Christmas Sermon

Pre Intro:

Whats up guys!! Christmas is coming around the corner, show of hands who is excited for Christmas? I know I am excited which is why tonight we will be looking at the birth of Jesus.

Transition Sentence:

So Go ahead and make your way to Matthew chapter 1 starting in verse 18

Matthew 1:18–25 “The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. So her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly. But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.” When Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her but did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to a son. And he named him Jesus.”

Introduction:

I love Christmas music, it seriously might be my favorite type of music, so much so that ever since before thanksgiving, I have barely listened to anything except Christmas music. But in my time of listening to Christmas music, I have noticed that the way these songs portray christmas, is not the true meaning of christmas. So lets look at a few songs, first up “

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas: “A pair of Hopalong boots and a pistol that shoots Is the wish of Barney and Ben Dolls that'll talk and will go for a walk Is the hope of Janice and Jen And Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again”

Next we got a blue christmas by elvis “I'll have a blue Christmas without you I'll be so blue just thinking about you”

And last but not least Mistletoe by justin beiber “I don't wanna miss out on the holiday But I can't stop staring at your face I should be playing in the winter snow But I'ma be under the mistletoe

With you, shawty, with you With you, shawty, with you”

But what are these songs, and christmas music in general teaching us? That Christmas is about celebrating each other and celebrating us, spreading the christmas cheer and loving each other for who they are and loving ourselves for who we are. But thats not what the Bible teaches, the Bibles reason for the season is that we are such a mess, so sinful, so incapable of doing the right thing, and alienated from God, but the worst part is, is that we are completely fine with living separate from God. But God was not fine with living separate from us, so much so that he sent the best he had to offer, his Son Jesus, to live a life we couldn’t live, die a death we should’ve died, to redeem us.

Transition Sentence:

Which is why the main idea of our text today is that…..

Main Idea: God Loved you enough to send his best

Interrogative: How do we know that God sent his best?

DS 1

The first thing we see in this passage is that Gods Sent his Son

Matthew 1:18–19 “The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. So her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.”

My version says that Mary was engaged, some versions say betrothed, these are somewhat similar, a betrothal was really an engagement that carried some legal weight with it.

Regardless, Joseph and Mary, their celebrity couple name being Jary, were close, close enough to be planning a life together, but this put it in jepoardy.

Joseph doing the respectable thing, is adamant about breaking off the betrothal, but doing so in a way not to publicly shame Mary

But in verse 20 we see that God intervenes:“But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”

Now this is a hard concept to grasp, “virgin birth” seems like a contradiction right? Well for God it’s not, it’s a paradox for sure, but the Bible is full of Paradoxes, for example “Strength through weaknesses” or “ when you lose your life you will find it” so the virgin birth isn’t a contradiction, rather a supernatural paradox.

But I don’t want to harp on the virgin birth as much as I want to focus on the result of it. God in human form, I mean think about how insane that actually is. I think, thanks to tebow, John 3:16 is so ingrained in our mind that we are numb to it’s absurdity. John 3:16 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” But lets just stop at this, for God so loved the world, he sent his son.

It’s insane that we just glance over this, that Jesus, the second person of the divine trinity, actually emptied himself of Glory to come down to earth, and not even to be wealthy but being born in a manger, which if you didn’t know, is a feeding trough for cows. He did this fulfill a mission, and that mission was to redeem, restore, and reestablish a relationship with you

But not only did God send his son, but his son was the gift that we needed

DS 2

God Sent a Gift That We Need

Matthew 1:21 “She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.””

Who here has seen the movie, A Christmas Story? For those who have not seen the movie, the movie centers around this little boy Ralphie Parker, and Ralphie is this Goofy little kid, but what the whole movie is about, the driving narrative is that all that Ralphie wants for Christmas, is a red ryder BB gun. And this kid is persistent in trying to convince everyone, His parents, his teacher, santa, that a red ryder bb gun is the perfect gift, and that all he needs is a red ryder

And many of us can fall into this pattern, that we believe that Christmas would be perfect, if we could just have x y and z. That Christmas would be perfect if we could just unwrap a certain gift under the tree, or Christmas would be perfect if I were in that relationship, or Christmas would be perfect… If my family would just get along with each other this year, or even that Christmas would be perfect, if that loved one didn’t pass away. Or the one I struggle with the most, is that Christmas would be perfect if my aunt would just make that Triple Chocolate cake that she makes every Christmas.

But Christmas is not about what we can potentially receive, but rather, what we have already received. And once you realize that, you go from being discontent with your circumstances to being Joyful despite your circumstances. Once you realize that your greatest need has been met.

Now there’s the type of gift that makes you have to admit something about yourself, for example…. if you get…. a pack of deodorant for christmas, that can only mean one thing… YOU STANK.

God sending us a savior….get this…. means we need to be saved. Which also means, you can’t save yourself.

But guys you must recognize that in order to be saved, and in order to understand the meaning of Christmas.

The Jews believed that their greatest need was to be freed from the captivity of Rome, but if that was the case, God would’ve sent a soldier. And thats why many doubted that Jesus was the messiah. But the Jews Greatest need wasn’t freedom from Rome, rather freedom from sin, and so is ours. Which is why God sent us his Son, a savior, because we desperately needed saving.

DS 3

God sending his son to save us wasn’t plan B, it was his plan from the beginning which he worked towards over time, which is why we see in Verses 22-25 that…

God sent a Gift that was planned

Matthew 1:22–25 “Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.” When Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her but did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to a son. And he named him Jesus.”

The Story of Christmas serves as a reminder that God keeps his promises!

That God, despite mans shortcomings, despite men rebelling against God and rejecting God, continously worked throughout history to send his son to save a world that rejected him.

That all the way back in Genesis 3:15 God promised a messiah, and since then even though all men violated his law daily, even though men rejected him, blasphemed against him, done many evil in his name and turned their backs on him, he still fulfilled his promise.

Even with the foreknowledge of how we would rebel against him today, God still kept his promise of a savior despite our every day rebellion.

This is what makes Christmas, Christmas, and what makes Christmas way better than Santa, presents under the tree, Hot Coco and Michael Buble.

Conclusion

Now you might’ve not seen the previous movie I mentioned, A christmas story, but I know you have seen the movie elf. And in Elf, it is revealed to buddy that he is not an elf, but instead he is a human, and they reveal his true dad to be walter hobbs, but there is a problem, Buddys Dad is on the naughty list, so Buddy leaves where he grew up, the north pole, and he travels all the way to nyc, to tell this one guy that he is on the naughty list, and to also rebuild this relationship that his Dad broke.

Tie into Gospel presentation