God Events

Matt 1:18-25 God Events (Christmas)

Read Texts Matt 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38

- It is that time of the year

- When we as a society get into the spirit of the season

- We go about celebrating Christmas

- By putting up decorations

- Lights, trees, wreaths

- All over our homes inside and out

- We seek out the right gifts for the family and friends

- Enduring crowded stores and difficult traffic

Of course that is our custom and it has grown over the years

- It has some traditional roots

- Just as the Magi gave gifts to the infant Jesus

- We give gifts

- But many of our traditions have roots in the ancient culture of northern Europe

- Under all that custom and culture is found the real story

- The birth of the Messiah

- The birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God

- The Father’s chosen Son

- Who came to bring salvation to the world

- And to establish His kingdom

- It was a time when God came Himself to accomplish

- The task of reconciling the world to Himself

- He came in the flesh

- To do for us what we could not do for ourselves

- To bring us into relationship with Him

- Through the blood of Christ and our faith in Him

This event, the birth of Jesus

- Was a God event

- Look at vs 20

- “It is by the Holy Spirit that she has conceived this child.”

- Jesus was fully man and fully God

- He was God come to earth as a man

- God dramatically broke into human history

- To change everything forever

- Jesus’ birth was a God event

- Blackaby calls it a milestone

- There are other God events recorded in the Bible

- These are times when God does something of significance

- To move history toward its fulfillment in Himself

- The creation, the flood, calling Abraham

- Calling Moses, rescuing His people from Egypt

- Mount Sinai and the Law

- David coming as king, building the temple

- The captivity, the crucifixion, Pentecost

All these are recorded in the Bible

- And are the activity of God in ways

- That changed the course of history

- And brought God’s purpose closer to fulfillment

Some of these God events involved nations and peoples

- But often they involved only one or two persons

- Who were called of God to do something for Him

- Some things were large and impacted thousands

- Some were smaller and impacted only a few

- But all had eternal significance and involved divine intervention into human affairs

- To bring God’s purpose to pass

Let’s look closer at Matthew 1:18-25 and also at Luke 1:26-38

- Looking at the characters involved

- We find Mary and Joseph

- And God

- Mary was a simple, devout young girl

- She was not particularly note-worthy

- She was not wealthy or well-educated

- She was not prominent in any particular way

- But she had a heart for God

- She was living in the small backwater town of Nazareth

- And she was engaged to a man named Joseph

- Some think Joseph was an older widower

- Taking Mary as a younger wife

- But there wasn’t anything particular

- That would make her stand out in her town

- Then God intrudes into her life

- Gabriel was sent by God to that town in Galilee called Nazareth

- With a message for Mary

- A message that would bring her to a crisis

- She was told she had been chosen by God Himself to conceive and bear a son

- He would be called Jesus, the Son of the Most High

- That the Lord God would give Him the throne of His ancestor David

- Wow, what an announcement

- Think of the impact and implications of that announcement

- Mary had to decide

- Just how she would react

- The Gospel of Luke tells us

- That she was at first frightened, troubled

- By the appearance of Gabriel, the Archangel

- Then came those words of peace

- That Jesus Himself would speak so many times “Do not be afraid.”

- God knows that God events frighten and unsettle us

- He understands that we have trouble grasping these things

- Because they go against so much of our own expectations and experience

Now we have Mary, pregnant with the Son of God

- And engaged to a man

- Who expects her to be a chaste virgin

- How does she explain

- That she is a virgin but chosen by God to bear His Son?