12/20/2009
The miracle of Christmas
Matthew 2:1-12
Introduction-
Here we are 5 days before Christmas. People are excited to open presents, spend time together with family, eat a lot.
Take a nap That is Christmas today.
The day that Jesus was born was not quite that way.
Last week we looked at John 3:16- “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
The week before, it was about making room for Jesus in your life, not being like the mean inn keeper that told the mother of Jesus that there was no room at the inn for the Son of God.
Matthew 2:1-12 read from Bible.
Christmas is about miracles
The miracle that God would come to earth to redeem man . Even by man’s selfish ways, that is a miracle
The miracle that God spoke to Joseph and Mary separately to tell the story and plan of God.
Joseph-
Matthew 1- “Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus, because He will save his people from their sins.”
Mary-
Luke 1- “Do not be afraid Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you will give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high.”
I would call that miracles
I would say that their attitudes towards God was a miracle . “I am the Lord’s servant, Mary answered, may it be to me as you have said”
The miracle that God protected the birth of Jesus.
The miracle that God kept King Herod from stopping the plan of God.
That is where we are this morning
The Bible says that:
“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophets. The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, God with us - and the next line is where God tells Joseph to give him the name Jesus.”
Josh and I were talking this week, if you are buying gifts, buying Christmas cards, and wrapping paper, putting up a tree, you are celebrating Christmas. You may not be doing it for Christ child that came to this earth for you, but it is celebrating Christmas
Christmas is about miracles
Christmas is about hope.
Christmas is about faith.
Christ-mas doesn’t change because of your lack of any of these three things. Hope, faith, and the miracle of Jesus Christ.
You can go to faith.com. On that site, they claim to be your spiritual resource on the internet. They instruct you to click on one of these links. Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim. Choose your faith according to your beliefs.
Well, lets take a look at the human nativity scene here in Matthew.
The Magi were wealthy astrologers that studied the stars. They believed the movements of the heavenly bodies and the destiny of man were linked together. They observed the rising of the star that they could not account for. To little is written why they linked it with the birth of the Messiah. The star seemed to guide them to the birth of Jesus.
In the process, the clear prophetic word of God was lived out. Gold, Incense, Myrr were the way that they funded their trip and were the expensive gifts left for the Christ child.
I can picture that moment in time. People, animals, manger, full inn, packed stable- there the Christ child came to mankind.
Matt. 1:23- “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a Son, they will call Him Immanuel, which means God with us.”
Immanuel given for the significance of the event, not his name. You will give him the name Jesus.
We think we can love the outcast.
We think that we can love the poor person, the one maybe don’t smell good, we think because we help at a soup kitchen...Jesus loved the outcast. That is each and every one of us. Weather we sit here with a Botony 500 suit on or a pair of jeans with holes in them. We are the outcasts. The ones with the broken relationship with God. God choose to bridge that gap, by being born in that dirty stinky stable. A king, responding to mankind’s cry fo help
Illustration:
Like- Dr. Suess “How the Grinch stole Christmas”, Satan had stole and broken the relationship between God and man by sin in the world.
“Every Who down in Who-ville like Christmas a lot,
but the Grinch, who lived just north of Who-ville Did not.”
The Grinch realized,
He hadn’t stopped Christmas from coming It came
How could this be so?
It came without ribbons. It came without tags It came without packages, boxes, or bags
Then the Grinch though of something he hadn’t before
Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store.
Maybe Christmas, perhaps mans a little bit more
You can look at the Nativity set every year. Until you see God the creator of the universe coming to mankind, you have missed Christmas.
Until you realize, no matter how you are dressed this morning, you were the outcast and God bridged the gap at the cry of mankind. You have missed Christmas.
Christmas is a miracle- it is God’s gift to mankind.
John 1:15
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning, through Him all things were made, without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men, the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood.”
(V14) -“ The Word became flesh, and made His dwelling among us”
Apostle John says
“This is He of whom I said, He who comes after me has surpassed me, because He was before me. From the fulness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another.”
He is our miracle on 34th street.
He is our "It’s a wonderful life."
The story of Christmas- the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ is a miracle. In Nazareth over 2000 years ago. That Nazarene you can take to the bank.
I. Faith in the miracle is essential
We serve a big God. Take Him out of the box you have Him in. Take Him out of that manger. The supernatural plan of God completed. “The fool in his heart says there is no God”
It takes more faith to believe that we evolved by accident, then believing the creator of everything would be willing to come save that which he created and loved.
He is not just a historical figure. He is supernatural being, He is God
II. Doubting is normal/ you just can’t stay there.
Even the mother of Jesus asked “How will this be”?
The angel of the Lord had to bring her the answer.
Faith is supernatural. It goes beyond what we can piece together.
The closer you get to the Lord, the more you realize how dependent you are or should be to God.
The closer you get , the more you see His power in our weakness.
Norm Geiser
“God is not asking you to take a blind leap of faith in the darkness. He is asking you to take a reasonable step of faith into the light”
Isn’t that good
God has plenty of evidence for us to believe.
Are you willing to look for it this morning
III. Faith in that miracle is possible
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see”
Christmas is about hope and faith.
For some- hope is a wish list.
For others- Hope is being certain of things not yet seen
Faith in the Christ child is :
“laying aside everything that hinders and entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that’s set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus”
Making room for Jesus-
You cannot be just Sunday Christians.
You cannot be Christmas Christians.
You have to be Christ followers. Fixing our eyes on Jesus everyday of the year.
Closing;
Illustration
On the day after Christmas at a church in San Francisco, the pastor was looking over the nativity scene in the church lobby and noticed that baby Jesus was missing from among it’s figures. He hurried outside and saw a little boy with a red wagon, and in the red wagon was the figure of little baby Jesus. So he walked up to the boy and said, “well, where did you get your passenger? The boy replied, I got him at church. Pastor; why did you take Him? The boy looked at the pastor and said, well, about a week before Christmas I prayed to the little Lord Jesus and told Him that if He would bring me a red wagon for Christmas I would give Him a ride around the block in it.”
We gain hope by following Jesus.
It is the great thing about the Lord...the more you live faith, the more faith that is given to you.
One step in front of the other.
My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus Blood and Righteousness
Maybe this morning, you want to take what faith you have , one foot in front of the other and say... that is the God that I want to serve. The God who cares for me. The one that I can put my trust in.
Altar Call:
