It’s interesting the way we approach our birthdays, birthdays of our children, spouses, friends etc…
Consider the first birthday of your child, or grandchild…HUGE!…All the trappings, gifts, invitations, photos…(and the baby has NO idea what’s going on!)
Seems as though the celebration is really for us! To remind us of the gift of life that has been given to us as family…
And then later as they grow, it dawns on them…they begin to anticipate the attention, the gifts etc…
Even later, as you age…they can be a reminder of your age…30 was hard, 40 was interesting and 50? Half a century….wow!
My wife likes to use the term birth month now…has expanded the celebration!
So the season of Christmas is upon us..the celebration, the memories…and most of all…the hope….
1 Timothy 1:1 (NIV84)
1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,
I want to take the story from the narrative of Matthew and some truths in the recounting of the birth of Jesus that are still alive and full of hope today for us…
Matthew 1:1 (NIV84)
1A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham:
Matthew 1:17 (NIV84)
17Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.
First of all, the genealogy…I’m not going to go into detail on that, it’s pretty well laid out…but I do want to point out something that struck me as I was praying and considering it.
In the study of biblical numerology, the number 14, means a double measure of spiritual perfection…look it up….7 is perfection x 2….double…you get it…
It also represents deliverance/salvation…
Point?
It speaks of God’s character @ the perfect time/place of God’s intersection into humanity to bring about salvation and deliverance…
Matthew 1:18–24 (NIV84)
18This 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.
19Because 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.
20But 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.
21She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
22All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:
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.”
24When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.
With anything else, we can be so familiar with something, even the birth story, that we can lose the wonder of it…expound…
VS 24 speaks of Josephs being obedient!
Many times the wonder of what God wants to do can hinge on our willingness to be obedient!
I’m sure God could have done an end run on Joseph should he have chose to disobey…but the story would certainly have been different!
Matthew 2:1 (NIV84)
1After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem
Expound on “during the time of King Herod”…
Skirting over this passage, we can miss how terrible the time was “under King Herod”…
Herod the Great was part of a family of “herod”….Idumean origin…not originally Jewish but had converted…
Herod meant “hero-like” and he was anything but…
Strangles his own wife, responsible for the death of two of his own sons in their infancy…basically a mass murderer…
On his deathbed he ordered the execution of a number of his nobles to ensure when he died there would be mourning in the land…
1After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod,
Point?
The salvation of God through Jesus can come at anytime, anywhere…God is always willing to intersect, intervene His Kingdom with the earth…
We can gloss over the wonder of the season, but also neglect to understand that it was an incredible trying time of difficulty and oppression…And God still showed up!
Magi from the east came to Jerusalem
Magi (educated, learned, astrologers, rich i.e. Gold, frankincense, myrrh)
They came seeking and searching…
Deuteronomy 4:29 (NIV84)
29But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.
These men had everything the world would consider needed for happiness!
Education, prestige, money, position…
Yet they came seeking because something was missing in their hearts and lives…
When you have been created to walk with God in fellowship, and it’s not there…something is missing!
It’s like the image of a manger and a cradle…when you see a cradle, you know immediately what it’s supposed to carry!
If you see a cradle loaded up with anything but a child…It’s a wrong picture!
The cradle of our heart has been designed by God to contain Him relationally! Instead we load it up with everything else and it’s still not enough! It doesn’ fit!
These magi, these “wise men”…knew something was missing and began a search for what it was!
Matthew 2:2 (NIV84)
2and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
Once again, here is the evidence of God in creation!
Romans 1:20–21 (NASB95)
20For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
We covered this last week, but here it is again…
God has and is continuously showing his invisible attributes through all that He created…
No one looks at a custom house…and wonders how it got there…You know someone built it…it just didn’t “appear”…No one looks at a classic car, work of art, etc…without knowing that someone created it!
Matthew 2:3–6 (NIV84)
3When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
4When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.
5“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
6“ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’”
Jerusalem was basically the spiritual center of the world…
Lot’s of “spiritual activity”…knowledge etc….
They “know” about Jesus…but were not seeking Jesus!
Bethlehem was only about 6 miles away…
The irony was that the plan of God…The salvation of God was basically right in their midst and they did not embrace it…
They resisted it…
The facts of scripture lined up…
The historical prophesy lined up..
The geography lined up…
The timing lined up…
The stars lined up…
Their knowledge lined up…
And instead of embracing Him…they rejected him…
The magi (pagan, outsiders, unclean,) traveled for months through the hardship of desert…to seek him, search for the only thing that would fill the cradle of their heart and lives…
And Jerusalem would not recognize the messiah Christ child right in front of them…
I want to finish this morning with this passage of scripture…
Matthew 2:13–15 (NIV84)
13When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt,
15where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
Out of Egypt…God had called Moses as well “out of Egypt”…to save His people then…
Later, God called his own son “out of Egypt”…to be the salvation of mankind…
Egypt was a real place…but also a type and shadow of captivity of sin, death and destruction…
You may be here this morning and have need of a savior…
Creation declares it…
Knowledge, history declare it…
You may be like the people of Jerusalem at the time and miss the Messiah being right in your midst…
Is this your day to be delivered “out of Egypt”?
Is today your day to seek Him? To search for Him?
If you do, the bible says you will find Him…
Close/Invitation….
