The following is from the transcript of Pastor Mark’s sermon on Sunday. To read the rest of it, listen to the audio, watch the video, or download more materials from our Luke series, go to the sermon page.

These historical facts are very important but they aren’t most beneficial unless we proceed from the historical to the theological. What do they mean? What is God doing? What is God accomplishing and achieving through the birth of Jesus? Why did Jesus come? Those are the theological questions that interpret the historical facts. For that I’ll give you a word: incarnation. It’s a Latin word that means, “in flesh.” So we’ll do a little bit of seminary now. Incarnation, in flesh.

Now, Larry King was once asked, “If you could interview anyone in the history of the world, who would it be?” He said, “Jesus Christ.” Good answer. When they asked Larry, “If you could ask him one question, what would that be?” Larry said, quote, “I would like to ask him if he was indeed virgin born. The answer to that question would define history for me.” Larry King is right, not often, but in this occasion. [Laughter] And Larry King says, “I want to talk to Jesus and I want to know if his mom really was a virgin, that would define history.” Larry’s right. That’s the issue. If so, he is unlike anyone and everyone who has or will ever live.

And we mean by that, incarnation, in flesh. It is the Christian doctrine that God, who is spirit, took upon himself human flesh and came as the human being, the Lord Jesus Christ. It comes from John 1:1 and 1:14. “In the beginning was the Word,” that’s the second member of the Trinity, one God, three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit. “In the beginning was the Word. . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” if you jump down to John 1:14. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” He was with God in the beginning, John 1:1. Jump down to verse 14, the Word, the one who was eternally face to face with God the Father, he was with God the Father and he was God and he was Creator God. He was there in the beginning where Genesis says all was made. The one who is the second member of the Trinity, face to face with the Father, eternally existing as God, became a man, the man Jesus Christ. That’s what incarnation means.

The second member of the Trinity entered into history. The Creator entered creation. God who is spiritual took upon himself human flesh, became a human being, entered into life on the earth among us. That’s what it means to call him Immanuel, God with us.

Now, in saying this, I know that it raises a number of questions and I want to answer I think the seven most common questions. I wrote a book, Vintage Jesus, that answers all of these and more, but I’ll give you a short summary of the common questions about Jesus’ incarnation and incarnation in general.

To read the read the rest of the sermon, go to the sermon page.

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