Sermon Brief
Date Written: December 21, 2010 (edited)
Date Preached: December 17, 2006; Repreached Dec 26, 2010
Where Preached: OZHBC (AM) OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Sermon Series: Christmas Sermons
Sermon Title: Disruptions of The Christmas Season
Sermon Text: Matt 1:18-25 [NASB]
Introduction:
This morning I will be reading from Matt 1:18-25 out of the NASB. Please follow along in your Bible or you can follow along on the screen…
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. 19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. 20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." 22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 "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." 24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, 25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus. Matt 1:18-25 (NASB)
Let me ask you a question this morning… DID you have really high expectations for your Christmas this year? Did you expect a lot of stuff? Did you expect that perfect gift? Just what was it that you expected out of this Christmas season?
I know that SO many of us want our Christmas season to be that picture perfect time of year where everything goes right! When everyone in our family gets along! AND when you have ALL the time you need to do the things you want to do…
We see our kids playing together in harmony…
We want our family to ALL get along…
We want our church family to get along with no problems or issues…
We want to walk down the street and have all the strangers smile at us and wave…
HELLO! WAKE UP! This is NOT the Twilight Zone! Now for all of you that had these things happen to you this Christmas season… raise your hand!
I guess what I am really trying to say is that so often we set our expectations for the Christmas season REALLY, REALLY high! AND we discover that the realities of life are usually NOT what we thought they would be…
Let me give you a little example of what I mean: I heard that there was a woman who REALLY wanted her husband to buy her some beautiful jewelry and a nice outfit! However, she didn’t want to just come out and say it, so she wrote him a note and left it in his wallet…Here is what the note said:
Honey, for Christmas this year I want you to get me something that will make me look beautiful!
Christmas morning she was giddy with excitement because her husband had been dropping hints about her present… and like a little kid she got up at 6am and made her husband get up with her! She then dragged him downstairs and went straight to the tree!
Her husband pulled her present out from under the tree and she tore into it with the excitement of a 5 yr old boy! When she ripped off the wrapping paper she discovered that he had bought her an “exercise bike”! Her HIGH expectations did not meet with her reality!
And I guess if I were to ask some of you here this morning… that I would find that your very HIGH expectations of Christmas DID NOT meet with the cold hard reality of what actually happened this Christmas.
BUT that is NOT the way it is supposed to be is it? We sing songs like, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year…” or “the hap-happiest time of the year”
But statistics reveal to us that this time of year is probably the most difficult time of year for MANY people because something has disrupted their rather lofty expectations of what Christmas is supposed to be!
That disruption could take the form of a sickness, an emergency surgery, a heart attack, an automobile accident, a death or divorce in the family, for our military believers it could mean receiving orders to be shipped overseas or deployed into a warzone… For many people, the supposed happiness of this joyous season is disrupted by life itself!
I know that ALL of us look forward to what we EXPECT Christmas to be… at least I think we all do… We EXPECT it to be a time of joy and peace… We EXPECT it to be a time without conflict and filled with harmony!
But there is something I want you to know… the very first Christmas, the very reason we celebrate Christmas today, was NOT the time of perfect harmony that many in our Christmas story expected! In fact it was quite the opposite… it was a difficult time filled with great upheaval and turmoil!
In the lives of our 2 main characters, Mary and Joseph, there was a major disruption! And what I want you to hear this morning is that disruptions within life are simply a part of the life we know! In life, disruptions are going to come our way! However, it is how we handle these disruptions that will determine how ‘joyful’ or ‘peaceful’ our lives will be…
The first observation I want to make about disruptions is that…
Disruptions can happen at any GOOD time (v.18)…
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. Matt 1:18 (NASB)
Have you ever noticed that the disruptions of life never seem to show up when you are ready for them! They NEVER happen when you are expecting them! I once heard someone say that life happens while we make plans… and how true that is!
IN our story today I want us to notice that there were some rather BIG plans being made between Mary and Joseph! They were getting married and their wedding was just ahead and I can imagine they were planning all the details for their upcoming life together... a lot of planning was going on!
But into that very special time of planning and high expectations came a very powerful disruption! It came in the form of an angel appearing to Mary and telling her that she would conceive of the Holy Spirit and would miraculously give birth to a son named Jesus… He was to be the long-awaited Messiah of Israel.
However, the news from the Angel WAS not what she expected! He had told her that she would have a son after she got married but that she was pregnant RIGHT NOW… this news was a tremendous disruption in Mary’s life!
She was pregnant and she was going to have a baby before she would ever be able to be intimate with her husband…
Now there WAS some wonderful news… the Angel had said that she was favored by God! BUT giving birth to the Son of God was difficult for people to hear and even more difficult for her to share. Can you imagine what Mary felt like when she had to sit down with Joseph and tell him what she had been told the Angel?
I can imagine what she went thru… how would she tell him? Would he believe her? And even if he DID believe her, what was he going to do? Would he be willing to take on the great and enormous responsibility this would bring to him? And what about her wedding and her honeymoon?
This news… this DISRUPTION in her life that had come to her was definitely NOT her part of her plan…yet we find Mary accepting God’s plan and she did NOT allow this disruption to shake her faith in God.
I can only imagine that initially Mary may have wanted to say, NO… I don’t want to do this! But she didn’t, she submitted to God’s calling on her life.
And from our passage this morning we know how Joseph responded. We know that at first he did NOT believe her story, but he was going to deal with her in a discreet manner so as NOT to embarrass her.
I can imagine what he may have been thinking… ALL these plans he had made were now ruined! How could this have happened to him… to them? His plans for a happy home with this woman he loved so much… he thought they were torn to shreds right before his eyes. His life had also been powerfully disrupted and changed!
Like Mary and Joseph, I want us all to realize that we all face disruptions in life… They can and do come quickly and they disrupt and change our plans… and it’s NEVER a good time for them to show up!
You may have a day when you KNOW a bad day is coming, like this article I once read… it was entitled, “You know it’s going to be a bad day when…”
You see the 60 minutes crew in your office…
You call 911 and get put you on hold…
Your twin sister forgot your birthday…
Your car horn gets stuck just as you pull up behind a group of ‘Hell’s Angels” on the interstate…
What I am telling you is that in this life we can NEVER know when disruptions will show up… The main thing is that we need to have a godly game plan for dealing with life’s disruptions… and we need to understand how important that this is because…
Disruptions can send us down the wrong path (v.19)
19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. Matt 1:19 (NASB)
If we’re not careful, how we respond to a disruption in our lives can send us down the wrong path. Joseph almost made that mistake… he almost went down the wrong path.
The implication of this verse is that he truly did not believe Mary’s story and as much as he loved her and wanted her to be his wife, there was nothing he could do but divorce her (in society’s eyes)
The betrothal (ancient engagement) was much more binding than what we would consider here in today’s society. A betrothal was actually the first step in the marriage process. Joseph had the right to have Mary stoned to death for unfaithfulness’, yet because he was a good man he did not wish to harm or embarrass her.
The Bible says he was going to divorce her privately. This was Joseph’s human response to this very powerful and life-changing disruption. But when we look back on this… we see it with 20/20 vision that decision would have been the worst ever made, but he did not have that luxury!
So often when we face an unexpected disruption in our lives we have what I call a ‘knee jerk’ reaction… we try to fix it by doing something drastic. And when we make decisions in that frame of mind we usually, almost 99.9% of the time make the wrong choice…
But if we were better informed on the matter we may make better decisions that we do now… Sorta like Mrs Jones in this story…
Mrs. Jones came home from shopping one day and she saw her 5 darling children sitting in the middle of the living room floor playing with something.
She could not see what it was so she walked over to see what they were enjoying and MUCH to her surprise she saw them playing with 5 baby skunks.
Now before she realized it, she began to scream and screamed at her children to run as fast as they could! So what did the children do… they ALL picked up their skunk and began to run!
Now when they got up with their skunk and began to run… Mom began to scream even louder and it scared the children even more! Being terrified by their mother’s screams, they squeezed the skunks they were carrying… and… well you can figure out what happened next!
Now I want to ask you… HOW many times do we allow a disruption in our life to cause us to make rash and hasty decisions! Decisions that we regret and make us suffer…
When that disruption in your life rears its ugly head, you have to be careful you don’t just react to your feelings and fears… because when we do that… we are usually in for even MORE trouble!
We need to be very careful on how we react to disruptions because they can lead us down the wrong path… and we have to understand that these disruptions NEVER come at a ‘good’ time! But the 3rd observation I can see when it comes to disruption in life is that…
The key to handling disruptions is to get God’s take on them (v.20-23)
20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." 22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 "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." Matt 1:20-23 (NASB)
Can you imagine Joseph trying to go to sleep after what Mary had just told him? I can just imagine that he tossed and turned all night because he really didn’t know what to do. He loved her, but this truly was an impossible situation.
So Joseph made the rash decision to divorce Mary, but he was going to do it secretly and just try to make this whole thing go away. I guess that decision calmed him enough to fall asleep, but we can be thankful that God did not give up on Joseph.
In his sleep, God comes to Joseph in a dream and tells him to believe what Mary had told him and NOT to worry that all would work out just fine. God instructs Joseph on just how important this birth is going to be and WHO is going to be born.
Now I want you to try to imagine his excitement when he finally realized that the woman he loved was not lying to him and that she was going to give birth to the Messiah! God had chosen Mary to give birth and Joseph to shepherd and raise the young Messiah... what an honor! Thankfully Joseph listened to God and followed His directions.
For many of us, we have a disruption in our life and we toss and turn over what to do, and then we try to come up with a solution on our own… when all along we should have been seeking out God’s solution!
Even worse, many of us receive God’s solution and then we choose to ignore it and insist on doing what WE think is the best thing to do… and it ultimately leads us to TROUBLE and heartache.
In Prov 3:5-6, we read that we are NOT to seek our own understanding about things, but we are to seek God’s understanding because God will NOT lead us down the wrong path!
When we run into disruption in our lives we can help ourselves a great deal by remembering to seek God first and we can do this by remembering 3 very simple words… prayer, perspective and providence.
The first thing we must always do is pray… go to God for his direction and guidance in any situation…
The 2nd thing is that we must understand God’s perspective. God sees the big picture and knows what is around the corner in life. Our perspective is very narrow and short sighted, but God’s is all knowing… we need to lean on His perspective of things.
Finally I believe we must keep in mind the providence of God. God is in control and nothing is going to happen to you that God does NOT know about. The psalmist tells us in Ps 139 that there is NO place we can go or be without being in God’s presence!
In other words, NOTHING takes God by surprise. It may leave us baffled, but understand that we do not have the providence of God in our minds, but we can know the providence of God if we go to Him in prayer and if we study His word!
I want you to understand that God is in control and if a disruption comes your way, God is NOT wasting your time, but He has a plan. He allows disruption to teach us or so that something special can be accomplished because of the situation, we must always trust in the Providence of God!
Getting God’s perspective is what really saved Joseph from making the biggest mistake of his life… When those disruptions of life begin to take you down remember that we must be careful in how we respond and we must trust in God and His providence, by getting God’s perspective on matters.
Finally this morning I want to share the 4th observation that I can see in this passage is that…
Disruptions can redirect our lives in a new and positive way (v.24-25)
24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, 25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.
Matt 1:24, 25 (NASB)
Although their plans were disrupted, we can see that Joseph and Mary both were submissive and sought God. And we can praise God today because of that wonderful disruption of their life! You see it is why we celebrate Christmas today! It is why we can know salvation! It is why we can know we are going to heaven!
I cannot imagine the responsibility of being the human parents of the Son of God… it took them in a direction that they were NOT planning on going, but with their submissive obedience they were blessed of God.
I want you to ask yourself, “Could God ever do that for me?” What I am speaking about is can God send a disruption into your life that will be so powerful that it changes your life SO much that you began to rely on God for everything in your life!
Chuck Colson was on the fast track in the political world as he had become Richard Nixon’s right hand man for handling situations in and around the White House.
But when President Nixon resigned in disgrace, Charles Colson was charged with, convicted of obstruction of justice! He was then sentenced to prison where he served for 7 month… while Chuck was in prison… Chuck met Jesus and was saved!
Chuck Colson tells audiences around the world that he cannot imagine what his life would have turned out to be like had he NOT been disrupted in a mighty way with his time in prison. In 1976 Chuck Colson founded the Prison Fellowship that reaches out to thousands of inmates every year.
In 1993 Colson rec’d the Templeton Award for progress in religion and the $1 million dollar prize that goes with it. Colson said, “out of tragedy and adversity came great blessings, I shudder to think what I would have been if I had not gone to prison…”
What seemed like a political career that was headed for the top… God disrupted… and ALL of Chuck Colson’s plans were changed! God then implemented His plans and placed Colson in a ministry to reach many MORE than he ever could in politics.
So, when disruption comes your way, instead of complaining and whining about it, I challenge you to say, “…God, are you using this disruption for the advancement of Your kingdom and to make me grow as a believer?” And then prepare your self for marvelous things from God.
I want us to reflect on just how much of a disruption Mary and Joseph had in their lives… it was tremendous, but we can see that they didn’t panic, but they sought God’s direction! They did not go off and do things their way… and I am thankful… SO THANKFUL for their obedience!
Today you may have a great disruption in your life…
It may be that your family is NOT easy to get along with…
It could be a sickness in your family that is more than you can handle…
It may be that you have lost a loved one…
It may be that you have lost your job…
It may be that you have medical problems…
It may be that you are called on to move to another state…
It could be that you have just rec’d orders to ship out to a war zone…
Whatever the disruption is in your life, I urge you to understand that disruptions happen, its how we learn to deal with them that tells the ultimate tale!
The book of James tells us that as believers we should “…count it all joy my brethren WHEN trials and tribulations [disruptions in life] come our way…”
We are gonna experience disruption but when we do we must learn NOT to panic and try to handle it on our own… because when we try to do things OUR way we end up going down the WRONG path and things get even worse!
We need to understand that when disruptions come our way that our view of them is very limited but God’s perspective is eternal and all knowing! God can see what we cannot… trust His perspective on your troubles!
Finally today we must always understand that no matter how difficult the disruption may be, the promise for ALL believers is that God is going to work it out for our good. Rom 8:28 shares with us, “…all things work together for the GOOD of those who love Him and are called according to His grace…”
The disruptions in life may seem terrible, but God can use them to place us in a better place in life… to put us on a better path so that His kingdom is served better! We must learn to trust God!
This morning you have heard about the disruptions of life and how God is there for the believer. It does not mean that the believer NEVER faces difficulty or trouble, but simply that God is with them… regardless of what is happening!
You have heard how Mary was told by Gabriel that she was going to give birth to a son, and they were to call him Jesus. This baby born so many yrs ago in a small non-descript stable in Bethlehem is THE Christ… the long awaited Savior!
This babe we speak about in the manger one day stretched His arms out wide and died on a cross for you and me and our sin! He died that you may have life in Him!
Today I call on ALL here to surrender their heart to Christ. For those who have professed Christ as Savior, confess your sin to Him and be cleansed and restored!
For those here who do NOT know Him as Savior, I plead with you to come and allow Him cleanse you! You don’t have to try to start living better… because you NEVER will… You have to allow Him do the cleaning and He will lead you to a better life… He will save your soul…
He will rescue you from the darkness of this world! He and he alone can do this… what are your waiting for, as Bro Steven comes I urge you to come and kneel and surrender to God today…
