OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE:

Psalm 14

For the director of music. Of David.

¹ The fool says in his heart,

“There is no God.”

They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;

there is no one who does good. 

² The LORD looks down from heaven

on the sons of men

to see if there are any who understand,

any who seek God.

³ All have turned aside,

they have together become corrupt;

there is no one who does good,

not even one. 

⁴ Will evildoers never learn—

those who devour my people as men eat bread

and who do not call on the LORD?

⁵ There they are, overwhelmed with dread,

for God is present in the company of the righteous.

⁶ You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor,

but the LORD is their refuge. 

⁷ Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!

When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people,

let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!

 

 NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE:

The Birth of Jesus Christ

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.

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.”

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.”

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. [1]

 

  Distractions of the season

A lady was Christmas shopping with her daughter. The crowds were awful. She had to skip lunch because she was on a tight schedule. She was tired, hungry, her feet were hurting, & she was more than a little irritable.

As they left the last store, she asked her daughter, "Did you see the nasty look that salesman gave me?"
Her daughter answered, "He didn't give it to you, Mom. You had it when you went in." :

Christmas is supposed to be a time of giving

        And it can be, but it can also be a time of great stress, of selfishness and overdoing things

        Christmas has become more of a secular holiday than a sacred one.  It has become an occasion for blatant materialism & superficial piety.

        People who never think of Jesus the rest of the year put stars on their trees & maybe even a nativity scene on their mantlepiece.  It is taken as an ideal excuse for parties. [2]

"We keep the Christ-child around to grace our mangers, but he's merely one symbol among many: Rudolph, Scrooge, St.Nicholas and his elves, toy soldiers, little drummer boys, shepherds, angels, Christmas trees, Yule logs and Jesus all vie for our attention; everything alongside everything else. There's nothing special about the Son of God any more. He's just part of the Yuletide clutter."       (by David Roper, The Roper Library,  htttp://cyberhighway.net/~roper/) 

        The simple idea of giving presents in order to remind one another of the greatest gift of all seems to get lost in all the carrying on of the season, the shopping, the food, the drink, the partying.

        There is very little focus on the true meaning of Christmas. 

S.P.S:

Circumstance of Jesus’ Birth

Last time we looked at the role of John the Baptist in preparing the way for The Lord

        Today we are going to look at the circumstances leading up to Jesus’ birth and the true meaning of Christmas

PRAYER:

BODY:

  THE ANNUNCIATION:

Our passage is what is called an “Annunciation.”

Annunciation stories form a regular literary genre in the Bible. They serve not to record historical fact but to interpret the role a child is destined to play in salvation history and to emphasize that that role is initiated by God. The appearance of an angel and the announcement of the child’s future destiny form the core of the genre.[3]

This is what our passage serves to do

        To introduce us to Jesus, to tell us who he was and why he came, the role he was to play in God’s plan of salvation.

Matthew 1:18-25

 

Parents:

MARY

        According to The Bible Knowledge Commentary;

In Jewish law betrothal, which lasted about one year, was much more than our engagement.  It was a binding contract, terminable only by death (which left the betrothed a ‘widow’). Or by a divorce as for a full mariage.  The man was already the “husband (v19)., but the woman remained in her father’s house.[4]

        R.T. France adds:

The waiting period was to demonstrate the faithfulness of the pledge of purity given concerning the bride. If she was found to be with child in this period, she obviously was not pure, but had been involved in an unfaithful sexual relationship. Therefore the marriage could be annulled. If, however, the one-year waiting period demonstrated the purity of the bride, the husband would then go to the house of the bride’s parents and in a grand processional march lead his bride back to his home. There they would begin to live together as husband and wife and consummate their marriage physically. [5]

Mary was “found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.”

        Jesus was the Son of God and the son of man.

      Born of God, born of a woman

      He was no ordinary human being, he was not only human, but he was God

      We will see this key fact regarding who Jesus was, brought out again later in our passage

JOSEPH

 “Son of David”

      Genealogy of Jesus through Joseph already been given

Matthew 1:1

      Harper’s Commentary:

The opening words, literally “The Book of the Genesis of Jesus Christ,” could suitably cover not only the genealogy or the birth narrative but the whole of 1:1-4:16. This section shows how Jesus appeared in history[7]

      R.T France adds;

To us, a genealogy may seem a very tedious way to begin a book, and a waste of space.  To the Jewish world in which Matthew belonged it was a matter of importance, as a glance at the numerous genealogies of the Old Testament makes clear. …The way he presents his genealogy shows that it introduces several important strands into his presentation of Jesus as the Messiah. 1. It places Jesus fully in line with the history of Israel, as one famous name after another reminds the reader of the forward movement of God’s saving purpose.  2. By organizing that history into a regular scheme of three groups of fourteen generations, it indicates that the time of preparation is now complete, and that in Jesus the time of fulfilment has arrived.[8]

  WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF JESUS BEING "THE SON OF ABRAHAM?"

      Abraham’s seed; fulfil the covenant of grace and blessing given to Abraham;

  That through him all the nations will be blessed (Gen 12:3)

GALATIANS 3:6-25

      So Jesus is THE SON OF ABRAHAM

  The one born to bring blessing to all people, the one who justifies, the one forgives our sins, not through our own efforts but through our faith in what he came and did for us, because we were unable to save ourselves.

  We see this meaning clearly in v.21

  Come back to that in a minute…

 WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF JESUS BEING THE SON OF DAVID?

      Jesus is the one prophesied to sit on the throne of David

  To be the ultimate King in the ultimate Kingdom

  To lead his people in the ultimate Exodus, rescue and redemption

  To lead them to be his people, and for him to be their God

  To lead them into the true Promised land

  Harpers Commentary tells us:

Matthew constructed this genealogy out of traditional materials to serve a Christological purpose indicated by the opening words “son of David, son of Abraham” (v. 1). Jesus emerges from Israel and fulfills the ot promise of a messianic king. The neat pattern of the genealogy (three groups of fourteen ancestors each) indicates God’s carefully planned execution of his purpose[9]

      R.T France adds;

By tracing Jesus’ descent through the royal line of Judah, it stakes his claim to the title ‘King of the Jews”.  …It establishes his status as son of David.[10]

Back to Jesus parents, Mary and Joseph;

        Harpers Commentary;

The situation here is that Mary has become pregnant between her betrothal and the consummation of the marriage, with the apparent suggestion of illegitimacy. In this case, the angel also serves the further purpose of inducing Joseph to adopt Jesus as his son, so that the child becomes a son of David. To the ancient world there would be no inconsistency here, for adoption provided one with ancestors as assuredly as did biological descent. [11]

        Of course the point being made here is that God is the Father of the child.  The child has been conceived by the Holy Spirit.

JESUS

        Jesus = Joshua, God is salvation, or God rescues

        V 21 Save people from sins

      We have seen who Jesus was, and will do so again

      Here we see why he came, the purpose of his coming

  The importance of his birth of which we are reading the circumstances of

      This history of mankind up to this time has been one of sin and failure

  Adam and Eve, Cain, the flood, and the nation of Israel (of whose history we have been reminded in the genealogy of Jesus in the preceding genealogy.

IMMANUEL

        God had told his people that the birth of this baby would be a sign that God would rescue his people.

      There had been a child born to a young woman back in Isaiah’s time as a sign of God’s promise then

        The birth of Jesus, born of a virgin is the ultimate sign to man, that God was about to rescue his people.

      He is not just with us in power and spirit, but is present with us in physical, human presence.

  Right with us.

        Wayne Grudem writes;

It is by far the most amazing miracle of the entire Bible…. The fact that the infinite, omnipotent, eternal Son of God could become man and join himself to a human nature …. Will remain for eternity the most profound miracle and the most profound mystery in all the universe. [12]

        The birth of Jesus then is a sign, an assurance of that God will do as he has always promised.

      That he would save his people

      Through Jesus God came to be with us, and is with us in our new life, and will be with us for all eternity.

        This is the true message of Christmas, of the birth of Jesus Christ to Mary and Joseph.

      God enters into our world, our lives, and becomes one of us in order to save us

      He becomes one of the nation that God had been specially working with.

  That nation that had been given all sorts of promises and opportunities to have a relationship with God and receive his many blessings.

  That nation that had so tragically and repeatedly rejected him, and gone their own way

      And here is God, come to rescue them once again, this time, once and for all

  And God has come, not as they expected, as a conquering King on a white horse to overthrow the might of Rome

    He has come as a vulnerable, weak and tiny baby, born not in a palace but in a manger, not of royalty but of humble, godfearing parents.

    Come to be once more rejected by his people, in fact to be crucified and a criminal, as a blasphemer.

  And through such love and sacrifice, this baby would fulfil his God given purpose, and save his people from their sins

  And he would be raised to be their eternal High Priest, and will return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, to judge and rule and be our God, and live with us as his people forever.

Jesus Born

        We see here the obedience and humility of Joseph

      Took Mary home and took care of her

      Then as they had been told, Jesus, the son of Abraham, the son of David, Immanuel, was born