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Births: Christ's and Yours
Luke 1:26-38
by John Yates II (revised and delivered by Clancy Nixon)
December 18, 2005
Church of the Holy Spirit
Ashburn, Virginia
I remember when my mother told me the story of the day I was born. Because my
mother had RH negative blood, and my father B positive, my birth was traumatic for my
mother. After she gave birth, she lost fluid in her skull, her brain collapsed onto her
spinal column, and she almost died. She had to remain in the hospital for over a month
after I was born. She did recover. I remained with her there, and the nurses picked me up
every time I cried. Maybe that explains something about me, I don't know!
My own sons never tire of the stories of the day they were born. Our birth is a big
moment in each of our personal histories, when people laughed, cried, and hugged one
another. They celebrated; they smoked cigars; they drank champagne. They forgot all
their problems--at least for a while--just because of your birth.
One week from today, we celebrate not our own birth, but the birth of Jesus.
Here's another birth story we never tire of hearing, although we know the details by heart.
The account of your birth and mine will soon be forgotten by most people, but not Jesus'
birth story. He is the Son of God.
In many ways, Jesus' story is like yours and mine. Mary, his mother, endured the
same discomfort and uncertainty about her unborn child that your mother did, and when
he came, it was painful for her. He was a helpless infant who needed to be fed, clothed,
and cleaned, just like all of us. But from the beginning, the very beginning, it was clear
he was different from you and me. The angel Gabriel announced his conception, and a
host of angels sang at his birth.
He was God's own Son, born of a virgin. Though Mary was his mother, Joseph
was not the birth father- he was an adoptive father. God, miraculously put his own seed
into the womb of this maiden that had never slept with a man. In this way, God entered
the human race. Jesus was wholly God and wholly man.
In the middle of the city of London is Trafalgar Square. Atop a tall pillar, there is
a statue of Admiral Nelson. In my visits to London, I've seen the pillar. The statue is so
high up that it's impossible to distinguish any of his features. So, about fifty years ago, a
new statue--an exact replica of the statue of Nelson--was erected at eye level, so that
everyone could see it close up. This is what God was doing at Christmas, coming down
from the heights of heaven in the person of Jesus so that we might know what God is like
at eye level.
Jesus was born just as we were born. He lived and grew just as we did, except that
at every stage he showed us how to live. He had no regrets. He had no sins. He lived this
earthly life from a heavenly perspective. He saw as God in heaven sees. And his words
are the very words of God. When we look at Jesus' life, we see so much in it that attracts
us, don't we? We see his wisdom, his power, His force of character. His sense of
command. His willingness to sacrifice. His goodness. His holiness. Jesus is unique.
And we need him. Our lives are incomplete without him. That's why we're here
today. We need him, and the message of Christmas is that we can have him. No, instead,
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he can have us. He's too mighty for us to have him. How does it happen? How does the
one who's the very Son of God become real in our lives?
It begins with understanding that God created us. The word Moses used in
Genesis 1 for the work of the Holy Spirit in creating the universe is the same word used
by Luke when he speaks of God's Spirit coming upon Mary. The Spirit of God
"overshadowed Mary," Luke says, and he put life in her--the life of Jesus, the life of God
himself.
In the beginning the Holy Spirit put the same spiritual life into mankind. The
presence of God was alive within Adam and Eve. That is part of what it means when the
Bible says, "He created them in his own image, male and female." In the beginning, God
was present in man's life. Adam and Eve knew God and walked with God and talked with
God. But man turned away from God. Humanity's first parents disobeyed God, so God
withdrew his presence. The Spirit of God no longer dwelt within men. People were just
people.
Since that time, all of us are born naturally selfish, grasping for ourselves and for
our own. We see things first and foremost from our own perspective. Looking out for
ourselves is the most natural thing in the world. This is why we have to have laws, police,
prisons, and armies. We're all as different from Jesus as day is from night. He's the Son of
God. We're just people.
But that's not the whole story. The same Holy Spirit who created all life at the
beginning and who came upon Mary, bringing to life the Son of God, is still at work
today, bringing new life to sinners like you and me.
I know in America many people say things like this: "Yes, I know God. I talk to
God from time to time. I believe in Jesus. I pray. I try to be a good person." But Jesus
said that unless the same Holy Spirit who came upon Mary comes to live within a person
as the Lord of his life, that person does not really know God and does not have God's life
within him.
Let me give you an example. A couple of summers ago, I bought a lawn mower.
Will has used this mower to mow people's lawns and earn a little spending money. It's a
two-stroke mower, which means that it is designed to operate on a mixture of gasoline
and oil together. It will operate on gasoline alone, but if it doesn't have the oil mixed in,
it's just a matter of time before the engine burns up. The oil enables the lawnmower to
run as it is intended to run.
Now, the coming of the Spirit of God into your life is like putting oil in the
machine. We're made by God in such a way that, if his Spirit is living inside of us, we
live life to the full, and we live forever--even beyond the grave. But without Christ in
our life, we sputter and overheat. We never achieve our potential. Eventually, we break
down altogether. Without the presence of God dwelling in our lives, it's like running a
two-stroke mower on gasoline alone. It works for a while, but it runs poorly, and finally
it breaks down. Many people, even in the church, are living just that way.
The Apostle Paul was praying for some friends. Let me read what he prayed. He
said, "I fall down on my knees and pray to the Father that out of his glorious, unlimited
resources, he will give you the mighty inner strengthening of his Holy Spirit. And I
pray," Paul said, "that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts, living within
you as you trust in him." (Ephesians 3:16,17)
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Here's how it happens. Jesus said a change must take place in your life that is
every bit as important as your own physical birth. It's like being born, except that while
our birth was physical, the birth that he makes possible, the second birth, is spiritual.
Maybe this is what Tennyson had in mind when he was frustrated with himself, and he
cried out, "Oh, that a man might arise in me, that the man I am might cease to be!"
In a sense that's what happens. It's not really that the person we are ceases to be.
Instead, the presence of the Lord Christ comes into our lives and helps us to become the
persons we long to be. You see, there's a place inside each of us, our center, and it was
made for God. Either God comes to dwell there, or someone or something else dwells
there. Only you know who is there in your heart--you and God. You can think of the
center as the throne of your life who or what is your King, your guiding light, your
governor.
Many things can dwell there in the central place. It may be that your self is there,
or your family is there. Or your work. It may be a relationship with another person. It
may be pleasure. It may be knowledge. Many things can become God to us. But only
when Christ becomes God to us, and when we give him the first place in our life, can the
presence of God come and dwell in the central place of our lives, on the throne of our
lives.
Mother Teresa said, "Pray for me, that my concern for the poor will not distract
me from Jesus Christ." Anything, even working for God, can take the place of God in us.
When you were born, you and your mother did a wonderful thing together.
Through her body, she let you know that it was time to be born. And you, tiny little
person that you were, said, "Okay," and you were born.
God works in the same way with spiritual birth. He lets you know when it's time.
He says, "Come to me. Let me take away those things in your life that should not be
there: the pride that is unwilling to say, 'God, you have your way, I'm number two;' that
unwillingness to forgive; the relationship that isn't the way it ought to be.
God says, "Let me take these things away and bring into your life the Spirit of
Christ. Believe in me, confess these things as sin, and then let me wash them away and
fill you with my presence. I will never leave you. As you follow me and trust me and
obey me, I will make you whole. And what I begin to do in your life now, I'll complete in
you throughout eternity."
Over the last few days, you have been concerned with many things. You've been
thinking about loved ones and how to honor them at Christmas. But at this moment, I just
want you to think about yourself and your God. Anything else in life is secondary to that
right now. Think about turning your life completely over to him. Allow him to fill you
with his presence. It's the most important thing you can ever do.
Being born is such a simple process. We simply cooperate with our mother. So it
is with spiritual birth. We simply cooperate with our heavenly Father. He says to us,
"This is the time to let me come into your life and take control." Then we say, "Yes. Yes,
Lord, I believe, and I give all of myself that I can to all that I know of you."
Let's pray.
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