Last week we studied how Joseph faced this first Christmas
His and Mary’s long journey to Bethlehem
I know you can see them in your mind
Two very simple ordinary people
Just think of all the people they met along the way
People that all they seen was a young pregnant couple
Not knowing that this woman carried the Christ
Mary must have struggled with great doubt along this journey
How can I be the one
How can I be the mother of the Son of God
How can I raise the one that will literally raise me
But she showed great faith
In the angel
In her fiancée
In her God
Many people missed out on that first Christmas
Not even knowing it was taking place
But Mary was fully focused on her task
And when the time came
She, forced to birth her firstborn son in a filthy barn
The only company she had was her fiancée and some cows and sheep
And finally it was done
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, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
And as they counted his fingers and toes
And as she held him close and looked into his beautiful face
They probably laughed together and cried together
Joseph and Mary
But most of all they worshiped
Because they knew who this child was
They didn’t miss the first Christmas
How could they?
They knew why they were there
They knew what this first Christmas was truly about
About a Savior, the King, Christ child coming to this earth
To save the world from their sins
Because Mary thought back to those words
The words that not only changed her life forever
But changed the world
Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which translated means “God with us”
Immanuel - “God with us”.
If we could condense all the truths of Christmas into only three words these would be the words
Sometimes we lose our focus and almost miss Christmas
We tend to focus our attention at Christmas on the infancy of Christ
But the greater truth of the holiday is His deity.
He is the omnipotent all powerful Creator of the heavens and the earth!
He was infinitely rich, but became poor
2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.
So tonight lets look at Immanuel GOD WITH US
I. God
Creator John 1:1-2 In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.
Christ was not only the heir of creation;
He was also in the beginning the divine agent of creation.
The Person of the Trinity through whom the world was made and for whom it was fashioned.
Think of what that means
A hollow ball the size of our sun would hold about one million earth sized planets.
The brightest star in our sky Sirius Canis Major, is twice the size of our sun.
Arcturus is more than 23 times larger than our sun.
Betelguese, one of the stars visible in the constellation Orion is about 300 times larger then our sun.
No wonder Job expressed his awe of God this way in Job 9:2,9 “How should man be just with God? Which maketh Arcturus, Orion and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.”
Job is naming constellations and is in great awe of the handiwork and power of Almighty God Jesus Christ.
So how big is this universe that Jesus, 100% God created?
A ray of light travels at 186,000 miles per second.
It takes 8 ½ minutes for light from the sun to reach us.
That is 93 million miles away from earth
If you could travel that fast you could reach
The moon in a second and a half
Mars in 4 ½ minutes
Jupiter in 35 minutes
Pluto in 5 hours 20 minutes
Alpha Centauri the closest star in 4 years 4 months
Sirius 8 ½ years
Arcturus 37 years
Betelgeuse about 522 years
The size of the universe is incomprehensible.
The baby in Bethlehem made all of it. He created everything.
But we all know that
God didn’t make everything, wind it up like a clock and go away. Without Him the world would fall apart.
He didn’t desert His creation.
He stepped into it as a little infant with only a manger for His cradle.
You may wonder things like did he cry
Or did he need normal care and feeding one would give to any other baby
Of course He did
He was fully human with all the needs and emotions that are common to every human
Yet he was fully God
All wise and all powerful
How can both be true?
I don’t know, we can not comprehend this concept
And for two thousand years the debate has gone on about who Jesus really is.
He is one of many gods, a created being, a prophet, and so on
The common thread of all such theories is that they make Jesus less than God
But John’s Gospel begins with a clear statement that Jesus is God
THE WORD WAS GOD
And who is that word?
Verse 14 clears that up
“and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
There is no doubt, this child was indeed God.
The very Son of God
And with His birth He became…
II. With
A. Jesus stepped out of Heaven, off His throne, to be here.
Thou didst leave thy throne and thy Kingly crown when thou camest to earth for me
Heaven’s Child - This was Heaven’s Child, in an earthen stable, wrapped in Glory meek and mild…The angels must have missed Him as they sang Him to sleep.
B. Philippians 2:5-8
Php 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Php 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: Php 2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: Php 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Emptied Himself, not emptying himself of deity, for he was still God
But He gave up so much for us.
Independent Authority - He completely surrendered Himself to the will of His Father.
Heavenly Glory
Eternal Riches - poor and owned very little
Most of all gave us the glory of the face-to-face relationship with God the Father.
This is the immeasurable gift of Christmas.
God’s own Son, gave up His wealth and privilege to live as God WITH us
That He might save His people from our sins
And that through His poverty we might be rich
And while Jesus was here on this earth He experienced life as we know it
He grew up amongst other youngsters
He learned a trade - carpentry
He was part of a family, of a community
He laughed and played and learned
Luke 2:52 says “And Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature, and with favor with God and man”
But He also hurt
He was rejected by His own people, His hometown
“no prophet is accepted in his hometown” He said
This infuriated the Nazarenes to the point they lynched Jesus, ran him out of town and attempted to throw Him off a cliff
But Jesus walked right through the crowd
He hurt in other ways as well
We all remember the death of His close friend Lazarus
Jesus wept. Possibly His heart hurt for the pain His friends were feeling
And we read about the pain He suffered on the cross
For you and for me.
He was with us
Experiencing life here on earth
To know how we truly feel
How do you know my condition? You came down to me, to know what its like, to know what its like to hurt, You came down to me to know what its like, to know what its like to be me, to be me…
C. We could never fathom what it meant for the all powerful, all knowing, ever present King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Great I Am, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to give up His throne in Heaven to be WITH us.
And that leads us to the final point US
III. Us
We should be humbled by this very thought
This God came to us.
Psalm 51:1-4, 11-12 Words David spoke after Bathsheba
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Ps 51:2 Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Ps 51:3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Ps 51:4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
Ps 51:11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Ps 51:12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
The Almighty God, Awesome Lord, Mighty Conqueror, Perfect sinless God was here with us, lowly sinners, undeserving, ungrateful sinners.
And He didn’t just come for the redemption of my sins
Our your sins
But all sins, of all time
Think about the sins recorded in the Bible, those committed by Godly men
Adam - Disobeyed God started it all
Abraham - Lied about his marriage
Moses - Murdered an Egyptian
David - committed adultery, lied, tried to cover it up, had a good loyal man murdered
Solomon - married many women, for political gain, regardless of their association with idol worship
Jacob - Lied and deceived his father
And what about that death row inmate that has genuinely came to know Jesus as his Savior
His sins are just as much forgiven as mine are.
We tend to think that God wont forgive those types of horrible horrible sins.
But He does
You may think, “I’m not that bad of a guy, I’m a pretty good gal”
But there are no “Good ‘ole boys” in Heaven
Only forgiven sinners
Paul, possibly the most Godly man to ever live said in I Timothy 1:15
“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners: of whom I am chief”
Paul thought he was the worst sinner of all time.
Sometimes I feel the same way.
And that is the us
The US that God came to this earth to save.
He came to save even the worst of all sinners.
God With Us
Lady last minute shopping with kids in tow
They ought to Arrest him string him up and shoot him
Don’t worry they already arrested Him, whipped Him, spat on Him, beat Him, taunted Him, nailed Him to a cross, stripped Him and Crucified Him
It is too easy to get so caught up in the things of Christmas
So easy we actually miss what Christmas is
Immanuel came all those years ago, and
Nearly everyone missed that first Christmas.
Like people today they were busy
Consumed with all kinds of things
Some important some not
But nearly everyone missed Christ.
The Innkeeper
The Son of God might have been born on his property
But he missed Christmas because he was so preoccupied.
He was to busy just like millions of people today.
Not necessarily sinful activity, just busy.
Shopping, banquets, parties, concerts, school activities
Many preoccupied people miss the Son of God.
Herod
Herod pretended he wanted to worship Jesus
But was actually fearful of this King of the Jews.
No competition for Herod could be allowed.
Many people today will not allow anything to interfere with their career, position, power, ambition, plans or lifestyle.
No one else can be king of their lives.
Such people are governed by the same kind of jealous fear that drove Herod.
Like him, they miss Christmas.
The Religious Leaders
They knew exactly where Christ was to be born
But they never bothered to walk the two miles to Bethlehem to find out if Messiah had indeed been born.
Indifference caused them to miss Christmas.
They had all the facts, they just didn’t care.
Religious people today don’t think they need a Savior
They think they are all right just the way they are.
Matthew 9:13 “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance”
Those that are indifferent do not realize they are sinners, and cannot respond to His call.
They don’t care about the remedy, because they don’t believe they have the disease.
Such people miss Christmas.
The People of Nazareth
Jesus grew up in Nazareth living a perfect life before all the people there.
Yet when He revealed Himself as the Messiah they tried to throw Him off a cliff.
That’s what I call missing Christmas.
They should have known Him better that anyone.
What was their problem?
Familiarity.
They couldn’t believe He was anyone special.
Perhaps the most tragic sin of all is the unbelief of a person who has heard all the sermons
Sat through all the Bible lessons
Learned all the Christmas stories but who still rejects Christ.
What a sad way to miss Christmas.
Call up song leader
Perhaps you’ve been missing Christmas.
You may give and receive presents
Eat a big dinner
And decorate a tree
But you know in your heart that you are no different from
The innkeeper
Herod
The religious leaders
Or the citizens of Nazareth.
You are missing the reality of Christmas.
You don’t have to miss another one.
Turn from your sin and unbelief and receive Christ as Lord and God.
He will forgive your sin
Change your life
And give you the greatest Christmas gift anyone can receive
Himself
Don’t miss Christmas this year!
