The Faces Of Christmas - The Face Of God Series

The Face of God

Matthew 1:18-25

Christmas Eve 2010

What does it mean that God showed his face among men?

It means he loves us (John 3:16)

It means he wants to be with us (Matthew 1:23;

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Merry Christmas.

We are glad that you are here this evening to worship Jesus, the Christ as you begin your celebrations.

Who will be at your Christmas celebration?

Family will almost certainly be there.

Some of you might have some friends as well.

Over this past month, we have been talking about the people who were at the very first Christmas celebration, actually there at the birth of Christ and we were seeking to look at each person to see what the Lord would have us learn from each person that was there.

Face of Awe – Shepherds

We started out looking into the face of Awe as we talked about the Shepherds and learned how to recapture some of the Awe of Christmas by realizing how truly we needed a Savior.

Face of Courage - Joseph

We have looked into the face of Courage as we talked about Joseph and learned what courage looks like and the courage that is necessary to be obedient.

Face of Faith - Mary

Last Sunday we looked into the face of faith as we saw Mary’s incredible faith to follow after the Lord and find contentment even when He leads us through circumstances that are difficult and include suffering.

This evening, we are going to wrap up this series looking into the face of God

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considering Jesus Himself and what it is we can learn from the fact that He came into this world to show God’s face to mankind.

To start, we are going to read Matthews account of how the birth of Jesus came about.

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Matthew 1:18-25

18 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.

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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."

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22 All 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."

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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 text tells us they will call Jesus, Immanuel, which means God with us.

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We find in many places in Scripture that tell us that Jesus is in fact God.

John 1:1, 14

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

Colossians 1:15 - He is the image of the invisible God

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Jesus himself even claimed to be God when He spoke with the disciples.

John 14:8-9

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8 Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."

9 Jesus answered: "Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.

Scripture is clear that Jesus is God and when we look into the face of Jesus we are looking into the face of God.

But why did God show his face upon the earth?

What does it mean that God put on flesh and showed himself to men?

That is the question I want to ask and answer tonight.

We could speculate all we want on the answer to that question, but thankfully we have the Scriptures we can turn to so we can discover the things that the Lord wants us to know. This is why He has given us His word. Many will question if we can really believe what the Bible says.

Back to Basics Promo

I want to invite you back to Hickory Creek on Sunday, January 16th. We will be hosting a Back to Basics Seminar where we will spend a significant amount of time looking into the evidence that supports the truth that the Bible is really the word of God as opposed to any other religious writing like the Koran or the book of Mormon. So make plans to come out to that and learn why you can believe the Bible in what it says.