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Weimar University

Don Mackintosh

The Three Angels Message and The Second Advent

We're going to spend a few moments now looking at the angel messages at Advent.

I invite you to again bow your heads for a moment.

Father in heaven, thank you today for condescending to coming down to this earth, and we ask that you would come again as we open your word and are reminded of you, the eternal word.

This past week we had the Christmas program and I took a look at the angel messages in the first Advent.

I want to review that today and then look at the connection with the 3 angels' messages at the last Advent.

In the first Advent, Of course, there was Mary, who conceived in the midst of corruption, you might say, when the earth was filled with gross darkness.

We find that message in Luke chapter 1, verse 26 through 56.

She was in Nazareth when Gabriel came to visit.

And as Gabriel came to visit in Galilee, that is in Nazareth, the most despised town, He came and told her in the midst of that gross darkness there would be a great light, the light of the world, and that she was with child.

She would be having that baby even though she was not yet married.

Of course, the angel most likely had scriptures to back himself up.

In fact we know from reading and look that he did.

Behold a virgin shall conceive, so bear a child, quoting right out of Isaiah.

And then of course in Genesis 3.15 there was a woman that would have a seed that ultimately would be victorious.

So the angel came not just with his own brightness but also with the light of God's word.

She was delighted that she could be a part of the plan of salvation.

Then, The angels rushed off to tell Joseph.

Just in time, I might add, because he was about to put Mary away.

Because if someone was pregnant and was not married, even if they were betrothed in that time, that was a capital offense.

You were either strangled or publicly stoned or if you're the high priest's daughter you were burned publicly.

And so the angel came just in time and in a dream said to Joseph, do not be afraid to marry Mary.

Because again, it's according to scripture and showed the Bible text and shared with Joseph, if we believe Matthew's account, the scriptural basis for why he should go forward.

And Both Mary and Joseph were told that the child's name would be Jesus, for he would save his people not in their sin, but from their sin.

Behold, an unwed virgin shall conceive." Think about it.

God as an ovum and as the smallest connection of cells.

Early pictures of the incarnation perhaps.

Christ becoming a baby in the likeness of men, sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh.

It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take man's nature, even when Adam stood in his innocence in Eden.

But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by 4, 000 years of sin.

Like every child of Adam, he accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity.

He came with such a heredity to share our sorrows and temptations and to give us the example of a sinless life.

When you look at the Christmas story, we often have Christmas light.

We have a do-it-yourself Messiah, and we have maybe just traditions, and we don't think really how messy getting into the genetics was until we look closely at the genealogies in Luke and Matthew.

And when you look in that genealogy of Matthew, you see that the forebearers of Christ were not all great folks.

Tamar was passed over in the taking care of her by her and Onan and Judah said he would take care of her and he didn't take care of her so he actually was entrapped by Tamar who dressed up as a harlot and slept with Judah and then made him actually do his duty in taking care of her.

And he ended up saying she is more righteous than I am.

Now I actually like the genealogy because it tells that God was willing to get down into the middle of a mess.

And maybe someone here today has been in a mess, has made a mess, or is a mess.

And what the story says Today is, I hear you, I identify with you, I can help you.

Ruth, Rahab, Beth, Sheba, even King David, who was hearkened at the baptism of Jesus.

This is my David, this is my beloved, in whom I'm well pleased.

Each of them had, you might say, skeletons in the closet, and they were all part of the genealogy.

And so the Christmas story is for you, no matter who you are, no matter what you've done, no matter what you think about yourself, or no matter what others think about you.

Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son while on a road trip.

She might go to a room like this, I'm not sure, where everything's there just in case everything's not there.

But this was not Christ's entrance into the world.

In fact, though it's similar, there are stunning contrasts that help us understand how broad and meaningful the incarnation truly is.

Jesus would be wrapped in swaddling clothes.

He would be hungry and need to eat and drink.

He would be born in a challenging location, a location that today is torn by war and conflict and starvation.

He didn't identify with the most affluent parts of the world, but with the most challenging parts of the globe.

And these were the angel messages of the first advent.

Mary conceived in the midst of corruption and gross darkness.

Joseph told to marry Mary and to call his son Jesus for he would save his people from, not in, but from their sins.

Second angel's message to Joseph was to come out of Israel and go to Egypt.

Again, The angel came and said, this is on the basis of scripture.

The prophet Hosea said, out of Egypt I will call my son.

And so Joseph and Mary were called out to go down to Egypt.

And he listened to that second angel's message.

And he went down and he left because Herod was about to kill him and to kill the child.

Challenging political situation that Jesus was born in.

70% of the world's population now live under dictatorships, and Jesus identified with that 70%.

He didn't come to a country or a land where everything was set up perfectly.

He went and had to go through trying situations.

Sometimes people wonder, what is it, why is it that so many people have to go through suffering and torment?

And even in Christ's story, you can see that there was collateral damage as well.

When they tried to kill Jesus, he was saved and yet many infants died.

And this was what we might call collateral damage in the Great Controversy.

He knows if you've gone through a situation that was not your fault, and you're the recipient of something happening that you didn't deserve, that you didn't sign up for.

In fact, the prophet Jeremiah said this to those who lost their kids in that terrible murder by Herod.

A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children because they are no more.

Thus saith the Lord, refrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.

They may have died, death is an enemy, but they'll come back from that land.

There is hope in your future, says the Lord, that your children will come back to their own border.

How many think those are hopeful words not just for those folks that experienced that loss, but for someone even here today that's gone through something, something that happened, no fault of their own, but It's collateral damage.

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The Three Angels Message and The Second Advent

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