Lining up to see Santa at the Mall
People don't respond differently between promises met and promises met in an exceeding way, Because most people are skeptical about promises in the first place. People would react exceedingly frustrated if the promises weren’t met and in a satisfied way if the promise was met, other than that there were no real difference between promises that were met and promises that weren’t met. Most people are just looking to see if the promises will be kept.
When people make promises to you. What is the first reaction you have? Do you find yourself skeptical or to just joyfully embrace them and accept them?
This sermon is about the meaning of the Promise of Christmas.
In the Bible there are over seven thousand promises made by God to man, and what we find in the Christmas Promise is not only the greatest promise but also the combination and the fulfillment of all of the other promises and their totality,
The Promise Of Christmas Is:
The Revelation And Validation Of God’s Intentions For Us
What makes this promise so powerful is the promise that contains a revelation. A revelation that is validated in the fulfillment of the promise. It displays God’s intention towards us. Infact every good promise and every real promise is that, a revelation and a validation of our intentions towards others, but out of those kind of promises that we could make the greatest example of the definition is the promise that God has made to us in Christmas.
Matthew 1:18-25
Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about:
When Matthew writes this, he writes this in a very historical sense. Because promises are made in the reality of where we live. What is the difference between a promise and a wish? A promise puts something at stake, our word is at stake, and it puts it at stake at the trust of another person to believe in our word. That is why promises are so radical because in the reality of our lives and the space and time in which we live promises force us to put something at stake.
His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph,
In Hebrew life at this time when you were pledged to be married it meant that you weren’t married yet but you were in an engagement period however that was still viewed as being married. You were engaged you haven’t yet consummated the marriage, the celebration hasn’t taken place yet but in that pledge you were just as good as married and you were expected to live honoring that promise and that pledge. It’s a promise that puts at stake your word and some else’s trust.
but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law,
Joseph was a guy who was faithful to the law and faithful to the pledges and promises to the things that he said he believed in.
and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
To expose her to public disgrace means this, basically turn her in for adultery because when she shows up pregnant during the engagement period and he has never touched her, it means somebody else has, and the penalty for that during this time would be to stone her to death and yet because he cared about her he decided no to do it publicly, he would just quietly divorce her because he loved her even though he felt she wasn’t faithful to him.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
This is where you see something special about Joseph, the angel comes to him and says she is going to give birth to a son, conceived by the Holy Spirit, you are to take her as your wife, you are to marry her and you are to name him Jesus. What does Joseph do? He does exactly what he is told to do. He puts something at stake, he puts the word of God at stake, he doesn’t ask any questions he just simply takes her home.
I. What is the revelation? What is the validation of God’s intention?
It is simply this: God has sent a savior to do two things
1. To save us from our sins: For all eternity
2. To be with us: For all eternity
Last week when the angel came to Zachariah it had been over four hundred years before anybody had hear God’s voice, that God had just pulled back his presence from the nation of Israel because they had become so sinful and you see in the Old Testament this becomes such a big concern of God’s people that he would not pull away his presence, that he would leave them, he would not allow them to go off on their own because they knew as a nation that they would fall apart even though over and over again that is exactly what they did. They would go off on their own even while his presence remained with them, and yet now in the birth of Christ there is a promise is this. There is a Savior/Messiah coming, who will save you from all of your sins once for all forever.
The people of Israel was looking for a Messiah but the Messiah they were looking for somebody who was going to come to defeat the Romans because they lived under a Roman persecution, and was going to bring them back to their own kingdom to their own nation. That is all they were looking for, they were just looking for political stability, they were looking for an opportunity prosper they were looking for the right to walk around the streets free, but that is all they were looking for.
When God had made his promise and fulfilled it, what he was giving them was way more than what they were looking for. God was looking to fulfill something in them that wouldn’t be just external but it would be internal, that God would change them in their hearts. That God would actually make them just like Him. What God was revealing in his promise was himself. He was going to come and be with you. He did way more than anyone had every expected. He put on flesh and walked with us. Here is the interesting thing people don’t care what we do in exceeding of the promises we make, and we don’t show any real gratitude for the reality of whats being done for us, and that is exactly what happened to God’s people.
God exceeded his promise so much that the people didn’t believe it. That is what we see today, people saying that is ridiculous, it sounds too supernatural, and that is because he is supernatural.
He revealed to us something greater than what we were looking for, he revealed to us life, eternal and abundant
God’s intention for us through Christ
Make Us Trust Worthy:
Because when we believe in a promise that somebody makes to us, believe in a promise that God makes to us. We prove God to be trustworthy and we become trustworthy as we hold to the promise. It is a revealing of the things we believe in. It is a revealing on how trustworthy we are in responding back to God
Direct Us:
It is a promise that directs us, the promise of Christmas sends us in a direction, it helps to make us, molds us and directs us to have a life that is worth living. What is the promise of Christmas? That God will save us from our sins, that you won’t have to live in condemnation and that you can become something better and something greater as you walk in the presence of Christ through the power of his Spirit. Why did God send his son? To save us from our sins and to be present with us so we could be present with him.
Increase Our Faith:
Everyday that we walk, everyday that we live, God increases our faith, we come to see that his promises are brand new every day and are just as real and true as the day before. If you accept the promise of Christmas not only will your sins be saved but your faith will become more and more powerful which will make you more and more effective in this world. Faith is an incredible thing because it calls you to believe, to rest , to be assured, to find joy at what isn’t fully in front of you even while you live in adversity all around you. Faith is what gives us the ability to go through hard times not worrying what will become of us.
Alleviate Our Fear:
The first thing the angel said to Joseph is, Do not be afraid...
That is a term you find through out the Gospel that Jesus says over and over again to his disciples, Fear Not. Why? Because when faith is increased, fear becomes alleviated. We live our lives by fear or by faith. We live our lives either walking in the flesh or in the favor of God. If you walk in faith and you walk in God’s favor there is no room for fear.
Teaches Us To Love:
Just like he loved us. To love somebody means to live by promise, because you can say to someone all day long “I love you” but you can’t feel my feelings you will never know it until I make a promise to you, until I reveal who I am by making a promise and making it come to pass. In God’s promise in Christmas he teaches us to love because he calls us to put something at stake by believing and trusting in him.
The promise of Christmas is that God revealed himself fully, and he validated it in the gift of his son, putting him at stake for our sins and we in gratitude have to not only receive it but to appreciate and be grateful for all the implications of God’s promise that we will unpack everyday. When God makes a promise, it is bigger than you can ever imagine it would be.
Notes taken by: lorelllawrence@comcast.net
The notes is for you to have for review in the series, also to reflect on during the week.
God Bless,
Sermon by: Pastor Frederick Williams