's a bass like me. And they had a good bass section this year. And it was over there, Alice Stevens Center at UAB. with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. I guess that's the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. And what a great, just an amazing, really I think miraculous thing, the Messiah by Handel. Of course Handel wrote the music. Now you say, yeah, the words are from the Bible. But somebody picked those verses to use, and I don't remember his name, but that's not Handel, believe it or not. Handel did not choose the verses. But God used someone else to choose what they called the libretto, the words to such a magnificent piece of music. And they sat in a pile for months, I forget how long, before Handel got around to say, OK, it's time to write the music for this. And it just came out of him like it was coming from God sort of you see I'm just saying Handel wrote that music and it's amazing and it stood the test of time Messiah and Part of that is of course it just goes through the Old Testament. What's the oldest book? In the New Testament, it's a trick question. Okay, and Does anyone here know the oldest book in the Old... Did I say new? I mean old. In the Old Testament, what's the oldest book? You'd guess Genesis, right? Because Genesis talks about the creation. But we know who wrote Genesis. Who is that? Who penned it? Moses, right? But there were actually books older than that in the Bible. One book. Yes, Job, thank you. Job is older than Genesis, or Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Those five books were written by Moses. But before Moses lived, Abraham lived. And Moses wrote about Abraham, but those books didn't exist during the time of Abraham. Moses wrote those books. But people rely back in the time of Abraham and his brother, or nephew, Lot, yeah thanks Lot. Lot, thank you. I'm glad everyone's here to remind me of the names of everybody because otherwise you'd just be standing here for five minutes while I think. But contemporary with Abraham and Lot approximately was the man Job. Job lived around the same time as those patriarchs did, okay. Job did and that book was written perhaps by his friend that came by, the fourth friend who came by, the young man. And Moses may have had a hand in this book also, but in fact, I think Jeremiah collated a lot of these books together, the prophet, later on. But the basic text of Job is written that time, old, old things. And there in Job, we read Job saying, I know that my Redeemer lives, and I will see him from my flesh. you know, and it just gives me goosebumps to think of Job back then, thinking of Jesus or God, his Redeemer, and that even though Job was spoken of poorly by his friends. You're all messed up, Job, because of something wrong you did, Job. And Job says, no, I wish God could come down here and tell you that I haven't done anything wrong that's causing all these sores to cover my whole body. And of course, he was correct. But he did have to shut his mouth when God showed up and told him, where were you when I made everything, Job? So, uh, I have the right over you, Job, to do as I please. And Job said, I've shut my mouth. I said one thing I'm not going to say anymore. And, uh, but, but Job knew, and even in his suffering that, that God was his redeemer and that he would see him. And, uh, so we're thankful for the fact that From the beginning, from the creation, we know the prophecies about Jesus in the book of Genesis. And we see the evidence in this book of Job, of the redemption that comes through God for us through the blood of Jesus. And it was always the plan. It was always the plan that Jesus would come and be incarnate so that he would bring glory to his father through the purchase of the church by his blood, his eventual bride. So we thank you so much. We thank God so much for his plan and the glorious lowering of Jesus to come as a sermon and as a baby and in a manger and a feed trough, in other words, and to be greeted with dirty, stinky shepherds that were considered the scum of the earth, really. Don't come near us. You smell like all those animals, you shepherds. Well, that's okay, Jesus said, because I do too. I'm with a feed trough. So come on and worship me. So let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father. Thank you for lowering yourself to be us and to take our place on the cross. We thank you for the whole life that you lived in service to the people that you were given by your father to take to yourself and to conform to your image, eventually giving us the resurrection both spiritual and physical eventually, that we may eternally be with you and we'll learn forever and ever more and more about the greatness of what you have done. We just thank you for it. Lord, we know that you're empowering us to be a part of that growth of your kingdom. Empower us with that same resurrection power today. And we ask in Jesus' name, amen.