The Miracle & Mystery of Christmas — Isaiah 9:2-7
• The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
• Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
• For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.
• For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.
• For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
• Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
I. The Miracle of Squishi
a. This is pictured in the widow’s cruise of oil that Elijah multiplied – abundance in a small space
b. Clostrophobic examples:
i. Tight space for you to squeeze in? Crowded elevator?
ii. I had MRI for back troubles and they had to put butter on my stomach to make sure they could get me out
c. If you want to have the greatest example of compression it is in Bethlehem
d. Listen to the prophet describe the size of God: Isaiah 40:12 “Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?”
e. His size extends beyond the vastness of the universe –
i. Larger than the luminous heavens
ii. Grander than the galaxies
f. Hurling the milky ways with the command of His voice, He “clostrophobicized” Himself to cram into the womb of a 14 year old virgin.
g. The Great God of the universe, that if He were to stretch out His arms would literally shake galaxies, crammed His fullness into the manger in Bethlehem
h. God, who is omnipresent – everywhere fully at the same time because time and space are not able to confine Him – shrink-wrapped Himself in human skin and bone in the baby boy in Bethlehem
II. Miracle of the Virgin Birth
a. Foretold since the Garden, through the prophet Isaiah, comes a great stumbling block of the Christian faith
b. Mary’s experience is unique among women of all ages
i. Not only was she an innocent virgin, but she carried her maker inside her
ii. While the wonder of pregnancy is always joyful and miraculous, inside this teenager’s womb was kicking the feet that would crush the head of the serpent
iii. Inside Mary were moving the hands that would be pierced to redeem all of sinful humanity
iv. Inside Mary were the hands that fashioned Adam from the dust of the earth
v. The cry that Mary heard that Christmas night was from the voice that spoke “Let there be light” and tossed stars into their sockets with the power of His Word
c. Mary was not a surrogate, the power of God caused conception from the Father’s DNA and the Mother’s so that Jesus was fully God and fully man
d. Is He God or is He man?
• On His Daddy’s Side On His Momma’s Side
• Heavenly Father Earthly Mother
• Son of God Son of Man
• Before Abraham Seed of Abraham
• Root of David Earthly Mother
• Eternal Temporal
• Was Word Preached Word
• Walked on Sea Walked by Sea
III. Mystery of His Fullness
a. Jesus did not have just a “piece” of God, but in Him was the fullness of the Godhead bodily
b. He was not “half God” and “half man” but He was the full nature of the Almighty –
i. You see His Omniscience in view when He is 12 years old and is astounding the thought leaders of His day with his knowledge of the Word (Himself)
ii. You see His Omnipotence in view when He commands the sea and it obeys Him
iii. You see His Grace in view when he mends the sick with His powerful word
c. But He is fully human – facing weariness, temptation, suffering daily
i. In his sinless life, He shows what it is to be human
ii. A life without the greed, selfishness, and jealousy that corrupts
iii. He was the LIGHT shining into the darkness of a sinful world convicting of sin
d. How could the fullness of God be in heaven and in Christ at the same time? It is the great mystery of the trinity that we cannot understand in this life.
e. If we can allow God to do what we cannot explain, we surely must understand that His very nature is greater than we can comprehend
i. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. or as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
IV. Mystery of Humiliation
a. Think in terms of a sci-fi movie, if there was a great inventor that found a way to beam his human consciousness down to a roach, and then to prove that his mind was embodied in the roach, he would send you evidence back – the roach would get powder on his legs and walk in a pattern to show you the chemical formula for the light processes of photosynthesis – you would believe
b. But you would wonder, why in the world would this brilliant scientist want to waste his time becoming a roach
c. So is the mystery of Bethlehem
d. Psalms: O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
e. Of the great miracle of Christmas, the great unanswerable question is what motivated the Savior to abandon His heavenly glory and throne to redeem the “roaches of humanity”
