The Miracle Of The Manger Series

As we consider the miracles of Christmas, the most obvious miracle of all is the incarnation, God became a man. That is Christmas, the birth of our Savior, God coming to earth as a man as foretold of the prophets of old.

Matthew 1:23 “BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which translated means, “GOD WITH US.”

God with us. Than is today’s message. That is the "Miracle of the Manger."

John 1:10–14

In a remote Swiss village stands a beautiful church - Mountain Valley Cathedral. It has high pillars and magnificent stained glass windows, but what makes it special is the most beautiful pipe organ in the whole region. People would come from far off lands just to hear the lovely tunes of this organ. One year something went wrong with the pipe organ. It releases the wrong tones and sounds of disharmony. Musicians and experts from around the world had tried to repair it. No one could find the fault. The organ was uniquely made and customized and no one really knows how to fit it. They gave up.

After some time, one old man came. "Why wasn’t the pipe organ used?"

"It’s not playing right," says the church staff.

"Let me try." Since it has been lying there, the staff reluctantly agreed to let the old man try his hand at it. For two days the old man worked in almost total silence. The church workers was, in fact, getting a bit nervous. Then on the third day - at noon – suddenly the music came. The pipe organ gives off the best music after so many years. The people in the village heard the beautiful music. They came to the church to see. This old man was playing at the organ. After he finished, one man asked, "How did you fix it? How did you manage to restore this magnificent instrument when even the world’s experts could not?"

The old man said, "It was I who built this organ fifty years ago. I created it, and now I have restored it."[1]

You see that is what happened to mankind. God made us perfect. Adam and Eve in the garden. They were God’s crowning achievement. Then entered the Serpent – and temptation. And man choose sin, and man has been broken ever since. Don’t believe that man is broken? Just read the local paper. Turn to the news on television. Child molesting. Crowd thefts. Mass murders. Lawlessness abounds. Now convince me that man isn’t broken.

Don’t you think the Original Designer and Builder needs to come and make repairs? To restore man? Our original Designer and Builder was Jesus.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Jesus is God.

John 1:3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

And Jesus made all. He is our Designer and Builder. As the Creator, He is superior to His creation. The Creator is always superior to the creation. Why it is that man feels he can fix himself? Can the one who is broken fix himself? Man has done nothing but bring death. How can man bring life?

John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Jesus is life. Jesus is source of all life. Jesus does not merely possess life, He is life. Now, here is the Miracle of the Manger

John 1:14a And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,

The Creator lowered Himself to be like the created. God fulfilled His name given by the prophet: “AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which translated means, “GOD WITH US.” (Matthew 1:23). However that should not surprise us too much, although flawed because of sin, we are made in His image.

Genesis 1:27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

As God, Jesus did not come as God and only appeared as a man, as the ancient Gnostics believed, Jesus was fully man and fully God. The Creator humbled Himself to be like the creation.

Philippians 2:5–8 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Again. This is the miracle of the manger, of the incarnation. God with us. And God, in the form of the man, Jesus, He did not merely come, but he lived with us.