Our Christmas theme this year is From the Little Things. Necha of Kim, Carby and Corkely's 1991 song, From Little Things Big Things Grow, celebrating the nine-year struggle of the Garundi people in the Northern Territory to obtain their rights to their ancestral land and way to go to the station. Now it's become a proverb, a pick-up of any situation with their small beginnings leads to really big outcomes. And we chose it because if there's anything that from Little Things Big Growth, Big Things Grow applies to, it is the Christmas.
Such a little thing. Such a big thing. And this series of four sermons in the season of Advent are based on the image of a small seed that grows in a huge plant on the pace and the power of Jesus. Hence the theme, the seed.
Two Sundays ago, we had the seed fully grown. We started at the end of the work. Tom showed us, Tom Hill showed us the fulfillment of the kingdom of God, with a particular revelation to it. The big thing which will come from the Little Thing.
And last week Justin spoke to us, we of the seed promised. He took us to the promise of Isaiah 11. We're a time of devastation for ancient Israel. The Prophet Isaiah announces one day, a Kingly line of David, one of the sons of Jesse.
We'll regrow it, move to the Standing Way. Next week I returned with the seed growing, looking at the earthly ministry of Jesus and beyond. But this morning it is the seed planted, the seed planted, the Little Thing of the Spirit. And we're gonna look again at the story of Jesus' birth represented by Luke, and then contrast with that surface, like all surface morness, with the astounding reality of what's really going on.
The surface morness versus the astounding reality of what's really going on. So we'll look first, then I'm gonna look at something else that Luke sees about him, and then we'll go to a first. So Luke first in two ways of explaining what's going on. That's the way for it.
Let's begin with Luke's description. You heard it a moment ago, Luke chapter two. I'm gonna give verses four through step. I want you to notice with me what Luke actually says, rather than what we assume.
I'm looking at his words. It is a more ordinary birth than we usually think. Now I want you to not get promised, not get angry with me, or I'm gonna say okay. Let me read the familiar words again.
It's been told that people have got to go to their own towns for the census, and Luke goes on. So Joseph went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea to bear for him, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and mind of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pleading Mary to him and was expecting a child. While they were there at the time, but came to the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn son.
She read me in cloths and placed in a manger because there's no room available, no guest room available for them. That's the NIV that we use here. Not about translation, actually. Let me start with verse seven.
The child is read me in cloths and placed in a manger. Because we're told, there was no guest room available for them. You might ask, no guest room, what happened to the inn? What happened to the additional translation?
Because there's no room for them in the inn. What about familiar story of the lonely couple arriving, finding no accommodation to town, the kind innkeeper taking them in and let them use the stable at the back? And having the baby at the very night. What happened to that story?
I'm afraid it's gone. It's not as a realised as the word here, Kata Luma. He was used to translated in. That actually means a living room or a guest room, not a hotel.
You see what it means, the other time, Luke uses the exact same word in chapter 22, where Jesus, making preparation for his last meal with the disciples, tells two of them to save a certain man, quote, the teacher asks, where is the guest room, the Kata Luma, where I meet, pass over to my disciples. That's what the word means. There's another word for him, which is used in the parallic with Samaritan. That's not this way.
So it's guest room in the night inn. Even the old, trusty innarris, is caught up with his latest 2021 revision. And you gave birth to a first born, and wrapped in bands of cloth, and laid in a manger, because of no place in the guest room. Now, try to imagine what this man looks like, be careful not to project their own housing style back into Luke's account.
Houses back there had far fewer rooms than we have. And so, a Kata Luma may refer, perhaps to a separate guest room, or just to the main living area. So you could possibly translate it as, she would have to be in cloths and place them in the manger, because there's no room for them in the living area. Now, you come back to me and say, oh, what about the manger?
That's all I said. Yes, it is. The word manger means manger feeding trough animals, which is on sofereards there. Although, where was the manger?
Where they placed the newborn baby in? You might think manger equals, animals are equals she at the back. Like any, right? Well, maybe, but maybe not.
Not that simple, you see. In first, you could do, yeah. And even the day in some places, animals can be kept inside the house. I mean, really, it was not a castle dog, it was a mud regards.
So you may be dealing with the situation, with the house for the living area for people, in another space for animals at night, big-day ships will go. And therefore, the point is, there's no place for the baby in the crowd living area, so they would gently clean out a manger and put a newborn there. Now, in the order of service, I've got a picture, he'll just be making me some blue one. Yeah, here's one artist's reconstruction.
There's a kind of, it might be possible. Here we see a two-story house. This, in this case, the cataluma is a separate room, at the upper room. You see at the upper stairs, and there's a living area downstairs, cooking.
If you go further along, goes downstairs again to the area, they will stable animal area. And the mangers are on the edge of that. See that? Now, that's just one possible reconstruction.
It may well be like that. So it's goodbye to the inn, goodbye to the Kylie Innkeeper, and this label out the back of my top of that imagination. Well, I must say, however, that having a putting baby in a manger is weird and noteworthy, that's not normal. Someone said that when the angel's to tell the ship what to look for, the key thing is, you'll find a baby wrapping cloths that will stand in practice for newborn lying in a manger.
That's the odd thing about this baby. You may ask another question, but this house was it that we're thinking about. Why was it that room in the living area? Now, of course, we cannot be sure, but we are.
I cannot tell, but there's some clues about the kind of thing that may have happened. Notice that we're told that David's town was Bethlehem, not David, Joseph's town was Bethlehem. And he belonged to the line of David, the great king. So presumably, if that's his town, though he's living out way up north in Nazareth, he has family there, relatively.
And given the custom of family hospitality in the Middle East, then and now, the most likely scenario is obvious. Mary and Joseph were put up with Joseph's relatives. And what's more, the only family that was turning up if there's a big census on, it may be there's no room in the living area because of the number of family visiting on the day. Joseph's relatives have crowned the place out, possibly.
So the only place, get some space of freedom put the baby there, we might be trapped on, is to play out one of the treating crops and put the baby in there. The child is another popular assumption. Notice that looked as not say that the child was born immediately after their arrival that night as commonly thought. Rather than you see, it is, while they were still there, the time came for the baby to be born.
May be days, weeks, maybe a month after their ride. We just don't know. Now, I noticed those chainsings at all, and we were in the number of really lovely carols. Gone is the trusting innkeeper, who was picking on the lonely couple, seeking last-minute accommodation.
More likely, Mary was born first born son in a crowded house, surrounded and helped by her female in-laws, because there's no room left to live in quarters, the feeding trough would have to do. Now, you may ask, well, I haven't gone to all this trouble, should it bunk in popular Christmas story? Is it because I'm a Grinch? Well, there is that.
But no, that's not the only reason. I want us to respect the extra words of the script and account. And by rameleons, I'm going to watch your microphone. Give you the language, Christmas kitsch.
I don't want the utter ordnance, the utter ordnance of the birth of Jesus to stand out this moment, it is a birth like that of thousands, millions of Middle Eastern kids at that time, Or specifically, Jeuge, Jeuge, or Jeuge. Or put in impolations for, for when the time had come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the Lord, from people things indeed. That is the city of England. But there is much more to this.
Having said this birth is like any other, we can also say this birth is unlike any other, not in the means of birth or at circumstances, but who is born? Who is born? It may be from little things, big things grow, But in the birth of Jesus, the big thing is as it were already present, hidden, already present, hidden. And I went to all of the time in two ways.
First by showing how Luke presents the profound significance of his birth as he writes in the second half of the first century. And secondly, I want to show how Christian leaders came to express the profound significance of this birth in a definitive statement in the first part of the fourth century. This time with Luke. He presents the profound significance of Jesus' birth by recounting two events, which occur one before and one after the birth.
Both involved angels and both draw significance, the significant Jesus from the scriptures, and the hope of the restoration of Israel. The one before the birth is held in chapter 1 verse 6 and 2 verse 6 and 5. Where the angel Gabriel appears at the start of young woman Mary and announces to her, and I quote from Luke 1 verse 33, Do not be afraid Mary, you have found failure with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son and you will call him Jesus.
He will be great and be called the son of the most high. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom will never end. I understand what that's talking about.
When you need to remind yourself that Israel, God's elect people once brought in a covenant with God, special relation with the Lord, had so broken that covenant, been so unfaithful that the Lord God had removed them from his presence and from the land he had given them. Now God did promise to restore them in his mercy. And later, by God's grace, some of Israel did return. Those from the tribe of Judah, in particular, that is the Jews.
What did you do? But the rest of Israel, not so. And although they did live in the land, they were ruled by the nations, that is the Gentiles. And while the temple of the Lord was rebuilt, and in a fashion was function again, there was not any restoration of the kingship of the line of David.
Despite its central role, the angels promised to marry that her son will be called the son of the most high that is gone, and will be given the empty throne of David. And reign over Jacob's descendants, Jacob is another name for Israel, that is, restored Israel, and will reign forever on that throne. That means this son to be born will fulfill all of God's promises to restore his people for you. Now the other of it, which presents, by which Luke presents the profound significant piece of the earth, comes after the purpose.
It's the message to the terrified, terrified shepherds. This time they're in the fields outside, there for him. I quote from chapter 2 verse 10, 11, I bring you good news that will cause great joy to all the people. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you.
He is a Messiah, a little. And when we realize that the term Messiah is shorthand for the promise of anointed King, and see the significance of having born in the town of David, and that his birth will bring great joy to all the people, forgive me, that means Israel, that he'll be a Savior for them, then we're in the same realm as Gator's promise to marry in chapter 1. That means this at last is the wonderful field of all God's promises to the real restoration of his people. So that's the profound significance which Luke brings to the otherwise ordinary birth of Jesus.
It's the significance of what God will achieve through him as the climax of the triple story. Now time prevents me from unpacking how this is all fulfilled. He looks further writing and that of the New Testament itself. So far I have to say that the question of restoration of Israel, of the Kingdom of Israel, is still a live issue in the opening pages of Luke's second work, Acts.
Time for the rest of you were talking about how it will come about and what it will be like. Because at this stage in Luke's gospel we can't see exactly what is shaken by. Not how it will impact not just Israel, but the whole world, the Gentiles as well. Knowing how this child risen from the dead will be the embodiment of the restored people of God.
That's all for another time. But as I said, it may be that from little things big things grave, but in the birth of Jesus the big thing is a word he's already present but hidden here. And for Luke it's his destiny as Messiah and Lord. More next week on that.
Now to the second insight into how the birth of Jesus is the big thing as it were already present, hidden but hidden. I want to show you how Christian leaders came to express the profound significance of this birth in a silly statement from the first part of the fourth century. This time it's a statement not so much about Jesus' destiny what he will do, but about his identity, who he really is. His identity, not his destiny.
I want to talk about what he does. As the early Christian movement developed, it was faced with a very difficult task of understanding and clarifying who this Jesus they believed in and worshiped actually was. And what was his relationship with the one God who made all things? How do you understand that?
It's clarity. The challenge was in a sense to understand what they already knew. They knew, not they just had anything to think about, had the word, they knew they worship him as God. Who is he?
And the implications for understanding of God was immense. That's what the intellectual challenge was to work it out. Now, seven hundred years to the year ago, a defending statement was agreed. That was being contested, has emerged as the unifying standard for classical Christian belief about who Jesus is.
It's the foundation for our Anglican Church of Australia and for other Anglican churches around the world. It's the foundation for other magisture of Protestant churches, the Roman Catholic Church, and with an important caveat about concerning the procession of the Holy Spirit for the various Orthodox churches as well. Our art is a religion, state that such creeds quote ought to be thoroughly to be received and believed, for they may be proven by a certain violence of Holy Scripture. You've said, you've kept it for us out of my sin, in a minute, you've said this.
Look at page eight of the Lord of service. Here it is, what we just did. It's called the Nicene Creed because after the place, the town where it was agreed to be, that's part of the church. Let me take you to it.
Having said that we believe in one God, the Father, or mighty, making heaven move, all things visible invisible, the Creed moves onto the Lord Jesus Christ and in one Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'm going to focus on that statement because of who the Lord Jesus Christ is, but that's the heart of this Creed, the Nicene Creed. The most important thing it says about the Lord Jesus Christ is that quote, he is the only begotten Son of God. The only begotten Son of God.
And I use this language because it reflects the way the Scriptures know as commonly speak of the relationship of the Lord Jesus Christ to God his Father. It's a Father-son-ish relationship. The only begotten Son of God. But by itself that's not enough because the Creed will now go on to explain and qualify them.
Because by itself the phrase only begotten can actually be quite misleading, especially if you gather merely to be a human Father and Son to the nature of God itself. The first qualification is that he was, quote, begotten of his Father before all worlds. Do you see that? Or in the words of more modern versions of the Creed translations, he was eternally begotten of the Father.
Eternally begotten of the Father. The point is that human fathers forget their sons in time. I beget my firstborn in 1974. But the Father does not begate the Son in any time.
It is eternal before all worlds. The only begotten Son of God has no beginning. It never was when he was not. That's different from our experience at the beginning of you.
He has turned the begotten of the Father. And begotten before what that means, begotten before all worlds are returned to the God in his unpack in the next straight phrases. You see them there that stress of the Son, that when one sends to arrive from the Father, from the Father yet, is fully equal to the Father's will. That is, he has to quote the Creed, God of God.
That is, God from God. Light of light. He is not a lesser light from light. He is light from light.
That goes on further. Very God from very God. Very the Israel person was the true. True God from true God.
Turn me begotten equality. You can put minds around that. Turn me begotten equality. Now all that is contrasted with another way of coming to being made.
When you make something, it's not from your you. You make it. It has a beginning. It's different from you.
There's a key point made in the Creed. But God and not made. There's a big distinction there. You can get your equal.
You make your own. In that language, these Holy Christians are trying to put into language what they really know about the Lord Jesus Christ. That he's true God from the Father. In fact, it goes on to say, buy him all things were made.
Put it this way. If you think of two spheres, one, the eternal uncreated God who made all things. Without beginning or end, and the other, everything else that made, created spiritual, non-spiritual, demons, angels, sparks, motors. See those killer justies?
Heaven and Earth all things are invisible. The Lord Jesus Christ belongs to the former, not the latter. The Lord Jesus Christ belongs to the former, not the latter. He is forgotten, not made.
And the climax of the description, and I must admit the most difficult and fully grasped, and at times being the most controversial, is the statement that the Lord Jesus Christ is, and I quote, or one substance with the Father, or in modern language, or one being with the Father. Not single being, one being. Now that's very, very close to the invocation without saying, the Father is the Son. The Father is not the Son, not the Father, but they are one being.
Now, get here and round there. You see what they're trying to say. They're not two gods. Holy Spirit, he saw what they had possibly through.
Now there's only one. And yet there's a Father, he turned into the getting the Son. And then it moves finally into what we're going to call, into time itself, in human history. To the story we read in Luke.
Who for us, men, and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate. That's an old phrase meaning, enfished, incarnate, by the Holy Ghost, of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. And the point here is very important to hold this. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't lose all this being said before, and got turned into a man.
That's not what the Word is saying. The eternally divine Son of the Father took humanity to himself by addition, not by subtraction, as the famous African bishop, and the Lord in the fifth century, or thus, and put it. He did not lose what he was, yet he began to be what he was not. He continued his God and yet became man.
Now, those who wrote this greeting, you in the room, I'm not expecting for a minute to imagine what that's like. I'm asking you to believe this definition. There's something else that you keep at the world that I can't imagine, but I know it's true. Things do with sizing, and adinsat, and so forth.
One being with the Father, he turned into a God, came down with him, and of course he came there. That little baby, that little baby, is another one through whom all things were made. Got an obvious mother because it was worth the time. He turned into a God, both from a father.
So those are the two ways in which the little thing is seen to have in it, the big thing. For Luke, it's the birth of the one who will fulfill the scriptural Francis. For the Nicene leaders, it is the birth of the divine son of God who takes humanity to himself. In both cases, we see that in the seed planted from little things, and the message is present already.