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 4th 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!”
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