The Wonder of Christmas

Hey guys its good to see everyone here tonight. It is such a blessing to be able to stand and preach when last week I was unable to do so. A couple of weeks ago I went to carry Grace to gymnastics practice, this is no new thing I carry her all the time but this time was different. Due to schedule changes and different things I have taken on other nights of the week I haven’t been able to take her in quite some time.

Well a couple of weeks ago I was bent I was going to go and watch her and see her progress, as I went upstairs to take my seat everything looked normal the girls were stretching and going through the same routine as normal. But as they began their practice it amazed me to watch as grace was doing things that she had no idea how to do just a few weeks before.

She was on the high bars and was very much more coordinated on the balance beam, she was doing some flips and the coach was even using her as an example. I was a proud dad watching her and seeing how she had progressed. The practice ended and as soon as Grace came out I began telling her how proud I was of her.

I began to list out the things she did and tell her how impressed I was and she informed me with a smile that they always do this. You see from her perspective she does this multiple times a week and for me it was all brand new and exciting. She was happy i was excited and that made her smile.

But it made me think this is no new thing to her and she doesn’t realize that everyone cannot do the things she is doing. For her this is all commonplace, for me this was amazing. It’s all about perspective isn’t it?

Every single one of us have heard the Christmas story so often that it seems so commonplace. It is not something new and exciting anymore at all is it? Sure we enjoy it but in the same way Grace had lost the excitement of the things she was doing in the routine of it all, we can in the routine of church life, of our traditions and habit lose the wonder of Christmas.

So tonight I would like to speak to you on this subject: Rediscovering the Wonder of Christmas

Were going to do this tonight by looking at the gospel of Luke among other passages. So turn with me in your Bibles to the gospel according to Luke.

Luke chapter 1

Before we dive in, let’s place the gospel in a nutshell, the gospel is this God became a man and dwelled among us. Let’s slow down and lets think logically GOD BECAME A MAN, let that one sentance marinate for a minute. Is there anything more outlandish, anything more difficult to fathom than GOD a perfect divine holy righteous creator of all things, putting on flesh and being born as a baby.

I mean this seems insane.

I mean if I were to walk in here tonight and tell you that Donald Trump desires to have a relationship with you, and he disguised himself as somebody in the room, that he so wanted to simply know you and be known by you that he evaded his security detail and somehow boarded a plane and came from Washington DC all because he wanted to a relationship with you....

You would think I am insane

But why does this seem so outlandish but when I say God decided all because He wanted a relationship with you to go into a womb and be birthed as a human. To leave Heaven and come down here enter into a womb, be birthed from that womb be breastfed by a young teenage mother.

Why does this seem to sound any less outlandish than the analogy I just used?

Is it really more farfetched in our minds that Donald Trump would do all of that to see us, than it is to think that creator God who had everything who is never hungry because He is satisfied who is not tired and never grows weary that he chose to come and be born and chose to be hungry, he chose to be tired?

Have you ever thought about it this way?

It doesn’t sound that farfetched to us because we know who God is, and we understand His plan for redemption. But i think sometimes we educate ourselves to ignorance, or at least to the point where we forget the magnitude of what Christmas is all about.

So tonight lets look at some things that can spark the wonder of Christmas once again.

The Historical Evidence it Happened

2 Peter 1:16 ESV

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

So right off the bat the apostle Peter tells us that the stories about the life and miracles of Jesus and His birth and His resurrection, that these weren’t just stories or fables made up but that there were many eyewitnesses to His glory.

That this notion of the man who was god in the flesh Jesus Christ was real and these men saw it with their own eyes. Which was exactly the purpose for which a local physician decided to take his attention to detail and write down his account of the life and ministry of Jesus and send it to others.

Let’s learn a little bit about Luke He was known as a physician, which means he was probably the most learned man in the entire 12. He cared for the physical needs of those in the community. As a learned man, as a man of biology, someone who studied the human body nothing would have been further from logical than to proclaim that there was a man who was God and that he died a literal death but then rose again from the grave.

doctors are all about facts, they don’t muttle with fairy tales. So what compelled Luke to give his account of Jesus’ life? He saw it with his own eyes, and the evidence was so compelling, so overwhelming that He had to write it down. Luke waited until the other authors had written their accounts down, and Luke comes in and says hey they did a good job but they left some details out that I felt needed to be included.

Listen to how Luke the physician describes the reason for his writing of this gospel.

Luke 1:1–4 HCSB

Many have undertaken to compile a narrative about the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as the original eyewitnesses and servants of the word handed them down to us. It also seemed good to me, since I have carefully investigated everything from the very first, to write to you in an orderly sequence, most honorable Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things about which you have been instructed.

Luke 1:

Luke 1:1 ESV

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us,

Luke 1:

Others, many others have wrote already about the things which were accomplished, they happened among us.

Luke 1:2 ESV

just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us,

Luke 1:3 HCSB

It also seemed good to me, since I have carefully investigated everything from the very first, to write to you in an orderly sequence, most honorable Theophilus,

Luke 1:4 ESV

that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

He says I am writing these things to you because i witnessed it, others have passed it down but I have carefully investigated them and I can assure you these things were true.

Luke says He wants his readers to be certain of the things which have been passed down. He uses his credibility as a man of knowledge and science to give credence to his writing. He says allow me to give you evidence to the fact that this man Jesus of Nazareth was in fact the Son of God..

Exhibit A: God Interrupted History

Luke 1:

Luke 1:26 HCSB

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,

We see here that He uses a time marker IN THE 6th month! Basically to his audience what He was showing is this, listen I have investigated and if you look at your calendars this is when it all began. In the 6th month… in the 6th month of what exactly well in the context he is saying that god stepped into human history when Elizabeth was 6 months pregnant with JTB.

Now listen to THE ANGEL GABRIEL was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth. the other accounts of the foretelling of the birth of our Lord simply say “an angel of the Lord” Luke is showing us that He has researched this thing so completely that he even knows who the angel was that came, according to eyewitnesses.

the angel Gabriel was sent by God.

Notice this and this should really stir something on the inside of you, SENT BY GOD When God looked down and saw you and me and the fact that there would be no hope for our souls unless someone intervened HE TOOK THE INITIATIVE! He dispatched Gabriel one of His most powerful angels.

We know this because there are only two angels called by name in the Bible Gabriel and Michael.

It was Gabriel who showed up to Daniel

Daniel 8:16 ESV

And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of the Ulai, and it called, “Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.”

Daniel

Daniel 9:21 ESV

while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice.

Daniel 9:2

Daniel

Daniel 10:5 ESV

I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist.

Daniel 7:16 ESV

I approached one of those who stood there and asked him the truth concerning all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of the things.

Daniel

We can know some things about the ministry of Gabriel by the things He did, His ministry seems to be a ministry of mercy and promise. He speaks of things that will come to pass He discloses and makes clear the dreams and visions that Daniel has.

Now He comes on the scene speaking of the fulfillment of the promise of God.

Luke 1:27 ESV

to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.

He obvioulsy knows the lineage of the family, which took research and also time, to sort things out in order for anyone who read to understand.

Luke 1:

Luke 1:28 ESV

And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”

The Bible records that he comes with a freindly greeting, now i dont know about you but isn’t it nice to know that the God of all of Heaven came down to earth but that when He sent word that He was sending His Son it was a friendly greeting!

But notice Mary’s reaction:

Luke 1:29 ESV

But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

Mary this poor peasant girl who was betrothed to be married, is greatly troubled and we dont really know why that is.

Now I have said in the past and have always thought that she was greatly troubles because she was looking at an angel, but that is not what it says.

IT SAID she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

So she wasnt frightened by the angel she was frightened by the saying. But why would she be frightened by the saying?

It was friendly....

But it seems that she was so humble in spirit that she couldn’t fathom why someone would have called her favoured one.

So the angel who could obviously tell she was troubled and confused, reassured her once again.

Luke 1:

Luke 1:30 ESV

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

The name Mary and its signifigance

Obviously we know the girls name was Mary, but it is interesting the meaning of the name. Mary is literally Miriam in the Hebrew language.

Study the Bible for yourself and you will see that names had meaning behind them, especially in the Hebrew culture.

Mary or miriam means= bitter-rebellious.

Thats what the name means. We dont have anything scriptural to understand why she was given this name.

But isnt it interesting that the one God chose to send His only son through would be known as bitter and rebellious?

Especially when we consider why Jesus came and that is to take all we who like sheep had gone astray… we rebelled against god and now He chooses someone with the name bitter and rebellious to reconcile bitter and rebellious people back to Himself.

Could it be that this was a character trait of Mary? We dont know, but if so then this would be yet another reason why people would have jumped to the conclusion that she had been unfaithful to Joseph.

the scribes and pharisees would even call Jesus the SON OF MARY, which was a derrogatory term they used to mock Jesus. Now woman whose name means bitter and rebellious has found favour with God?

This is amazing and yet it is the gospel.

The Nature of the Birth

Luke 1:31 ESV

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

Luke 1:

Luke 1:32 ESV

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,

Luke 1:33 ESV

and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

So Gabriel here tells Mary that this baby she would carry in her womb is going to be a king but His kingdom and throne would last forever. This is an eternal kingdom He is talking about! This isn’t the first time Gabriel has shown up speaking about a kingdom that would never end.

Daniel 7

Daniel 7:13 ESV

“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.

Daniel 7:14 ESV

And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

So here it is folks Gabriel announcing a supernatural birth for a baby who would have an eternal kingdom and notice what they shall call him......

SON OF THE MOST HIGH

and of His kingdom there would be no end!

Gabriel helped Daniel interpret the vision, and he recieved the promise of a king that would come establish an eternal kingdom and now here he is again saying it is time for the arrival of the king of glory!

Luke 1:34-

Luke 1:34–38 ESV

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Mary doesnt hesitate to be obedient, even though she must have been terrified for her life. If you were found unfaithful in a betrothal and you were put away in divorce they would just kill you.

But this doesn’t sway her in the least she accepts it and is ready to move out like a good soldier of the Lord.

John 3:13 ESV

No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

John 3:14 ESV

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

John 3:15 ESV

that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

John 3: