The Story of Christmas
12/21/08 AM
Text: Matthew 1:18-25
Introduction:
For many today, Christmas is just a holiday; a stressful one at that. It’s a time for buying gifts that didn’t need to be bought out of a budget that couldn’t afford them. It’s a time for squeezing parties and extra events into a schedule that was already too full. It’s a time in which many feel rushed and over-committed when what they really need is to slow down and enjoy the season.
Christmas should be a time of peace, not of stress and frustration. We stress we may overlook someone on our gift list, or maybe they won’t like what we bought them, or perhaps they will think our gift too cheap. For some, Christmas brings the added tension of bringing together fractured families. Instead of peace, they dread the inevitable conflicts. Yet, Christmas should be a time of peace.
Christmas should be a time of hope. Think about this, Christmas is poised at the end of one year and the beginning of the next, at the crossroads of the past and the future. A previous year, with its blessings and its trials, is gone. A new year looms ahead, full of uncertainty. Yet, here is Christmas, the celebration of a birth that took place 2000 years ago; a perennial bright spot on our calendars because God has given us hope. Christmas should be a time of hope.
Christmas should be a time of love centered around the greatest love story ever told: the story of God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Christmas is the story of God’s greatest gift given to meet our greatest need – because God is Love. Christmas should be a time of love.
The Christmas story – a tale retold year after year, yet it never loses its majesty; it never ceases to fill our hearts with wonder. It’s a simple and familiar story, isn’t it? Yet, I realize that there is a danger when you hear a familiar story of thinking, "I’ve heard that before. There’s no need to listen to it again." Then you tune it out.
PROP. I hope that doesn’t happen this morning and I encourage you to look again at this old but precious story with all your heart and with all your mind.
I want you to see three facts, three certainties, that if you will let them find room in your heart today, they will fill this Christmas with peace, hope, and love.
I.God is In Control – Verses 18-20
A.A Scandalous Discovery
1.She was found with child. Forget, for a moment, the part about “of the Holy Ghost.” You and I know that now because we have it written in the Word of God. But only Mary knew it then. For several months she had been able to keep her condition a secret. But the day arrived when her pregnancy could no longer be hidden. She was found with child. She was found out.
2.I can only imagine the confusion this caused; the questions, the tears, the anger, the accusations, and the quiet denials of Mary. She was pregnant, and everyone knew that she shouldn’t be.
3.Put yourself in Mary’s place. How would you like to face the condemning stares of family and friends, those “knowing” looks of the neighbors? Can you imagine the Gossip; the “facts” filled in with juicy speculations? It must have seemed to Mary as if her world was coming apart.
B.Joseph’s Dilemma
1.Now put yourself in Joseph’s place. What else could he think but that Mary had been unfaithful? How could He possibly believe her unbelievable explanation of her pregnancy? Would you? Could you? I do not know what emotions Joseph wrestled with, but the Scriptures indicate that Joseph struggled to know what to do. He was a just man and he had to do what was right.
2.But he was not a bitter man, although we could hardly have blamed him. He didn’t want Mary to face the shame and humiliation of a public trial for adultery. Should he do what was expected, inflicting further pain and suffering on a life that in his eyes was already in ruins? Wouldn’t it be better to get things over quietly, letting everyone just get on with their lives?
C.God’s Intervention
1.Into the midst of this confusion, with all its conflicting thoughts and emotions, Joseph receives a word from God. And let me say, that is what we need when our lives spin out of control. When life is filled with uncertainty, God’s Word can be trusted to bring peace to our chaos.
2.God’s message to Joseph was designed to do two things:
a.To replace his fear and confusion with peace.
b.To assure him that God was in control.
1)Everything that was happening was according to plan.
2)If Joseph would allow God to be in control, God would be responsible for bringing peace.
3.Our lives offer no surprises, doubts, uncertainties, or fears to God. He is in control. Just as He knew what was happening in Nazareth, he knows what is happening in your home. And He knows just what to say to bring peace into your heart this Christmas. That is one truth of the Christmas story.
II.God Can (Verses 22-25)
A.He fulfilled prophecy
1.One of the best evidences for the existence of God, the inspiration of the Bible, and the Deity of Jesus Christ is fulfilled prophecy.
a.Josh McDowell lists 61 major prophecies that were fulfilled in the birth, life, and death of Jesus.
b.Peter Stoner, a mathematician, applied the principles of probability to just 8 of these prophecies.
ILL: Imagine covering the state of Texas with silver dollars 2 feet deep. The number of silver dollars would be 1 followed by 17 zeroes. Now imagine that all those silver dollars are alike except one. It is marked with a bold, black “X.” We blindfold a man, place him in the middle of the state, and tell him that he can only pick up one silver dollar. The chance of him picking up the marked silver dollar in one try is so slim as to be labeled scientifically impossible – 1 in 1017. That is the same chance of having just 8 of the prophecies concerning Christ to be fulfilled in one man without the intervention of God.
2.Fulfilled prophecy tells us that what God promises, He CAN perform.
B.He enabled a virgin to give birth
1.The Bible is so plain on the matter of the virgin birth that it must either be accepted or rejected.
a.God supernaturally created a child in the womb of Mary without the aid of human father.
b.Either it happened as written, or it did not.
2.There are those who reject the virgin birth as a biological impossibility, but it is such only if God is no more real than Santa Claus.
3.That God fulfills prophecy, and that He created life in a virgin womb tells us that nothing is too hard for God. Simply put: God CAN.
“You don’t know my need.” God does, and He CAN meet it.
“You don’t know how I hurt.” God does, and He CAN heal it.
“You don’t know my problem.” God does, and He CAN solve it.
The Christmas story is an annual reminder that God CAN. Knowing that God can brings hope.
III.God Cares (Verse 21)
A.There are two vital thoughts in this verse.
1.God saw us in our sins: the guilt, the bondage, the corruption, the addictions; all the ways we fall short of God’s standard of perfection.
Romans 3:23 (NASB) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
2.Instead of despising us, God loved us. Although our sins condemned us, God chose to save us.
Romans 5:8 (NASB) But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
3.It was God’s love that compelled Him to send His Son to be born and, eventually, to die for our sins.
Galatians 4:4 (NASB) But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,
Conclusion
The fullness of time came more than two thousand years ago. A tiny baby came into a grim and dark world bringing light to all mankind, a light that still invites men to come into the warmth of God’s grace and find there peace, and hope, and love.
Realizing that:
God is in control will fill your Christmas with peace
God can will fill your Christmas with hope
God cares will fill your Christmas with love
Invitation
