Theme: Christmas Miracles: past-present-future
Thesis: The Bible reveals: Christmas past – Who Jesus was (All the way back to the Beginning) – Christmas present (Jesus who is present tense – Emmanuel the God who is with us right now) and the Bible reminds us that Christmas future is coming to this world and Jesus will return in His glory and majesty unlike as a baby in a manger – so we need to be ready and experience now the miracles of Christmas so we are ready.
Introduction:
As we look deeper into Christmas this month and the miracles surrounding this miraculous time of the year we see how it all got started with Jesus birth and many other divine miracles. The unveiling of the messiah was filled with miracles – God in the flesh in a little manger set in motion the salvation of all who believe. But as we continue to live through each Christmas in the present we still should be able to see the miracles of Christmas present – We should see the miracle that God is with us today – We should be able to see the intervention of the Lord in the lives of His people with present day miracles and the continuation of the message of Jesus birth and mission. Yes, God is with us is a key to discovering the current day message and miracles of Christmas. We will learn that Christmas past and it’s miracles signify “God with us” and it should make our present Christmas miraculous. It is important to know that miracles are associated with Christmas and they always point to Jesus as our Messiah. Miracles of Christmas should open our eyes to see into the future and see Jesus clearer. The book of Revelation unveils and reminds us of who Jesus was, is and will be in the future! If you believe then more miracles are on the way!
Miracles:
The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. It’s when God became Man in the flesh. Every other miracle prepares the way for this, or results from this miracle event. This is the key statement of the book Miracles, in which C. S. Lewis shows that a Christian must not only accept but rejoice in miracles as a testimony of the unique personal involvement of God in His creation. Using his characteristic lucidity and wit to develop his argument, Lewis challenges the rationalists, agnostics, and deists on their own grounds and provides a poetic and joyous affirmation that miracles really do occur in our everyday lives.
Christmas according to C.S. Lewis centers on the greatest miracle of which all miracles find their source and root and that is the incarnation of God through baby Jesus and His inception into this world.
“The fitness of the Christian miracles, and their difference from these mythological miracles, lies in the fact that they show invasion by a Power which is not alien. They are what might be expected to happen when she is invaded not simply by a god, but by the God of Nature: by a Power which is outside her jurisdiction not as a foreigner but as a sovereign. They proclaim that He who has come is not merely a king, but the King, her King and ours.”
? C.S. Lewis, Miracles
Dictionary.com defines a miracle as: noun
• An effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.
• Such an effect or event manifesting or considered as a work of God.
• A wonder; marvel.
Scripture Texts:
Revelation 1:4-8: 4John, to the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, 5and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power forever and ever! Amen. 7Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen. 8“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”
1 John 4:9: This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him.
Acts 4:12: “Salvation comes no other way; no other name has been or will be given to us by which we can be saved, only this one.”
As I read the Bible, Matthew, Luke and Acts I see the Apostles and disciples of Jesus being used by the Holy Spirit to perform miracles to testify to the authority and the healing power found in the name of Jesus. I see the importance of miracles in verifying that Jesus is who He said He was. Miracles always point to the authenticity and authority of Jesus. When Jesus was born – many miracles surrounded His birth 5 to be exact. These miracles all testify to 3 time frames Who He was (past) - Who He is (present) - and Who He will be (future)!
T.S. - Let’s look at the 5 miracles of Christmas Past (Idea comes from Christmas Miracles, author Brad Steiger):
1. The miracle of Mary’s Supernatural Pregnancy and Jesus being proclaimed by Gabriel (Luke 1:26-38):
a. We are told that Gabriel appears to Mary, she is a young unmarried girl of the town of Nazareth.
b. Gabriel proclaims to her a miracle that she has been chosen by God for a special purpose and that purpose is to give birth to God’s Son who will save His people from their sins.
c. God’s Holy Spirit would visit Mary and miraculously without her ever knowing any man become pregnant with the Savior of the World.
i. This birth would be a miracle from God!
d. This birth would be spoken into existence by the Word of God and no act of any man!
i. This birth would bring the salvation plan of God to mankind.
e. Notes from http://www.whychristmas.com/story/angel_mary.shtml:
i. Mary was probably about 14 to 16 years of age when she gave birth to Jesus. This was a very common age for young women to be engaged and marry in biblical times. So the son of God was the son of a teenage mother. Joseph was probably slightly older, around 30.
ii. Joseph and Mary where a very average couple in Israel at that time. They would have been quite poor. Joseph was a carpenter and his job was seen by some religious leaders as a religious duty rather than a profession. Both Joseph and Mary were descendants of King David of Israel, but at this time his family was in the poorest state it had ever been. Mary was also related to the traditional Priest families of Israel through her cousin Elizabeth.
iii. Nazareth, the town where they both lived, was a small hill town on a caravan route through the country. It also had a center for the temple priests, in which they could come and pray and fast when they were not on duty at the temple. So a wide range of people would travel and visit a town like Nazareth.
iv. Under Jewish law, an engagement like Joseph and Mary's was treated almost like a marriage and could only be broken by an official divorce.
v. The angel Gabriel, who visited Mary, is God's chief messenger angel and only appears to very important people in the Bible. The first words that Gabriel spoke to Mary 'Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.' are very important words. 'Highly favored' means 'God's holy grace is upon you' and is a divine blessing from God - something that would have never normally been said to a peasant girl like Mary! She would have been very scared by this and that is why Gabriel said 'Do not be afraid'.
vi. Mary would have been very surprised with the Gabriel saying that the Holy Spirit would be in her, because in the old Jewish stories, only the very important people had the Holy Spirit come into them. She might not have even believed that it is was going to happen, so she went to see her cousin Elizabeth, who Gabriel said would have a baby, to see if it was really true. She did this even before she told Joseph about Gabriel and Jesus.
2. An angel from God appears to Joseph a Nazarene Carpenter to clarify this miracle of conception (Matthew 1:18-25) :
a. Remember Joseph is engaged to Mary and they are to be married – the angel enlightens Joseph to the truth that Mary is pregnant but it is by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. It’s a divine miracle by God not by any man!
b. The angel counsels him to not break it off with Mary who is pregnant nor to disgrace her publicly because God did it through a miracle and spoke forth life by His word.
c. He is to marry her for it is God’s divine plan for this baby to be born.
i. Being told what to name Jesus is important:
1. The name Jesus (or Jeshua as it would have been said then) was a very common name in Israel at that time. If you had gone down a normal street and called 'JESHUA' to some children playing, it is more than likely that a couple of them would be called Jeshua! The name Jesus means 'Savior' and has a very important meaning in the story
d. This plan of God is part of a larger divine plan of God to bring salvation to the world through this baby. Joseph and Mary will play a key role in the history of the world of being the parents to the Savior of the world – the one who would set the world free of sin!
e. Notes from http://www.whychristmas.com/story/angel_joseph.shtml:
i. When Joseph found out about Mary's pregnancy, he must not have believed that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit but that she had been unfaithful to him. Even though they were engaged and not married, to break up the relationship, Joseph would have had to divorce Mary. In fact, adultery in engagement was even punishable by death in some cases! Joseph did not want to disgrace Mary, so he planned to divorce her in private. This only needed two witnesses rather than going through the Jewish courts and no formal grounds needed to be given for the divorce. But in a dream, an angel appeared to Joseph and told him to trust Mary. The angel also told Joseph that the child should be called Jesus. Having a vision in a dream from God was a sign of God's approval, so this would have made Joseph pay attention and do what the angel had said! We're not told who the angel was, but it could well have been Gabriel, who is God's chief messenger angel.
3. Angels appear to the Shepherds outside of Jerusalem (Luke 2:8-20):
a. The Shepherds were out in the fields working doing their routine jobs when a miracle happens.
b. They actually witness a chorus of angels declaring the supernatural birth of Jesus.
c. They are blown away from the appearing and the proclamation of the Savior.
d. They are instructed to go to Bethlehem to see the baby in the manager within the stable because this chosen one will bring peace to this world.
e. Luke 2:15,16 – The Shepherds
i. The Shepherds have and angel appear to them
ii. The angel was sent not to a king but to shepherds at work.
iii. This should lets us know that just because our jobs are routine does not mean we cannot have a heavenly encounter.
f. The Shepherds did not just listen to the announcement they responded. They went to Bethlehem.
i. Bethlehem name signifies the House of Bread.
ii. It was a fitting place for the Savior to be born- He was the true manna. He was the Bread of life which had been delivered to earth from Heaven. He was a special delivery.
iii. Micah 5:2
1. The shepherds came to Jesus to receive eternal life! The Bread of life!
2. The key to see here is that they came to Jesus! The first step toward worshipping Jesus is you must COME to Him.
g. Notes from http://www.whychristmas.com/story/shepherds.shtml
i. At that time, sheep farmers were seen as low or little value by other people. The sheep that they bred would have probably been used as sacrifice animals in the temple in near-by Jerusalem. They were quietly getting on with their own business when suddenly an angel appeared to them. I'm not surprised they were afraid!
ii. The Shepherds being visited by an Angel
1. The angels words to them told them of Jesus and his amazing birth and how they could recognize him in a very crowded town. The song of the hosts of angels is very similar to the words sung during a sacrifice service in the temple when there were three blasts of the temple trumpets. This is only the second time in the whole Bible that a group of angels rather than one angel had appeared to people, so this proved that they had a very important message to give to them. We don't know the names of the angels or how many there were of them, but in the Bible it says that there are millions of angels - so it would have been an amazing experience!
iii. Being curious as to what the angels meant, they went down into Bethlehem, maybe leaving a shepherd or two behind to keep guard on the sheep. The shepherds probably found Joseph, Mary and Jesus with the help of local women, running errands in the busy town, that had heard of the birth of a baby in a stable or shelter. When they had found and told Mary and Joseph what had happened to them, it says that 'The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.' The people they told probably weren't just the people they saw on the way back to hills, but friends and relatives in Bethlehem and Jerusalem and the people they met in the temple when they took their sheep to be sold.
h. Luke 2:16-18
i. The Shepherds the first to arrive, beheld Jesus in the manger and gave Him their full attention. They looked at Him in amazement.
1. I believe they could sense the powerful presence of God.
2. Why they went out and told everyone!
3. They experienced the Word of God that had become flesh.
4. John 1:14 “ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
4. A miraculous star moves across the sky to draw and guide three wise men to Jesus (Matthew 2: 1-11).
a. These three wise men were kings who traveled from far away Eastern nations and they came to worship the King of the Jews - Jesus.
i. The Magi followed the star and came to Christ.
1. They stopped their regular routine and sought after the King of kings so they could worship Him.
2. These men came from the east to seek out the King –the Messiah.
3. They saw a star and followed it. They did not ignore it they chased after it.
4. The star is a symbol of a Prince
5. Rev. 22:16 tells us that Jesus is the “…Bright and Morning Star.”
ii. The star was showing from Heaven
1. It was not a common place phenomenon.
2. It was unusual and drew their attention.
iii. This star moved and lead them to Jesus.
1. It was a supernatural star which lead to a supernatural Prince and King.
2. They followed the star because of Daniel’s influence years earlier. They knew of the Prophecies of the Coming Messiah.
iv. They took upon themselves the task of seeking out this King.
1. A person who wants to worship will seek out the King.
2. They will come to Him no matter what they have to endure to get there.
3. They knew they were seeking the King of the Jews.
b. They had been drawn by the Holy Spirit to testify that “The Newborn King was born!”
c. Matthew 2:10,11
i. The Magi also beheld Him.
ii. They bowed to Him
iii. They gazed in adoration and honor to him.
iv. Quote – “Through Christ’s coming we see as in a mirror the spotless excellent and loving face of God.” Clement of Alexandria.
v. They too sensed His presence in an awesome way.
vi. When you take the time to behold the Messiah you to will sense His presence in an awesome way.
d. Matthew 2:11,12
i. The wise men adored Him by bowing to Him and showing Christ respect and honor.
ii. They bowed in reverence and worshipped in love and reverence.
iii. They presented themselves to Jesus.
iv. They presented gifts to Him:
1. They brought him “Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.” They gave gold, frankincense and myrrh all very symbolic.
a. Gold was always given to kings. It signified a paying of tribute to king. Idea tithing here!
i. Symbol – Kingship
b. Frankincense – As God they honored Him with the smoke of incense.
i. Symbolized his Divinity
c. Myrrh – As a man that should die, for myrrh was used in embalming of the dead and was given to Jesus to show that this son of God would die as a gift to redeem mankind.
i. Symbol his humanity
5. An angel appears to the three Wise Men/Joseph (separately but corporately to warn them) (Matthew 2:12-23):
a. The angel advises the wise men not to return to King Herod with the identity of the new born king Jesus.
i. The angel protects Jesus from the evil king who wants to kill the new king Jesus.
b. This same angel also warns Joseph in a night vision to flee with Mary and Jesus to the safety of Egypt in order to avoid King Herod’s sinister decree to kill all the children under 2 who are males in Bethlehem.
c. The angel reappears after King Herod’s death and tells Joseph to move back to Israel and live in Nazareth.
d. Notes from http://www.whychristmas.com/story/travels.shtml
i. Although Herod was the 'King of the Jews', he wasn't actually a Jew! He was a Nabatean and was really a 'puppet king' for the Romans. Herod was hated by most Jews and he didn't like them either! So when the Magi said there was a new 'King of the Jews' - who was actually Jewish - was very angry and was scared the new King could come and take his power away.
ii. Because Herod was unable to find out where Jesus was from the wise men, he thought the only way of making sure Jesus was killed was to kill every baby boy under two years old in Bethlehem and the surrounding area. Probably only about 20 babies would have been killed, but even that fact is really horrible. So his cruelty would had brought terror and grief to many homes. But Jesus was kept safe as Joseph took him and Mary to Egypt just in time. This was not the first time that Herod had killed people to keep them quiet - he even had killed people in his own family in the past!
iii. The killing of the boys is mentioned in a Roman book in the 5th century, called "The Saturnalia of Macrobius" where it also claims that even one of Herod's son's was killed. It quotes the Roman Emperor Augustus as saying: "It is better to be Herod's pig than a son." It's also described in "The Infancy Gospel of James", although later scholars have cast doubt over both of these works.
iv. However, the very respected Roman historian Josephus records many terrible acts in the life of Herod including the execution of his wife, son and brother-in-law! Josephus also records Herod's death as taking place in 4BC, so Jesus being born about 5-7 BC makes even more sense.
v. Jesus becoming a refugee and going to Egypt fulfilled some very old prophecies in the Old Testament of the Bible. The family probably didn't have to spend too long in Egypt as Herod died soon after this.
Conclusion:
Brad Steiger states, “Since the story of Christmas is founded on the five miracles listed above, there can be little wonder that miracles of faith and love continue to occur during a holiday season that has been held sacred for over 2,000 years” (Page 47, Christmas Miracles).
After thoughts from the sermon and the book Miracles:
“He is not the soul of Nature, nor any part of Nature. He inhabits eternity: He dwells in a high and holy place: heaven is His throne, not his vehicle, earth is his footstool, not his vesture. One day he will dismantle both and make a new heaven and earth. He is not to be identified even with the 'divine spark' in man. He is 'God and not man.”
? C.S. Lewis, Miracles
“Nothing can seem extraordinary until you have discovered what is ordinary. Belief in miracles, far from depending on an ignorance of the laws of nature, is only possible in so far as those laws are known.”
? C.S. Lewis, Miracles
“The New Testament writers speak as if Christ's achievement in rising from the dead was the first event of its kind in the whole history of the universe. He is the 'first fruits,' the pioneer of life,' He has forced open a door that has been locked since the death of the first man. He has met, fought, and beaten the King of Death. Everything is different because He has done so. (Miracles, ch. 16)”
? C.S. Lewis, Miracles
“If you have hitherto disbelieved in miracles, it is worth pausing a moment to consider whether this is not chiefly because you thought you had discovered what the story was really about?—that atoms, and time and space and economics and politics were the main plot? And is it certain you were right? It is easy to make mistakes in such matters.”
? C.S. Lewis, Miracles
What do we need to learn from this sermon?
Christmas was birthed by divine miracles!
Why do we need to know this?
Jesus is a miracle for all of us, if we believe. Christmas is known through history to be filled with miracles.
Story from book:
What do we need to do?
We need to believe in miracles, we need to pray and ask for miracles. Miracles still happen today and you too can be a part of one if you believe. Do you believe?
Why do we need to do this?
We need to remember that Christmas is about the miracle of Jesus. We need to believe, receive and be freed today.
We need to refocus on Jesus and seek a miracle this Christmas for:
For our Loved ones that they find Jesus
For the ones who are lost to find their way home.
For restoration of broken marriages
For divine Healings - in souls, spirits and even bodies.
For deliverance in our families and friends from the bondages of this world.
For freedom in the Spirit in our church.
Will you believe in miracles with me? Let's pray!
