Turn in your copies of God's Word to the Gospel of Luke. The Gospel of Luke, chapter 1, and we'll read verses 26 to 38. Here we read of the angel Gabriel's announcement to Mary of the incarnation, beginning in verse 26. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, greetings, oh favored one. The Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. And Mary said to the angel, how will this be, since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God, And Mary said, behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. So ends the reading of God's word. Let's pray now and ask the Lord's blessing. Our Heavenly Father, we read of this young Virgin Mary, who received your word with gladness and joy, who responded to your word with the words, I am your servant, let it be according to your word. And later we read how she stored up these things in her heart. And Lord, may this be the response of all of us of faith, that we might be those who gladly receive your word and store it up in our hearts. So please, God, work by your same Holy Spirit by the Holy Spirit working in our hearts, granting us the life and strength and vitality of faith through the preaching of your word. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We have been working our way through the Apostles' Creed, a rich summary of the Christian faith that has been confessed by believers throughout the world and throughout the centuries, literally for millennia. Well, today we come to one of the most breathtaking lines in the creed where we confess that God the Son was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. In this short phrase, we are introduced to the mystery of the incarnation, that the eternally begotten Son of the Father was born in time and became the son of a woman. The incarnation is the point where eternity meets time, where heaven touches earth. The Apostle John says it this way, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word that was with the Father, the Word that was God in the beginning became man. Paul calls it the mystery of godliness, that God was manifested in the flesh, that the uncreated person of God the Son would enter into time and space and take to himself a true humanity and be born of a virgin, the uncreated assuming a created nature. Well, everything else that we read in the Creed hinges upon this truth. Without the incarnation, there is no suffering of Christ. There is no cross of Christ. There is no tomb. There is no descent. There is no resurrection. There is no ascent into glory. There is no return in glory. The Son of God in his divine nature could not suffer. He could not die, not because of any weakness or deficiency, but rather because of the perfection of his divine nature. But yet in the incarnation, the same person of the son takes to himself a human nature and then suffers and dies according to that nature for us and for our salvation so that we humans, body and soul, might be redeemed and saved from sin and hell and brought into communion with God. Well, let's consider what it means to confess that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. We'll consider three points. First, the act of the Incarnation, what it is and how it happened. Second, the accomplishment of the Incarnation, so what it is that it enabled the Son to do, to accomplish. And then third, the application of the Incarnation, how it applies to us today. Well, first, the act of the incarnation. What is the incarnation? How did it happen? Well, in one sense, you know, it's impossible to answer because the incarnation is a mystery. And yet there are certain truths that are revealed to us. Scripture reveals these two truths that we confess, that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and that he was born of the Virgin Mary. Both Matthew's gospel and Luke's gospel describe this. So let's focus on Luke's account. Well, this familiar event to us begins with a young virgin named Mary. She lives in a small inconsequential town called Nazareth. And she's engaged to a man named Joseph. So at this point, she's still living at home with her family, with her parents. And suddenly, her life is interrupted. Something happens that she never could have predicted. She never had this on her bingo card, as we say. Suddenly, an angel called Gabriel appears to her and delivers a message from God. He announces, greetings, oh favored one. The Lord is with you. And Mary is afraid at first, and naturally so, because it wasn't every day that angels appeared to people. You know, we read some of these accounts, these extraordinary accounts of angels appearing in the Old Testament and the New Testament, and we might be inclined to think that, well, this just happened to everyone all the time. Well, it didn't, and that's why Mary is terrified. She's afraid. What does this angel have to do with me? Mary isn't a queen, or a king for that matter. She's not a prophet, a priest. She's kind of a nobody. And yet, as the angel goes on to say, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. The favor here is not that Mary has earned her place as the bearer of God incarnate. No, it's that God is showing her favor. God is graciously choosing her for this incredibly unique role in his plan of salvation. Well, then comes the announcement. He says, behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. So the angel essentially gives Mary a quick run through redemptive history. I mean, we could spend weeks looking at each of these things that this son of Mary is going to accomplish. Jesus will be the long-awaited Messiah, the prophet, priest, and king, the son of David, the eternal king who will sit on David's throne forever, whose reign will know no end. But then Mary asks a very obvious, very practical, very honest question. How will this be, since I am a virgin? Now, children, you know that it takes a mom and a dad to have a baby. And at this point, Mary is betrothed, she's engaged to Joseph, but they have not yet come together as husband and wife to make a baby. Mary knows this, Mary knows how babies are made. And so she knows that humanly speaking, it's impossible for her to conceive and bear a son. She's a virgin, she's not married, she's never been with a man that way. The angel's reply unveils the divine miracle at the heart of the incarnation. Gabriel tells her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God. So what we see here is that the person of God, the Holy Spirit, takes a central role in the act of the incarnation. What is the Holy Spirit's role? Well, he does two things. First, the Holy Spirit is the divine agent who brings about a miraculous conception. Notice how Gabriel says the Spirit will come upon you and God's power will overshadow you. Well, does this language of the Holy Spirit overshadowing or hovering in power, does it remind you of anything? It should, it should remind you of Genesis chapter one where the Spirit hovered over the waters. and was in part the agent of creation then. Well, just as the spirit was working in the beginning to bring about order and life in the formless void at creation, so now he is the author working a new creation, forming life in the womb of the virgin. What this means is that her conception was supernatural. The natural way of conception requires a human mother and a human father. But unlike every other conception in the history of the world, this conception had no fatherly involvement. You might think of Matthew's gospel where maybe Joseph was beginning to see the bumper. He had heard news and he was beginning to worry and he was thinking of privately, respectfully divorcing her. But then the angel goes to him and assures him Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. To put it kind of bluntly, the angel is saying, what is conceived in her is not from another man. It's from the Holy Spirit. This is not natural, this is supernatural. So the Holy Spirit is the one who miraculously causes Mary to conceive in her womb. Notice the second thing that the Holy Spirit does. Not only does the Spirit cause the conception, but he also sanctifies what is conceived. Gabriel says the child will be holy, set apart, pure, sinless. Why is this important? Well, it's important because every human conceived by a mother and a father bears the sinful fallen nature of Adam. As David confesses in Psalm 51, in sin did my mother conceive me. David, of course, was not saying that conception is sinful or that intercourse between a husband and wife is sinful. That's not what he meant. He was referring, rather, to the way that, as humans, we inherit Adam's guilt and corruption in our nature. Jesus, however, is conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit outside of the chain of Adam's sin. So the spirit sanctifies his human nature from the very moment of conception, ensuring that Jesus is free from any and all original sin. So from the moment of his first existence, Jesus is holy, pure, sinless, free from any inherited corruption. And this is essential because only a sinless savior can redeem a sinful people. So this is how the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, took to himself a true human nature. And we must stress that he did have a true human nature. A true humanity consists of a body and a soul. You have a body and you have a soul, in case you didn't know. Your body is everything about you that you can touch and see and weigh and measure. Your soul is everything about you that is non-physical, all the things you can't see so easily. Your soul includes your will, your affections, and your mind. And so when we say that Jesus had a true humanity, we affirm that he had a body like ours, and he had the human faculties of mind, will, and affections. Jesus had a true body. The word incarnation literally means enfleshment. He took to himself a real body. He wasn't this spirit hovering around the place or pretending, having the appearance of humanity. No, he had real flesh and blood. And so while the conception in the womb was miraculous and supernatural, The delivery was normal, the growth in his mother's womb was normal. And from that moment of conception, his body grew. He was a baby, he was born, he grew to be a toddler, he grew to be a small child, and on and on into adulthood to where he became a fully grown man. His body had the same limitations that we have. You know, he wasn't Superman, where he kind of looks normal when he has his glasses on. He doesn't have a cape on, but really he's, you know. No, Jesus had a normal human body with the same limitations we do. Naturally, according to his humanity, he wasn't able to walk on water. He wasn't able to multiply loaves or raise people from the dead, no more than you or I can. Every extraordinary thing he did, he did by the power of the Holy Spirit, you might say his divine nature as well. Hebrews 2.17 says he was made like us in every respect, obviously except for sin. So, what kinds of limitations do you have? You get tired and you need to sleep. You get hungry, you need to eat. You get thirsty, you need to drink. Well, the same is true of Jesus. And we even see him throughout the Gospels, tired and falling asleep on a boat. He gets hungry, he needs to eat, he needs to stay at people's houses so that they feed him. Even at the cross, he thirsted, he was thirsty. But more than that, he also had a reasonable soul. So not only did he have a body, but he had human faculties, a mind, a will, and emotions. So again, he wasn't just a kind of a I don't know, a divine figure inside a human body kind of operating like a robot pulling switches and levers. He had a true human soul. He had a mind that had to grow and develop through learning and through exercising those faculties. Luke 240 tells us that the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. So like any child, he had to grow physically. He had to learn to crawl and walk and run. And mentally, he had to learn to speak and think He had to study the scriptures where he would grow in knowledge and develop. And Jesus experienced the full range of human emotions. Think of how he felt compassion for the widow of Nain. He had pity on the crowds that were wandering the hillside like sheep without a shepherd. He felt sorrow at the death of his friend, Lazarus. In fact, Isaiah 53.3 calls him a man of sorrows. In Gethsemane, we see him at one of his most crucial points, where he, in anxiety, so intense, he sweat drops of blood. And yet also, he knew joy. He knew laughter. He enjoyed being in people's homes for food and fellowship. He enjoyed their friendship. And here is the mystery. Even as the divine person of God the Son lived as this incarnate one, At the very same moment, he in no way was limiting or surrendering his divine nature. The son remains fully God while fully man. This is what theologians called a hypostatic union, such that he is one divine person with two natures, a divine nature and a human nature. It's very important that we affirm this. You know, the Son didn't give up his divine nature when he became a man. He didn't turn it off like a light switch. You know, it's not like, well, before the incarnation, you had the Trinity, and then the Son leaves the Trinity, so now there's only a duality, and the Son is on Earth. That's not what happens. The Son remains united with the Father and the Spirit. He doesn't give up his divine nature. He remains, according to his divine nature, infinite, unchangeable, eternal, impassable. And yet, at the same time, taking to himself a human nature that is passable, that is finite, that is changeable, that grows and changes and can even suffer. As Cyril of Alexandria said, He did not depart from his divine status or cease to be born of the Father. He continued to be what he was, even in taking on flesh. This is what the correct thinking, sorry, teaching of the faith everywhere proclaims. Well, this union is a mystery beyond what we can fully comprehend, and yet it is what scripture teaches. So that while in his human nature as a newborn baby, Some of us have newborn babies. As a newborn baby, he couldn't even lift his head. His neck was so weak, he couldn't even lift his head. And yet in the very same moment, according to his divine nature, he was upholding the universe by the word of his power. On the cross, as a dying man, he was struggling to even grasp a breath. And yet at the very same moment, in his divine nature, he was filling the lungs of all mankind with life and with breath. This is the mystery and the wonder of the incarnation. Well, second, the accomplishment of the incarnation. What is it that the incarnation allowed the sun to accomplish? What was its purpose? And the answer is this, only as the God-man, fully God and fully man, could Jesus both serve in our place and suffer in our place. So these two accomplishments are often referred to as Christ's active obedience and Christ's passive obedience. So first, the Son became man in order to serve in our place. Christ became man in order to fulfill all righteousness. In the beginning, Adam stood as humanity's representative under the covenant of works. He was commanded to obey God perfectly, not only for himself, but for all of us. And if Adam had obeyed, and he had met the requirements of the covenant of works, we'd all have been brought into a state of glory. But as we know, Adam failed. He broke the covenant. He was not a faithful covenant head. And so in him, all of humanity is fallen. And we have inherited his guilt and corruption. And we feel that, don't we? We feel that every day in our homes, in our hearts, in our workplace. We feel our own depravity. We see the fallenness of the world around us. And we know that what we need is a second Adam, a new representative, one who would succeed where the first one failed. And this is why Christ had to become a man, because only a true man could stand in our place as our covenant head and obey the law on our behalf. You see, Jesus didn't only come to die. Obviously, he did come to die, but that's not the only purpose for his incarnation. Jesus also came to live, to serve. In his humanity, Jesus obeyed the law perfectly. Matthew 5.17, he said, he came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. John 6.38, he came to do the Father's will. At his baptism, he said, it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. And he did obey throughout his life, all the way from the cradle to the cross. He did this for us. Again, this is what theologians call the active obedience of Christ, that his entire life was marked by obedience, a conformity to God's law rendered in our place. Think of his obedience as a man. He faced every frustrating situation that you ever face in your life. He dealt with difficult people. I mean, how often do we, perhaps, when met with frustrating situations or having to deal with difficult people, we respond poorly to those things, to put it mildly. We do not respond sinlessly. But to think that Christ faced more frustrating situations, more unjust situations, more difficult people, and yet he never sinned in word, in thought, or in deed. He never wavered in his love for God or neighbor. He never felt his heart cold towards God or to God's people. He never indulged in an impure thought. He never uttered a cruel word. He never committed a sinful act. Inwardly and outwardly, he fulfilled the law of God perfectly. And the amazing thing is he didn't do this in order to set an example and to set a new bar for us to reach if we're to be as righteous as we are. No, he did this in our place. Christian, he did this in your place. He fulfilled the law as your representative. And what this means is that his righteousness becomes your righteousness through faith, where you have failed in frustrating situations, where you have not kept your mind pure. Christ has kept his mind pure, and he stands as your representative before the Father, such that in Adam you stand condemned, in your own sin you stand condemned, but through faith in Christ, through his work of the incarnation, he has accomplished your right standing before the Father. This is how Christ has served in our place. And second, the incarnation makes it possible for Christ to suffer in our place. This is what theologians refer to as the passive obedience of Christ. It refers to his willing submission to suffer death under the curse of the law. We know that we have sinned, we are guilty, and the wages of sin is death. If we are to be forgiven, this debt must be paid, the penalty must be borne, and justice must be satisfied. God reveals throughout his word that the way he deals with sin is not by ignoring sin, it's not by brushing it under the carpet, it's not by winking sin or turning a blind eye, no, he must deal with sin. The penalty must be paid. But the question that is raised again and again throughout scripture is this. Who can bear this penalty? Who can stand in our place as a substitute? Could an animal do it? No. Hebrews 10.4 says it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Animals cannot substitute themselves for humans. Could an angel do it? At least an angel is sinless. Again, an angel does not bear human nature. An angel could not stand as a representative of mankind and suffer in our place. Could God suffer in his divine nature, perhaps, on our behalf? Could he? No. Again, divine nature cannot suffer. God is unchanging, eternal, impassable, without body parts. Our passions, God cannot suffer. So what's the answer? Only the incarnation, only the God-man can suffer in the place of sinners. as the church father Gregory Nazianzus put it, that which is not assumed is not healed. In other words, Christ had to assume our full humanity in body and soul in order to redeem us, body and soul. Because man sins, so man must pay the penalty. As William Perkins said, in that nature in which God was offended, in that same nature must satisfaction be made. So man must suffer in the place of man. Man must bear the penalty. And yet not just any man will do. A sinful man cannot stand in the place of other sinful men. He already owes his own debt to the law. Only a sinless man can stand as a substitute. And that is exactly what Christ was and is, as Hebrews 7, 26 declares. For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. And yet, even a sinless man would not be enough because the wrath of God is infinite. The punishment due to us is eternal. To bear such wrath and emerge victorious requires not only sinlessness but also divinity. Only a person who is truly God could offer a sacrifice of infinite worth and then apply that benefits to countless sinners. So a merely human sinner would not be worthy enough A divine savior only could not die, but in Christ, the God-man, we have both. One able to suffer in his humanity and one worthy enough to offer that sacrifice in his divinity. This is why the incarnation was necessary. The eternal son became man that he might serve in our place and that he might suffer in our place, thus securing our righteousness and bearing our curse. This is what Christ accomplished through the incarnation. We've considered the act of the incarnation, the accomplishment of the incarnation. Let's now consider its application. What difference does the incarnation make in the life of the Christian? How does the fact that the Word became flesh shape your faith, your walk, and your worship? Well first, the incarnation invites you to draw near to Christ with confidence. The incarnation invites you to draw near to Christ with confidence. Perhaps you know the feeling of having a relationship with someone where you never really know where you stand. Maybe it's a boss at work, maybe it's a coworker, maybe, who knows, maybe it's a parent. And you feel like no matter what you do, you never really know where you stand with that person. No matter how hard you work, no matter how much effort you make, there's always that feeling of unease and uncertainty. You're never quite sure where you stand with them. Beloved, that's not the case with Christ. With Christ, it couldn't be more different, because the incarnation declares that Jesus left no distance between you and God. He has secured your place with the Father, and so you can draw near to him without fear, without doubt, without wavering or uncertainty. William Perkins puts it this way quite well, I think. We should excite ourselves every way to draw near to him as much as possible we may. For when he was incarnate, he came near to us by taking our nature upon him. that we again, whatsoever we are, might come near unto him by taking unto us his divine nature. You see, in the incarnation, Jesus drew near to us in the most intimate way possible. He bridged the infinite gap between God and man. He took the form of a servant, uniting himself to human nature. and he lived a perfect life for you in your place, and he bore your sins upon himself on the cross, all to bring you into fellowship with him. Every step of his life, his birth, his obedience, his suffering, his resurrection, was for you, dear Christian, to draw you to himself. There was no cost that he did not pay, there was no length he did not go to, to make you his own. I think so much of our spiritual weariness, stagnation, lethargy comes from forgetting this truth. But when these feelings arise, when doubts or guilt threaten to hold you back from pursuing Christ, remember, dear Christian, that he has already drawn near to you. Remember that your salvation does not depend on how strong your faith feels today. You know, am I saved today? You know, it's on again, off again, or with the daisy, he loves me, he loves me not. No, your relationship to God is not like that. Your relationship is secure because of Christ. You are accepted in the beloved because of your substitute who lived a perfect life for you and died a perfect death for you, who drew near to you in the most intimate way possible in the incarnation. And so may this truth excite you in the words of Perkins, to draw near to him, draw near, confessing your sins, worshiping his majesty and resting in his all-sufficient grace. Second point of application, the incarnation gives us a pattern for life. In Philippians chapter two, we read it in the call to worship, but Paul is speaking to the church in Philippi and he tells them to put on the mind of Christ. And then he goes on to describe what this mind is. He says, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So Paul here, of course, is describing the incarnation. He's describing both the humility of Christ and then the exaltation of Christ. And this is the greatest act of humility that the world will ever know. And Paul says that this humility of our Savior in the incarnation is a pattern for us to follow. There's something about the humility of Christ that we are to put on, that we are to live out. Now, there's certain things about Christ's incarnation that obviously we can't do. We're not God, we don't suffer in the place of others. But there's something about what Christ does that is a pattern for us to follow in our lives. Well, Perkins, again, who's wonderful in this section, says, This teaches us to lay aside all self-love and pride of heart and to practice the duties of humility as the apostle exhorts the Philippians. And that shall we do when we begin to cast off that high opinion which every man by nature conceives of himself and become vile and base in our own eyes. I think he captures pride so well, doesn't he? Our pride whispers to us that You're better than other people. Our pride whispers that you don't need other people. Our pride tells us that we ought to serve self before others, or maybe even at the expense of other people. But as we meditate upon the incarnation, as we put on the mind of Christ, it does two things, doesn't it? One, it exposes that pride. It silences that whispering voice and says no. And then it also presents Christ before the eyes of our faith as the model and example for us to follow, as the one who is humble, certainly beyond whatever humility we can muster in ourselves, but the one who is worthy of our imitation. And so, Christian, meditate on the incarnation of Christ and let his pattern of humility shape your life in every context, every role of life, in every place, in every relationship. Put on this mind of humility that is yours in Christ Jesus. As a final application, let us confess the incarnation. Paul declares in 1 Timothy 3.16, great indeed we confess is the mystery of godliness. He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. Paul tells us that the incarnation, God manifest in the flesh, is something that the Christian must confess. And we do. Confession, in terms of the word Paul is using, means to verbally confess. It means to typically stand before witnesses and make a verbal affirmation. That's what we do whenever we stand together and we recite the Apostles' Creed. And in particular, that line, I believe in Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. And it's good that we do that, that we stand and we confess this verbally. But to confess something means much more than simply verbalizing something. It means that what you're putting out is already stored within you in the first place. That really is the heart of confession. It is that you first have stored this in your soul and you believe it. Again, think of how Mary, that's what she did. When the angel revealed to her the incarnation, she stored these things, she treasured them in her heart. You know, so often we complain that our hearts feel cold, don't we? We feel that our affections towards God are kind of running dry. We feel that our prayers maybe feel weak or routine or rote. But it bears considering, what is it that you're storing in your heart? What is it that you're feeding your soul upon? Certainly if it's something that's sinful, you need to repent and stop, but are we feeding upon the word of Christ? Are we feeding upon the doctrines of Christ? Because what we feed our soul with, just like with food, will reflect how the health of our soul, as it were, what you put in comes out, Jesus says. So what is it you're storing in your heart? What is it you're giving your time, your affections, your attention towards? Be encouraged to store up truth like the incarnation in your heart. Meditate on this glorious mystery that God the Son was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Consider that the one who reigns above all humbled himself to dwell among us. And more than that, that he suffered in our place and he served in our place, all so that we could be brought into communion with him. Beloved, like Mary, store this truth in your heart, and may it stoke the flames of your faith, hope, and love, so that your whole being will be directed towards the true purpose for which you were made, to glorify God, to enjoy Him forever, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, with the Apostle Paul, we say, great indeed is this mystery of godliness. Lord, we confess this to be our faith. We believe this wholeheartedly. We thank you for the incarnation that Christ, the eternal Son of God, would become man and take to himself a fully human nature and that he might serve and suffer in our place so that we who were Sons of unrighteousness and sons of sin and sons of wrath might be adopted as sons of you, our Heavenly Father. Lord, cause us to hold this truth and to store it deep inside our souls that it might continue to bear the fruits of greater faith, greater humility, and greater trust in this wonderful, glorious confession of our faith. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.