Christmas: Miracle or Myth
Matthew 1:18-24
Several weeks ago, a huge sign was posted above a nightclub on Wall Street in N.Y. by a member of the American Atheists. The sign included Santa Claus above an image of Jesus Christ on the Cross with the caption: "Keep the Merry!" and "Dump the Myth!" Evidently this person wants to KEEP the Myth alive (which is Santa), because if you look up the word “myth”, Santa Claus fits the word “myth” far more accurately than Jesus’ does! Jesus’ birth and life are not mythological but part of history.
Listen to Matthew 1:18-24: "This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.19 Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20 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. 21 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."22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet (Isaiah): 23 "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"--which means, "God with us." 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.”
The Christmas season is really crazy sometimes, isn’t it? People are busy with decorating, baking, buying and wrapping presents, sending off gifts, travelling and visiting. I read that 2.1 BILLION Christians celebrate Christmas each year, and then millions more celebrate Christmas without a true knowledge of the Jesus Christ, whose birth we remember.
Jesus: Not a Myth
We did not read the first part of Matt. 1, but in it Matthew includes a 2,000 year genealogy to open the first 17 verses of Matthew; he compiles Jesus’ family tree from Abraham to the birth of Jesus, 42 generations in all. (He didn’t have ancestry.com, either.) Why would Matthew begin with a genealogy of Jesus?
Matthew is showing that Jesus’ birth and life are part of history. Verse 18: “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.” Our belief in God and in Jesus are not confined to the area of “blind” faith. Our beliefs are also grounded in history!
Jesus was born at a specific time and place in history. It isn’t folklore or mythical! Although Jesus’ exact birthday is not known, history has accepted His birth as one of the most unusual and critical births in all of history: For the past 1500 years, the years of the timeline of human history, the calendar, has been referred to as BC (used to be known as "A.C.N.", an abbreviation of "Ante Christum Natum", which is Latin for "before the birth of Christ") and AD (an abbreviation of anno Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, Latin for "in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ"). The birth of Jesus separates History into two sections: the Old and the New, “before Christ’s birth” and “after Christ’s birth”.
I was looking at PREDICTONS that were made at the end of last year about people, places and things, mostly generalities, and only one out of those 30 predictions turned out to be correct. (Obama would run against Romney. That really wasn’t such a fantastic “prediction” since Romney had already been planning for years to run.) Not so with God’s predictions: Jesus’ birth and life fulfill 100’s of God’s predictions, prophecies and promises.
The word “fulfill” is used 16 times in Matthew and 87 times in the New Testament. The root word means “to fill a container to the brim so that there is no room left”. When God “fulfills” His promise or “prophecy”, it’s a “done deal”! It means there’s no room for discussion. No room for doubt. God has fully kept His Word and He wants us to be filled with it, too. He doesn’t want us to be empty, but fulfilled knowing and believing the things He has told us.
In the 28 chapters of Matthew, he includes 60 specific FULFILLED Old Testament passages concerning Jesus. The prophecies were predictions that were made about this PROMISED Savior, who would demonstrate beyond the shadow of any doubt that He was sent to fulfill God’s promises. If you take the time to go through ALL of the predictions concerning this “Savior”, you would find them fulfilled in this JESUS. Verse 22 says:
“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet (Isaiah).” This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.” 23 "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"--which means, "God with us."
*Verse 25 continues: “But he (Joseph) had no union with her until she gave birth to a son.” (Joseph had no sexual relations with Mary until after Jesus was born. Joseph was the husband of Mary, but he was not the father of Jesus. Jesus was conceived by a miraculous act by the Spirit of God, and you can’t SEE Spirit.)
Jesus’ birth is often referred to as the “Incarnation”. That word comes from the Latin meaning, “in the flesh.” John 1:14 explains it this way: “And the Word (His name is Jesus) became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten (the Greek means “the only one of its kind”) from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jesus’ incarnation is God coming to man in the flesh: Jesus is God Incarnate, God in the flesh. He is God in human form.
Matthew 1:23 puts it this way: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"--which means, "God with us." So Jesus’ birth (the “Incarnation”) reveals “Immanuel” (which is "God with us.") (another direct fulfillment!)
There are some powerful verses in Hebrews 1(written between 50-100 AD):
1 “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, (that is, PRIMARILY through the words of the Old Testament, which includes CREATION.)
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son (Jesus, the WORD), whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.” Is your idea and concept of Jesus, THAT BIG? That He was not only a baby in Bethlehem, but far before that, the Creator of the Universe?) Verse 3 continues:
3 The Son (The Little Baby Jesus) is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.”
Did you catch that? These verses proclaim that Jesus is very much God. Verse 3 says that Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory. (“Glory” is used150 times in the NT.) Radiance has everything to do with lights, and Christmas certainly is celebrated WITH lights. In the Greek, “radiance” has to do with a single and separate source which then spreads out. That’s what lights do: One single source that shines out.
Jesus IS the brilliance, the effulgence , He shines forth), not like that of a light bulb, but of the Glory, Power and Character of God Himself, because He IS God. That’s what it says: Jesus is the exact representation of God’s being. The single Greek word for “exact representation” is “carakter”. One of the meanings is “a precise reproduction in every respect.”
EXAMPLE: Difficult to believe, isn’t it? Let me show you how JESUS can be GOD and how God can still be God and how Jesus can and BE the exact representation of God. I have two flashlights here: Let’s say one of them is God the Father. The radiance of His character and glory are shining on the ceiling. Let’s say this one is Jesus. Now His radiance is shining on the ceiling and it is just like God’s “light”. When you bring the two lights close together, one beam isn’t brighter than the other, but the two are totally synchronized together and they shine as one.
Jesus said in John 12:45 says: "He who sees Me, sees the One who sent Me.” John 14:9: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”
God the Father is always in total agreement with the Son and vice versa. TOGETHER they are still God, separately they can show the light of the glory of God without detracting from the other. They can reflect back and forth to each other, always seeing the majesty and effulgence of God, different yet identical…TWO, yet ONE.
Jesus came to earth to shine the light and glory of God so that we could behold His glory. Remember when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead? He said to Martha, Lazarus’ sister: "Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God ?" (John 11:40)
2 Corinthians 4:4, 6:
The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God…For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
Christmas is so much more than a beautiful “story”. Christmas is more than a baby in a Manger. Jesus’ birth and life are God’s salvation to humanity. The old story (BC), is that man is lost because he has missed the mark of God’s perfection, but God promised to provide a way of forgiveness. The new story (AD), is that with the birth of Jesus, God provides the way back to Himself, to believe in His power to forgive FREELY, so that YOUR life will be FULFILLED.
I am actually happy that the atheist put that sign up on Wall Street, because at least half of it was true; the picture of Jesus on the Cross. But the Story of Jesus and His love is the furthest thing from “Myth”. It is the accurate and historical story of the Miracle of Christmas and God’s Love, that “God loved the World so much, that He gave His ‘one of a kind’ and only Son, that whoever believes in Him, will not perish but have everlasting life.”
Jesus is not a myth!
1. Jesus’ birth and life are not mythological but part of history.
2. Jesus’ birth and life fulfill God’s predictions, prophecies and promises.
3. Jesus’ birth (The “Incarnation”) reveals “Immanuel”( God with us).
a. Jesus is very much God: (Hebrews 1)
b. Jesus is the radiance of God’s Glory.
c. Jesus is the exact representation of God.
4. Jesus’ birth life are God’s salvation to humanity.
