Sermon Central
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The Half Has Not Been Told Of The Cradle (Sermon 1) Series
Contributed by Toby Powers on Dec 6, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: The Queen Of Sheba said of Solomon that the half had not been told her of him. Our Lord said, "A Greater Than Solomon is here." In this first of three sermons we look at the cradle of Jesus.
From The Desk Of Pastor Toby Powers
Truth Baptist Church
Bremen, GA
December 2008
THE HALF HAS NOT BEEN TOLD
“The Cradle”
Intro: This queen of Sheba, or as our Lord called her in Matthew the Queen of the South, who we see called Balkis by the Arabians, heard of the fame of Solomon and journeyed to Jerusalem to see for herself whether the tales she had been told of him were true. The people of the day in the country where this queen journeyed from were pagans. They participated in Sabaism, and as such I have little cause to believe that she knew much of anything about the God that Solomon served. However, when she arrived at Jerusalem and watched him, one of the things she was so impressed with was the way he went up to the house of the Lord (v. 5). Before she left, she was praising Solomon’s God (v. 9). And she makes a statement concerning the stories she was told about Solomon’s wisdom, splendor, wealth, and blessings in v. 7.
Our Lord shared this story in two Gospels. Matthew 12:42 “The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.” Jesus himself makes the correlation between himself as king and Solomon as king. And the things the queen said about Solomon, we could apply to our Lord, and much more, for he is greater than Solomon. I want to take one thing the queen said about Solomon, and use it to look it our Lord who is greater. The queen made it clear that she had heard many stories, but the half had not been told.
Today I want to preach on “THE HALF HAS NOT BEEN TOLD ABOUT HIS CRADLE.” Many simply see a cute little baby in a manger seen at Christmas, but Notice:
I. THE MIRACLE OF HIS INCARNATION: the very fact that God came to earth is impossible for us to really describe, declare, or even fully understand. The half has not been told of it! There are three significant miracles that make up the framework of Christianity: (1) Virgin birth, (2) Resurrection, (3) Second Coming. Without the first miracle the rest would be absolute myth or fairy tale. The incarnation is the truth that God united himself with man so He could pay redemption’s price. There are a few things about his incarnation of which we can not tell the half:
A. His Father: Mary was espoused to Joseph, but she had never known what it was to be with a man. That which was conceived in her was not of the work or the efforts of mankind, but it was the work of the Holy Ghost! There are three significant miracles that make up the framework of Christianity: (1) Virgin birth, (2) Resurrection, (3) Second Coming. Without the first miracle the rest would be absolute myth or fairy tale. The incarnation is the truth that God united himself with man so He could pay redemption’s price. Luke 1:35 “And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” People asked time and again, “Is this not Joseph the carpenter’s boy?” But he was much more than that!
B. His Fullness: He was fully God and fully man.
1. Infinitely God: Jesus was God before he came to Bethlehem (Micah 5:2, Bethlehem would host he whose “goings forth have been from old, from everlasting”). He is the everlasting Son of God who was “given” to us and for us according to Isaiah 9:6. He was God in glory before time (Jn. 17:5), God in Bethlehem in time and He will continue to be God for all eternity (Heb 13:8). The Lord Jesus did not begin at Bethlehem and did not end at Calvary! He is infinitely God.
2. Absolutely Man: Heb. 10:5, “Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me.” The Lord took upon himself a body of flesh just like our bodies without the inherent sin nature. The necessity of the virgin birth allowed the Holy Ghost to “short circuit” the sin cycle perpetuated from Adam’s seed. The Savior was miraculously conceived in Mary by the overshadowing work of the Holy Ghost. Thus he had Adam’s flesh and his Father’s sinless blood so that He might give that blood a ransom for sinners (1 Pet. 1:18, 19).
