Sermon Tone Analysis

*Sovereign Christmas.*

Christmas is getting very close!

I have an aunty who makes all these wonderful creative cards, so this year I thought that I would have a go at making my own Christmas card.

*[P]* What do you think?

A nice traditional snowy picture, a fairly standard Christmas greeting: “I wish you a merry Christmas”.

Maybe the picture isn’t that appropriate – it was long ago pointed out that shepherds wouldn’t be out in the field at night with their sheep if there were snow on the ground.

And certainly there wouldn’t have been a car, or even a church.

But where a large part of the world is celebrating Christmas, it may be something like that.

But let’s not be picky, and bar-hum-bug, it’s a nice enough scene.

But then I thought about the words ….

Well, “I” is a bit self-centred – there can be too much focus on self at Christmas – what “I” am going to get.

It would be good to focus more on God … so let’s emend the “I” on my Christmas card and make it: "/God/" *[P]*.

Then I thought about the “wish” – that is a bit nebulous, a nice sentiment, but it’s not very certain or sure.

How about: "/impart/" *[P]* – that is giving something that is sure and tangible.

Then there is that: “merry” – I have long been uneasy with a “merry” Christmas – a lot of alcohol is consumed at Christmas and people can get merry – but that is certainly not what I wish, or even want to impart.

OK, “merry” can mean “happy” – but it is a passing mood.

God didn’t impart some transient feeling.

Christmas was a sovereign act of God *[P]* which would change the world, man and even the universe forever!

Things would never be the same again!

Hallelujah!

And that’s another thing – it wasn’t Christmas – Christ’s mass, some religious festival commemorated on the winter solstice – this was God visiting planet earth as a man – God became flesh, a human being like you and me, and lived among us!

It is incarnation!

*[P]* "God imparts a sovereign incarnation"!

Maybe it doesn’t scan that well, not many people would want a card like that – no, I don’t think I have a future with Hallmark as a designer of Christmas cards.

But I do want to bring a Christmas message about God sovereignly imparting the incarnation – God becoming a Man and living here on earth.

I have been talking about the sovereignty of God and Christmas is indisputably *the sovereign act of God*.

Sovereignly God chose to intervene in the affairs of man! Praise and glory to His Name.

Let us pick up the story we know so well in: *[P]* *[Matthew 1:18-23*/ Now the birth of Jesus Christ occurred in this way./]

This is the way it actually happened, not how it looks in the Christmas card – no snow, no pretty little church with a steeple: *[P]* [/His mother Maria had been betrothed to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant by the Holy Spirit./]

Maria, or Miriam, found out that she was pregnant.

Now she was engaged but they hadn't come together – how come she was with child?

Who took the initiative?

It was the Holy Spirit – it was God's doing!

Miriam was pregnant but she didn't ask to be, she certainly wasn't seeking it.

It was a sovereign act of God!

He decided to do it.

[/So Joseph her husband, being righteous and not wanting to disgrace her, intended to divorce her secretly./]

Now here is man's will – Joseph had his idea of what the right thing to do was.

He was acting out of concern for what was righteous and compassionate.

He was thinking of what was the right thing and at the same time concerned for Mary.

You cannot fault him – but it wasn't יְהוָה's will – and it is יְהוָה's will that must prevail, so יְהוָה sovereignly intervenes: He sends a messenger, an angel: [/But as he was considering these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Maria as your wife, for what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit./]

The angel reaffirms that this child has been conceived by the Holy Spirit – that it is a sovereign act of God.

[/And she will give birth to a son, and you will call His name ‘Jesus,’ because He will save His people from their sins.”/]

What do you call your first son?

– you name it after yourself, or your father, someone in the family.

Remember Miriam’s relative, Elizabeth's response when she wanted to call her son "John"?

[*Luke 1:61*/ And they said to her, “There is no one of your relatives who is called by this name.”/]

No, Joseph didn't name the baby "Joseph", he was to call Him "Jesus" – the name was chosen and determined by God.

He exercised His sovereign choice over the name of this child.

[/Now all this happened in order that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled, saying, “Behold, the virgin will become pregnant and will give birth to a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”/]

It fulfilled a prophecy.

You see? God had planned it all out before hand.

He had decided what He was going to do long before and decided what He was going to do; then, at the right time, He did it.

[*Galatians 4:4*/ But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law./]

"/Fullness of time/" – it didn't just happen.

It was carefully planned and took place at precisely the right time in God's sovereign plan.

He was in control, sovereignly deciding what He was going to do, then doing it precisely /when/ He decided to.

Here was "/God with us/"!

How could this be, how could this come about?

– only by God taking the initiative and making that occur – because there was no way for sinful man to come to God.

No, God had to sovereingly take the initiative and make the move to man.

Of ourselves, we cannot get to God, in fact we don’t even want to.

It has to be a sovereign act of God, He decides to do it, then carries it out.

The whole Christmas story is supremely the sovereign act of God toward man!

That was Matthew's account, let's look at how Luke presents what took place.

*[P]* [*Luke 1:26-38*/ Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God/] God sent him – He sovereignly acted and sent a messenger.

It happened at His instigation.

[/to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Miriam./]

Now, you notice that God was quite specific.

It was a virgin – he had already decided that and announced it beforehand in prophecy.

And it wasn’t just anyone, it was of the line of David – again, as He had sovereignly chosen and announced it beforehand through His servants, the prophets.

God is in sovereign control.

[/And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favoured one!

The Lord is with you.”

But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.

The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Miriam; for you have found favour with God./] Was Miriam especially deserving?

No, she “/found favour/”.

God sovereignly decided to favour her – His grace was upon her.

And grace is always sovereignly bestowed, otherwise it is not grace; it would be something deserved, your due or right; what God was obligated to do.

[/“And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus./]

Who decided the name?

God, did.

He decides, He rules, He is in control.

[/“He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”/]

Absolutely astounding!

Did you hear it?

This obscure village girl was going to have a son, and this baby would be the Son of the Most High!

He would be King and rule forever!

No one would dare dream it up or could even conceive it!

Certainly there is no way that Miriam could conceive such!

And she knew it!: [/Miraim said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”

The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God./]

The angel repeats, so that there can be no mistake – this Child will be the Son of God.

And Miriam was right – she could not do it.

It had nothing to do with her and any physical relationship with Joseph.

What did it say?: “/The Holy Spirit will come upon you/”; “/The power of the Most High will overshadow you/”!

It is God’s doing.

Miriam becomes pregnant – now she didn't do it.

She was a virgin.

Both Joseph and Miriam were known to be pious law-abiding Jews.