Christmas as Told by The Prophets
Matthew 1:18-24
-Today we are going to start a sermon series building up to Christmas. We really don't know when Jesus was born, but the tradition of the church is to celebrate it on December 25th. Even though we don't know the exact day when Christ was born, because it wasn't as important to to the church in the New Testament as the death burial and resurrection. We do know that the virgin birth is a foundational doctrine to our Christian faith.
Because if Christ was not the eternal God revealed in flesh through the virgin Mary then we are still all in our sins
Today I want to draw your attention to verse 22 and 23, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his nam Immanuel which means God with us.
Matthew lets us know a very important truth about the birth of Christ
-For thousands of years all throughout the Old Testament God kept revealing his plan for humanity in Jesus being born
-This is very Important because the reason That God gave so much information through the prophets concerning the birth of Christ is because he didn't man to miss it
The Bible from Genesis all the way to the New Testament is about tracing the Lineage that the Messiah was going to come from and God keeps giving more and more information so that people would know when He came that it was him
Christmas is not about Jesus coming into existence, Jesus is the eternal God. Christmas is about God becoming man is what we call the incarnation, that deity took upon himself flesh and blood and became like man and the reason that he did that was in order to save us from ourselves because we were lost in our sin and separated from God. John said, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1
and then in John 1:14 he says, “And the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
That's what Christmas is all about God becoming man. Not Christ coming into existence, he has always been now he became flesh that we might see him and know him and relate to him
In the book of Genesis God came to a man name Abram and told him, “I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:2-3
Abram didn't have any children but he was promised to become a great nation and through his lineage bless the whole world. We know that was because Christ was going to come from his linegage
finally when Isaac was born to Abraham God told Abraham to take Isaac up on the mountain and sacrifice him and when they are going up the mountain Isaac begins to get worried and he ask Abraham about the sacrifice and his father says, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering my son Genesis 22:8
55 generations later, 2000 years later Jesus was born in a manager in Bethlehem and Matthew begins the gospel by saying, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Matthew 1:1
and when he went to be baptized by John the Baptist John pointed to him and said, Jhn 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
And during that 2000 year span of time God gave us very specific detail about the birth of the messiah, the lamb of God
Turn with me if you will to Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel.”
The book of Isiah was written 700 years before the birth of Christ and the prophet says here is a sign of the Messiah. He will be born to a virgin, and his name will be “Immanuel.” I know people today who have children and they don't choose a name until after the baby is born. These are two very specific prophecies
one is impossible to be fulfilled without a miracle but the Messiah had to come from the seed of a woman, not the seed of a man.
God revealed this all the way back in Genesis 3:15
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Gal 4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
The bible associates the sin nature with Adam. In Adam all sin so in order for Christ to be sinless he had to be born of a virgin. This alone is sign enough because there is not another documented case in all of history of a baby being born to a virgin. That is why the virgin birth of Jesus is a fundamental doctrine of the Christian.
The prophet Isaiah went on and said, “For to us a child is born to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it.....” Isa 9:6-7
The prophet said the Messiah would be an heir to the throne of David and then you go back to that genealogy in Matthew 1:1 and he says, “Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
he is anhttp://www.heraldtimesonline.com/ heir to the throne of David, which is why a lot of the Jews were confused thinking that Jesus would make himself a king and overthrow Rome when he started his ministry
The disciples were still asking him even after the resurrection, “Lord will you at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel? Acts 1:6
The Prophet Micah took it a step further and prophesied the city in which Jesus would be born
Mic 5:2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, [though] thou be little among the thousands of Judah, [yet] out of thee shall he come forth unto me [that is] to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth [have been] from of old, from everlasting.
Isaiah and Micah both wrote these things 700 years before they happened. You have his name, his lineage, and the city of his birth
as quickly as the world changes this had to be God... We teach our children today about the soviet Union in history. But the prophets mentioned the city of his birth by name
700 years after the prophets ink dried on the page an Angel came to a young girl engaged to be married living in the city of Nazareth in Galilee and told her that she was going to have a child.
Nazareth? But the prophet said he would be born in Bethlehem
Luk 2:1 ΒΆ And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
Luk 2:2 [And] this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
Luk 2:3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
Luk 2:4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)
and while in Bethlehem we know that Mary gave birth in a manger to the Christ child
which fulfilled the writings of all the prophets even though for hundreds of years it appeared that the prophets contradicted one another
and all of this testified to the fact that this baby born 2000 years ago wasn not just another baby, but was God in flesh coming to man to save humanity from the curse of sin. To bring hope to a hopeless people, to bring joy to the world and good will to mankind
Application:
there are three things that I would like for you to take from this today
First, God Loves us
Approx 4,000 years of history are recorded in the Old Testament all building up to Jesus coming into the world. God was not required to go to such lengths to save us but he did
because he loves us. Love is not just about empty words, love is action. And God proved his love for us in sending Jesus into the world
1Jo 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins.
This led John to make the proclamation that God the very essence of love, 1Jo 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
In Old testament times the nations stood amazed at the relationship that Israel had with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. All the false Gods were gods that people worked full time to appease and if they didn't offer the right sacrifice the false god would send a disaster upon them. So they had gods of the sun, the river, gods of love and fertitly and they built temples to appease their wrath hoping then that good things would happen in their lives
but the God of Abraham was so different because He desired relationship with His people, he forgave them when they did wrong and wanted only the best for them so much so that he had them build a tabernacle right in their mids so that he could dwell with them. The people would built the temples to the false gods out of town up on a hill because their whole effort was attempting to reach their gods
but the God of the Bible went to great lengths to reach down to man that is love
and I want you to know today that the God of Abraham still loves you today and done what was necessary to demonstrate that love. Because of what he did we don't need to carry a sacrifice up a mountain, because God provided himself a sacrifice for our sins
It is hard for us to comprehend the type of love that God has for us, because its a love that is always giving and never expecting back. A love that says come as you are with your doubts, fear and worries and I will still love you. A love that says come in all your sin and filth and you can still find a God who accepts you and treats you like a person of value.
Sadly you don't very often even find this type of love among those who profess to be Christians
but you do find it with our God, and he loves everyone of you here today and listening to this broadcast more than you can every imagine. The Bible with its thousands of years of history is proclaiming the love of Christ to a dying world
The Christmas story told by the prophets shows us the love of God and it also shows us that God
Second, God has a plan
The writings of the prophets concerning the birth of Jesus goes to show that God did not just haphazardly throw a plan together to save us after Adam sinned in the garden.
One of the attributes about God is his omniscience which means that God is all knowing. There is nothing that ever just pops into Gods mind. Since he is all knowing and not confined by time or space he sees the whole picture instead of just 24 hour periods of time.
Even before he created Adam and Eve he knew they would sin but still chose to create them and already have a plan together to bring them back into fellowship with God
1Pe 1:20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you
Gal 4:4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
Paul even says that God chose us in Christ before he ever created the earth. Before he spoke into the darkness and created the light everything that ever happened including your birth, and your salvation was already planned by God
Eph 1:4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
Eph 1:5 he predestined us [fn] for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
If you knew tomorrow and your entire future there would be no need to worry or panic. Since God already knows everything that ever will happen Heaven is never in a panic over what is taking place on the earth.
We serve a God with a plan
He has a plan for the universe the more that science discovers about the complexity of the world and every living creature the more it points to an intelligent designer who has a plan
He has a plan for your family
He has a plan for this church
and He even has a plan for our individual life
Jer 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
And what was it that Paul said in Ephesians
Eph 1:4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world,
Christmas if about serving a God with a plan, a plan to save humanity but also a plan to choose us in Him.
For God so love the World
Third, God's plan is not always our plan
Finally this morning I would like for you consider that Christmas told by the prophets shows us that God's plan is not always our plan.
If the birth of Christ was man's idea we would have never thought of saying he would be born in Bethlehem from a young virgin who lived in Nazareth and be called out of Egypt. We would have never had the savior of the world being born in a manger.
But that was the way God had it planned and that reminds us that God's plans our not always our plans
Isa 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
This is the frustrating thing about life sometimes because God wants our plans to align with His and sometimes we are fighting his plans with our own.
It has been said that we make plans and then God laughs
Jer 10:23 I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
Pro 16:9 A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.
Remember this morning that this whole thing we call life there is a plan to it all that is being directed by God to bring us to an expected end
even a plan for you being here today, a plan for you being a part of this fellowship of brothers and sisters in Christ
Christmas as told by the prophets show the love of God., the plan of God, and that God's plans our not always in align with ours (Thats why so many people even the religious crowd missed the Messiah, because he didn't fit in their God box their preconceived notion of what God was all about)
Where are you at this morning in your walk with God?
Have you accepted him as Lord and Savior. Have you crucified your self and carrying the cross?
