Getting Ready For Christmas Series

Getting Ready for Christmas

Matthew 1:1-17

November 25, 2007

Morning Service

Introduction

Here we are one month away from Christmas Day. The stores are already filled with people searching for gifts. The streets are filled with impatient drivers. The weekends will be filled with anxiety over doing everything that needs to be done before Christmas. Not what I would call a season of comfort and joy.

What do you do to get ready for Christmas? My family has already started with the preparations. We have prepared lists of gifts that we would like. We have already gone shopping, before Thanksgiving. We have cleaned the house and made room for the decorations. We have sorted out the decorations that we want to display and put them out. Before Christmas, shopping will need to be finished, gifts will need to be wrapped, food will need to be bought and prepared. There are number of things that we all do to get ourselves ready for Christmas. Many of them rarely involve the meaning of Christmas in them.

Yet all of these things are often done to get ready for Christmas. We often spend a great deal of time and money getting ready for

As I was reflecting on the nature of Christmas, I thought about something that became the driving force of this message: What did God do to get ready for Christmas? Have you ever thought about all of the things that God had to do to get ready for that first Christmas?

God worked to make the world ready for the arrival of Jesus.

• God had to defy the very laws of nature

• God had to redefine His personal role with His people

• God had to fulfill ancient promises

• God had to move from being infinite to being finite

The most amazing thing about the whole Christmas story is not that God broke into history but that He broke into history through ordinary people. Everything that God does in this world He does through His people. God uses people to accomplish His work and plans. God works through human beings to do divine work.

This morning I want to look at the human preparations that god had to make to accomplish His divine plan for Christmas. If you have your Bibles open them to Matthew 1:1-17.

1 A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham: 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, 4 Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife, 7 Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, 8 Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah, 9 Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon. 12 After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Eliud, 15 Eliud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. 17 Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.

Key Question: What do all of the preparations God made for the first Christmas mean to us today?

Even when God seems silent He is still bringing His divine plan into completion

Look again at the first verse of Matthew: A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham. This would have been like a major headline in our newspapers today. The statement is amazing and we often read right over it without giving it much thought. Matthew is incredibly bold here making a number of important claims.

Jesus is the Christ