I’m in an exceptionally good mood this morning. My boys are back in town. All three of my babies are back under my roof. I know y’all know what I am talking about, it’s fun having family home for the holidays. Mommas and daddies huggin necks and kissing faces while we interrogate our children to learn what’s going on in their lives, “how are your studies?”, “are you eating enough?”, “do you have a special little friend you want to tell us about?”. At Christmas our quiet homes fill with the boisterous clamour that only a house full of children can make, and we love it.
Like you, I love having my children home for Christmas, but if I am being completely honest there are one maybe two or ten things that I don’t like about my children. The first thing I don’t about my children is they can be greedy. Sometimes I will catch them surfing the internet for a better whatchamajingy or thingamabob. I wish they spent half as much time praying as they did surfing the internet. That would be the second thing I don’t like about my children. I wish they would spend more time praying, praising, and giving thanks. Maybe they would, if they paid better attention in church. That’s the third thing I don’t like about my children. Sometimes, especially when they were younger, they didn’t pay attention in church (although this morning they seem to be staring at me with exceptionally intense glares, for some reason.) Which reminds me of another thing I don’t like about my children. Occasionally they are disrespectful; to me and their momma mostly, but also to each other. Which leads to the fifth thing I don’t like about my children, they fight with each other. Rarely have punches been thrown, but they can tease the funny bone right out of a fella. Which makes me think of the sixth thing I don’t like about my children. As they get older some of their jokes can be coarse. Whatever happened to “knock knock, whose there, interrupting cow, interrupting ..MOOO!” Those jokes were cleaver. Dirty jokes are just lazy. Which makes me think of the seventh thing I don’t like about my children, they have a lazy streak in them, some of them more than others but don’t bother asking them which brother is the laziest because my children don’t always tell the truth and that is the eighth thing that I don’t like about my children. Finally, the ninth and tenth things I don’t like about my children is sometimes they get jealous of each other and envious of others.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love my children very much and I don’t want you to have a bad opinion of them. Especially since it’s not their fault that they’re this way. It’s not! You know whose fault it is? You know why they act the way they act? I’ll tell you. They act the way they do because they take after their mother. It’s her fault they act the way they act! Now, hold on, hear me out. I love my wife very much, in many ways she is a woman of noble character, but there are one maybe two or ten ways in which she falls short of perfection, and to make matters worse she has passed her imperfections on to our children. But I don’t hold this against her, and I don’t want you to think less of her. Because it’s not her fault she is this way. Do you know whose fault it is? It’s her parents’ fault! Hogey and Jan made her this way. (Thankfully my in-laws are here with us this morning so please be sure to go up to them after the service and ask them why they conceived such an imperfect daughter, just be sure you don’t let them get off topic and start talking about me.)
Maybe you are wondering what my children got from me? Well for obvious reasons I hope they got my thick skin and sense of humor. But if I am being honest the best things about my children are the things they got from their mother. The worst things about them, I am sorry boys, but you got those things from me. The reason I can so quickly and easily list off one maybe two or ten things I don’t like about you is because those are things you inherited and learned from me.
The problem with children these days and I am talking about all children not just my children, but your children, your grandchildren, your neighbor’s children and the children in our own congregation, even those two precious babies that are going to baptized in our service today, the problem with all children these days is, sin. Sin that they got from you and me, sin that we inherited from our mothers and fathers, sin that our parents inherited from our grandmothers and grandfathers, sin that all the children of men have inherited from their parents since Genesis chapter 3. The problem with the children of all men is sin.
Today we are continuing our Advent sermon series God so loved the world. We have been reminded that God so loved the world that he promised to send His Son, that He so loved the world that He prophesied about His Son, and that He so loved the world that He prepared for His Son. Today we are going to see that God so loved the world that He conceived His Son.
The problem with children these days is they are sinners. God’s solution to our problem was to conceive His own Son. In Matthew 1:18 we read, “18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.” My perverse mind immediately asks, ‘when did it happen, how did it happen, did she feel it happen?’ Poor Mary, her private business has been the topic of public discussion for thousands of years. Kranthi, Michelle, can you imagine if people asked as many questions about the conception of your babies as they do about Mary’s? Here we are simply told, that though she is pledged to be married, Mary is a virgin and yet by a miracle of the Holy Spirit, she is pregnant. You will notice, sacred Scripture does not see fit to give us the intimate details of how God’s Son was conceived. Rather, as we are about to see, it prefers to focus on why He was conceived. It is probably best if we do the same.
Joseph, Mary’s betrothed, assumed that Mary had conceived her child the same way every single child up unto this point and every single child after this point has been conceived. Since he was clearly not involved in the conception of her child, Joseph decided he would divorce Mary. “20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” The angel tells Joseph, God’s Child was conceived so that my children, your children, and our parent’s children would be saved from their sins.
God knew the children of men had a problem that they could not solve and so He conceived His own perfect Child. From the moment God’s child was conceived there wasn’t one or two or ten things that anyone could say they didn’t like about Him. When Satan tempted God’s Child with the splendors of the world, Jesus said, ““Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”[1] Repeatedly in Scripture we hear about God’s Child taking time out of His day “to pray”.[2] When God’s Child was twelve years old, He told Mary and Joseph that He “had to be” in His Father’s house.[3] And yet when they told Him he had to leave, God’s child obeyed them.[4] God’s Child demonstrated what it means to turn the other cheek when while soldiers were hammering nails into His hands and feet He prayed, “Father forgive them.”[5] Not only would God’s child not tell a coarse joke about a woman, but he wouldn’t even look at one in a coarse way.[6] God’s Child worked tirelessly teaching, preaching, performing miracles and he encouraged others to work while it was day.[7] Even with His life on the line, God’s Child told Pilate the truth.[8] God’s Child was jealous of no one and envied no one. Rather He was and encouraged others to “be content”.[9] God’s Child was the child we wish our children could be; He was the child that our child would have been if it were not for the sin they inherited from us.
God knew the children of men had a problem that they could not solve and so He conceived His own Child in the womb of a woman. As a result, God’s Child is now also Mary’s Child. God’s Child is now also like us. God’s Child grew and develop like our children grow and develop: He was potty trained. He took a first step. He lost a tooth. God’s Child learned how to read and write, He increased in wisdom and understanding. Think about that, all-knowing God learned the alphabet and He searched the Scriptures to discover what they had to say about Him. God conceived His perfect Child in the womb of a woman so that His Child would be like us, fully human in every way… and then God did something that I don’t know that I could do. God allowed His Child to suffer, He allowed His Child’s blood to stain a cross, He allowed His Child to die. God allowed His Child to be sacrificed as payment for the wages of sin, so that my children, your children, and our parent’s children might be saved.
The problem with children these days is they are conceived by people like you and me. They are sinners because they were conceived by sinners who were conceived by sinners, who were conceived by… well, you get the idea. The problem with children these days is they are sinners. God’s solution to our problem was to conceive His own Child, a perfect Son who became our substitute in order to save us from our sins.
I love my children very much, and I know you love your children very much but thankfully God loves them more. God so loves my children, God so loves your children, God so loves our parent’s children, God so loves all the children of the World that He conceived His Son. Amen
[1] Matthew 4:10
[2] Matthew 14:23, Matthew 26:39, Mark 6:46, Luke 6:12, Luke 9:28, etc..
[3] Luke 2:49
[4] Luke 2:51
[5] Luke 23:34
[6] Matthew 5:28
[7] John 9:4
[8] John 18:37
[9] Luke 3:14