Christmas Eve

John Colunga

It's All About Jesus • Sermon • Submitted 5 months ago • Presented 5 months ago

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Announcemnets

Announcements

1. Connect Card (What is your next step?) (Poinsettia take home, pick up memory pamphlet)

2. Giving $15,625 – 35K, Encourage everyone to be cheerful in giving

3. New Year’s Eve – worship at 10:30am (no Sunday School)

4. Vision Sunday, January 7th, everything resumes and it will be BIG

Background

If we have not had the pleasure of meeting my name is John Colunga and I have the privilige of serving as lead pastor here at New Day Pasadena

I also have the privilige of bringing this weeks sermon

So if you have your Bibles, please turn to \Matthew 1:18-25

If you forgot your Bible please use the one in front of you and if you dont have a Bible at all, please take home the one in front of you as a free gift to you

New Series

It’s All About Jesus

And as we go to God’s word - we want to remember that God’s word is all about Jesus

We can have a tendency to make it about us

But really, it is for us but all about Jesus

The Bible is about Jesus rescuing his people

Old Testament: anticipation

Gospels: manifestation

Acts: proclamation

Epistles: explanation

Revelation: consummation

This time of year we usually watch Christmas movies and one of my favorites is the Polar Express

In the Polar Express there are children on a train headed to the North Pole to see Santa

And on this particular train is a young boy who is a skeptic of Santa

And when the kids reach the North Pole - the reindeer of Santas sleigh are jumping up and down

and the kids are looking at one another talking about how beautiful the bells of the reigns are

But the boy who is a skeptic of Santa cant hear the bells

And one of the bells shake lose comes to his feet, and as he shakes it, he cant hear anything

At some point he says, I do believe, I do believe - and as he shakes the bell he can now hear the beautiful ringing

As we go to scripture and as we read this account of the birth of Jesus, I ask you the question....

What do you believe about the birth of Jesus?

What we know is that since the Bible is about Jesus, and since the Bible is God’s word for us

We need to read it reverently - in context - and apply it as written

Today in the gospel of Matthew we are going to look at the manifestation of Jesus’ birth

At the end of November we finished a sermon series going through the book of Matthew but we did not start with the birth

And it was in that sermon series where we noted that Matthew writes his gospel in a way that magnifies Jesus as the King of Kings

Matthew starts with the geneology of Jesus and specifically notes at the beginning of the geneology that Jesus the son of King David

This means that Jesus would come from the lineage of King David which was a promise God had made to King David

But what we will find today is that through the line of David came a man named Joseph

And this account of the birth of Jesus focuses on the birth of Jesus from Josephs perspective

If you are able to stand, I ask that you please do so for the reading of God’s word. I’ll read it as you follow along,

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

This is the Word of the Lord - You may now be seated

Engagement

Betrothed

What we find at the beginning of our passage today is that Mary and Joseph are betrothed

They are engaged

But what we need to keep in mind is that in the time of Mary and Joseph and in their culture

To be betrothed is quite literally to mean that they are married without the benefits

In our time today, we do not view engagement as being married - we get sadenned over broken engagements but usually there is a sigh of relief that at least they didnt actually say I do and get married

Whereas, in their time, because they are viewed as being betrothed, they would have to get a divorce if there is going to be a break up

And it would be considered scandelous if one of the persons was to have been found caught cheating

In this case, there could be cause for punishment - even the possibility of punishment by death

And so, from Josephs’ point of view, he is betrothed to a woman - and the woman is now pregnant

And the text indicates that she became pregnant before they came together - before they had intimate relations

And so any logical person would think that if a woman is pregnant and the man she is engaged to hasnt been intimate with her yet, there had to be another man - there had to be infidelity

Josephs Decision

Josephs decision

This is the mindset of Joseph - But in his character - rather than causing Mary shame, rather than calling her out to everyone and publically humiliating her or pressing charges against her

He resolved or decided to divorce her quietly

Now, in the ESV version, it calls Joseph just

In the CSB version, it calls Joseph righteous

I want to encourage you to keep this in mind as we move forward

Holy Spirit

What we find next is that an Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and tells Joseph not to fear taking Mary as a wife

Mary has not betrayed you, Mary hasn’t cheated on you, her virginity is intact but that the Lord has done a miracle

Twice in this section Matthew makes note that it is the Holy Spirit who impregnated Mary

Last week in Luke, we read the account of the angel appearing to Mary

And in the account, when Mary asks how she would get pregnant, the angel says in Luke 1:35

35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you;

This language is similar to the language used in Genesis 1:1–2 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

The same Holy Spirit of God that hovered over the waters and was used to create the earth

Is the same Holy Spirit of God that will overshadow Mary

The power of the Holy Spirit that was used for creation is the same power that conceived Jesus in Mary

This miracle, this act of God is why we celebrate Christmas

When people ask why is the birth of Jesus so important - It’s because God worked a miracle inside of a woman to keep his promise to his people by sending Jesus

God’s promise

Matthew writes that this birth fulfills what God promised in Isaiah 7:14 - 700 years earlier

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

Virgin Birth

Since it was the Holy Spirit who had conceived within Mary

This Jesus - the baby - would have the seed of man but be of God

That Jesus would be divine

That Jesus would be God with us

And ultimately, this was the beginning of the ultimate fulfillment of salvation

In Genesis 3 when God is pronouncing his judgement he tells the serpent

V 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

This divine, miracle birth of Jesus is the offspring that was promised to bruise or strike the head of Satan

This divine, miracle birth of Jesus is the beginning of the work that is to take place for our salvation

The angel tells us of this work for he will save his people from their sins.

Why is it that he is able to do this?

Because he isn’t just another person, he is Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

What does it mean that God would be with us?

That the power of the Holy Spirit came upon a virgin and brought about the Savior of the world

That this Savior is the only one who could be fully God and fully man because only he was conceived by the Holy Spirit

And the whole reason why he came is because we are a fallen people

and in our fallen state, we need reconciliation to God

Why? Because God the heavenly father is righteous and just, and he can only allow perfection into heaven

And because we are imperfect, because of our sin we are fallen

But Jesus being fully God and fully man - he lived the perfect life of righteousness

And even though he was without sin - he willingly went to the cross to pay the penalty for our sin

That through his death and resurrection - we could become righteous before God

But this righteousness comes about through a changed heart

It comes about through you putting your faith and trust in him

Putting your faith and trust not in a man born because of man

But putting your trust in Jesus who is God with us

By putting your faith in the one, who by the very power of the spirit was born

And with that same power he changes your heart, gives you new life, and eternally secures you with God the Father forever

Joseph’s Obedience

24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Can we take a moment and put ourself in Joseph’s shoes - One minute he thinks he has been cheated on and he decides he doesnt want to shame Mary - but then next he is told that indeed Mary did not cheat on him but she is pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit

And his response - his decision is to have faith in this miracle pregnancy - to believe God who sent the angel

Joseph - in his character - he obeyed

As crazy as it probably sounded to Joseph - believed

Joseph was going to become the earthly father of Jesus

Joseph did not get to name his son he obediently named him Jesus

Application

What do you believe about the birth of Jesus?

We need to believe that Jesus is God

We need to believe that because Jesus is God, he couldn’t have a normal birth

We need to believe that Holy Spirit who is God conceived within Mary to bring about a miracle birth

All of this is important as we believe in Jesus as the Messiah - As our Savior - As our Mediator - As the one who reconciles us to God

Do you believe in Jesus as your savior?

If the answer is yes, then I want to encourage you to be like Joseph and to continue to walk in obedience to Christ

Not being obedient kicking and screaming - But joyfully obeying and following him because of the work he accomplished for you

God is with you today - walk confidently, live with hope, encourage your walk

If you have not believed in Jesus - I want to encourage you not to delay - Through the power of the Holy Spirit your heart can be changed and your eyes can be opened to the wonders of who Jesus is

And this Jesus who came to walk this earth and live among us will be the same Jesus that stays with you the rest of your life

As we go into a time of prayer, there will be a time where you can give your life to Jesus

Prayer

Silent Night

At this time we are going to go into a beuatiful moment of song

In your chair when you came in was a candle, if youll bring it out and please stand

Someone is going to come down the aisle and light the candle of the person on the end

And what we will do is continue lighting each others candle until everyones candle is lit

In John 8:12 Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

We celebrate this light that came to us God incarnate in the form of a baby

And we continue to sing his priases - and to reflect on that night

Please join us as we sing silent night together

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