Christmas is the account of God entering the human story in the Person of Jesus Christ, “Jesus” and “Emmanuel” both “God saves,” and “God with us”. Through the obedience of Joseph, the faith of Mary, and the worship of the wise men, we learn that God still meets individuals who open their hearts to Him. To receive Christ is to find forgiveness, new life through the Holy Spirit, and the assurance that God Himself can dwell within the individual just as His birth and life fulfilled those things for the human race.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:00] Well, we’ve had an interesting night so far. That was really terrific singing and I’m glad that I came just for the singing as well as whatever else may happen. And to sing the carols, also realising that some of them are from a long time back and the Christian church has been singing the praises of God because of what Christmas is. My way of doing tonight is really just to concentrate on the characters in the Christian story and to bring out of a closer look at the people who figured in the whole drama what lessons there are for us as we consider what exactly is Christmas and what it’s about for us, but to look at the personalities. And so let me first of all begin by asking, I’m following Gavin’s example, but asking a quiz question. Which two of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,

[00:01:07] are the best places to find information about the characters in the Christmas event? Put your hand up if you know which two Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Who knows? Which two Gospels has the most information? I bet a lot of you do know. Yes, I can see your hand there. Yeah? Matthew and Luke is correct. And so we’re going to be looking at Matthew, chapter 1, verses 18 to 28. And then we’ll go to another spot in Matthew and then we’re going to go to Luke. And we’re learning from the scriptures and just the description of the characters and what they did. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph. Back then they had a three-step marriage, I think, where there was an engagement and betrothal, but I can never remember which way around it is.

[00:02:05] Anyway, she’s betrothed to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. He didn’t understand what was going on, but this event of her turning up pregnant meant that he had to act in honour as he understood it. And that’s what’s going on in that poor man’s mind. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, he’s a descendant of David, they call that a son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. So some miraculous thing has happened. She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus,

[00:03:07] for he will save his people from their sins. The name Jesus means God saves. So it begs the question, why call him Jesus? For he will save his people from their sins. Have you been saved? that’s an old question in evangelical circles we’re used to hearing I can remember in Sunday school the Sunday school teacher always seemed to want to know do you really know Christ have you been saved in actual fact being saved isn’t only coming to Christ in the first place it’s all of the work he has to do anew to get you ready for heaven as well but here’s Jesus and his name is God saves his people from their sins all of this was done to fulfill what the prophet had said behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son they shall call his name Emmanuel and as in other services I’ve been saying the fact that he saves us from our sins

[00:04:13] is a part of the meaning of Christmas and the fact that his name is called Emmanuel here I have another question Who can tell me what the meaning of the word Emmanuel is? Put your hands up if you… There’s a young man, yes? Hey, that’s right. Hey, that’s exactly right. Emmanuel means God with us. And the two things that Christmas is about is that in the coming of Jesus, there is the start of what God was going to do to save us from our sins. And it is that he’s bringing God to be with us. Now, I won’t maybe ask a question there, though I’m being tempted right at the moment, because it’s rather more complicated. In what way is Jesus being born as a baby bringing God with us? Anybody want to offer an explanation, just a short one? How is Emmanuel meaning it brings God with us, and who’s the us?

[00:05:18] Here’s a man I think probably would know, but it’s a bit hard to get him to volunteer too quickly, but I’ll put him on the spot. Come on. What does Emmanuel mean and why? How is it God with us? Because God is coming in the person of Jesus to dwell in human form with us. All right, because in the coming of Jesus, it’s God coming to be a part of the human race, and the us part he hadn’t elaborated on, but the idea of God with us is that the human race got the blessing of Christmas. It’s not just he came to save individuals from their sins, but the whole of us as a race of people needed something to bring God back with us. Not that he ever could be missing, mind you. He’s always present everywhere. But the thing is that in the fall of the human race, when sin first happened,

[00:06:20] then we lost the smile of God, if you like, as a race, as a group of people, as humankind. And when Christ came, he came to bring God back. And by his atonement on the cross, he dealt with that which would make the Almighty turn his back on us and make him come toward us and want us and help us get converted and become Christians, if you want to know how that works out. Without God with us, the whole humanity is blessed by Christmas. But when Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and she called his name Jesus. Jesus, it means the sin-bearer, yes, the saviour, yes, but also the one that brings God to us. And that’s why we sometimes teach people that when you become a Christian,

[00:07:33] you not only get forgiven, but you get the presence of God in you, with you. There’s a difference between a person that’s come to Christ and has found Jesus as their own personal saviour. How that’s affected is actually by the same Holy Spirit that brought the second person of the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the Son brought to be in the womb of Mary. The Holy Spirit is the one that helped Mary to have the Son in her, to be born as Jesus. This is absolutely a miracle. This is what the Holy Spirit did, and when he did that, he set it up for Jesus to be the saviour maker, if you like, the one who is going to clear the way for any of us to be forgiven and to have God with us. What actually happens when someone comes to Christ and they pray to God for that forgiveness, it’s a once and for all forgiveness,

[00:08:42] not just saying, oh, I’ve done this and this wrong, please wipe me clean of those ones. It’s by being a part of a sinful race. It’s by having the heritage of the lostness of the whole human race which God kicked out of the garden. He turned his back on the prodigy of Adam and Eve. God was having no more truck with all of us at all. We had no hope. We were lost without God and without hope, the Bible says. But when Jesus came, he came to bring God back to us. And the way that actually gets put into effect is that we as a human race have already received the blessing of Christmas by God taking on board our human group that we are, loving us. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, not only just to die, but he gave his son to be with us. And John’s Gospel, chapter 1,

[00:09:42] talks about this God coming down to be with us and when you come to him and trust him as your saviour, that you get God with you. And Jesus is the very source of spiritual life and the moment you come and make peace with God through what Jesus did in the cross and because he’s the saviour who’s beckoning for you to respond to him and you say, Jesus, yes, please be my Lord and saviour, then the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit that brought the second person of the Trinity into the womb of Mary is the person who brings Jesus into your person and you know him because you’ve got him and you know him. When someone asks you the question, do you know the Lord, do you know, they’re not just saying, have you been to Sunday school and know the story, they’re not just asking whether maybe you’ve been to theological college

[00:10:39] and knows the theology, they’re not just asking whether you’ve been overseas as a missionary and done things on behalf of him and had his help. Some of my people here know my story and it’s in another state but giving an appeal for people to come and know Christ and a whole bunch of teenagers came forward and so I led them off to be counselled and this old lady followed them along and I thought, ooh, that’s one of the people who look after the church and she’s coming to check up on my counselling. And so I asked the teenagers first, why did you come forward? And they said, what are you talking about? They wanted to receive Christ. And I got around to her, and I knew I didn’t know, well, she was a returned missionary, and I thought I’d better not embarrass her,

[00:11:25] but I said, what about you, or something like that, you know, that didn’t put her on the spot? And she says, just the same as them. And this person who’d been a missionary overseas, Mission to Lepers, I think it was, but had never really understood that the very moment to know God is when you receive Jesus as your personal Saviour, you respond to that which was the doing of the first Christmas, and the doing of the one that came at Christmas when he grew up and went to the cross and died for our sins and rose again and returned to heaven as King of kings and Lord of lords. And he can take residence in your person via the agency of the third person of the Trinity as the Holy Spirit and He comes and lives within you. That’s why the Gospel message is to hear that Jesus died for you,

[00:12:22] to understand that He wants to forgive you because He died for your sins and that if you will respond to that and let Him take over your life, let Him forgive your sin, then the Holy Spirit will come into your heart and he’ll make the life of Jesus be living in you there’s a mystery in that I don’t know if I could do justice in describing exactly what is going on but just as the miracle of Christmas happened when the Holy Spirit came to the womb of Mary and brought the second person of the Trinity the eternal son who never had a beginning who’d never been born he always was but he became born into humanity I don’t know how to say that that could capture the majesty of what Christmas actually is I’m amazed at myself really because my understanding of Christmas from being brought up in a child

[00:13:23] there was a time when you got in the back of a truck and they had the lots of wheat sheaves there and you sat on them and you’re a kid going around singing Christmas carols and we’d stop outside someone’s house and you’d hop off and sing a bit and see the old people come out no they were normal people then but that was what Christmas was always getting presents and when you’re a kid boy is presents a big deal and you tear the paper apart and you make a mess on the floor and wow, that’s Christmas It gets over pretty quick though, doesn’t it, those presents I mean, they’re all handed out and that’s that But that’s what Christmas was, all the things You know, our society today, what’s Christmas is often what the shops are doing or what the government’s doing to curtail

[00:14:12] what, you know, I don’t know, they’ve got to keep control of what’s happening but that’s what Christmas is but that’s just the cultural things If you go to another country, they have Christmas done slightly differently. You suddenly realise that when you’re from Australia. We all had a simple way of doing Christmas. But Christmas is not about those cultural things. For Father Christmas and jingle bells, jingle bells, actually it reduces people to stupid pictures of what people are, I think. Jingle bells, jingle bells, that’s not Christmas. Christmas is what God did in Christ in giving him to the world. Oh, let’s, you can’t not dangle your foot in some of the cultural things because you’re a part of the culture, but I’m just saying don’t think that’s Christmas. Christmas is what this is saying.

[00:15:11] Gave birth to a son and she called his name Jesus. Can we go to the next verse I gave you, please? And now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem, this is in Matthew chapter 2, in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, oh, Herod the one, the nasty man, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star. We saw his star. It rose and we’ve come to worship him. I’m not sure whether every translation has exactly the same, but the general gist is, we saw his star in the east or in the sky and we’ve come to worship him. Now, it made me think as I read over this again, thinking about tonight, wow there were people in existence back then who had no connection to the Jewish religion or to the land of Israel or to the little group of people

[00:16:19] who are going to become Christians these are people from a distant place over to the east of where Judea was and they were people who studied the stars and if you read back about you know the stars and the science of studying them you’ll discover it when you go back far enough It’s not really science. It often is certainly noting certain facts that are there as to how the stars are seen, so I don’t want to not call it science, but these are called wise men, but it was a mixture of some explanation that they lived with about how to interpret the stars. That’s how things were back before the scientific age. These wise men are known wise because they get meaning out of the stars. Now this is a fascination for me because being a person who studied science I know that back in those days

[00:17:15] they didn’t really have a way to know the difference between what was speculative religion of some sort or in their interpretations of the stars. Whatever it was, whether they had a good system to get a good meaning out of the things they saw in the stars, nonetheless God chose to step into their system and somehow bring to their minds that this is a star that they’ve seen that belongs to Jerusalem, that belongs to a different place. They’ve seen it from the east. And somehow in their understanding, probably something we wouldn’t agree with the way they thought and got to that conclusion, but God broke in. And it’s another example of the fact that God is in the business of breaking into people in their mindsets, sometimes in mindsets that later knowledge would challenge

[00:18:12] and not agree with, but God break in, broke in. Because it is another example of what the Bible is full of, that God is a God of revelation, of showing himself. The word revelation means you disclose who you are. And when you disclose who you are, God is when God discloses who he is he’s somehow giving a hint about his very presence and these wise men and their system which I might look down on and think that it wasn’t very scientific because it was so far back but nonetheless he chose to step into it and to give them such an idea that there’s been a king born in Jerusalem I think that’s amazing the condescension of God that he steps into our mindsets to bring an understanding that could lead to the discovery

[00:19:00] of the saviour you know when you have to do with Christian evangelism which has been much of my background you’re constantly amazed at steps that God takes to get through to different people I remember one meeting when a man really well dressed I really dress very well but this man had you know he had a lot of money and he dressed accordingly his hair was nice and but he came and responded and in counselling him I was rather curious as to what his most motivations had been to make a move he looked almost too dressed and too well presented to be at the little meeting I had but he said to me he says tomorrow I’ve got to go to jail and I’m not ready for what that’s going to be like and I was he wanted the Lord to help him and somehow God set up some scenario in his life

[00:20:03] the jail was a part of it but God did it out of grace to set it up for him to hear he’d have his ears opened so when the preaching of the gospel did that night he responded and came to Christ I’m always amazed when you talk to people and say how’d you know the saviour and there’s sometimes a little action that happened that maybe they were sick and God laid them up or they changed schools and they sat next to someone who was one of those stupid Christian people who kept taking him off to youth meetings I’m always amazed at what God does and in this case these wise men from the east who had a practice of looking at the stars that probably wasn’t very scientific but it had a lot of reputation back then but they saw stars right over there and over Jerusalem area and somehow got the

[00:20:57] idea that there was a person born to be king of the Jews they come on down to Jerusalem where is he who has been born king of the Jews God has his ways of getting through to people I love this fact and he offered does it in novel ways sometimes little things well he did it to these wise men for we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him what I do notice about these characters in the Christmas story is not only the circumstances that are unusual that I’m pointing out but also they have a response we’ve come to worship him and I want to tell you the Bible has got a lot of spots that talk about the conditions of actually successfully getting through to God he who believes in God must first

[00:21:53] believe that he exists and that he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him but if you’re a person whose life is set to diligently reject him he’s got to get through to you somehow he might have to do it a heavy handed way I don’t know but he might have to do whatever’s necessary to you change around and be willing to look at it these people came from a long journey we think there were three wise men because there were three gifts the gold the frankincense and the myrrh we don’t know there were really three but that’s not a bad guess I guess but they came because they wanted to worship him and when you set your heart to be willing to acknowledge God if you’re here tonight and maybe you’ve never really clinched the deal with him but you say to him I’m willing to acknowledge you if you show

[00:22:56] yourself to me if you open the door with a statement like that you’d be amazed at what God does for we saw his star yeah some versions say in the east and this version says when it rose and have come to worship him when her or the king heard this now here’s my next personality herod the king don’t you think that he’d be keen to know when the promised messiah for israel was going to be born and people come and say it’s going to happen it’s going to happen or he’s been born don’t you think he would you’d expect him to say oh wow and i’ve been king for a while i didn’t really want to give up my post but that sounds amazing I’ll come and find him but no he’s an evil man and if you let evil grow in you he’s a sort of fellow who killed off others who were likely to compete with him and all the burden of sin

[00:23:59] that groan and groan in him when Herod heard this he was troubled and all of Jerusalem with him people guessed what he might do and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people inquired of them where the Christ was to be born they told him and he tells the wise men where to go to see the baby they go off to do it unaware that the motive that Herod had was to kill the baby but in actual fact before they get to leave the place or go back to Herod and tell him where the baby was the Lord warns them in a dream and they go off back home another way let’s go to Luke please in chapter 1 are you bearing up alright I’m not making this too boring long I mean are you happy no I wanted to say that but we’re looking now at Matthew because as I said it’s in Luke it’s Matthew and Luke that have the

[00:25:03] good spots and then Luke 1 34 to 38 please now all of this happened because of Mary I wanted tonight to get talking about Mary because Mary is a figure that you surely have to admire but a figure that our religious understandings have made a dividing point they came onto the television recently a storyline of was presented as though it were true though my family told me it sounds like the AI are creating a story you shouldn’t believe it I’ll tell you what it was that there was a pilot man and he was a very good pilot and but just before while he’s waiting to get the right moment to take off he had some sense of a voice say take off now and he had the smell of certain flowers and whatever that in his Catholic background identified that perhaps this was a revelation from Mary and so eventually he gets talked into taking off and

[00:26:15] obeying it by his co-pilot I hope I got the storyline right and he takes off and by because he took off early there’s something that happened on the airport that would have killed the whole lot in the plane and they eventually survive at the end and of course that Captain Man becomes a lot more religious and so the storyline vindicates the power of Mary now the difference between the Roman Catholic position and the Christian the Protestant position I should say they’re both Christians I had someone ask me is being a Catholic a Christian it’s as Christian as being a Protestant is but it isn’t it’s got some differences and some are more right in some things and some are more wrong in things and you can meet many people who are Catholics who know the law you can meet many Protestants who don’t know the law but they like they know their church so

[00:27:16] I think that it’s one of those issues where Mary was used in the Christmas story and surely that is so visible that we shouldn’t let how our denominations argue about it stop us noticing the wonderful thing that we learn from Mary in the story of Christmas. And when the angel comes, I haven’t had us read all of the parts about her being someone who’s got a fellow who wants to be her husband and now she is being told she’s going to have a child and she says 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. Now this is amazing that Mary got that opportunity and a part of the speech of the angel is that she has been favoured of God.

[00:28:22] And she is someone who’s actually got the chief part to play in the Christmas story. So even though I know there are people who are very, you know, not agreeing with, on the role of Mary in religion, nonetheless surely we can agree that God used her. And if in fact it was Mary who got the man to take his plane off, that doesn’t give me any pains. Whether that really happened or some other force caused her to, caused the captain to think it, nonetheless it was a miracle. Well anyway what happened to Mary, 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. Then God added something because he understands humanity. He knows when sometimes you get in a spot and he’s dealing with you

[00:29:21] and he’s wanting you to make a move and you have some difficulty. And sometimes he’s prepared to help you in that difficulty. And God knew that Mary would have her. What is going on? She could have given up trying to understand it all and try it out. And I don’t know what she might have done but God added and he says verse 36 and behold your relative Elizabeth. Now by the way this translation changes the Elizabeth to have a Z. No it doesn’t. That’s the original. That’s the original English Elizabeth. But sometimes the translations put an S and I think in the older versions it did have Elizabeth but you still said it Elizabeth. I think that’s how it runs. Anyway, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son. This is a sixth month with her who was called barren. This is now an old lady

[00:30:18] who suddenly has a baby and she’s six months down the road and verse 37 for nothing will be impossible with God. Now why did God give it to Mary? It’s because Mary’s thinking it’s going to be impossible for me to have a baby and how could this all happen when I haven’t known a man and what on earth is going on? But this demonstrates or gives her a place to go and see that God does do the impossible because she’s so old and she’s been known as the barren one and Mary’s been asked to go and visit with her but she’s now got a child. So she’s going to go down to see the demonstration model that God can do the impossible. It’s a wonderful thing that God sometimes does to show us of what he’s able to do and he’s doing it to Mary. So in the story of Mary so that she can believe that she will have a child even though no man

[00:31:16] has been the father, no human man that is, then you go and see your cousin, this old lady who’s having a child. So she goes down there to see Elizabeth. I think this is a fantastic part of the story of Christmas. Mary, and anyway, when this is said by the angel, Mary gives her statement, I’m the servant of the Lord. This is when she gives in and surrenders to whatever God is doing. I’m the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. If God comes to you and asks you to do something that seems so impossible and you’re struggling, maybe he’s been talking to you about serving him in a way that you don’t think you could ever get to do. But Mary learned, let it be to me according to your word. She gave in to the word of God. The angel then departed from her. Well, one last thing.

[00:32:17] This is coming to be my last part. I know if you go through all of the… I’ll leave the shepherds out, but let’s go to chapter 2. I think it is 8 to 21. We’re guessing whether this is going to be… Oh, that’s the shepherds. Can we go to… Leave them alone. You can look that up for yourself, the shepherds. But maybe it is Matthew chapter 2, 13 to 23. Did we do that one? I’ve just got nothing. All right. Okay, this is a bit of our Joseph and he takes the baby back to… No, that’s not the right one. I’ve probably not given you the right verse. I’ll just tell you what it says. We read in Matthew and Luke, we read that when Mary went down to visit her cousin Elizabeth, this old lady, 60s lady, who’s now got a baby, that as Mary walks in… As Mary walks in… The baby who is in her… In her cousin’s womb… Who knows?

[00:33:29] Another question for the people guessing. Who knows who that baby turned out to be? I heard a voice. Yes, please. Yeah, John the Baptist. John the Baptist was the cousin born six months ahead of Jesus being born, at least six months, because Elizabeth is pregnant. But when Mary walks into Elizabeth’s house, the baby gave a big kick. And somehow this one who was to be filled with the Spirit and to be the prophet who was sent before the Messiah to tell Israel this is him, this baby is filled with the Spirit in his mother’s womb. And what is more, it caused her, Elizabeth, to be taken over by the Spirit. And one of the things that happens when the Holy Spirit gets a grip on a person, we call that being filled with the Spirit, the Holy Spirit takes over, that you often, or can do, come out with a prophecy.

[00:34:35] And so the mother of the prophet-to-be has the Holy Spirit cause her to come out into a prophecy. And she does it. It’s there in the Scriptures. If you read the passages about the Christmas story, it’s a fantastic part. Boy, oh, Mary had enough then extra evidence to know that God can do the impossible. She’s got her aged cousin prophesying and saying things all about. And one of the things she says is that she’s honoured to by the fact that the mother of her Lord had come to visit her. That must have been an unusual statement because the Lord to come is the baby when he grows up as Jesus and he’s the Lord of lords and King of kings. And this woman is saying how privileged I am that the mother of my Lord Jesus has come to visit me. I reckon that that little piece of information, the memory of that conversation,

[00:35:38] would follow Mary down through the years that she was given by God a way to know that this was of him. One of the fantastic things about being a Christian I’m finishing now is that we come to have a deep assurance that we’ve gotten right with God. We know him. We know him. And the older you get as a Christian, the more you know that you know. It’s not a question of have you had the best education or have you been trained in apologetics or whether you’ve somehow answered all the fears. You just know. I’m asking you tonight, do you know that you have Jesus as your personal Saviour because that’s what Christmas is for. And what a wonderful thing it would be if this Christmas you asked Jesus to be your personal Saviour, your personal Lord and Saviour and he will give you the Holy Spirit who in your heart

[00:36:44] will confirm his presence. And then when you get into church scenarios and someone asks are you a real believer or they might say are you, what are you doing here? I haven’t seen you before and you’re saying to yourself well I don’t come very often. But you would be in a position then that you would be able to know that you know. It’s one of the greatest Christian privileges to have the assurance that you’ve come to God through Christ and he’s given his Spirit to live in you and you know it. And it doesn’t matter how big are the arguments and well practiced are the people who present other ideas you can’t be talked out of it because you have him the Holy Spirit in your heart. Is that you? If it’s not there’s nothing to stop you. Choose your own time. Choose a person that you know as a Christian to lead you to prayer if you want.

[00:37:46] Or just go home and in your own bedroom get down by your bed and say Lord Jesus I want you to be my personal Lord and Saviour and I want you to live in me by the Holy Spirit. So please do that now. Ask him tonight and make this the best Christmas that you have ever had. Let me pray. Heavenly Father I thank you for the evening and for the hard work many people have put into the evening. I thank you for those carols they were so fantastic. I thank you Father for the scriptures that tell us of Jesus and how he came. came to die for our sins to save us. Came to bring you to be with us. What a fantastic thing as a human race but also personally to know God is with you. He’s in you. That is the most wonderful gift for Christmas anybody could get and I pray that your Holy Spirit will move in some here that tonight the night will not finish before they seal that deal with you we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.