What Child is This? 1

Intro

How many of ya’ll are excited about Christmas

What is your favorite part about it

If you didn’t notice Christmas is coming up soon

And that being said it was one of the biggest times of the year that people decide to come to church

Is right around Christmas time

In fact I was looking at some stats and I saw that in America on average churches see at 30%-40% attendance increase around Christmas time

In case you didn’t know the real reason that we celebrate Christmas is not because of Santa clause but Why?

right we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior

And if you didn’t know that is where the name CHRISTmas comes from

So for the next few weeks we are going to be diving into the Christmas story talking about the Birth of Jesus

And the title that we are going to have is “What Child is this”

And the reason why I wanted to do this:

is because in so much imagery for Christmas we get a baby in a manger

Or its this cute little scene

but the path that Mary, Joesph and Mary had to go through for Jesus to be born was anything but this cute beautiful picture scene

And so my hope for us throughout this series is to see that this is more than just a child, but it is our Lord and savior Jesus Christ

And so to get us started I am going to read our scripture that we are going to be talking about, and then we will get things started

Matthew 1:18–25 “This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’ ” When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife.

Today I want to give us 4 points. and all 4 of these points about who Jesus, and makes “This child just so amazing”

1. Jesus was born through the Ordinary

Matthew 1:18 “This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Who can tell me what is the same about all of these pictures?

Right they are all kings

Black Panther - King TaChalla from Wakanda

Bowser - King Koopa

Mufasa - King of Pride Rock

Aragorn - King of Gondor

Right so we have all of these examples of Kings in our Pop culture

We when we think about them there are so many scenes where they look so magnificent

People bowing to them

A throne

They get a crown

And in most cases of they got their thrown because the father was king

Or at the very least their lives are full of riches and royality

I bring all of this up because Jesus was born and raised by two ordinary people

We don’t get a ton of biblical background on Mary and Joesph

But that being said It seemed as though they both came from very normal families

Interesting enough the name Mary literally means “Strong-willed”

Joesph was a carpenter, which is where we get Jesus being a carpenter

His name means “May the Lord add”

However when we look at the history of their families, and even themselves we don’t see anything fancy or Royal from them

We know that they are decedents from the line of King David

But we have no evidence of living with all the kingly things that we think of

I bring all this up to say:

God chose the two most ordinary people out there for his greatest miracle of all time

God could have chosen anybody for his son to be born through

In fact he could have even just sent him down from Heaven, but he didn’t

Hear is what I want you to hear

God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things

If you look at so many people in the Bible

God chose some of the most average people to do some of the most amazing things.

Even Jesus first disciples I talked about this last week, but they were fisherman

Back then that was like a basic job

Thats like today working at the mall or in retail

I bring this up, because I think so many times gloss over Mary and Joesphs perspective

It wasn’t in the main text, but it is in Luke chapter 1

“the angel comes to Mary and tells her that she is going to give birth to the messiah”

And you have to wonder. Was there ever a point that they felt unqualified?

I think about even now there are times in Henrys life that I feel unqualified

Imagine being told you are going to give birth to the Son of God,

But not just birth him, but raise him and take care of him as your son

This whole story reminds us to be encouraged in our walk with God

Because the greatest miracle in human history happened from people like you and I

2. Jesus works powerfully in uncertainty

Matthew 1:19–20 “Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.”

I remember there was one time I was headed home from a friends house and my phone was completely dead

I didn’t have a phone charger in my car

Just started driving around, eventually found a gas station

Got a phone charger waited for my phone to reboot and then I was good to go

I had this moment where I realized that I was stuck with uncertainty

The way I thought things were going to go, didn’t happen

And when it came to my situation I had no power

Literally and figurativley

AND I TELL THE STORY BECAUSE

In our scripture we see that Joesph finds out that Mary is pregnant

And so he has this “What the heck moment” where is starts to feel uncertainty

In his brain he is thinking well we aren’t married so that can’t be my baby

So he is thinking that Mary must have cheated on him

“Wait how did she get pregnant”

“Did she really cheat on me”

In fact he starts to feel so uncertain it says that he planned to break off their engagement

But what happens instead:

Verse 20 “ Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. The the child within in her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit”

Here is what I want you to hear

God can turn uncertainty into Holy opportunity

Just like me at this gas station right

I am driving around uncertain that I am ever going to understand the correct way to go

Then all of a sudden The Lord gave me an opportunity

Joesph found himself in an uncertain situation

The Lord blessed him with an opprotunity

And not just opportunity to get a flipping phone charger at gas station.

but the opportunity to partake in the greatest miracle of all time

God was there in the midst of Joesph uncertainty

It also says in our scripture that “As he considered this”

And it Turned into an opportunity for God to do something really amazing.

3. Jesus means that God is with us

Matthew 1:21–23 “And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’ 

As the angel of the Lord speaks to Joesph he makes it clear to Joesph that he can have confidence in this situation

But the best part is what comes after

The Angel says: “And you will call him Immanuel, which means God is with us”

There is a reason why I keep referring to Jesus being born as the greatest miracle of all time

When Jesus was born it created a opportunity for humanity to reconnect their relationship with the Lord

Not only that but when we look at history we can see that this was his plan the entire time

If you also notice in the verse he says: “ All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet”

I don’t know if you guys realize that, but what Matthew is referring to as he writes

Is found the book of Isaiah 7:14

which was written about 800 years before the book of Matthew was written

God kept his promise for 800 years and brought to us for eternity

Why bring this up?

Have you guys ever had a time when you had waited a super long time in anticipation for something?

The Last day of school

Family vacation

Christmas morning

In those moments how did you feel?

were you so excited you thought about constantly?

did it feel like it was so far away you didn’t want to wait anymore?

Here is what I want you to hear

Because we know that God is with us, we can live in anticipation

If you think about it Mary and Joesph are both living in exact anticipation for this moment

800 years ago Isiah prophesied about a savior who was going to come

So not only were Mary and Joesph waiting for this moment they get to now be apart of it

4. Jesus is worth taking action

Matthew 1:24“When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife”

Have ya’ll ever seen the videos of little kids playing t-ball and they don’t really know how the rules work?

One of the biggest things that I always see is all the effort to hit the ball, and they do, but don’t run

Y'all ever seen those?

All the parents are in the stands cheering, so excited, but the kid will just stand there and not move

Why am I saying all of this?

In our scripture it says that as soon as Joesph woke up he just as the angel had said.

In that moment he didn’t wait

It didn’t say Joseph sat on it for a few days

It didn’t say Joseph first asked one of his homies

No Joseph said “I am going to take action for God”

“I know what is right”

“I know what God is telling me to do. I am going to follow his word”

I say all of this because

Jesus wants you to live for him now not later

As I already shared with all of you at the beginning of this message

There is a hug influx people that are coming to church at Christmas time

However for those people that teeter on whether or not they want to come to church for the rest of the year

Jesus wants them Now not later

Christmas, Jesus birth, celebrating him being alive.

They think “This is just a holiday thing”

I think sometimes we get into this seasonal mindset of

“Oh Christmas again time to remember Jesus”

“But once we take the tree down at our house its over”

“Or once we take the nativity scene down its over”

Here is the thing

Christmas is seasonal CHRIST is not

This is where I want to end us today

STAND UP

And this is going to really be out your comfort zone for many of you and that’s okay

But I have a question

Be honest with yourself

If you are in this room, and Jesus has alway felt like Just a Christmas thing for you, and you want to change that today. Raise your hand

If you want to make that descion today raise your hand in this room

PRAY OVER THEM