Jesus Enters The Race
Luke 2:21-24
October 8, 2017
Some things have now become obvious to us
In our study of Luke’s gospel.
1) God is sending the Savior
• We heard Gabriel announce to Zacharias how his son would make the way for
this coming Savior.
• We heard Gabriel announce to Mary how her Son would be named Jesus
• We heard Zacharias prophesy how God was sending the “horn of salvation” to
provide “salvation from our enemies”
• We heard the angel announce to the shepherds that “today in the city of David
there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord”
The point is rather obvious, God is sending the Savior.
Also obvious:
2) God is sending this Savior to those who are hungering for righteousness.
In fact, we could say that God is sending this Savior to those
Who fit all of those beatitudes we read about in Matthew 5.
Those who are poor in spirit, who mourn over sin, who are submissive to God, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who are pure in heart.
This is obvious because in all the commotion that has occurred
And in all the people who have been included in this process,
NOTICEABLY ABSENT are those chief priests, Pharisees and Sadducees.
God is revealing this to outcasts, to the forgottens;
People like an old barren couple and a 13 year old Jewish virgin
And a group of lowly shepherds.
And more than just announcing these realities,
Luke is relentlessly driving them home to us.
And in doing so, Luke is also BUILDING OUR CHRISTOLOGY.
That is to say, he is reinforcing our theology on exactly who Jesus is.
Now LUKE DOESN’T do this by
Laying down some theological dissertation like Paul might.
LUKE DOES THIS by simply giving you the facts of history
And allowing you to ponder all that occurred.
And if you are willing (as Mary did) to “ponder all these things”
And consider what is actually happening here,
Then you will see exactly who Christ is and what He came to do.
Luke is giving history, but it is history with a point.
THIS MORNING,
Luke does it again by mentioning what no other gospel writer included.
Luke is going to reveal to you the facts about Jesus’ circumcision,
Mary’s purification, and Mary’s atonement.
And granted it can seem like these are just simple insignificant facts. After all, this was the norm for every other baby born as well.
And that is part of the point.
Luke is revealing in this point that
Jesus came just like every other male baby came.
He is not only born into the same world,
But He is also born into the same set of circumstances.
I called this sermon: “Jesus Enters The Race”
It is in part inspired by what the writer of Hebrew said.
Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
You remember that text where the writer of Hebrews
Is encouraging the Hebrews to continue running their race.
Don’t shrink back, don’t give up, just keep running.
Chapter 11 then was an entire chapter of faithful examples,
But in chapter 12 the writer holds up the ultimate example who is Jesus.
And of Jesus’ race the writer says this:
Namely that Jesus is “the author and perfecter of faith”
• And then the writer says that as such He ran His race
• With endurance and perfection and perfectly completed it,
• Even though it required such agonizing obstacles as the cross.
In calling Jesus “the author and perfecter of faith”
The writer is reminding his Jewish audience that
Jesus was not some sort of renegade rogue desperado type individual.
Jesus didn’t just come and wreak havoc.
When Jesus came He ran absolutely according to the rules.
In fact, He had to, or else He would have been disqualified.
When Jesus came to this earth to save sinners by entering their race,
He did not have the luxury of changing the rules to suit Himself.
The people He came to save were in a specific set of circumstances,
If He was to save them,
He had to enter those exact same circumstances.
It’s hard to save a person drowning if you’re not willing to get in the water.
Well humanity was drowning to say the least.
• Humanity was drowning in sin.
• Sin which was a part of our very human nature,
• And sin which was continually exposed to us through the Law of God.
Jesus had to enter both if He was to be able to save.
Now LUKE DOESN’T EXPLAIN all that in his text this morning,
But he is the only one who GIVES YOU THE HISTORY which solidifies it.
If you are willing to PONDER THIS a little this morning
You’ll gain a better understanding of exactly what Christ came to do.
There are three things I want you to see:
#1 JESUS’ CIRCUMCISION
Luke 2:21
We just read about the birth of Jesus
And that heavenly announcement to the shepherds.
Now Luke fast-forwards a week and says, “when eight days had passed, before His circumcision…”
My Bible has a margin note which also translates that verse,
“when eight days had passed, so as to circumcise Him…”
The obvious point is that Jesus was circumcised on the eight day,
Just as God had commanded.
Now that may SEEM LIKE AN INSIGNIFICANT FACT since it was common
That all Hebrew boys were circumcised on the eighth day.
But let’s talk about circumcision a little here.
Certainly you are aware of where it came from.
Genesis 17:9-14 “God said further to Abraham, “Now as for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. “This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised. “And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. “And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations, a servant who is born in the house or who is bought with money from any foreigner, who is not of your descendants. “A servant who is born in your house or who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised; thus shall My covenant be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. “But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
If you are familiar with the timeline of Genesis then you know
• God reveals His selection of Abraham in chapter 12.
• God saves Abraham in chapter 15 and actually enters into a covenant with him there.
• And then when we get to chapter 17 we get this sign of the covenant revealed which is circumcision.
God commanded that the foreskin be removed
From every male who was part of the covenant.
It may indeed seem like a strange sign, but it was perfectly fitting.
• It was in Adam that humanity fell into sin and suffered the curse, and then it was from Adam that the sin nature had passed down through all of his descendants.
• Through procreation humanity is literally conceived in iniquity and born in sin. It is spiritually genetic human condition.
Circumcision then was a sign of purification from that sin
By removing the foreskin of the procreative organ
And signifying the necessity of purification from Adam.
It was a PICTURE of the cleansing of sin,
And the REQUIRED sign of the covenant.
Now Israel understood the command
But they often failed to understand the significance or what it meant.
It was a physical sign which represented a spiritual reality.
Jeremiah said:
Jeremiah 4:4 “Circumcise yourselves to the LORD And remove the foreskins of your heart, Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Or else My wrath will go forth like fire And burn with none to quench it, Because of the evil of your deeds.”
Paul reiterated in Romans:
Romans 2:28-29 “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”
Obviously then the physical act was about a spiritual reality.
And if your heart didn’t match then the sign was pointless.
It is similar to something like baptism or the Lord’s Supper today. If you participate in the ordinance, but your heart is wrong then it is really quite pointless.
Water baptism to a person who has not been spiritually resurrected is nothing more than a bath.
Circumcision then was a sign which signified the purification of sinners.
In Romans 4 Paul also said that it was a “seal” (speaking of the faith and circumcision of Abraham and the righteousness when God credited to him, Paul asks:)
Romans 4:10-11 “How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them,”
So Paul said that was both a “sign” and a “seal”
The sign we understand, what does the seal mean?
The requirement of God for Abraham’s justification was faith;
That was made clear in Genesis 15.
But we also know that faith is always accompanied by obedience.
In fact, if you don’t have obedience then you don’t have faith.
So God, in response to Abraham’s faith, commanded circumcision.
Abraham proved his faith was genuine by obeying the command.
Thus, circumcision solidified or “sealed” his faith as genuine faith.
In fact if a person would not participate in circumcision and thus prove their faith genuine then they were to be cut off from God’s people.
Genesis 17:14 “But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
SO, circumcision then was a sign of the necessary cleansing from sin
And an indicator that a person’s faith was genuine.
THAT WE UNDERSTAND.
So why were people circumcising their babies?
Shouldn’t it have been like baptism where a person gets circumcised after they demonstrate faith?
Well, that’s not what was commanded.
Leviticus 12:1-3 “Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: ‘When a woman gives birth and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean for seven days, as in the days of her menstruation she shall be unclean. ‘On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.”
God commanded that male children be circumcised at 8 days of age.
This was a pledge of them entering covenant with God.
It was to enter that Mosaic covenant
And to agree to come under God’s Law.
NOW PLEASE UNDERSTAND that just because a child was circumcised did not automatically make them pleasing
If their faith never solidified then they were nothing more than religious hypocrites like Jesus came to expose.
But a parent took their child, commended them to God,
Acknowledged the sinful condition of that child, circumcised him, And pledged that this child would be under God’s covenant of Law
Now, just for a little theology understanding, this is the same basis for why other denominations practice pedo-baptism (infant baptism).
They bring their children to the Lord acknowledging that child’s sinful condition
And devoting them to the covenant of God.
We don’t do that for one simple reason.
It’s not commanded in Scripture, nor is it ever practiced in Scripture,
So we don’t see the purpose.
We also no longer command circumcision because we are not (and have never been) under the old covenant of Law, but are under the new covenant of grace in which Christ has fulfilled the Law and imputed His righteousness to us.
This is why Paul was so emphatic in telling the Gentiles in Galatia not to receive circumcision. They had already found Christ, they didn’t need the Law.
BUT I HOPE YOU BETTER UNDERSTAND THE REASON AND PURPOSE BEHIND CIRCUMCION.
BUT ALL OF THAT BEGS A REALLY IMPORTANT QUESTION:
WHY WAS JESUS CIRCUMCISED?
• Are we to assume that He was born in sin and therefore needed to have His flesh cleansed?
• Are we saying that Jesus inherited that sin nature from Adam?
NO, in fact that is the very significance of the virgin birth,
That Jesus did not descend from Adam,
But was instead conceived of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus did not inherit a sin nature.
Remember Gabriel called Him “the holy child” (1:35)?
While the sign of circumcision was fitting for every other Jew,
It did not fit the character or nature of this Jew.
He was already holy.
SO WHY DO IT?
Jesus was NOT circumcised because He needed cleansing,
Or because He needed the Law as a means of pleasing God.
Jesus was circumcised in order that
He might enter the race that the rest of Israel was running.
Jesus came under the Law
Because those He came to save were under the Law.
Jesus is fully God. That Law is His Law.
He wasn’t subject to it unless He made Himself subject to it.
And on this day, Jesus subjected Himself to that very thing.
He entered the race by coming under God’s Law.
And when He did, all of those commands, all of those ordinances,
All of those requirements became legally binding upon Him.
By entering the covenant Jesus was now legally bound
To perfectly fulfill all of God’s holy Law.
And He did it so that He might save those who were under the Law.
He jumped in the water because those He came to save were in the water.
Here we had the nation of Israel
Which did nothing but fall and fail under God’s holy Law.
In fact, later in the book of Acts,
• When you have Gentiles being saved (who were never under the Law)
• You have Jews who are confused.
• These Jews want the Gentiles to also come under the Law just like they were.
But Peter challenges that and in
His response reveals an important reality about the Law.
Acts 15:8-11 “And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. “Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? “But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.”
Did you hear what Peter called the Law?
“a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear”
All Israel had come under the Law and all Israel was failing terribly.
They needed a Savior.
They didn’t need a Savior who would stand outside the Law and offer advice, they needed a Savior who would enter the race and provide deliverance.
That is exactly what Jesus did.
Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”
Jesus came under the Law that He might perfectly fulfill the Law
That He might impute His perfect holy righteousness
To those who could not fulfill it on their own.
We’ve heard the story of those Moravian missionaries
• Who heard of an island that was completely owned by an atheist slave owner
who said no missionary would ever be allowed to his island.
• So two young Moravians sold themselves as slaves to the land owner that they
might go and witness to the slaves of that island.
We find stories like that almost unbelievable,
But what Jesus did was greater than even that.
For He left a far greater place and a far higher status
To enter a predicament that was far worse.
That also explains exactly what He was given the name that He was given.
“His name was then called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.”
Of course you remember that:
Luke 1:31 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.”
Perhaps more telling is what the angel said to Joseph after Mary’s conception.
Matthew 1:18-25 “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which translated means, “GOD WITH US.” And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.”
The name Jesus means “Yahweh Saves”
And If He is to be the Savior then He has to enter the battle.
That battle was against sin
And the absolute inability to satisfy God’s righteous requirements.
Jesus came and entered that race.
You see that in His circumcision.
#2 MARY’S PURIFICATION
Luke 2:22
Here Luke again mentions a rather routine fact.
“And when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were completed…”
We read it a moment ago.
Leviticus 12:2-5 “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: ‘When a woman gives birth and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean for seven days, as in the days of her menstruation she shall be unclean. ‘On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. ‘Then she shall remain in the blood of her purification for thirty-three days; she shall not touch any consecrated thing, nor enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are completed. ‘But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean for two weeks, as in her menstruation; and she shall remain in the blood of her purification for sixty-six days.”
• After a woman gave birth she was ceremonially unclean for 7 days.
• The child was then circumcised and the woman’s uncleanness continued. (33 days for a boy, 66 days for a girl)
During this time a woman was unclean.
Certainly there were health related issues involved from the Lord that served as a protective and healing time for the woman,
But ultimately it was a reminder of the fallen nature of humanity.
God is holy, man is not.
And a woman who had undergone childbirth is unclean before God.
What does all this have to do with Jesus?
• He was born of a woman.
• The woman who bore Him was unclean like any other woman.
That again speaks of the condition through which He entered this race.
He was human.
He was a human being, who entered this race
Like every other human being entered.
Consider the writer of Hebrews:
Hebrews 10:1-10 “For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME; IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE. “THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.'” After saying above, “SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS AND WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, NOR HAVE YOU TAKEN PLEASURE in them” (which are offered according to the Law), then He said, “BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
The writer reminded that although God had provided for a sacrificial system of bulls and goats, None of those sacrifices ever effectively satisfied God.
• God wanted righteousness.
• God wanted obedience.
• And this would never be accomplished by a bull.
A human had to do it.
So God prepared for Christ a human body.
A body that was born of a woman in the very same way
That every other human body entered this world.
Through all the struggle, through all the pain, through all the uncleanness that was associated with child birth;
Christ entered the world.
He was a human born of a woman.
Romans 8:1-4 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
He was born “in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin”
If He was going to satisfy the requirement of God on behalf of humanity,
Then He had to be a human who perfectly obeyed God’s commands.
Jesus didn’t avoid either obligation.
He became a human and He came under the Law.
Luke reminds you of that by simply reminding you that Mary gave birth to Him just like any other woman gave birth to their children.
Jesus’ Circumcision, Mary’s Purification
#3 MARY’S ATONEMENT
Luke 2:22b-24
We read that after Mary’s purification was completed:
“they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called Holy to the Lord”),
It also says that Joseph and Mary came
“to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the Law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
So what is happening here?
It begins with this prescribed dedication of Jesus and what that indicates.
The command of God was as follows:
Numbers 3:13 “For all the firstborn are Mine; on the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified to Myself all the firstborn in Israel, from man to beast. They shall be Mine; I am the LORD.”
Numbers 8:17 “For every firstborn among the sons of Israel is Mine, among the men and among the animals; on the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for Myself.”
• God reminded Israel how when in Egypt He killed all the firstborn of the Egyptians, both of their children and their livestock.
• However God spared Israel and therefore God revealed that in exchange all the firstborn belonged to Him.
• In regard to your children, God had agreed to take the entire tribe of Levi instead of the firstborn of every family, but for that process the price of redemption must be paid.
Of ever clean animal, you sacrificed it to the Lord.
Of every unclean animal and of your first born child
You paid the price of redemption.
The price was 5 shekels.
The simply point being was that Israel had a debt to pay before God.
He had been merciful in sparing the firstborn, and thus they had to be redeemed.
MARY AND JOSEPH HAD A DEBT TO PAY.
(yes Mary was a sinner, and yes Mary needed atonement)
What I also want you to understand
Is that it was a debt too big for them to pay.
We know that because Mary and Joseph presented “A pair of turtledoves”
Leviticus 12:6-8 “When the days of her purification are completed, for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the doorway of the tent of meeting a one year old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. ‘Then he shall offer it before the LORD and make atonement for her, and she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, whether a male or a female. ‘But if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, the one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean.'”
Without going into detail Luke reveals the poverty of Joseph and Mary.
They couldn’t even afford the normal price of redemption or atonement.
Now, thus far Luke hasn’t described a thing.
• He has given no theology…
• He has given no doctrine…
• He has only given history as it occurred…
But if you are willing to ponder these things and consider them
Then you can see the obvious point Luke is making.
We have here a people who are in way over their heads.
A people who have a debt which they cannot pay.
And we aren’t just talking about the price of redemption.
We are talking about the entire requirement of the Law.
They can’t obey any of it, they can’t afford any of it.
They are unclean, and unable.
But born to them is a Savior.
Born of a woman, born under the Law
And born that He might satisfy God and redeem them all.
Paul said it like this to the Galatians:
Galatians 4:3-7 “So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”
Paul speaks of people who were literally held in bondage under the Law.
• They were under that yoke which Peter said they had been unable to bear.
• They were slaves to say the least.
• They were unacceptable and unclean and they had a debt which they could
not pay off.
And to this predicament entered a Savior.
He entered the very prison and slavery where they were held.
He entered through an unworthy woman
And He entered into an impossible covenant.
All that He might redeem and turn slaves into sons.
The angel had it right when he said, “I bring you good news of great joy”
A Savior is coming.
• He will clothe himself in your very predicament.
• He will be human in every sense of the word.
• He will be under the Law and its heavy requirement.
But this One will perfectly obey it
And then, as He takes the wrath which we deserve,
He will impute this perfectly earned righteousness
To all those who trust in Him.
Jesus entered the race.
• He is not a Savior from the sidelines barking advice from the stands.
• He took it on that He might save.
Hebrews 2:14-18 “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham. Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.”