523: The Face of God | Dave Sloop

Introduction

Well, we are so delighted that you are here this evening. What a joy it is to worship together and to look at God's Word together. I wanted to begin tonight by telling you about the first Christmas card I ever produced after I had a baby. For those of you that have had kids, you know that when you have a child, suddenly you think that the world wants to see everything about your child.

And so I created this Christmas card. We can put that up there. This was right. Okay? Maybe the world does want to see. This is Sydney Jane, my firstborn, and I was smitten. I could not get enough. I remember after we had her, I was holding her in my arms and my older sister Kristen walked into the hospital room and I looked at her and I said she changed me. I had never known love like this. I really loved my wife. But the thing is, I fell in love with Melissa because of things about Melissa. I was drawn to her beauty, her character, her personality, the way she treated people. And those were all great things.

But here in my hands was someone who had done nothing to earn or deserve my love, and I was smitten. She would always lay on a blanket like that because about all she could do. This was a little bit older in her life when she could actually push herself up. But I would come home from work and I don't know if any of you dads or moms have experienced this, after you have this child. It becomes this new joy and excitement to come home every single day.

And I would watch the clock at work and when it got close to five o'clock, I would start getting excited. And I would come home and excuse me, Jesus? Okay. I brought a different, but I thought it would be wrong to take Jesus out of the... And I would come home from work and Sidney would always be laying on this blanket because that's all babies can do. She's laid there on her back and when I got home, I would come back and stand above her and say, "Hello, Sidney. Did you get anything done today? Did you just lay there unproductive?" This is not how dads talk to their babies, is it? No.

The Longing for the Face of God

For two reasons. Number one, she can't see. Do you know that babies at this age, their eyes are blurry? It takes them a few months before they can see faces, but they can't see faces far away. They have to see faces up close. And here's the other reason. I don't talk to her that way. She can't get to me. She can't stand up. She can't reach. She's helpless, laying there dependent.

So dads, what did I do? Every day when I got home, I didn't talk to her from a distance. I got down on the blanket with her and I stared in her face, and her eyes would find mine. And you know what she would do? Pure joy because in the face of her father was the answer to all of her deepest dreams and longings.

I jest, but the reality is, and I think there is science that backs this up, that there is something instinctive in a child. It's more than intention. They are looking for the face. They're looking for the face of the one that brought them into this world, and it meets a deep, deep longing. They're looking for someone to bond with.

Can I tell you something? This desire, this instinct that exists in every single one of us from the time that we, our babies, is pointing to a deeper longing for fulfillment that I think every single one of us has. We are looking, as it were, for a face, but not just the face of the one that brought us into this world. We're looking for the face of the one that brought everything into existence.

I think if we're honest, at some point in our life, no matter who you are, we've asked this question, does God exist? And if he does, what is he like and what on earth does that have to do with me? And I'd like to suggest to you that the answer to all three of those questions is wrapped up in a single individual, the most remarkable human being to ever grace this planet, a man named Jesus.

Jesus: The Face of God

He showed up on the scene a little over 2,000 years ago, and he was like nobody they'd ever met. He gained a pretty large following in a really short period of time. He did some incredible things. He talked a lot about life. He talked a lot about God.

In fact, one day he was having a conversation with some of his closest friends. And one of them, a guy named Philip, in a really honest moment, you know, Jesus is talking about this reality beyond this world that we live in. And he said, "You're headed there." And by the way, I'm the way to get there. In Philip, it wasn't enough for Philip. He needed more than just a promise. He needed more than just something to believe. He needed someone to behold.

Look at what Philip says to Jesus in this moment. He says, "Lord, show us the Father and it's enough for us." Jesus is giving him these incredible promises and he says, "Oh, that's great. I want to see." Can you hear the heart behind Philip's question? He wanted to know what God was like, and so do you, and so do I.

It is the deepest longing that we have to see the face beyond all the faces, the one who made all of the faces. We want to know what he's like. Christmas is the celebration not only of a God who creates, if it was daytime, we would look out here and see beauty everywhere. And the Apostle Paul would tell us that since the beginning of time, creation is enough evidence to prove to us that there's a God out there. Somebody's out there. We did not get here by mistake, but we need more. We need more than that.

We're grateful that we have his word. We need his voice, and we have a book with his words and his thoughts in it, but we need more than that too. Christmas is the celebration of a God who got down on the blanket, who got close enough to his creation so that they could see his face up close to know what he was like.

I want to look with you this evening at the passage that we just read. It's the most familiar passage in all of the Bible when it comes to Christmas. In fact, you probably can't even hear that passage without hearing Linus' voice reading it from that empty stage, just to tell Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about.

But here's what I want to look at tonight. We don't have time to look at everything, but there's a few things that I want us to see together. The first thing that Luke is going to tell us is that he came.

You can go to that next slide. You can go to the one that says that he came. Okay, yeah, skip some stuff. We're going to see that he came.

Secondly, we're going to see how he came.

Third, we're going to see why he came.

The fact that he came is going to answer that first question, does God exist? How he came is going to answer the question, "What is God like?" And why he came is going to answer the question, "What does that have to do with me?"

The Incarnation: God Comes Near

Let's look together, starting in verse 8 of chapter 2, it says this:

And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.

Of course they were. We would have been too. Can you imagine? It's just your job. You work the night shift out in the pasture, tending the sheep. You're doing what you do every day. And then out of nowhere, a light that only could be described as divine light. It was a light you'd never seen before because it was the glory of the Lord.

And somewhere within that light is an angelic figure and a voice from heaven. And you are a lowly shepherd. And by the way, all shepherds were. Did you know that? They were about as low class as you could get. Their testimony was not even admissible in court. And suddenly they see this light in the hear, this voice. And they might have thought, "What does God want with me? Does He know something that I've done?" They were terrified.

But listen to what the angel says in verse 10:

Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.

Here's the first thing that I want us to see together. Christianity begins not primarily with advice, but with an announcement. It is not instructions about how we are supposed to live in a way that gets us to God. It is news, good news about what God has done to get to you and me.

What is this news? The news is that someone has been born.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ, the Lord. — Luke 2:11

Luke wants us to know, not that there's something that we need to do, but that someone has arrived. And it is a cause for abundant rejoicing. Who is this one that was born? He tells you. He gives you three titles, but the third one is the one I want to focus on right now. It is the Lord.

You saw in verse 9 there was an angel of the Lord. It was a messenger sent from God. You saw the glory of the Lord. It was the light that emanates from his being. It extends from him. But this baby, not a messenger from God, it is not an instrument that God plans to use. This baby is the Lord. God became a baby, and Luke wants us to know that it happened.

In real time, in real space, do you notice that Luke chapter 2, we read it, it does not begin with once upon a time in a land far, far away. I want you to hear again how it begins. I'm going to read through this quickly, and I've highlighted some of the details that I want you to notice:

In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria, and all went to be registered each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.

Sorry, while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. Do you hear all of these details? This is not a miss. This is not folklore. This is historical reporting. Luke wants us to know this happened in a place you can visit with extra-biblical sources—leaders, names, Quirinius, Caesar Augustus, leaders during that time. That's when it happened. He tells you who his earthly parents were and the lineage that they came from. This is something that happened. It is news of God's arrival to earth.

But secondly, notice how he comes.

And this will be a sign for you; you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. — Luke 2:12

First of all, he will come as a baby, helpless, weak, frail, like Sidney laying on this blanket, unable to do anything for himself. This is God, by the way, that created everything. The sunset is something that he thought up. Have you ever been to Hawaii? God's idea, beauty, creativity, order. He made it all, us.

That one, the one that created everything himself, was in a sense being created in his mother's womb. He was knit together, just like you and I were, as Psalm 139 says. He became weak and helpless, dependent, God. But not only that, it says that he was born in a manger. That is to say, he was poor. His family didn't have means for better accommodations. And so, his first bed was a feeding trough that animals would eat out of. That's where he slept.

He didn't come in power and privilege. He came in poverty. Why would God show up in this? Is this how you would have shown up? If you were writing the story, do you think you might have chosen to bypass the helplessness of infancy or the awkwardness of puberty, certainly the pain and difficulty of poverty?

What was God trying to show us? Why would he come this low? It would have been condescension enough for him to go from a heavenly throne to an earthly throne. But he came lower. He didn't just come down. He came all the way down to the lowest form of humanity and among humans, poverty.

Let me tell you why. God came. He got down on the blanket to identify with humanity, with the worst parts, the most broken parts of humanity. He got down on the blanket, yes, so that you could see what he's like, but he got down on the blanket so that he could see what you were like.

Do you know that? That is the miracle of the incarnation, by the way. Not only that we get to see what God is like, but that in the incarnation, God now experiences what we are like. He knows what it is to be betrayed. He knows what it is to be mocked, ridiculed, marginalized, mischaracterized, falsely accused, abused, killed. He knows what it is to be healed.

Have you ever considered this, that when we pray to God, we're praying to someone who has quite literally put our skin on? He knows. He knows what it is to be. He has walked in our shoes. That is why he came. That's how he came. He came low so that he could understand, so that we would know that he understands what it's like to be human.

Why Did He Come?

But thirdly, let's ask this question. Why did he come? In the interest of time, I want to look at one of his titles, spoken by the angels with you. It says in verse 11 again:

For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior. — Luke 2:11

Do you know that's what the name Jesus means? God saves, or more literally, God is salvation. God is his very essence—to want to save the people that he loves. It also teaches us something about ourselves—that we need saving.

Do you know that? I think deep down we all kind of intuitively know that there's something off inside, this hunger that we can't quite satisfy. It's probably the reason that the shepherds in the pasture were afraid because deep down they know that they've done things wrong.

We need a Savior. And if you don't have biblical language for it, let me give you some. In Romans 6:23, Paul would put it this way:

The wages of sin is death.

Your sin-sick condition is a condition of the heart that influences every single thought, action, motive, inclination. We are cursed through and through. We are not fit for the presence of God, for the glory of God, because of our sin. Not because God has mad at us, but because in our rebellion, in our sin, he cannot be in his presence in the same way that you could not go into outer space without a spacesuit. You would melt, actually, scientifically. I don't know what would happen to you if you went into space, but it wouldn't be good. There's a reason they wear those things.

Our sin makes us unfit for the presence of God. And the angels tell the shepherds, "This one coming. This baby is a Savior." They also would say, "It's unto you, a child is born." This Savior is for you, which means you need saving.

Luke tells us that he comes to save, but he does not tell us how he will do it. This is why the story doesn't end in the manger. However, the same humility that landed him in a manger would one day lead him to a cross.

He did not merely get down on the blanket so that we could see what he was like and experience what humanity is like. He came down to be a substitute for what you could never be yourself. And a sacrifice for what you deserved because of it. He came down to be a substitute and a sacrifice, and that is precisely what he was doing on that cross.

He lived the life that you and I could never live with perfection. And as a perfect human being, he became qualified—the only one who was ever qualified—to sacrifice for our sin, and he was nailed to a cross.

Becoming sin, as Paul puts it, so that we might become the righteousness of God. Luke wants us to know that he came. He wants us to know how he came, but most importantly, we need to know why he came.

He came for us, and can I tell you something? His is the face you have been looking for your whole life. We try to find significance and meaning and worth and self-justification in a thousand different places, and all of them come up short. It's because those things don't have the capacity to satisfy and save. Only God does, and he came down to do it. He came down to do it for you.

My prayer for myself, for all of us, is that your eyes would meet his this Christmas in a new way.

Conclusion

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for getting down on the blanket of humanity to identify with our brokenness, to show us what your heart is like, but most importantly, to be our substitution, to sacrifice for us, so that we might know the God for whom we were made. It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.