THE MANGER AND THE CROSS LUKE 2:1-18 2ND STREET COMMUNITY CHURCH / SUNDAY, 24 DECEMBER, 2006 GREGG LAMM / LEAD PASTOR-TEACHER .PPT 1 … One of the biggest turnarounds in music history is the story of Michael Jackson. He holds the record for the most copies of one album ever sold. In the 1970’s and 1980’s he was famous all around the world – in Europe, Africa, Asia and in the Americas. And then, he not only had a serious run-in with weirdness, but his record sales took a major nosedive, to the point that his recordings now sell about 1/50th of what they used to. And this decline in album sales all began with a 1995 double-CD Greatest Hits album entitled HIStory. Not History, but HIStory. Even after Sony Records invested tens of millions of dollars promoting it, this album was a colossal failure. And I remember that when I heard about this I can’t say I was all that sad. Because when I heard that Jackson had taken the word “history” and divided it into two words, “his” and “story” … it kind of ticked me off. Not because he didn’t have a right to do this, but because I’ve been saying for years that the word “history” needs to be divided in two, not referring to Michael Jackson and his life story, but referring to Jesus Christ and His story. HIS-STORY … because all of history is really about Jesus Christ. All of history is about HIStory … the STORY OF JESUS CHRIST. When Jesus Christ moved into the neighborhood, He impacted history so profoundly that history itself was literally split into two pieces … BC and AD. As 21st Century, Western Christians we usually say that BC means “Before Christ” and AD means “After Death”. But really, BC = “Before Caesar” and AD = “Anno Domini” But without quibbling about the specifics, whether you’re a follower of Jesus Christ, an agnostic, or an atheist, I think we can all agree that the reason the time-line of BC and AD was drawn in the sand was because everything up until roughly 2,007 years ago was “the world before Jesus Christ came to earth as a baby” and everything since roughly 2,007 years ago is marked in time as “everything that has occurred in the world since the birth of Jesus Christ.” Jesus Christ is unique in all of history because He literally … and chronologically split history into two pieces. There have been a lot of great men and women who’ve been born on this planet, but none of them has had the lasting depth of impact on the world as Jesus Christ has. So what makes Him so different? I think that what makes Jesus Christ different is that from His very birth, His life always pointed to His death. From the first night of His life here on earth, as Jesus Christ was born and then as He slept in that manger in a grotto or a stable outside of Bethlehem … His life was always moving toward, and pointing toward, and His life would ultimately find it’s purpose in His death.

And that, my friends, is what makes Jesus Christ absolutely unique in all of history. Think with me about some other world-changers … and let’s ponder whether their deaths completed and fulfilled their mission here on earth, or whether their deaths, to a large extent, interrupted, and ended their work here on earth. Socrates … the famous Greek philosopher. When Socrates drank that poisonous hemlock mixture and took his own life … his philophising stopped! His death interrupted his mission, it didn’t fulfill it. Julius Caesar … the Emperor of The Roman Empire. Day-by-day Caesar was expanding his empire and his influence, enlarging his power-base and becoming more famous. But when Julius Caesar’s life was taken on the floor of the Roman Senate, his life and his mission ended. Mother Teresa … the great and humble Catholic sister from Albania who lived in Calcutta, offering her life for the dying – and inviting others to join her in coming alongside the poorest of the poor. Yes, when Mother Teresa died, others continued on with her work, but her work didn’t find its completion, its beauty, or fulfillment in her death. Abraham Lincoln … a wise man of God. And yet Lincoln’s work of reconstructing the United States after the Civil War wasn’t made complete at the time of his assassination. His work was interrupted. Or what about people in our time … John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., or Yitzhak Rabin … and of course, the list could go on and on. But we could not come up with a list of people whose lives pointed toward their deaths, and in whose deaths we find the sacrifice and the completion that we find in the life and death of Jesus Christ. And this is what makes Jesus Christ so different. His mission, His work, His life wasn’t interrupted by His death. He came to die. Death was the reason He came. And so in LUKE 2, when we read the “Christmas Story” we see, not only the birth of Jesus Christ, but we also see the death of Jesus Christ clearly foreshadowed. It’s my prayer for each of us here on this morning before Christmas, that Jesus Christ will open the eyes of our hearts to see His mission more fully, to see His passion more intimately, and to see His life and His death more profoundly. And that in seeing these things, each of us will respond to Jesus Christ in new ways … in ways that begin to change us, form us, and rebuild us from the inside out! Because what greater Christmas gift could we be given than a brand new understanding of who Jesus Christ is and a greater insight into why Jesus Christ stepped out of heaven with the very purpose of stepping into our lives? In MATTHEW 1:21, the Angel Gabriel said to Mary, the mother of Jesus, “You will call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (MATTHEW 1:21). And so with this purpose of Jesus Christ in mind, what greater Christmas gift could we give back to Jesus Christ than the gift of our hearts – asking Him to be our LORD and Savior –asking Him to do what He came to do … to save us from our sins. 2

Let me lead you through TEN of the most obvious foreshadowings that began in Bethlehem, just six miles South of Jerusalem on the night Jesus was born, and that ended, thirty-three years later on a hill called Mt. Calvary, just North from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. And then after I share these foreshadowing realities – which are just some of the ways the manger of Christ points to the cross of Christ – I’m going to offer you an application that, if you choose to respond to it, could be the most important decision of your life – and it could happen right here on this Sunday morning, one day before Christmas 2006. Let’s pray … PRAYER … Turn in your Bibles to LUKE 2 … and let’s begin to look at why Jesus Christ was born to die. X 2 SLIDES

.PPT 2-3 … READ LUKE 2:1-7 (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE)

So FIRST, we begin in Bethlehem. And what was going on? There’s no room for Joseph and Mary at the Bethlehem Hilton – because Caesar Augustus had ordered that a census be taken and so the city was packed beyond capacity. And why did Caesar want to take a census? Well it wasn’t so that he’d have more accurate records so he could get all his Christmas cards to the right addresses. No. Caesar Augustus had the census taken so he could more accurately charge and collect taxes. I guess that when it comes to the government, not much has changed … all EFFICIENCY is related to RAISING MONEY … and all INEFFICIENCY is related to SPENDING MONEY … and the beat goes on! Now fast-forward thirty-three years … and now it’s Jerusalem, not Bethlehem that’s packed beyond capacity. But this time it’s not because of taxation. This time it’s a celebration … the Jewish Feast of the Passover. In Bethlehem there was no room in the Inn, but now, in Jerusalem there was no room for Jesus Christ in the Nation of Israel. “We won’t have this man rule over us. He’s not our King!” the crowds shouted with clenched fists and grinding teeth. There was no room for Jesus in Jerusalem, just as thirty-three years earlier there wasn’t room for Him in Bethlehem. SECOND … In Bethlehem, in the story of the Nativity, we see Joseph and Mary settling into a borrowed room … the manger scene … where Jesus Christ “the baby” would have His first supper, at Mary’s breast. And thirty-three years later, in Jerusalem, we see Jesus, in another borrowed room … not at a grotto next to an Inn, but in the upper room of someone’s house. And we see Jesus Christ, “the soon to be betrayed and crucified Son of God” having His last supper at a table, surrounded by His disciples, one of whom would betray Him before the night was over. THIRD, in LUKE 2:7, we read about Mary giving birth to Jesus in Bethlehem, wrapping Him in cloths and laying Him in a manger. A manger was simply a “feeding trough.” You’ve probably seen what I’m talking about. More than likely it was either a wooden manger, or a little stone ledge carved into a rock … made to hold the hay up off the floor so the animals could easily get to it. 3

In JOHN 6, it’s 29 AD and the Spring of Jesus’ first year of public ministry. And in v. 35, after feeding over 5,000 people by multiplying a few loaves and fishes, and then after walking out to His disciples on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus told the people with Him in Capernaum (a town on the NW corner of the Sea of Galilee), that “He was the bread of life,” and “whoever would come to Him would never be hungry again, and whoever believed in Him would never thirst again.” Jesus, the “Bread of Life” was born in the city of Bethlehem, which literally means “The House (or the City) of Bread” ... and He was placed into a feeding trough. And then thirty-three years later we see Jesus in an upper room in Jerusalem. MATTHEW 26:26 says “Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing He broke it and gave it to the disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’” What an amazing fulfillment in Jerusalem of the picture first painted thirty-three years earlier in Bethlehem. The “Bread of Life”, born in the “City of Bread” becoming “The bread, broken for us, given up for us, dying for your sin and for my sin” in Jerusalem, the “City of Peace.” To see the FOURTH parallel between the manger and the cross, come back with me to Bethlehem. Mary, this very pregnant young girl and Joseph, her wood-working fiancé came down from Galilee, out of the town of Nazareth, to the region of Judea, about 85 miles to the south, and into the town of Bethlehem. And while they were there, standing in line, filling out census forms and trying to figure out if they had enough money left to get dinner, the time came for Mary to have her child. The donkey ride probably got things going. I mean, ladies, imagine riding a donkey for 85 miles at the end of your third trimester! Today we use Italian food and castor oil to nudge nature along – but how about riding a donkey from Newberg to Hood River! Ya – I think that would probably do the trick. And so Mary’s water broke, and her blood flowed and “the time” came for Mary to give birth to Jesus arrived. Okay, now go with me thirty-three years into the future, and six miles North to Jerusalem. Outside the city, on Mount Calvary, Jesus Christ goes through the labor pains of the cross … giving birth to salvation. And as horrible as the pain Mary experienced while she gave birth to Jesus that night in Bethlehem, it was nothing compared to the pain Jesus Christ felt thirty-three years later as the labor pains of salvation passed through His body when He was whipped and beaten, as the crown of thorns was jammed onto His head, as the nails were driven through His arms and feet – and as He hung on the cross. JOHN 19:34 says that when the soldier’s sword pierced Jesus’ side, “blood and water flowed out of Him as He died”, just as they flowed out of his mother Mary when He was born. Water and blood … there’s no birth without water and blood … and for Jesus, there was no death without them either. We’ll never know the full weight of the labor pains Jesus went through for you and for me. And what exactly was birthed out of Jesus’ side, when that blood and water flowed? You and me! For we were given the gift of being “born again” at the very moment Jesus died in our place for our sin. We’re birthed from His side. 4

“Wait Gregg! Terrible analogy!” you might say. “We aren’t birthed from Jesus side!” But this imagery isn’t crazy when we understand Bible typology and symbolism. In the Garden of Eden, God put Adam, the first man, was put into a deep sleep, and opened up his side, took out one of his ribs and fashioned a bride for him named Eve. The Apostle Paul, in FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:45 says that Jesus Christ is the “last Adam” and when Jesus Christ was on the cross, and when His side was split open by the soldier’s spear, and when His blood and water flowed out, God the Father was birthing a bride for Him … and that bride was the church … it was you and it was me, and it was Believers all over the world, for centuries to come. Do you see it? The imagery is perfect. X 3 SLIDES

.PPT 4-5-6 … READ LUKE 2:8-18 (NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE)

FIFTH, in these verses in LUKE 2 we read that it was nighttime when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. So too, thirty-three years later, as Jesus hung on the cross outside of Jerusalem, we’re told in MATTHEW 27:45, that from 12 noon until 3:00 in the afternoon the sun stopped shining … all the land went dark … right in the middle of the day … as the Son of God, the “Light of the World” took on the sin of the world. And so just as Jesus Christ, the Light of the World was born in Bethlehem in the darkness of night … so too, thirty-three years later, Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, would die for the dark sins of the world in the dark in Jerusalem. SIXTH, when Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph got Him all cleaned up and looked down at His naked little body … and they probably did what most parents do … they no doubt, counted his fingers and toes to make sure that they’d all safely made the trip. And then they no doubt heard their new little son cry out in hunger – and they probably smiled as Mary brought Jesus close and fed Him His first meal. And then thirty-three years later, Mary, this time alone, for history tells us that Joseph had died by this time … and this time Mary would stand, not at a foot of a manger, but at the foot of a cross, and she would look, not down at her Son, but up at Him as He hung on the cross. And she would hear Him crying once again. But this time she wouldn’t smile. This time she would join Him in His crying. For as she stood there looking at her near-naked Son hanging on the cross, her loss was as unbearable as it would be for any parent viewing the death of their child. Peter would tell us in his Gospel, penned by Mark, that as Jesus was dying, He cried out from the cross, not with cries of hunger, but with cries of abandonment … speaking in Aramaic the words King David cried out centuries before … the words recorded in PSALM 22:1, “Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani” which means “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” And when Mary heard this final cry from her son, her heart, no doubt, broke in two, as the Son she loved died for the sins of the world … for her sins, for your sins, and for my sins. SEVENTH, in LUKE 2:8-18 we see find the shepherds on the hills outside of Bethlehem, watching their flocks by night. And since shepherds wouldn’t just leave their flocks out on the hill, when they went into the town of Bethlehem to find the One the Angels had told them about, they probably took their flocks with them. 5

In MATTHEW 26:31, thirty-three years later during the Last Supper in Jerusalem, we hear Jesus speaking prophetically to His closest friends, quoting in part from The Old Testament, from ZECHARIAH 13:7 … “You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep of the flocks shall be scattered.’” And that’s exactly what happened. For on the night of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, the flock came together as the shepherds came to the manger to worship. But thirtythree years later, following the Last Supper, the flock was scattered after Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane and taken to stand trial before Caiaphas, Herod and Pilate. Jesus was arrested and His disciples ran – which leads us to the EIGHTH connection between the manger and the cross. After His arrest, all of Jesus’ disciples scattered except for John. Yes, Peter stuck around for part of the evening, but when it came down to who showed up at the foot of the cross, we’re just left with John. On “Mount Calvary” on the hill called Golgotha, which was also known as “The Place Of The Skull” … Jesus looked down from the cross and who did He see? He sees His mother Mary, and there, huddled next to her is His good friend, the “one He loved like a brother,” John. And with some of the last words He would speak before dying, Jesus lovingly asks John to take care of Mary as if she was his own mother … and John says “Yes, Jesus, of course I will.” And JOHN 19:27 says, “And from that hour John took Mary into his own household.” At the manger, Joseph and Mary were Jesus’ family – they were the ones who most intimately welcomed Him into the world. And thirty-three years later, at the foot of the cross, Mary and John were Jesus’ family – for they were the ones who most intimately stood by Him and with Him as He became our sacrifice. NINTH, at Bethlehem, Joseph was Jesus’ father, not biologically … but according to God’s plan, he was indeed Jesus’ father. And no doubt, on the night of Jesus’ birth, Joseph was the one who picked up his newborn son, wrapped him in cloths, and laid Him in the manger. Joseph was no doubt the one who first gazed into the eyes of the One who would be His Savior, and wondered what all of this would mean to him in the years to come. Listen to a few words from pastor and author Max Lucado describing what Joseph’s perspective might have been like on the holy night of Christ’s birth … Joseph can’t remember the last time he sat down. And now that Mary and their new son are comfortable, he leans against the rock wall of the stable and feels his eyes grow heavy. He still hasn’t figured it all out. The mystery of it all, I mean. A father ... but not married? A virgin ... yet a mother? A baby son ... yet God? His head is swimming with questions but he doesn’t have the energy to wrestle them. What’s important in his mind now is that the baby’s fine and Mary’s safe. 6

And so he curls up next to them and rubs and soothes Mary’s weary body and listens to the cooing and the yawning of his new son and then finally, as sleep comes near, he remembers the name the angel told him to use and he looks at his little boy and whispers, “We’ll call you ‘Jesus.’” So on the night of Jesus’ birth, it was Joseph who would care for Him. But thirtythree years later another Joseph, a man by the name of Joseph of Arimathea would come to Pilate and ask for Jesus’ body. For while thirty-three years earlier Joseph, Jesus’ father wrapped Him up in birth-cloths, in MATTHEW 27:57-60, we read that Joseph of Arimathea wrapped Jesus’ body in a linen burial-cloth and put Him to rest in the tomb that he’d had carved out of rock for himself … but which he was now giving to His Messiah. And finally, TENTH, we know, from MATTHEW 2 that Wise Men came from the East to worship Jesus. They saw a sign, a star in the sky, and they followed it all the way to Bethlehem. And they brought gifts with them … gold, frankincense and myrrh. Myrrh was a burial spice. It was a resin-like, aromatic gum substance extracted from the leaves of the Cistus Rose. It had a strong, beautiful smell, and it was most-often crumbled up and wrapped within the layers of the burial clothes. In The Old Testament Queen Esther used myrrh as a beauty treatment. Sometimes it was mixed with wine and used to relieve pain – kind of a low-dose, Middle-Eastern Tylenol. But the Wise Men brought myrrh to Jesus as a gift … and in giving it to Him they foreshadowed His death. Thirty-three years later, in JOHN 19:39-40, we read that Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes … about 100 pounds of it … and used it along with the burial cloths as he and Joseph of Arimathea prepared Jesus’ body for burial in the tomb. And then on the first day of the week, at early dawn, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, brought spices to further anoint Jesus’ body. The Wise Men brought myrrh to Jesus while following a star. But these women, at the rising of the sun, came to His tomb, ready to anoint Jesus with spices, probably myrrh. But when they arrived Jesus wasn’t in the tomb. He’d come back to life. I share all of this with you this morning because from the moment Jesus came to earth, He came knowing that He’d come to die. Unlike any other person who’s ever been born, Jesus alone splits history … and all of history becomes HIStory. “Why?” you might ask. “Why did Jesus need to die?” Because you and I are sinful people, and our sin has separated us from God. And so Jesus Christ came to die, in order to become the perfect and lasting sacrifice that would bridge the gap between us and God the Father. Nobody else could do for us what Jesus did. But not only that … let me offer you a final reason why Jesus was born to die. He came to die as a practical illustration of HOW TO LIVE! And this is the key. From the very moment Jesus left all the glory of heaven, took on a human body and moved into the neighborhood … He began teaching us, in His example, how to live. When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River by His cousin John the Baptist, God the Father spoke out of heaven saying, “This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well 7

pleased.” For you see, for Jesus, baptism symbolized His willingness to eventually die for our sins. And from that moment on, in each moment of Jesus’ life, He was intentional about living with a perspective toward the goal of going to the cross so He could offer the gift of salvation to you and to me. And my friends, without understanding this is, we’ll never really have a “Merry Christmas.” Jesus knew that one thing was before Him – the cross and His death. And keeping that in mind … did it make Him depressed or afraid, or did it paralyze Him from making good choices? No way. Jesus said in JOHN 10:10, “I have come that you might have life, and have it abundantly.” And when people heard about the kind of life Jesus had come to invite them into … well-educated people, rugged men, bright women, people of all races, creeds and in all levels of society … they woke up to their need for a Savior and started following Him. Jesus offers us a life that we’re hungry for – that we’ve been looking for – that fascinates us, that draws us into wanting to follow Him. He teaches us how to live life abundantly, fully, and with peace … how to live life with a centeredness and stability … lives of reconciliation and forgiveness, lives of hope and promise. And here’s how Jesus lived this kind of life and made it appealing enough that others still want to join Him in it … here’s the key … JESUS LIVED LIFE BACKWARDS … and that’s the only way life really works … always living life with an eye towards death. Because as we LIVE LIFE BACKWARDS we do so with a perspective that keeps us sharp, on purpose, and in focus with God. Suppose an angel came to you tonight and said, “Tomorrow night you’ll die and go to heaven.” What would you do if you knew that you only had one more day to live? Would you complain about the traffic at the Mall? What would you do if you were told that tomorrow night you’d have your own personal Silent Night? What would you do? Would you go home from your Angelic Visitation, plop down in your recliner and “CLICK” on Oprah, or Football, or Cartoons? If an angel came to you and said, “Do not be afraid. For I bring you good news of great joy! Tomorrow night you will be with your Heavenly Father in the Big House.” Honestly, what would you do? Chances are, you wouldn’t worry about your bills or complain about the Trailblazers. No, you’d probably grab your wife or you husband or you kids, or your friends, or all of the above, and you’d tell them how much you loved them. And you’d deal with some of the issues of unforgiveness or bitterness that you’ve ignored far too long. You’d go over to that friend of yours that you’ve been praying for for a long time … or to that family member … or to that son or daughter … or to your grandchild … and you’d tell them about the importance of coming into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You’d grab your kids and you’d say, “I’ve been a slacker … and there’s some stuff that I need to tell you, some truths I need to pass onto you, there’s some character I want to see built into the foundations of your lives … please forgive me for not doing it sooner … I just pray that you’ll listen to me now.” 8

Do you see it? Do you see the “meaning” that comes to life when we LIVE LIFE BACKWARDS? When we live life with an eye towards our death? ILLUSTRATION: WHAT DO YOU WANT ON YOUR TOMBSTONE? … This perspective won’t make us negative. It won’t get us down. In fact, it will give us passion, and meaning. Gang, this is the kind of life, the kind of perspective Jesus is calling us to this morning. Maybe you’re thinking that you’ve got a big transition in the near future, so you’ll put off adopting this kind of perspective for a little while. Maybe you’re retiring soon, or getting married, or transitioning to a new career, or having a child, or getting the kids out of the house, or starting college, or finishing college … whatever it may be that you might want to use as an excuse to not live this kind of a life … I want to challenge you this morning to put your excuses away, be honest about how short-sighted any kind of excuse is … grab God by the hand and start LIVING LIFE BACKWARDS. Life is short. And we’ll only follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ when we choose to die to ourselves daily, take up our cross and follow Him … as we choose to keep the cross before us daily. This is the perspective Jesus had, and it’s the perspective He’s calling us to, as we get ready to celebrate His birth tonight and tomorrow. Whatever is under the tree for you on Christmas morning … whatever it is … ultimately, it won’t make you happy. Oh, it might bring you some momentary happiness, a smile and little bit of joy. But let’s face it. Before we know it, eventually almost all of what’s under the tree with our name on it, will be in a garage sale or dropped off at Goodwill! Seriously! But when we choose to live life with an eternal perspective, with an eye toward the reality that Jesus Christ came, died, and rose again … all because He wants to enter into a relationship with us – setting us free from sin, giving us a new life in Him … and that tomorrow, or tonight, or in the next month, that we could die … this is what will keep us on track with Jesus Christ and in step with Him. What do you want to leave when you’re gone … to your wife, to your husband, to your kids, to your family and to your friends? How about the example, that THE WAY TO LIVE IS TO DIE. THE WAY TO LIVE IS TO DIE. THE WAY TO LIVE IS TO DIE. Jesus Christ was born to die … and so the manger and the cross will always be inextricably woven together. And this morning, as we approach the celebration of His birth, Jesus calls us to partner with Him in that perspective … for this is the way to real life! Merry Christmas! INVITATION TO JESUS … Close in prayer … .PPT 7 … NEXT SUNDAY … THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS … 9:00 & 10:45 A.M. COME PRAYING AND EXPECTING! 9