Sermon Tone Analysis

*Supernatural Christmas.*

A week from today, next time we meet together, Christmas will be all over.

So I thought that it would be appropriate at this time to have a look at the Christmas story.

Someone once remarked about the book of Acts, that if you remove the supernatural from the book of Acts you have very little left.

The same is true of the Christmas story.

We are all wired differently, and unfortunately I tend to be of analytical nature.

So, indulge me, and let us analyse together this story we know so well.

Of course the story starts, not with the birth of Jesus but with the birth of John, in Luke 1:5.

•        *An angel appeared to Zacharias [Luke 1:11-20]* *[P]* You all know the story, the old childless priest was taking his turn to minister in the temple.

There he was offering incense at the golden altar in front of the Holy of holies when an angel appears to him!

That is not normal!

Not usual!

It is a supernatural event!

God at work!

•        * Prophecy that Elizabeth would have a son [Luke 1:13-17]* *[P]* The angel brought a message from יְהוָה Himself – he foretold that Zacharias and his wife, Elizabeth, would have a son and he told about the life the boy would live and his significance.

Information directly from God, a future that could not be predicted naturally.

It was supernatural!

•        * Zacharias struck dumb [Luke 1:20-22] [P]* Well, Zacharias, understandably, had a bit of trouble believing this announcement – he and his wife were old, well beyond child-bearing age, and furthermore his wife had never been able to have children.

He questioned the angel, and for his unbelief he was struck dumb.

When he went into the temple he could talk, when he came out he could not – it was supernatural, an act of God!

•        * Barren Elizabeth becomes pregnant [Luke 1:24-25] [P]* But what the angel, what God, said was true.

Elizabeth did become pregnant.

It was a miracle!

Totally supernatural.

There we have the first 20 verses of the story, and 14 of them have a supernatural element (70%).

Let us move on.

•        *An angel appears to Miriam [Luke 1:26-29] [P]* The scene shifts from Judea in the south, north to Galilee, to the town of Nazareth.

There the same angel that appeared to Zacharias appears to a girl named Miriam.

Sent from God! Totally supernatural!

•        * Prophecy, Miriam would bear the Son of God [Luke 1:30-37] [P]* Gabriel tells Miriam some absolutely startling things.

Again he announces that a child would be born.

But this time that the child would be born without sexual contact with a man, that the child would be the Son of the Most High God, that He would be king forever!

Absolutely startling mind-blowing!

But true!

That he prophesied, spoke from God, was supernatural, but the things that he announced were the most astounding conceivable – in fact they are inconceivable!

What was going to happen was absolutely and completely SUPERNATURAL!

•        * Unborn John recognizes Miriam [Luke 1:41,44] [P]* Gabriel had told Miriam that her relative was miraculously pregnant and Miriam went to visit her down in Judea.

As soon as Miriam walked in the door, the unborn baby inside Elizabeth leapt for joy.

How does an unseeing baby inside its mother know that someone else is in the room, know that person is pregnant; knows that baby is the Messiah?! I don’t know what an unborn child knows, but I know that one is just born knows precious little.

All they know is that they are hungry, tired, wet, in pain, loved – that’s about it.

Yet unborn John recognized the mother of his LORD!

Totally supernatural!

•        * Elizabeth prophesies [Luke 1:42-45] [P]/ /*Supernatural revelation first came to the unborn baby, then it came to his mother.

Elizabeth prophesied.

The Holy Spirit came upon her and she spoke – not words that she thought up, but words from God Himself!

An impartation from heaven to man! Totally supernatural!

Miriam was barely pregnant – nothing showed yet – but Elizabeth knew that she was pregnant with her LORD!

Going to give birth to Him! Astounding!

What human mind would have ever known or even conceived that, apart from revelation by the Holy Spirit?!

•        * Miriam prophesies [Luke 1:46-55] [P]* Indeed the Spirit of God was at work – in unborn John, in Elizabeth, then in Miriam herself.

She too spoke – a totally amazing prophecy (I wish we had time to look at it more closely).

Not words that she thought up, but that were spoke through the Holy Spirit; prophecy, the word of יְהוָה Himself!

Completely supernatural!

•        * John is born [Luke 1:57,58] [P]* Then Elizabeth gave birth to John – she was barren, couldn’t have children, she was post-menopausal, it was impossible!

But not to God!

It was God’s doing!

It was completely supernatural!

Even the name given to the baby was supernatural – given by revelation, from God, not what they had thought up.

•        * Zacharias speaks [Luke 1:64] [P]* So unexpected was the name, that the relatives questioned it; Zacharias confirmed it in writing – remember, he had been struck dumb.

Immediately that he did so, his mouth was opened and he could speak!

He praised God!

A miracle!

He was mute, dumb, incapable of speaking, then suddenly he could speak!

It was supernatural!

•        * Zacharias prophesies [Luke 1:67-79] [P]* Having the power of speech, Zacharias made up for lost time and spoke a great utterance.

But it was not his words – he was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied!

Words directly from God Himself!

Again there is amazing insight and revelation in these words.

They are indisputably from God and not from human origin.

It is totally supernatural!

I think you may be getting the point!

We have covered 75 verses from the first chapter of Luke – at least 12 supernatural events.

Out of those 75 verses 57 contain supernatural occurrences (76%).

If you remove the supernatural, you are not left with much!

In chapter two of Luke we move to the account of Jesus’ birth – but before we do let’s pick up some things from Matthew’s account not mentioned by Luke.

•*Miriam conceived by the Holy Spirit [Matthew 1:18, 23, 25] [P]* Just as Gabriel prophesied, Miriam did become pregnant, but she had never had any sexual relations with a man, it was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Now, various women have claimed virgin conception, but it only ever happened once.

A virgin birth!

It does not happen!

It is impossible.

But God does the impossible!

Hallelujah!

It is a miracle totally supernatural!

•*Angel appeared to Joseph in a dream [Matthew 1:19] [P]* Well, you can imagine that her fiancé found this hard to swallow.

His conclusion, naturally enough, was that the one that he thought was pure and devoted to him; was, in fact, not so.

He was going to break the engagement but an angel appeared to him in a dream, explaining what had actually happened.

Again, it is supernatural!

It does not happen just because you ate cheese before you went to bed!

•*Angel prophesied concerning Jesus [Matthew 1:20, 21] [P]* The angel explained what had taken place, that Miriam had not been unfaithful, and prophesied concerning the child that would be born.

Told his Name and His mission.

It is revelation from God! Supernatural!

These things are not known by the natural mind.

•*Prophecy fulfilled [Matthew 1:22, 23] [P]* What God said, what was prophesied in Isaiah 7:14 was fulfilled, a virgin became pregnant.

The Scripture came to pass.

What God said so long ago would happen, happened.

God did what He said He would.

It was God’s doing.

You cannot make prophecy come true.

It is God’s doing and it is supernatural – both the prophecy and its fulfillment

•*Virgin birth [Luke 2:6, 7] [P]* Now let’s return to Luke, chapter two.