CHRISTMAS DAY 2024 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Matthew 1:18-25

 

CHRISTMAS DAY 2024         Pastor Timothy J. Spaude        Matthew 1:18-25

 

“THE MIRACLES OF THE MANGER”

 

Matthew 1:18-25 (EHV) " This is how the birth of Jesus Christ took place. His mother, Mary, was pledged in marriage to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Joseph, her husband, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her. So he decided to divorce her privately. ²⁰ But as he was considering these things, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because the child 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.” ²² All this happened to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ²³ “Look, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son. And they will name him Immanuel,” which means, “God with us.”²⁴ When Joseph woke up from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him. He took Mary home as his wife, ²⁵ but he was not intimate with her until she gave birth to her firstborn son. And he named him Jesus.”

 

“THE MIRACLES OF THE MANGER”

 

          Miracles! God is doing them all the time. By definition a miracle is something wonderful and extraordinary, something that can’t be explained by the laws of nature God Himself established or human reason and experience. They happen when God steps in and does the impossible. The word has gotten watered down a bit by overuse. The “Miracle on Ice” USA Olympic hockey win over Russia was extraordinary and welcome but was not against the laws of nature. True miracles have no explanation and God does them all the time. The complete cancer cure that goes against medical experience. The lack of injuries in a terrible accident. Those are and many more are miracles and because God does them all the time they don’t catch or hold people’s attention very long. Now there are miracles and there are Miracles. From my reading of Scripture God’s best and most impossible ones come at specific times. When salvation is at stake. God’s desire to have all sinner, to have you and me with Him forever is so strong that He gladly breaks His rules when your salvation is at stake. This quiet Christmas morning let’s return to the manger with wonder and awe at the great miracles of the manger.

 

          The first miracle is that Jesus was born of a Virgin. Matthew records it. " This is how the birth of Jesus Christ took place. His mother, Mary, was pledged in marriage to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.”  Can you imagine being Mary? Here you are getting ready for and looking forward to your wedding day with Joseph when an angel appears to you and says you will be pregnant, though not by Joseph. We certainly can’t blame her for being troubled and asking Gabriel “How can this be?” She was a virgin. She had never had sexual relations with a man and everyone knows that that’s the only way she was going to get pregnant. Someone forgot to tell God. God did the impossible. He did a miracle. The power of the Holy Spirit allowed Mary to conceive without a human father involved in any way. God did a miracle because salvation was at stake. It’s precisely because of the impossible nature of this miracle that Christmas time has become the season of miracles. A late night comedian quipped, “You stick ‘miracle’ in the title and it automatically becomes a Christmas special.” He used that for comedy fodder. You and I know it to be the truth. The miracles of the manger began with a virgin being with child. But wait, there’s was more!

          The second miracle of the manger is that Isaiah the prophet predicted the Virgin birth 700 years before it happened. We are at the time of the year for predictions, aren’t we? Whenever we get close to a New Year all kinds of people roll out their predictions for the new year, how the stock market will fare, home prices, sporting events. Call 1 800 Psychic to get a personal prediction of your new year, for a fee of course. One predicter who still gets a lot of play is a man named Nostradamus. If you ever read any of his you know how vague they are. That’s not the case with the miracles of the Manger. It was not one year but 700 years before Jesus was born. Isaiah was one of God’s prophets. He was told by God to go to a man named Ahaz who was king over God’s people in the country of Judah. Ahaz was commanded by God to ask for a sign by which God would prove He would deliver Ahaz from his enemies. Ahaz refused to ask. Isaiah gave him a sign anyway. It went like this. “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call Him Immanuel.” You heard Matthew quote it. No shotgun predictions here.  No vague ones that could refer to almost anything. Just an impossible one. A miraculous one. 700 years before it happens Isaiah saw it and said it like he’d seen it happen. A virgin is with child. She gives birth to a son. He’s called Immanuel. God is with us.

 

Let’s sing about these miracles in the manger as we join in the carol, “Away in a Manger!”

 

          The third miracle of the manger: God became a man. The Maker became what He made. The King of kings chooses as His first throne a manger. It’s part of the essence of God that God is God and man is not. God is holy and pure and sinless. God is uncreated. Man is created. When God first created Adam and Eve they were holy and pure and sinless too. The Bible tells us that God came to them in a personal way and walked with them and talked with them. Then they disobeyed. They sinned against God. They were no longer holy and sinless and pure like God. They were filled with shame. As a consequence of sin sinful man is not able to see God in His heavenly glory and live. So God did a miracle in the manger. God became a man. It’s like the second verse of the carol “Now Sing We Now Rejoice” where we sing, “Come from on high to me, I cannot rise to thee!” So He did. God became one of us. The beauty of this miracle is in the reason behind it. For God to maintain His justice and His love a substitute for sinful people was needed. Man to be obligated to the law and to be able to suffer the wages of sin. God, to be able to keep the law perfectly and to be worth enough to pay for every sin. Salvation was at stake so God did the impossible and became true man. The third miracle of the manger.

          The fourth miracle is that Joseph believed all this. Poor Joseph! We can tell from his reactions that he was an upright man, an honorable man. He only wanted to do what was right before God. That’s why he and Mary refused to jump the gun and show marriage love when they weren’t married. It seemed to Joseph that Mary did not want to wait. Matthew tells us, “Joseph, her husband, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her. So he decided to divorce her privately.” You can imagine what he was going through. He was looking forward to his marriage to Mary. She was a sweet girl. And then she comes with some news. She’s pregnant. You can just imagine the hurt, the betrayal, then the anger and bitterness as his emotions ran their course. And then, and then, Mary has the unmitigated gall to say that she had been faithful and she was pregnant by a miracle of God. She would have God’s Son! I think we all know how we would react. Yeah right! And that’s how Joseph reacted at first too. Until God did another miracle. Matthew points us to it. “But as he was considering these things, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because the child 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.” God sent an angel in a dream. That’s a miracle but an even greater miracle is that Joseph believed. I don’t know any of us who act on what we see in our dreams, but Joseph did. Joseph did because God did a miracle in Him. Faith to believe the words of God is a miracle of the Holy Spirit. Faith to act on the words of God is a miracle of the Holy Spirit too. God did those miracles in Joseph. He showed his trust in the words and promise of God with careful obedience to what God told him to do. “When Joseph woke up from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him. He took Mary home as his wife, ²⁵ but he was not intimate with her until she gave birth to her firstborn son.  And he named him Jesus.” He took Mary as his wife even though he would face mockery and snickering and “See, I told you Joseph did it.” Even though he was married he had no intimate relations with her until after Jesus was born so that the miracle of the Virgin birth was not tarnished. He named the boy Jesus, Savior, just like God had told him to do. Joseph believed! The 4^th Miracle in the Manger.

 

Hymn - #343

“Once in Royal David’s City”

 

          Now you may recall that I said there were 5 miracles of the Manger. One, that Jesus was born of a Virgin. Two, that the prophet Isaiah had predicted this 700 years before it happened. Three, that God became man. Four that Joseph actually believed all this. And five? The fifth miracle of the Manger? The fifth miracle that happens at Christmas? The fifth miracle, the fifth miracle, is that we believe it too. We’ve seen no angel choirs. We’ve had no special angel appearances to tip us off. We’ve seen no star in the East. And yet we believe. That’s why we’re here this morning. We believe. And that, my friends, is a miracle! It’s a miracle of God that even though our faith is challenged by the sheer impossibility of it all; even though our faith is challenged by the skeptics of this world; even though our faith is challenged by our own reason which says, “How can this possibly be true?“ we believe. God did a miracle in our hearts so that we believe in His Son and are saved. God did a miracle so that we recognize Christmas as a season of joy and a season with a reason named Jesus. And why? Because your salvation is at stake. There is only one way to heaven, not many. Only one who brings us back to God. Only one who fills the God sized hole in our hearts. Immanuel. God with us. Jesus who saves us from our sins. Yes, when salvation is at stake God does His greatest miracles because to Him you’re worth it! Amen.

 

Let’s sing a newer Christmas Carol using an older tune “Love Has Come!”

Nov. 30-Dec. 2 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Jeremiah 33:14-16 “HAVING A REAL CHRISTMAS REQUIRES…”

 

ADVENT 1

Nov. 30-Dec. 2

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Jeremiah 33:14-16

 

“HAVING A REAL CHRISTMAS REQUIRES…”

1.     A real view of real sin.

2.     A real desire for a real Savior.

 

          “Why can’t we have a real Christmas?” While a decade ago maybe only a child whose life got turned upside down would whine that question, it is likely that everyone older than 7 in this room at least felt like whining that question. Why can’t we have a real Christmas? All of us older than 7 remember what Christmas was like during the time of the government shutdown when for a time schools and churches were not allowed to be open and then when we resumed all kinds of restrictions went into place. We all lived with them. And then came something important, Christmas. Many extended families did not get together. Many did not travel. And then there was the school children’s Christmas service here at Jacobi. Do you remember? We recorded individual recitations and classes singing by themselves. Mr. Walker put in hundreds of hours splicing and requesting re recordings. And then we invited people to come and watch the prerecorded service on our big screens in 4 separate viewings. Many chose not to come. Do you have any idea how many times we all said or felt, “Why can’t we have a real Christmas?”

          Well, we could back then and every year. Those frustrated feelings we have or had simply reveal that all of us have spent too much time in an American culture that has no idea what a real Christmas is all about. Likely without even realizing it the slow boil of the secular Christmas has done its work. Think about it. Most of the things we associate with a real Christmas are the externals. Lights. Trees. Presents. Food. People. Wonderful blessings for us to enjoy with thanksgiving to God but not really what Christmas is all about. Today we begin the Church Year season of Advent. Advent means arrival. Its themes are often an encouragement for spiritual renewal, an urgency to be ready. As we kick of this season then God’s word urges us to get ready to have a real Christmas.

How do we do that? We learn from those who already pulled it off. As I read my Bible, I often find myself wishing I could be like the people I read about. I want the faith of Abraham who has the knife poised in the air to take Isaac’s life because he has firm trust in God’s power to resurrect. I want to be like Job who can say of God, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” And I want the real Christmas joy of the shepherds who upon hearing the Christmas message immediately went to see and then returned glorifying and praising God. Why? They were Old Testament believers. They had never been exposed to all the externals of Christmas that we have. But they had been exposed to the word of God like these words of the prophet Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 33:14-16 (EHV) “Listen, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the good promises that I have spoken to the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah. ¹⁵ In those days and at that time, I will cause a righteous Branch to grow up from David’s line. He will establish justice and righteousness on earth.” The shepherds had real Christmas joy because they realized that what Jeremiah was talking about here was happening before their very eyes. God had promised a righteous branch from David’s line. A descendant of David would be their Savior. And they knew they needed one. God’s people were painfully aware of their sins. At Jeremiah’s time the nation went into exile. At the shepherds’ time they were ruled by the Romans. Painful reminders of the people’s unfaithfulness to God. They had a real view of their real sin that prepared them to have real joy that first Christmas.

The same thing will work for us too. While we don’t live in a conquered nation there are painful reminders of sin in our lives. For some of us it is the ongoing struggle with alcohol abuse or drug addiction. For some of us it is the guilt of words and actions that have fractured our families. Every death of every loved one, prayed for or unexpected, is a real reminder that sin is real and it has real consequences. When those consequences are in our face, when we can’t escape from them or undo them, we find ourselves with a real view of real sin, the kind that pushed the Apostle Paul to exclaim, “Who will rescue me from this body of death?”

Why a real Savior of course! “10In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. This is what she will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness.” Judah and Jerusalem are used here as names for the Church, believers in Jesus. Like the shepherd and you and me. God’s good promise was that when the descendant of David, the Righteous Branch, came, God’s people would know that they are saved. They would have righteousness. No wonder the shepherds left their flocks and went to see. And no wonder that even though all they saw was a newborn boy they were glorifying and praising God. What a blessing! Christmas had come. Their Savior was born. They would have righteousness.

That’s a blessing for us as well. Have you noticed in other people, have you noticed in yourself, that we all have this deep desire to be justified? We want to be considered right. You see examples of that everywhere. After the election the pollsters were explaining how right they got it even though to many people it did not seem that way. Think of the last disagreement you had with a spouse, a parent, a teacher. How easily it devolves into a fight over who is right. Sometimes as I try to give good godly counsel to people I ask, “Is it more important to you to be right or to get this right?” You can just see the inner struggle people have to give up being justified for the sake of something greater. I wonder if that happens in us because deep down we know we really aren’t right in God’s eyes so we look to be right in the eyes of others?

Did you hear some good news of great joy that can help us have a real Christmas? With our real Savior Jesus we are righteous. His righteousness becomes our righteousness. God said so. The day is coming when we will no longer struggle with sin. The day is coming when we will no longer live with our consequences. The day is coming when we will no longer be separated from our loved ones who died in the Lord. All because we real sinners have a real Savior whose birth we get to celebrate.

Why can’t we have a real Christmas? We can. Every year. You know how people have profile pictures on their phones so when someone they know calls that picture shows up? So often it is a nice picture from a nice memory. Ask Chris to show you the profile picture she has for me on her phone. Do you know what she set as my profile picture when I call? The face of the Grinch. Now before you get ready to tar and feather her for doing such an awful thing you need to know I’ve earned that profile picture. How? By expressing my distaste for so many of the extras of Christmas. In the three weeks leading up to Christmas we make ourselves super busy with lights and baking and parties and present buying and tree trimming. And yes there are extra worship services and Christmas concerts. Those I don’t mind. But the other stuff, when I get tired, it is entirely possible that I act a little Grinchy. Part of it comes from my sinful nature. All the busies just make me tired. But part of it comes from my Christian nature. Most of the extras have nothing to do with a real Christmas. Now you can do or not do, all the extras. That is up to you. Whether you do or do not let’s get ready for a real Christmas by being real about sin so we can be really excited to hear again that we have a real Savior, Jesus. Amen.