CHRISTMAS SURPRISES
Luke 1:26-37
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. A Jewish lady named Mrs. Rosenberg many years ago was stranded late one night at a fashionable resort - one that did not admit Jews. The desk clerk looked down at his book and said, "Sorry, no rooms. The hotel is full."
2. The Jewish lady said, "But your sign says that you have vacancies." The desk clerk stammered and then said curtly, "You know that we do not admit Jews. Now if you will try the other side of town..."
3. Mrs. Rosenberg stiffened noticeable and said, "I’ll have you know I converted to your religion." The desk clerk said, "Oh, yeah, let me give you a little test. How was Jesus born?"
4. Mrs. Rosenberg replied, "He was born to a virgin named Mary in a little town called Bethlehem." "Very good," replied the hotel clerk. "Tell me more." Mrs. Rosenberg replied, "He was born in a manger."
5. "That’s right," said the hotel clerk. "And why was he born in a manger?" Mrs. Rosenberg said loudly, "Because a turkey like you in the hotel wouldn’t give a Jewish lady a room for the night!"
B. TEXT
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” 34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God.”
C. THESIS
1. http://www.communicatejesus.com/ultimate-list-christmas-videos-church-services/
[GO DOWN TO “Christmas in a Nutshell”]
2. Christmas is full of surprises! Gifts are wrapped to surprise you. We get “surprise gifts”:
a. Like that tie that you’ll never wear, the “Soap-on-a-rope,” or the perfume that smells like alcohol.
b. Kids get pajamas when what they want is a pony!
c. A parent’s favorite is the hand-made item your child made for you – the scribbled picture, hand print, or Christmas card – that’s worth a million dollars to you!
3. The first Christmas also had its surprises too. We’re going to look at five surprises that the first century Jews got when Jesus was born and one that may surprise even us.
I. THE PARENTS OF JESUS WERE SURPRISING
A. WEALTHY, NOT POOR PARENTS
1. Suppose God gave us the job of selecting the parents for the Messiah -- if we are honest we’d have to admit that we would not have chosen Mary and Joseph in a million years.
2. We would have selected wealthy parents, so that the Christ child could have the best of everything. We would have selected parents who were mature and people of culture, poise and influence, so that the Messiah would have the right education and be trained in the right manners.
3. Many great Americans of the past and came from wealthy families: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John F Kennedy, George Bush. Now there are exceptions and sometimes, a rail splitter becomes president, but that’s rare.
B. EXAMPLE: ASSUMPTION OF THE MAGI
1. Remember when the wisemen came to Jerusalem searching for the Messiah? Where did they go? They went
immediately to the palace and the said, "WHERE IS HE WHO IS BORN A KING?"
2. That was a normal response/an obvious place to look -- after all, Royalty begets royalty, AND AN OBVIOUS PLACE TO LOOK FOR A KING IS IN A PALACE, RIGHT?
C. GOD’S CHOICE
1. But the first Christmas presented an incredible surprise. God selected two unlikely people, a teenage girl named Mary and a poor blue collar worker, named Joseph? So poor they had to sleep in the barn and offer 2 turtle doves for his rites.
2. Joseph was just a carpenter from the backwoods uncultured town, of Nazareth. Even Nathaniel had said, "CAN ANYTHING GOOD COME OUT OF NAZARETH." Wow! Who would have expected that?
II. HOW JESUS WAS BORN WAS SURPRISING
A. STARTLING FACT: THE PREGNANT VIRGIN!
1. An oxymoron is a phrase in which two or more contradictory terms are combined, as in a ‘deafening silence’ and a ‘mournful optimist.’ That is what we have when we come to the birth of Christ. The phrase ‘Virgin Birth’ is a shocker; how can a virgin be giving birth? How can there be a ‘pregnant virgin?’ Yet that is one of the surprises of Jesus’ birth.
2. There are some creatures God has created which can fertilize their own eggs -- but that is impossible with humans. There must be two sides of the DNA present to form a new human.
3. The Bible reports the incredible fact -- that she was never intimate with a man. Up to the time of Jesus' birth, she was still a virgin. So how could this be? [This was evidence of her purity -- follow her example.]
4. hey can do marvelous things with modern reproductive techniques, such as invetro-fertilization.
5. But the manner of conception of this child can never be duplicated: He was conceived of the Holy Spirit of God! “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”(Vs. 35)
B. ORIGIN OF THIS CHILD?
1. The Architect of the universe. The One in the beginning (John 1:2-3), who fashioned the sun and heated it to
35,000,000°F to govern the day. The One who molded a cold, shining ball 2160 miles in diameter to govern the night.
The One who also made the stars -- 100 billion of them in the Milky Way and hundreds of billions more in 100 million other galaxies. JESUS! He spoke six sextillion, 588 quintillion short-tons of elements into existence and called it Earth. Then He set its footing and "laid its cornerstone -- while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy" (Job 38:6-7).
He shut up 132,000,000 square miles of seas behind their doors. He entered the storehouses of the snow and hail and went to the places where lightning is dispersed and the East winds are scattered over the Earth.
Then one day this Almighty God compressed Himself down to a divine cell and fused it with the ovum of a Jewish teenager.
Again and again the God-cells divided and the holy fetus grew. [Dan Betzer]
2. At last the moment of truth came and the Holy Child was born, to the singing of thousands of joyful Angels.
3. And they called his name, "Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."
4. The birth of just another baby? Doesn't seem special unto you find out Whose Son the baby is!
III. WHO WAS NOTIFIED OF HIS BIRTH: SURPRISING!
A. NOT THE NOTABLE & INFLUENTIAL
1. One hour after Queen Elizabeth’s 3rd child was born:
128 cables were sent to all parts of the world,
Gov’t offices stayed open all night
The personnel on night duty were doubled,
All the dignitaries on the planet were notified.
2. Now if a Queen made her child’s birth such a big splash, doesn’t it seem right that God, as a proud Father, would want to let the world know about His Son’s birth too?
3. If we were asked to send the angels somewhere to make this announcement to: we probably would have chosen someone like: the great theologians of the day, the Pharisees, to the Sanhedrin.
4. Or maybe have the angels appear and make the announcement to the Emperor of Rome/King Herod -- and let them know that they better bow their knee because the true
King had come.
B. MIGRANTS & MAGI
But how did God publicize the birth of His Son? Who did He tell the good news?
1. First, to shepherds. Now, shepherds weren’t the most influential people of the day. As a matter of fact, they were among the lowest class of the day. Most people in that society looked down on shepherds because: Many were migrants, who ate and slept with the animals, and no doubt smelled like them too.
2. What did people think of shepherds then?
a. Shepherds were considered unclean and looked on with suspicion. Because of their poverty, if something went missing - it was usually attributed to the shepherds.
b. You could not trust the word of a Shepherd. They were not allowed to act as witnesses in a Court of Law because their word was not considered trustworthy. The Talmud stated, "No help should be given to heathen and shepherds."
c. Shepherds were rough, uneducated men, and looked on as backward by other members of society.
3. If we include the Magi as receiving God’s announcement, we have another unexpected group. They were unfamiliar with the Hebrew Scriptures, probably uncircumcised, not descendants of Abraham, foreigners to the covenants and promises of Israel, and were at least open to mysticism, if not astrology. They were another strange group for God to notify of His Son’s birth!
4. If these examples tell us anything, they tell us that God doesn’t value money, intelligence, education, or power. The Savior’s house was open to the humble and poor, but the rich and famous were excluded.
5. This encourages us that God accepts common, ordinary people like us. Even sinners are welcome, if they come with repentant hearts. You are loved and invited by God to be part of His family. Praise God!
IV. THE WAY HE’D DELIVER WAS SURPRISING
A. THE JEWISH CONCEPTION
1. The Jewish conception of Jesus’ day of what the Messiah would do was that He would be a descendant of David who would be given the power of heaven and who would save Israel from all her oppressors and rule on the throne of David forever.
2. This Deliverer would do this deliverance by military
overthrow or by divine prophetic power similar to what Moses or Elijah had done. Armies would be overthrown and empires decimated by divine power. And Israel would reign over the conquered heathen powers.
B. JESUS WAS BORN TO DIE!
1. How different was the deliverance God planned! Instead, the demonic, invisible forces of hell and sin would first be overthrown. This could only be affected by the death of Christ on the cross as the representative of the human race. His removal of the obstacle of sin gave humanity the possibility of salvation, through proxy swop.
2. The Gospel of the cross was foolishness to the Jews (1 Cor. 1:18). They considered it a scandal (Gr. Skandalon) to preach that the Messiah had died on a cross as a criminal!
3. His mission could only be accomplished by Him taking the world’s sin upon Himself and dying for us.
4. I'm here to tell you Jesus didn't come to teach; although He did some great teaching, that wasn't the purpose of His coming. If He had come to teach, He would have established a university and lived to a ripe old age.
He didn't come to heal, although he healed many people. Had Jesus come primarily to heal, he would have established a hospital and lived to be a ripe old age.
Jesus didn't come to set up some new ethical moral system. If he had, he would've put on the robes of a judge and established a Supreme Court and lived to be a ripe old age. He came to die.
C. ONLY JESUS CAN SAVE US FROM SIN
1. In the veins of Jesus Christ was the blood of God. And because Jesus was God, He could reach up and take the hand of His holy Father and because He was man, He could reach down and take the hand of all of us who are sinful creatures and He could bring us together and could reconcile us to God.
2. The Bible says, "There is one God and one mediator between God and man: the man Christ Jesus."
3. Peter said, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is
no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” Acts 4:12.
V. THE LAST SURPRISE: JESUS IS COMING BACK!
A. THE PRESENT LOCATION OF CHRIST
1. Christmas is full of SURPRISES. Someday, Jesus is COMING BACK. The Jews weren’t ALL wrong on their idea the Messiah would come in power. He will; it just hasn’t happened yet.
2. The Bible tells us that the Child of Bethlehem isn’t in the manger anymore. He’s NOT in the carpenter shop, or out healing the sick or preaching the Gospel to the poor. He’s NOT on the cross, though many have statues of Him that way and He’s NOT in the tomb, though atheists and doubters wish He were.
3. Our Jesus is RISEN from the dead and is ALIVE forevermore! He has ASCENDED up to the Right Hand of the Father and REIGNS supreme over the universe. But that’s not the end of the story.
B. CHRIST’S LAST SURPRISE
1. “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: ‘KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.’” Rev. 19:11-16.
2. You see, Jesus is coming back and we must be ready. This is one time you don’t want to be caught by surprise!
3. The world WASN’T READY for Him the first time. WILL YOU BE READY when He comes the second time? Will you be like the Jewish leaders, the Priests, and Herod – totally unprepared at His coming?
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION:
1. 'Twas the night before Jesus came and all through the house
Not a creature was praying, not one in the house.
Their Bibles were lain on the shelf without care
In hopes that Jesus would not come there.
2. The children were dressing to crawl into bed.
Not once ever kneeling or bowing a head.
And Mom in her rocker with baby on her lap
Was watching the Late Show while I took a nap.
3. When out of the East there arose such a clatter.
I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash!
4. When what to my wondering eyes should appear
But angels proclaiming that Jesus was here.
With a light like the sun sending forth a bright ray
I knew in a moment this must be THE DAY!
5. The light of His face made me cover my head
It was Jesus! returning just like He had said.
And though I possessed worldly wisdom and wealth,
I cried when I saw Him in spite of myself.
6. In the Book of Life which He held in His hand
Was written the name of every saved man.
He spoke not a word as He searched for my name;
When He said "it's not here" my head hung in shame.
7. The people whose names had been written with love
He gathered to take to His Father above.
With those who were ready He rose without a sound.
While all the rest were left standing around.
8. I fell to my knees, but it was too late;
I had waited too long and thus sealed my fate.
I stood and I cried as they rose out of sight;
Oh, if only I had been ready tonight.
9. In the words of this poem the meaning is clear;
The coming of Jesus is drawing near.
There's only one life and when comes the last call
We'll find that the Bible was true after all.
B. ALTAR CALL
1. Christmas is full of SURPRISES. Someday, Jesus is COMING BACK – don’t let Him catch you by SURPRISE! The
world WASN’T READY for Him the first time … BE READY when He returns!
2. The best Christmas gift you can give Him, is to trust Him to save you, to forgive you of your sins, & to give your life to Him. Make Jesus the center of your life and the center of your Christmas this year!
[No claim is made of originality; this message may involve material from other's sermons.]
