Sermon Series: Why Christmas? Matthew 1:18-24 Christmas means God brings refreshment Pastor Brian Long: December 3rd, 2017 Big Idea: With Jesus comes refreshment. Good morning to each of you. Today we kickoff a brand new series of messages designed to prepare our hearts for Christmas. I m calling this series: Why Christmas? Each week I want to talk about why Christmas is so special. Of course Christmas is special on a number of levels. Most all of us consider Christmas special because of the fun and excitement of giving and receiving gifts. Many of you have just participated in our Christmas shoebox effort in collaboration with our sister church The Arab-American Learning Center in Sacramento. The AALC is ministering to the Muslim refuges in the Arden-Arcade area. Because of your energy in this we will be sending just over 300 shoeboxes down for the children of those refugee families. And each box will be given in the name of Jesus and for his glory. Quilt Blessing: Also today, I want to let you know about another labor of love going out from our church. Over the past number of months our Dorcus Quilting Ministry has been lovingly preparing quilts gearing up for their big giveaway here at Christmas time. [Call ladies up] As these ladies are coming up to show you an example of what they have been preparing cloth by cloth and stitch by stitch let me give you a few numbers: The ladies have made 85 quilts this year for CASA. (Court Appointed Special Advocates) That's a total of 1066 since 2004. Also 25 quilts were sent to the Safe House in Juarez, Mexico for children in the sex trade. And 15 quilts have been made for the injured veterans in our county. Each of these quilts have been stitched together with love AND each of them come with a TAG ON THE CORNER that let s the recipient know they are loved by the folks over at Church of the Foothills. Before these are given to CASA tomorrow, I d like us to PRAY
These kinds of expressions of love and compassion are one of the reasons Christmastime is so special. The reality is, Christmas is special on a number of levels. On the practical, daily experience level, Christmas is special because it's an end to a long and eventful year. I think many of us look forward to Christmas because it means...refreshment is on the way a little more down time off work, some good food and drink shared with friends, fun gatherings, gift giving, and of course gift receiving. Who doesn t love receiving a gift? But, let s be honest, it s easy to blow through the Christmas season just going through the motions. It s easy for the traditions and celebrations of Christmas to distract us from the real why of Christmas. This series Why Christmas is designed to keep that from happening. This series is designed to keep your heart and soul clearly in touch with the Why of Christmas. What makes it special on the core level, the heart level, the soul level of our lives. Today, in an effort to remind us why Christmas is so special, I want to show you an event that occurred at the first Christmas in the Gospel of Matthew 1:18-24. I want to make three observations from this event to highlight the specialness of Christmas. The first observation comes from verse 18. Christmas is special because... 1. God initiates it (18). Christmas is God s holiday. You see, before anything happened on the human side, the initiative was all God s. The supernatural power to make it happen is all God s. The text says, Mary and Joseph were, pledged to be married. From a legal point of view in that day, they are bound to one another. A pledge like this can be dissolved only with a bill of divorce. It s like marriage for us today, however, the pledged woman lives with her parents and does not have sexual relations with her bridegroom until they come together after the formal wedding. 34 But, the text is clear, before any of that happened on the human side, Mary was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. This surprising situation obviously wigs Joseph out. Look at verses 19-21.
Folks, what the Angel of the Lord is telling us is that Christmas is so incredibly special because God Almighty is on the move sending his son through the womb of a human woman, in order to provide ultimate refreshment for your soul. This truth is often referred to as the virgin birth of Jesus. But that s really a misnomer. The text is not talking about Jesus birth, but his conception. So, let s call it the virgin conception of Jesus. Now, the virgin conception might seem difficult to believe. It is sometimes suggested that belief in a virgin conception stems from prescientific superstition by the ancients. But, please realize, even the relatively primitive stage of first-century science was sufficiently advanced for people to know that in every other known instance conception required a biological father as well as a biological mother to produce a human child. The Christian notion of a virginal conception was no more plausible in first-century Judaism than it is in the twentieth-century Western world, yet it has formed an integral part of Christian belief for two thousand years. 1 When we we re in Israel, for example, and you are trying to determine whether a particular site is actually the location a certain Biblical event took place, our Guide explains that you have to consider two things: continuity and consistency. If there is evidence that those closest to the event in that time mark that location, or leave indication that something significant occurred there, and that marker, or indication of reality stands the test of time, then the reliability that the site is authentic is strengthened. The same principle applies here. The miracle of the virgin conception was marked by the written testimony of those who experienced it that first Christmas here in Matthew and also in Luke s gospel. And the Apostles, the early church leaders, the church fathers, and Christian theologians sustained that testimony as an integral part of Christian belief continually and consistently down through the centuries. That says something 1 Craig Blomberg, Matthew, vol. 22, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 58.
significant about the reliability of this truth of the virgin conception of Jesus. Though Matthew expounds nothing of its significance here, the virgin conception has regularly been understood as a way by which Jesus could be both fully human and fully divine. Now, here s how the virgin conception of Jesus impacts you making Christmas so special for you. The virgin conception means that the son, named Jesus Yeshua, meaning Yahweh is salvation or the Lord saves 2 will be fully God and at the same time, fully human. Here s why that is such a huge deal for you and me. It s the only way we can be truly saved from the power and consequence of our sins. Remember: Our sin has offended the just and holy character of God, out of which his just and holy law emerges. We are therefore held accountable for our offenses of sin. For God to remain just, the penalty for our sin must be paid. To be born as fully human means Jesus can be our adequate representative and function legitimately as our substitutionary sacrifice. In other words, to be fully human means that he is able to fully and adequately stand in our place and pay our penalty. As he offers himself on the cross for us his full humanness makes it possible to cover the full gamut of the brokenness and sin in each of our lives. Jesus has to be fully one of us in order to fully represent us on the cross. The writer of Hebrews reminds us that Jesus does not merely share a few traits in common with us; he is in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters (Heb. 2:17), having a human body like ours, a human nature like ours, a human personality like ours, human emotions like ours, and having endured all the limitations that come with being a regular human. 3 2 Craig Blomberg, Matthew, vol. 22, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 59. 3 Craig Blomberg, Matthew, vol. 22, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 58.
He hit his fingers in the wood shop, annoyed his parents, got frustrated with his disciples, cried his eyes out when one of his best friends died, and lived as a subject to the laws of this world his whole life. Jesus, the eternal Son of God, became an actual human being just like us. Why? He did it because it was necessary for our salvation. Just as our whole human nature was broken by the fall, our whole human nature needed to be restored and recreated by God. To do that, God the Son brought the whole of our broken human nature into himself and purified all of it by making it his own. 4 Here s how the writer of Hebrews states this, 14 Because God s children are human beings made of flesh and blood the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. - Heb. 2:14 Now, as I said the virgin conception means that Jesus will be fully human and at the same time, fully God. To be conceived by the Holy Spirit means that Jesus is fully God. Jesus, the Son, is not merely similar to the Father; he is the same God, the same Yahweh, that the Father is. And he proves this when he rises from the Grave at Easter. Being fully God means Jesus was sinless and perfect and able to serve as the acceptable sacrifice for our sin. Jesus was able to pay the eternal penalty for our sins (v. 21) for which finite humanity could not atone. As fully God, the death of Jesus on the cross means his death is sufficient for all sinners who ever lived. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. -Col. 1:19 Imagine for just a moment; what would have happened if the 1 st Christmas never occurred? You and I would be hopelessly bound in our sin nature. 4 Elliot, Ben, Accreditation Helps: An Introduction to the Theology of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Wing Springs Publishers, Chicago. 2012. 46-47.
Even if we might long to be different, and long to know our creator, and even if we might have longed to be with our creator in eternity, that would not have been possible. We would have no way to escape our inclinations to sin, to offend God, and to selfishly use and abuse others. Therefore we would have absolutely no hope of qualifying for heaven because there would be no sufficient sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sin in order to meet God s just and holy law. We would remain dead in our sins and be forced to pay for, or atone for, our own sin for eternity. Is Christmas special or what? You see talking about it that way really highlights it doesn t it? It helps refresh our appreciation for where we d be if there was never a Christmas. Now, not only is Christmas special because God initiated it, but Matthew reminds us that it s special because God had been planning it since the beginning of time. Look at verse 22. 2. God planned Christmas long ago (22). By citing the prophecy here, Matthew is reminding us that Christmas is a fulfillment of a long time promise. From the time of the first break in relationship between God and his creation, a remedy was whispered and alluded to And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers: he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. Gen. 3:15 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. Gen. 3:21 As we move through the Old Testament history and writings of the Prophets, they often declared the ancient promise that one who would be a solution to our sin problem would be a son who would come through the family line of the great King David The Prophet Isaiah wrote, 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)
Notice he says A sign. A sign of what? It s a sign that God is making good on his promises of old. His promise to send a Messiah, a Savior, a Deliverer. Later in Chapter 9 Isaiah adds to this; For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 Then one more example; Micah 5:2 But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. Now, as significant and special as the virgin birth is, and as significant and special as God s long term commitment to the plan is those aren t even Matthew s main point of celebration in his account here. Matthew s main point of celebration is that Christmas is special because it means God did it all just TO BE WITH US. Look at verses 23-24 3. God did this to be WITH us (23-24). How incredibly special is it to realize that God loves you so much that he couldn t stand to let you journey through life lost, powerless, and suffering from your sin for an eternity. He didn t want you to have to deal with life and eternity alone. So, he steps down a ton leaving all the glories of heaven He gives up a ton though divine, he takes on human form And goes through a ton to secure his life with you now, and his future with you in eternity he humbles himself even to death on a cross. This is Matthew s chief reason Christmas is so special. In fact, references to God-with-us run through Matthew s entire Gospel (e.g., 17:17*; 18:20*; 26:29*). It s a key theme. Here near the beginning he emphasizes it, and in the last verse of his Gospel he emphasizes it again, quoting Jesus words, I am with you always until the end of the age, -28:20.
Why Christmas? Why is it so special? Matthew would say because God sent refreshment in Jesus fully man and fully God sent to save his people from their sins God initiated it God planned it from long ago and God did it all just to be WITH US. I started out today suggesting that Christmas is special because it means refreshment is on the way. Not just refreshment on the surface level, with some extra days off and some extra good celebrations, but refreshment in the deep soul and spirit levels. Christmas commemorates the unprecedented, unmatched action of the God of the universe getting personal. Christmas commemorates God initiating personal relationship with us and taking the first step in the long sacrificial journey right to the doorstep of your heart. Jesus birth story in the Bible is the first step in a journey that brings us to Revelation 3:20 where Jesus says, Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. In other words, relationship and refreshment in Jesus has been offered to you, but you must seize it. The verse says you most open your heart to him. You must embrace him, accept him, and you intentionally surrender your heart to him. It s clear to me that Christmas is special because it marks your eagerness to be with me now and into eternity. I open my heart to you today. I need you to forgive my sin, and qualify me for heaven. I need you to empower me for the challenges and opportunities of my life today. Thank you for Christmas. If that prayer reflects your desire, then I would invite you to pray it in a few moments when we go to prayer. (Decision card) For those of you who have already made him your forgiver and leader, I want to invite you to be intentional again this Christmas to seize the season so that you truly experience the refreshment Christmas can bring. As we prepare to enter into and walk through another Christmas season
Let me offer a few suggestions to you on how you might seize the season. 1. Seize the season with calendar modifications. Make room to freshly reflect on and absorb the powerful spiritual realities Christmas commemorates. 2. Seize the season by using advent reading/reflection plans available on our website (cotf.org and click on the Christmas banner) 3. Seize the season with alternative gift giving (CAMA Services, Samaritan s Purse, Heifer, World Vision 2 slides, C&MA missions strategic giving ops, Kiva micro loans, Gideons ) 4. Seize the season by inviting someone to our Christmas Eve services. Be clear about xmas eve services and differences between trad. and regular and I will be giving a clear, common sense description from the Bible about why Christmas is so special. 5. Seize the season by using social media. Help us get the word out about our Christmas series, Tree Lighting, and our Xmas Eve services by sharing with your friends on social media each of our promo efforts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. 6. Seize the season by putting a Christmas at the Foothills yard sign in your yard or neighborhood. It s clear to me that Christmas is special because it marks your eagerness to be with me now and into eternity. I open my heart to you today. I need you to forgive my sin, and qualify me for heaven. I need you to empower me for the challenges and opportunities of my life today. Thank you for Christmas. Church of the Foothills 2017