Hello, my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends on this Friday of Christmas weekend.
Over these next three days, I believe God is watching! Watching what? Watching us! God is watching planet earth and our 8.1 billion people with special interest. Why? Because all around the world THIS is Christmas weekend and as God watches every person, every family, every city, every nation, what will God see as our global response to Christmas in 2023?
Three weeks ago, God watched as our world went on a spending spree during ‘cyber week’, the week after Thanksgiving. Sales have now been computed to total $298 Billion dollars in global digital Christmas purchasing! At the same time God has watched the war in Ukraine; Israel at war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and under attack from Hezbollah in Lebanon; as well as Houthi rebels in Yemen launching missiles at ships in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.
So, what is God seeing this Christmas weekend in your city and mine? More importantly, what about your heart and mine?
In the days immediately preceding the birth of Jesus, that first Christmas, what do you suppose were the most overwhelming thoughts and even questions in the hearts and minds of Joseph and Mary as they made that long trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem? Both of them knew the famous stories of Israelite women of the past who had been unable to bear children until God miraculously opened their wombs and then by their husbands, they became pregnant. Can you name some of them?
How about Sarah and her old husband Abraham (Gen. 21) or Rebekah and her husband Isaac? (Gen. 25) Or do you remember both Jacob’s wives Rachel and Leah were unable to bear children until God intervened? (Gen. 29,30) And what about Samson’s nameless mother and her husband Manoah (Judges 13) and finally Samuel’s mother Hannah and her husband Elkanah? (1 Samuel 1) And of course Mary had gone to spend three months with old Elizabeth who was miraculously pregnant by her priestly husband Zechariah. (Luke 1)
But my friends, as Joseph and Mary both knew all too well, Mary’s miraculous pregnancy was quite different from any of those! Both Joseph (Matt. 1:18-25) and Mary (Luke 1:1-26-38) had been visited by angels, sent from God, who had explained that Mary would be pregnant by the Holy Spirit of God without any involvement of Joseph! You’ve heard the Biblical Christmas story many times, so here’s my question for each of us, no matter our age or our marital status or our religious beliefs or even where we live today all over the world: How do YOU explain Mary’s pregnancy? What did the angel Gabriel mean when he told Mary: “The Holy Spirit of God will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35)
We all understand human pregnancy, don’t we? A male sperm fertilizes a female egg and God imbeds it in the woman’s uterus where it is nurtured and develops into a unique fetus and later a fully developed baby ready to be born into our world. In almost every country of the world scientists, doctors, politicians and the courts argue over exactly at what point in that miracle process life actually begins and this tiny fetus becomes a brand new, never before existing, viable person?
Are you ready for a shocking concept? Jesus did NOT begin in this miraculous pregnancy in Mary’s womb! Jesus had already existed for all eternity past!
Yes, my friends, Jesus is God the Son! Jesus was present and active in God’s creation of our universe, our planet, and the first two people Adam and Eve! (Genesis 1 & 2) Jesus was personally involved in the entire story of the Old Testament. The miraculous pregnancy of Mary was the result of the Holy Spirit of God creating a divine-human fetus in the womb of Mary. As that fetus developed miraculously, but normally in Mary’s womb, it lacked only one thing from every other fetus from all time. Do you know what it lacked? A sin-nature!
Because Joseph had no involvement in this pregnancy, Joseph’s natural sinful nature was NOT passed on to this child through normal conception and pregnancy. Instead, into this tiny body in Mary’s womb, came God the Son, Jesus, so that when that baby was born, He could be called “Immanuel“, which means “God with us”!
This is why when the angels appeared in the Bethlehem sky their shocking announcement to the shepherds was: “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you, He is Christ the Lord… Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to mankind on whom His favor rests.” (Luke 2:10,12) Do you see my friends, the incarnation of God, in the person of Jesus, the long-predicted Messiah, was first for the glory of God in the highest! That’s really important. While we human beings are so very grateful Jesus came to earth, the miracle of the incarnation of Jesus into a human body was first and foremost for the glory of God! How?
It proved God’s unlimited, unconditional, unwavering LOVE for the human race God created in His image even though every person who has ever lived has been a sinful person living in some rebellion against God! John, the disciple friend of Jesus, explained it this way: “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.” (1 John 4:9)
Yes, while the incarnation of Jesus brings great glory to God as He willingly left the perfection of heaven to be born in a stable and raised in pitiful Nazareth, do you know what brings even greater glory to God about Christmas? It’s the REASON Jesus left heaven to come and live on earth! What reason? To show us God! With Jesus, people could SEE God, touch God, ask God any question, have a meal with God, go fishing with God, take a walk with God, even argue with God if they wanted, and many did!
But it was much more than that wasn’t it, my friends? Oh yes, John continued by saying: “This is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son Jesus as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10) Overwhelmed by this, the apostle, Pharisee Paul wrote it like this: “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Jesus Christ died for us!” (Romans 5:8)
God came to live on earth for a while, in the person of Jesus, not only to show us God but also to pay for the sins of the human race and draw us back into wonderful, sinless relationship with God! And that is the ultimate experience of PEACE!
It really is a peace that surpasses our ability to comprehend it and that’s why the angel said to the Bethlehem shepherds: “…Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you, He is Christ the Lord… Glory to God in the highest and on earth PEACE to mankind on whom His favor rests.” Do you hear it my friends? Peace with God available to ALL people of the world through the miracle of the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus, and His full, complete, atonement sacrifice of His death on the cross as payment in full for my sin, and yours, and anyone else in the world who will trust God to accept Jesus’ death as ransom for their sin! (Mark 10:45) That’s why the angels had told both Joseph and Mary that God had already selected the name for this miracle baby: Jesus, “because He will save His people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21)
As we walk along with Mary and Joseph toward Bethlehem today, listen to them talk with each other trying to wrap their minds around the miracle of the baby inside Mary. Who is this Baby? How did this Baby get inside Mary’s womb? Who will this Baby grow up to be? How will this Baby fulfill His earthly mission? And what difference this Baby will make in our world for all time! That’s a tremendous amount to ponder and I have one last question for you and me: Has this Baby Jesus changed your life? If so, HOW? Here’s another great Christmas song about this miracle of God’s love as we walk with Joseph and Mary, and I’ll meet you in the Bethlehem stable tomorrow, ok?
Today’s Scripture is Luke 1:26-38.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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