Supernatural Providence: God Preserves

What is the gospel? How does baby Jesus fit into that gospel? If I asked you to tell me the gospel message, could you? Could you do it without including yourself?

Intro

What is the gospel? Many of us grew up with testimonies, or with encouragement to share the gospel by using our own stories.

This isn’t necessarily bad, but over time it has led us to think that the gospel was more about me, than about Jesus

The World: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Blogging, etc . . .

Illus: “Because everyone has the right to drive a safe and reliable car”

Burger King: “Have it your way.”

Commercialism and advertising, politics,

We live in a world where rights and privileges are flipped and confused

This is because we have made all things about us, and God is often secondary or non existent

When we read this passage we begin with things like:

Why put Joseph and Mary through such difficult times?

Why would God allow Herod to kill all of those innocent children?

Why ?

Illus:

Sin: We make too much of ourselves in the redemptive historical plan of God

We are asking the wrong questions, and seeking to understand God

And the outcome is that the gospel message by many of us in the church has been lost, or twisted with my own self being inserted.

Drama

Redemptive Historical plan of God: God’s plan of redeeming His people throughout a real history

We can look at Scripture and see where God intervened in His sovereignty to bring about his plan for mankind

Joseph again visited by an angel

Go to Israel

Generic location

Then warned to stay away from Judea

Specific location

This is the region in which Archelaus ruled

Jerusalem/Bethlehem were there.

Next to the dead sea in the south

So they traveled on the outskirts along the mediterranean sea and north of Jerusalem to Galilee

Specifically: Nazareth

To fulfill Scripture

Nazarene does not mean anything ethnic

It is an allusion to who Jesus is

Hebrew Nazar

“Holy and Devoted to God”

“Separated”

But, where do the Prophets reference Christ being a Nazarite?

Judges 13:5 ESV

for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”

This passage refers directly to Sampson

Sampson would be a redeemer of Israel, yet an imperfect one

Jesus would be the redeemer of Israel and a perfect one

Sampson was a type, Calvin calls an “antitype” of Christ

So, when Scriptures speaks directly of human beings in God’s R-H plan, often those roles and offices point to something greater, Christ

Illus: Prototype

Usually imperfect and does not even work

A model of the real thing that would come after it

We also know this is where Jesus would begin his ministry later

His first miracle was to turn water in to wine at Cana, just north of Nazareth

So, we see in this short passage a wonderful fulfillment of Scripture that shows us Jesus and His role on God’s stage

History is a stage, God’s stage, and Jesus is the main character

Illus: Another example of Scripture pointing to Christ is the story of Ruth and Boaz

News flash: It isn’t about you

Illus: World -

facebook - about me

Selfies - about me

The gospel is about Jesus. This passage is about Jesus.

Doctrine

This is God’s Story and not ours

We are to recognize

that we are sinners

We are sinners in need of salvation from sin

Total Depravity - Unless God intervenes on our behalf we will surely die

Physical and Spiritual death

That this plan and the way it works is up to God

The creator/creature distinction

God works how he wishes

Directs Jospeh in order to save the life of Jesus

He could have killed Herod and his son

He could have done a number of other things

He allowed Jesus to be born in a hostile world

This is to represent the Depravity of man

This is God’s story about Jesus

God works supernaturally and naturally to keep Jesus alive

He does so for salvation

Jesus is the main character on the stage of Redemption

Christmas is about Jesus

He works throughout all of history in a cohesive way

Angels coordinate movement with Joseph

All of heaven and earth were engaged in preserving the life of Jesus

Why?

This is God’s Story about Grace

God’s grace towards us

While we were sinners he still loved us

He preserved Jesus to fulfill the requirements of the covenant we could not

He did so to show grace and mercy to a word full of his enemies

Doxology

Narcissus

In Greek mythology, Narcissus (/nɑːrˈsɪsəs/; Greek: Νάρκισσος, Nárkissos) was a hunter from Thespiae in Boeotia who was known for his beauty. He was the son of the river god Cephissus and nymph Liriope.[1] He was proud, in that he disdained those who loved him. Nemesis noticed this behavior and attracted Narcissus to a pool, where he saw his own reflection in the water and fell in love with it, not realizing it was merely an image. Unable to leave the beauty of his reflection, Narcissus lost his will to live. He stared at his reflection until he died. Narcissus is the origin of the term narcissism, a fixation with oneself and one's physical appearance or public perception.

Re-orientation: The gospel needs to start with Jesus and then it will make sense. If not, we are like Narcissus: looking only at ourselves, falling in love with ourselves and hating anyone who loves us.

James says this in

James 1:23 ESV

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.

Calvin calls the law of God a mirror, where we see our sinful reflection and then look to Christ for salvation

It cannot start with us. Let us thank God the gospel isn’t about us.

God preserved Jesus because he is the center of the gospel message

We need to remember that the gospel is about Jesus Christ

It is a message about God’s grace extended through Jesus

Once this is the core, then we can insert ourselves and it begins to make sense and is biblical

God preservedJesus through natural and supernatural ways

He did so for His glory, and we do benefit from this, but we are merely in the audience not on stage

Let’s us re-orient ourselves and make Christmas about Jesus

Let us take ourselves out of the story and put him back in the center, where He truly is

Christmas isn’t about you, Worship isn’t about you, Church isn’t about you, outreach isn’t about you, etc . . . .

What is the gospel? It is the message, good news, about Jesus Christ and what God did through him to redeem a people and world unto himself.

Let us Praise God that it isn’t about us. Let us place Christ as the center of the gospel message again, and let us share that story with the world.

By this, we bring praise and honor and glory to His name!