Knowing Him - An Every Day Christmas - Matthew 1:18-23 - December 11, 2011
Series: What’s Jesus Got To Do With It? - #1
December 17, 1903 is an important date in history - though most people are unaware that anything significant happened upon that day. Yet the events that transpired would eventually change the way in which man perceived the world in which he lived. For two men in particular, the events of that day were the culmination of a lifetime of dreams, hard work and perseverance.
And history was decided by something as simple as a coin toss that day for, of the two men, only one could be the first. Together they looked intently at the coin as it came to rest. Without another word, the man who had called it right turned and climbed into a contraption the likes of which the world had never seen before. It was a machine he and his brother had designed after years of painstaking trial and error but this was the day that was going to make it all worthwhile. Many had told them that what they were trying to do could not be done, but they refused to take such comments to heart. Instead they tackled one hurdle at a time until they were certain they had worked through all the things that could possibly hinder their dream.
They started up the engine that they had designed, and built, themselves, and twelve seconds later it was all over. Twelve seconds – less time than it takes me to tell you about it – but they had done it. They had succeeded in taking a dream and making it into reality. Their names will be familiar to you - Orville and Wilbur Wright and, in case you hadn’t figured it out yet, what they had just achieved was the first flight of a heavier than air, aircraft. They couldn’t have conceived at the time that what they had accomplished that day would eventually lead to the development of commercial airliners that could transport 100’s of people at a time around the world and beyond that to space flight itself. Still, though not able to perceive what the future held, they were justifiably excited by what they had accomplished.
Finding themselves in a celebratory mood they sent a telegraph to their sister Katherine which read like this: “We have actually flown 120 feet. Will be home for Christmas.” Katherine hurried down to the local newspaper office and showed the editor the telegraph. “He glanced at it and said, ‘How nice. The boys will be home for Christmas.’ He totally missed the big news – man had flown!” (Daily Bread, December 23rd, 1991)
Well people haven’t changed much in the intervening years. We still tend to lose sight of the big news amidst the little details of life. Nowhere do I see that as clearly as I do come the Christmas season. By the first of November Christmas decorations and merchandise begin to appear on the store shelves. From there it snowballs into a crescendo of advertising and activity that continues right through December 25th and into the New Year. People are busy putting up lights and trees and decorating their yards, buying gifts and planning for the holidays. Lives that were already busy are stretched even further as we try to work in all the parties and activities that are taking place. And somewhere in it all, amidst all the reindeer and Santa talk and the mistletoe, we tend to miss the “Big News,” the “Main Event,” as it were.
Picture this scene: Christmas is just a day or two away. There is a young mother frantically running from store to store taking care of all the last minute details. She has with her, her three year old son, and somewhere along the way she suddenly realizes that his chubby little hand is no longer clasped in hers. In a panic she retraces her steps from store to store until at last she finds him standing with his nose flat against a display window. He’s gazing intently at a nativity scene. Hearing his mother’s voice calling to him, he turns and looks at her with innocent glee: “Look mommy! It’s Jesus – baby Jesus in the hay!” With obvious indifference to his joy and enthusiasm she grabs his hand and pulls him away saying, “We don’t have time for that!” (Adapted from, The Wonder of Christmas, by Glenn Pease) “We don’t have time for that!” How very true those words are in so many lives today – we attend the party but we forget to invite the guest of honor. And she’s not the only one who’s missed the main event, who doesn’t have time for the Good News of Christmas.
Take a look at this video clip and you’ll see what I mean … [Show video, ‘Christmas Connection’]
[Start Power Point with Title Slide]
Not only do we not have “time for that” but so many people fail to make the connection with what Christmas is really all about – just like in that video. They’re like the young woman stopped on the street by a reporter who asked her, “What is the meaning of Christmas?” to which she replied, “I don’t know. Is that the day that Jesus died?” (Donald Deffner, Seasonal Illustrations, San Jose: Resource, 1992, p.16, www.sermonillustrations.com) We might be astounded that anyone could be so clueless as to what Christmas is really all about but that’s only because we’ve read the book [hold up Bible]. But we can never forget that there are people living all around us – we work with them, we go to school with them, we do business with them – who’ve never read the book and they really don’t know what Christmas is all about!
Now, for the last several months we’ve been working our way through the Sermon on the Mount and the truth is that we are nowhere near to being done with that passage of Scripture. We are going to continue in that series come the New Year, but today we start a new three week mini-series that focuses on Christmas, and asks “What’s Jesus Got to Do With It?” Because in many ways we are living in a society that’s asking that very same question: “What’s Jesus got to do with Christmas?” And we need to have an answer. So let’s take a look at God’s word. Open your Bibles with me please, to the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew 1, beginning in verse 18 and we’re going to read what’s written there. Verse 18 …
“This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.” (Matthew 1:18–24, NIV)
Now, 700 years before the birth of Jesus, during a time of great fear and trial for God’s chosen people, the prophet Isaiah spoke to a king and told him that a child would be born to a young maiden, and that before that child was grown, the kingdoms that threatened the nation, would be destroyed. In other words they were to trust in the power of God rather than in the work of their own hands. That child would be a sign that God had nor forsaken the people but would be faithful to His promises to them. The child’s name would be a constant reminder of this for he was to be called, “Immanuel” which means, “God with us.”
Seven centuries later those words took on a much deeper significance as Jesus was born. He would be “God with us” in a very real way, a reminder that we too are to trust in God’s power rather than our own strength, and a reminder as well that God is still faithful to all His promises. “God with Us” is the heart of the Christmas message, it’s at the center of what took place some 2000 years ago when the virgin gave birth to the Son, and it’s what makes every day of the year a Christmas day of sorts, for in Jesus, God truly is with us. And what I want us to do in the time we have left this morning is to break down that one name, Immanuel, to help us really understand what Jesus has got to do with Christmas. And I just want to say that I got the idea for this message from a sermon by David Rogne. I liked the way he took the name “Immanuel,” and broke it down and so, while I’ll use my own thoughts and study to fill each point out, the framework comes from work he has already done.
Immanuel – GOD With Us. Look back to verse 21 for a moment. The Angel of the Lord told Joseph that he was to call the baby, “Jesus.” The name, ‘Jesus,’ means, ‘The Lord Saves,’ and that’s important because the angel goes on to tell Joseph that Jesus is the one who will save His people from their sins. He is the Messiah! He is the one that the people of Israel have been waiting for! You see, Jesus is the good news of Christmas because in the person of Christ we discover something tremendously important – we discover that God is for us rather than against us!
Sin is a terrible thing. It promises pleasure but it delivers despair. It replaces God’s truth with Satan’s lies. It holds the illusion of life but ultimately brings death. Most importantly the image of God in which we are made, is marred by the reality of sin – not just the things we do that transgress God’s will, but so to the things we ought to have done but have not, and even beyond that the stain of sin goes right down to our very nature. Since the time of the Fall in the Garden of Eden we are born with our very nature scarred by sin. That sin brings upon us the terrible reality and experience of God’s wrath. And an awareness of our sin ought to make us tremble and quake with fear at the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord for the time will come when each of us will be called to give an account of our lives before a most holy God. And understand this: In our sin we will have absolutely nothing to say in our defence!
Perhaps in that day we will see our sin – really see it I mean – as God sees it. And in those moments we will be broken by it. We will cry out in horror and despair and grief but it will be too late for a just God cannot withhold from us the very consequences of our sin which we have brought down upon ourselves.
Folks, it’s becoming increasingly popular in Christian circles to deny the reality of Hell. I want you to understand this: that if Heaven be real, so too is Hell. And if you spend some time in the Gospels in the next little while you will discover that Jesus talks more about Hell than anyone else in the entire Bible and He speaks of it as a reality – a reality that awaits the one in whom the image of God is marred by sin. And that’s you. And that’s me. The Bible tells us that in our sin we make ourselves enemies of God. The truth about sin is this: In our sin, God is against us.
Yet the truth about Christmas is something different entirely! The truth about Christmas is this: In Jesus we discover that God is for us! See, Jesus is God’s solution to the problem of sin. He alone was born without that nature marred by sin. He alone of all who have ever lived has not sinned in word, thought, or deed. He alone lived out God’s will and did so perfectly. On the cross He bore the sin of the world and God made Him who had no sin to become sin for us that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Which is just another way of saying that Jesus took the penalty of our sin upon Himself and in doing so satisfied God’s justice. In essence His sinlessness was exchanged for our sinfulness and we received His righteousness. Our sin has been atoned for by the blood of Christ. When God looks at those who’ve humbled themselves, and received Jesus, He no longer sees the sin. He sees the righteousness of His Son!
In the third chapter of the Gospel of John we read these words, “For God so loved [there’s the motive in sending Jesus – it’s LOVE – a deeply personal love for you] the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:16–18, NIV) The apostle Paul builds on that truth in the book of Romans when he writes, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23, NIV) That’s the truth of Christmas - that God is for us in a big way!
Immanuel – God WITH Us. During World War II some soldiers were away from their homes for several years at a time. They would go overseas leaving behind them a young wife and a newborn baby. When they returned, if they returned, they found they had missed the first several years of their child’s life. Pastor Aaron Burgess tells the story of a young boy whose father, like so many others, was shipped overseas to fight. Over the years that his father was gone, the boy grew, but as he grew he began to forget the person his father was. He had a picture of his dad – his prized possession I imagine – and he would stare at that picture for hours, wishing to himself, “If only my father could step out of that picture and be real …” (Aaron Burgess, www.sermoncentral.com illustrations.)
That’s something like what happened at Christmas – God stepped out of the picture in the person of Jesus and became “real” to us. He was flesh and blood. Never lose sight of that. As an infant He learned to crawl, as a toddler He took His first tentative steps, as a young boy He learned to read and write, as a young man He learned carpentry at Joseph’s side and chances are, that somewhere along the line, He probably hit His thumb with a hammer as we all have done at one time or another – and it hurt Him just like it hurts you and me. When He was cut He bled, when He was hungry He ate, when He was thirsty He had something to drink. When He experienced loss, He grieved, when He sorrowed, He wept. After a long day He grew weary, when tired, He slept, when happy, He laughed. The Bible teaches us that Jesus was tempted in every way just as we are but was without sin. In Jesus, God stepped out of the picture and into our lives in a whole new way!
Till the coming of Jesus people knew of God’s love. In the coming of Jesus they experienced it in an entirely different light. Scripture says that God demonstrates His love for us in Jesus. Jesus is the living proof of the height, the depth, the width, the extent of God’s love for you and me. In Him is one who understands everything we are faced with, every loss we’ve experienced, every hope we have anticipated. He touched the untouchable. He healed the lepers, He restored sight to the blind, and He made the lame to walk. He set free the demon possessed and raised the dead. He called people beyond the letter of God’s word to the spirit of that same word. He came that we might have life and to have it abundantly!
A little boy was terrified late one night by a nasty thunderstorm. He called for his mom, who, not wanting to leave her warm bed, tried to encourage her son as she said, “Honey, it’s alright. God is right there with you.” There was silence for a few moments until a tiny voice piped up, “Mommy, right now what I need is God with skin on.”
John 1:14 tells us this … “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14, NIV) Jesus is, “God with skin on.” So if you’ve ever wondered what God is like, look at Jesus. If you’ve ever questioned God’s love and goodness, look at Jesus. If you’ve ever contemplated God’s heart towards you, look at Jesus. If you’ve ever pondered how God feels about sin and the sinner, look at Jesus. If you’ve ever contemplated how God responds to repentance, look at Jesus. If you’ve ever deliberated whether your sins could be forgiven and God could really love you, look at Jesus, for as it says in the Book of Hebrews, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.” (Hebrews 1:3, NIV) In Jesus, God became man and dwelt amongst us. That is the true wonder of Christmas!
Immanuel – God with US. Pastor Melvin Newland tells the story of a “preacher’s family [that] had started putting up a nativity scene in their front yard. All of them were carrying out the little statues to put in the nativity scene. Finally everything was in place - Mary & Joseph & the manger & the baby, & angels & shepherds & all the barnyard animals.
Then little Scott came out carrying one of his favorite toys, the figure of the fierce Tyrannosaurus Rex, king of the dinosaurs. It was one of those plastic figures that you inflate, & in comparison to the other figures it was an enormous thing, towering over them all, & certainly not something to have in a nativity scene.
The Dad said, "I tried to tell him, ‘Scott, you have to take that back because it doesn’t belong there. Dinosaurs existed thousands of years before the baby Jesus, & it just doesn’t belong in a nativity scene.’"
But little Scott insisted, so they finally put it there behind all the other figures - a fierce dinosaur hovering over the manger & everything else. Then he said, "As we stood back & looked at it, we realized that maybe that dinosaur says more than we realized. For over each of us there is this menacing character that threatens to rob us of all our joy & peace & cheer.
But Christmas reminds us that the baby in the manger is stronger than all the dinosaurs in your life or mine. And God has given us the victory through the gift of His Son."” (Melvin Newland, www.sermoncentral.com, illustrations.)
Friends, Jesus is the living manifestation of God’s promise to never leave us nor forsake us. In the words of the apostle Paul, “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? … Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31–39, NIV) That’s the promise of Christmas for you and me! And it’s made manifest in, and because of, Jesus Christ.
So when someone asks you, “What’s Jesus got to do with Christmas?” you can explain to them that Jesus is the very essence of Christmas itself. That He reveals in a profound way that God is for us, that He understands and shares in all the ups and downs of our life and that He is with us even now. This is the true hope and meaning of Christmas and it far outshines and far outlasts any of the gifts that you and I will find under the tree this year. The gifts of God to you in Jesus will never perish, spoil, nor fade but will grow in beauty, wonder and splendour with each passing year. And while, in a few short weeks the decorations, songs, and glitter of Christmas will disappear for yet another year, the spirit of Christmas, which we so cherish, need not, for in Jesus the meaning of Christmas becomes an every day reality!
Let’s pray …
