A young family was moving into a new house, and even though the move had been scheduled weeks in advance, on moving day, the husband announced that had an important meeting at work. He was unable to help. That left the wife to handle the move all by herself, which she did.
After the moving van pulled away, the wife found herself standing in the living room of their new house surrounded by boxes to be unpacked, appliances to be hooked up, a screaming baby, and a five-year-old who had decided to throw one of his metal toys through the picture window. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, but the jagged glass was scattered everywhere, and a cold, brisk wind was blowing through the opening.
The wife was at the end of her rope. She needed to talk to her husband, but when she called his office, a secretary informed her that he was tied up in a meeting and could not be disturbed. The secretary asked, “Would you like to leave a message?”
This perturbed the wife even more, because she knew from past experience that her husband was extremely lax about returning calls home. But she figured out a way to get his attention. She told the secretary, “Just tell him the insurance will cover it. Call home for details.”
Guess what? The moment he got the message, he called home. (James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, pp. 35-36; BI# 3603-3605; 7/1996.94)
That lady got her husband’s attention, didn’t she? She communicated in a such way that her husband really heard.
Do you know, God wants to get our attention too. That’s why, 2,000 years ago, at that first Christmas, He sent his angels with a startling message for every human being. The problem is we’ve heard it so often, we’ve become jaded, just like that husband, and we don’t really hear it anymore.
So this evening, I want you to pretend you’ve never heard it before. Put yourselves in the sandals of some of the poor people in the 1st century, suffering under Roman oppression, trying to eke out a living, and listen to the message of the angels like you’re hearing it for the first time.
First, put yourself in Joseph’s sandals. He was engaged to a lovely, dark-haired, brown-eyed girl. He was looking forward to their wedding, when all of the sudden, she got pregnant. He knew he didn’t do it, because they were never intimate with each other. How could she do this to him?
According to the custom of the day, the engagement period was a time to prove the purity of the bride to be. They were engaged for a year, and if, during that year, the woman didn’t become pregnant, then she proved herself to be worthy bride – pure and chaste for her husband. But if she did become pregnant, she proved herself to be immoral in the eyes of society. Sometimes they stoned such women, but always they made her the object of ridicule and shame.
To say the least, Joseph was devastated. His fiancée was pregnant, for all he knew, by another man. It was the end of their relationship.
I remember when I was looking forward to marrying Sandy. I didn’t want anything to stop that – not even the 2nd coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ. I even prayed, “Lord, please delay your coming until after we’re married. I can’t imagine the hurt I would have felt if Sandy got pregnant during that time by somebody else.
That’s where Joseph was. Then an angel came with a message from God. Listen to that message, and hear it, as it were, for the first time. It’s found in Matthew 1.
Matthew 1:18-20 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. (ESV)
Mary has not been intimate with another man! The baby she is carrying was conceived by the Holy Spirit. I can see Joseph’s jaw drop, first in disbelief, then in sheer delight! Mary, his Mary, was still his Mary. The angel continues…
Matthew 1:21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus [or Yeshua, which means the Lord saves], for he will save his people from their sins.” (ESV)
Can you believe it? Joseph’s devastation has turned into a dream come true. It’s a dream far beyond anything Joseph could have imagined. It’s the dream of the centuries, long foretold by the prophets.
Matthew 1:22-23 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 name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). –ESV
When Isaiah gave this prophecy, 700 years before Christ, Jerusalem was under siege. The virgin birth of Messiah was a sign that God would deliver Jerusalem from her enemies – including her greatest enemy, her own sin. You see, Jerusalem was under siege, not because of bad luck. She was under siege because of sin. Sin put her in bondage, but God would deliver her from that bondage.
So it is today. Sin places people in bondage, but God can deliver them from that bondage through His virgin-born Son. That’s the message of the angel – not only for Joseph, but for all who would hear.
JESUS IS YOUR SAVIOR.
He is your deliverer. He is your rescuer from sin.
Jared Wilson in his book Gospel Wakefulness asks you to imagine you are driving down the road and your car stalls at a railroad crossing. You are understandably nervous as you try to reignite the car's engine, but you become even more so when you see a train turn the corner in the distance and begin quickly closing the gap between it and you. The train engine's horn is blaring and the engineer has thrown on the brakes, but you are too close and he's coming too fast. You move from trying to get the car to start to trying to unfasten your seatbelt, but fear has made your hands stiffen and shake. You can't get your seatbelt unfastened. The train is rushing toward you, and you know you're going to be hit. And you are. Suddenly and from behind. A man in a truck behind you has decided to ram into your car and push you off the tracks, even as he is destroyed by the impact in the very spot you once occupied.
You get out of the car, shaken and still frightened. You are terrified by the gruesome scene, in shock over your rescuer's sacrifice. You are grateful in a way that you've never been grateful before… Even in your terrified awe, it feels good to be alive. You feel woozy, so you sit down on the trunk of your car, and as you're trying to retrieve your cell phone from your pocket to call 911 and marveling at how little damage the violent shove did to the rear bumper, you hear a whimper from inside.
You didn't know that before you'd left the house, as your kids were playing hide-and-seek, your youngest son decided to hide in the trunk of your car. As you open it up frantically and discover that he is miraculously unharmed, you suddenly realize the total greatness of the loss you almost suffered (Jared C. Wilson, Gospel Wakefulness, Crossway, 2011, pp. 24-25; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s a picture of the salvation Jesus provides. You and I were stuck “on the tracks”, so to speak. We were stuck in our sins with unescapable judgment coming fast upon us. But Jesus bumped us off the tracks and took that judgment Himself. He died in your place for your sins and mine. Then three days later He came out of the grave alive!
Jesus is your Savior from sin. All that remains for you to do is trust Him with your life. Stop trying to depend on your own useless efforts to save yourself and call upon Him to save you today. Jesus is your Savior; trust Him with your life. More than that
JESUS IS YOUR SOVEREIGN.
He is your Lord. He is your King.
That was the message of the angel to Mary. Put yourself in her sandals, and please try to hear it, from her perspective, as if for the first time. If you want to see it, then you can turn with me to Luke 1,
Luke 1:26-38 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. (ESV)
Now, Mary was a poor, peasant girl, and she lived in a town notorious for its wickedness. You remember what Nathaniel said to his friend, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). The angel, Gabriel, came to an unlikely person in an unlikely place, with an unusual announcement. Mary was to give birth to Israel’s king, who would reign forever! The greatest King who ever lived!
Napoleon thought he was great, because he founded a kingdom on force. But he soon came to realize how empty it all was. At the end of his life, he moaned, “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ alone founded his empire upon love. And at this hour millions of men would die for him.” Jesus is King! And there is no other like Him.
Nearly 30 years ago, those of us who lived through the Cold War, were relieved at the fall of the old Soviet Empire. The beginning of that fall occurred on Thursday, March 28, 1991. That’s when demonstrators planed a massive march in Moscow to show their opposition to government policy. They were hoping for 500,000 people to participate, but ¬¬the Kremlin banned demonstrations, issued dire warnings, and promised a massive show of force if demonstrators violated the ban. On everyone’s mind was the peaceful demonstration in Lithuania, just two months earlier, where Soviet tanks and troops moved in and ended up killing 14 people.
On the day of the march, 50,000 troops and police crowded Moscow. Even so, 100,000 people ignored the ban and marched. Fortunately, there were no clashes, but a BBC correspondent had an interesting way of describing Mikhail Gorbachev’s show of force. He said that it was “a display of strength that showed considerable weakness.” Five months later, Gorbachev was no longer in power.
The following day, March 29, 1991, Christians worldwide celebrated Good Friday, the day when Christ voluntarily went to the cross and allowed his own creation to torture and kill him. That was a display of weakness that showed considerable strength. For in that one act alone, Jesus rendered Satan powerless and provided freedom and deliverance to all who would trust Him (Greg Scharf, Fargo, North Dakota, Leadership, Vol. 12, no. 4).
Jesus, even in His weakest moment, showed himself more powerful than any earthly ruler. Jesus is King! – the Greatest King there ever was.
So obey him. Submit to Him. Humble yourself before Him, just like Mary did.
Her life was about to be turned upside down at the prospect of being an unmarried, pregnant woman. She faced the ridicule of the community and the loss of her fiancé. Remember, Joseph wanted to put her away. But she told the Lord, vs.38, “Let it be to me according to your word.” She submitted to God; and as a result, she had the privilege of bearing the Son of God in her own womb. More than that, she became the most honored woman in all the world.
Do you face the ridicule of your community? Do you face the loss of things that are precious to you? Then turn your life over to the Jesus Christ, the King! Submit to Him, and let him bring blessing and honor out of the chaos in your life.
That’s the message of the angels: Jesus is your Savior – Trust Him. Jesus is your Sovereign – Obey Him. And finally, their message to you and me is...
JESUS IS SUPREME.
He is Christ, the Lord – i.e., the Lord God himself. This time, put yourselves in the shoes of the shepherds and listen to what the angels said to them. If you’re following along in your Bibles, flip the page to Luke 2,
Luke 2:8-11 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (ESV)
Here, the angels tell us that Jesus is the Savior – as we’ve already heard. They also tell us that Jesus is the Christ, i.e., the Anointed One, the Sovereign King – as we’ve also already heard. But the angels also tell us that Jesus is “Christ, the Lord.”
The word for “Lord,” here, in the Greek, is the same word used in the Greek Old Testament to translate the Hebrew word, YHWH. In other words, Jesus is none other than YHWH God Himself – the same One the angels worship in Hebrews 1, the same One all of heaven worships in Revelation 5.
The angels don’t want you to miss their message. Jesus is God in the flesh.
Mary Daniel hadn't seen her husband for 114 days due to coronavirus restrictions at the senior care facility where he lives. Her husband, Steve, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's seven years ago and moved into a care facility in Jacksonville, Florida.
She said she had been visiting her husband every night and would get him ready for bed. But when the coronavirus pandemic hit, health facilities restricted visitors as a way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to vulnerable patients. The facility closed to visitors on March 11—the last time she saw Steve as a visitor.
Mary was worried about her husband spending so much time alone and said she was “desperate” to find another way to stay connected. She said, “We have separated these folks to save them, but… the isolation will absolutely kill them. Especially dementia patients, they need interaction. They need to be touched… so that they can grow instead of just really wither away.”
Then out of the blue in late June this last summer, the corporate office of his memory care center called her and said, “We've got a part-time job available; would you like to take it?” She was willing to do any job they offered for the chance to get inside, and what they ended up giving her was a dishwashing position.
The job is allowing Mary to see her husband regularly, and she's grateful or it. In July, she said, “It is worth it to be able to visit him, and I can already just tell the difference in his demeanor after three visits. I get to go again tonight... it has made the world of difference for me.” She said her husband now feels love—something he missed out on when they were separated. (Caitlin O'Kane, “Woman gets job as dishwasher at senior care facility so she can see her husband with Alzheimer’s,” CBS News, 7-10-20; www.PreachingToday.com)
My dear friends, something far worse than a virus separated us from God. It was our sin, but God wanted us to know that He loved us very much. So the almighty God of the universe took on the role of a servant just to be with us. Jesus is Immanuel – God with us!
The Bible says, “God… emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men… Therefore… at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:6-11).
C. S. Lewis once put it this way: “The Eternal Being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man, but (before that) a baby, and before that a fetus inside a woman’s body (at 10 days after conception, just the size of a pin-head).” That’s almost unimaginable!
Jesus is God! There can only be but one response, and that’s to worship him. Bow in reverence before Him, and give your life wholly and completely to Him.
Linda Dupree, of Goldonna, Louisianna, was the only English teacher in a small rural school. This gave her, as she put it, “the mixed pleasure” of teaching her own three sons. They begged her not to call on them in class, not to use them as examples, nor to tell any family stories – to which she agreed. On the first day of class, they each invariably chose a seat in the far corner and refused to make eye contact. Mrs. Dupree left them alone.
But making it to the high school English class was a rite of passage for the rest of the students in that small school. They were eager to participate in Mrs. Dupree's class, and her boys couldn’t understand why they had such respect for their mother.
One day, her oldest son asked her, “Mama, do they know who you are?” referring to the fact that she was “just” a mother. Mrs. Dupree responded, “Son, do you know who I am?” (Linda H. Dupree, Goldonna, Louisiana)
My dear friends, Do YOU know who Jesus is? Or has He become so familiar that you’ve lost the wonder. If that’s the case, then hear the message of the angels again, as if for the first time. Jesus is Savior – Trust Him. Jesus is Sovereign – Obey Him. And Jesus is Supreme – Worship Him with everything you’ve got.
