Christmas in July

We all remember the special moments in our lives. Perhaps one of those moments was graduation. As you walked across the stage to get your diploma, you were thinking “Yes! I did it! No more tests! No more term papers! No more homework assignments! I’m finally finished with school! Yeah!!!” I’ll bet that was a special moment in your life.

Or perhaps it’s your wedding day. You remember the flowers. The dresses. The decorations. You remember the minister saying, “By the powers vested in me by Almighty God and the great state of Wisconsin, I now pronounce you husband and wife in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, what God has joined together, let man NOT separate!” I’ll bet that was a special moment in your life.

Or maybe it was when your favorite team won an important game. Last month, the Orlando Magic was leading the Cleveland Cavaliers 95-93 in the NBA eastern conference finals with one second left on the clock. Looks like my favorite basketball team is about to lose again. But Lewis throws the inbound pass to Lebron James. He looks to the basket. He shoots a three for the win..... GOOOOOOOOODDDD!!! Lebron James at the buzzer! And the Cavaliers have come back to tie the series!!!!!!

The Orlando Magic went on to win the series. I don’t want to talk about that :) But that one miracle shot for me was a great moment.

We could be here all morning talking about great moments. But now, I want to talk with you about the greatest moment of all time! The day when the Son of God was born in our world!! Galatians 4:4 says that “When the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law.”

You say “Come on, Marc! This baby was born 2000 years ago! Why are we talking about it now? How does it relate to my life in the summer of 2009? How can it inspire me and help me to live a better life today?”

We’ll get to that. We’re going to talk about the reason for Christ’s birth. And our response to Christ’s birth.

We’re in the middle of a series on the Apostle’s Creed. We’re at the part of the Creed which says that Jesus was “conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.” Conceived by the Holy Spirit is mentioned to remind us of Christ’s heavenly roots. And “born of the Virgin Mary” is mentioned to remind us of Christ’s earthly roots. And the whole thing is laid out for us in Matthew 1:18-21.

But the first thing I want to mention are the circumstances surrounding Christ’s birth. Joseph and Mary are engaged to be married. But before the wedding happens, Mary says, “Joseph, there’s something I gotta tell you. I’m pregnant. Four months ago, the Spirit of the Lord came upon me, the power of the Most High overshadowed me, and now I am carrying in my womb the Holy Son of God! I know it’s hard to believe, but I am pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit!

And Joseph says, “Whach you taking about Willis? Mary, your story is not hard for me to believe. It’s IMPOSSIBLE for me to believe! The God I believe in doesn’t get teenage girls pregnant. The God I believe in wouldn’t do anything like that. I wasn’t born yesterday. I think I know what happened here! You were unfaithful!”

In fact, the Bible says in Deuteronomy 22:23 that if an engaged woman sleeps with another man, she should be put to death.

The Jews weren’t allowed to implement this law anymore because the Romans