Christmas 2024
12/15
“God Became a Man”
Matt 1:18-23 “This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.
20 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”22 All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child!She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”
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In these passages we come face to face with one of the front burner claims surrounding Jesus Christ—he was born from a miraculous conception.
In fact, Jesus’s life is bookended by two great miracles—a miraculous conception and a stunning resurrection.
To embrace Christ is to accept those two miracles!
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But it’s Christmas time so I want to deal with the first one—Jesus’s miraculous conception.
Again, we read that the angel told Joseph, “For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.”
Your salvation depends on believing that!
The entire weight of Christianity rests on that!
Without the miraculous conception you have just another religion.
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So what does it mean when it says that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit?
Well, it’s telling us straight up that God fathered Jesus by the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit.
In Luke’s gospel the angel said to Mary, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of God shall overshadow you; so the baby born to you will be utterly holy—the Son of God.”—1:35
So when the moment came in the perfect timing of God for Jesus to come to earth—the plan of salvation began with the Holy Spirit overshadowing, or literally enveloping Mary.
Then the same God that created all things by His word fertilized the egg in Mary’s womb by His word and the miraculous operation of His Spirit!
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In doing this, God circumvented the normal process for procreation He created in the Garden.
This had to be done so that Jesus did not carry the fallen nature of Adam, which we all do:
Ro 5:12 “When Adam sinned, sin entered the entire human race. His sin spread death throughout all the world, so everything began to grow old and die, for all sinned.”
So Jesus was BORN of a woman but FATHERED by God.
Gal 4:4 “But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman…,”
And then the most famous Bible verse tells us more:
John 3:16 “God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son…”
Begotten means “a unique, one and only, unprecedented, never before seen event.”
At the miraculous conception, God the Son literally moved locations:
from heaven to earth,
from glory zone to war zone,
from a spirit being to a human being.
Martin Luther wrote: “The mystery of the humanity of Christ, that He sunk Himself into our flesh, is beyond all human understanding.”
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Phil 2:6-8 “Though he (Jesus) was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.”
Though “He was God,” He was “born as a human being!”
God became one of us by wrapping Himself in a human body.
John 1:14 “So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.”
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It’s impossible for us to imagine what Christ gave up, stepped away from, laid down, and sacrificed in order to become a human being.
ILLUS: Suppose you have a dog and you love your dog very much.
And one day, your dog has a critical problem that can only be solved if you become a dog yourself.
Would you be willing to give up being a human being to help him?
Think a minute: Would you give up your job, your books, your movies, your hobbies?
Would you sacrifice the ability to speak, to smile, to reason, to use a cell phone or operate a computer?
Would you give up driving, shopping, going to a play, or putting together a puzzle?
Would you give up human food for dog food?
Would you be willing to give up your loved ones to become a dog?
The truth is I would pay hundreds of dollars in vet bills and go to great lengths to save my dog.
But I don’t think any of us would truly be willing to become a dog to save a dog!
But listen—The gap between a human and a dog is nothing compared to the vast gap between God and man.
And yet, “Though he (Jesus) was God,…he gave up his divine privileges;…and was born as a human being.”
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Now, you have to ask yourself—Why did Jesus do this?
What was the reason for His coming to earth?
Why did God go to all this trouble?
Jesus gives us the answer!—“The Son of Man came to find lost people and save them.”—Luke 19:10
And that would be all of us!
Is 53:6 “We—every one of us—have strayed away like sheep! We…left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet God laid on him the guilt and sins of every one of us!”
Listen further to God’s diagnosis of the human race:
Ro. 3:10-12 “No one is good—no one in all the world is innocent.” 11 No one has ever really followed God’s paths or even truly wanted to. 12 Every one has turned away; all have gone wrong. No one anywhere has kept on doing what is right; not one.”
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So the divine motive behind the arrival of Jesus Christ to earth that first Christmas morning was actually to undertake a heavenly rescue mission!
Jesus literally invaded enemy territory!
He stepped into the middle of a war zone, into a fallen world under the rot and ruin of sin and Satan.
His arrival in Bethlehem that first Christmas morning was an open declaration of war on Satan and his kingdom.
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This is why no sooner had he been born, Satan tried to kill him.
A demonized King Herod tried to kill him:
“Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under,”—Matt 2:16
Then years later just prior to entering His ministry, Jesus was systematically attacked directly by Satan in the wilderness in order to thwart God’s plan for our salvation.
Then after defeating the devil in the wilderness, Jesus launched His ministry.
And as soon as He did, He came into direct conflict with the demons of hell.
—Did you know that Christ spent one-third of His time preaching, one-third healing, and one-third delivering people from demons?
Luke 4:41 “Demons also were coming out of many, shouting, “You are the Son of God!”…because they knew Him to be the Christ.”
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The human race was like a collective mass of prisoners of war, and Jesus came to deliver us from Satan’s prison house!
And LISTEN: Ground zero for the war against Satan was the Cross!
At the Cross, Jesus defeated death, hell, and the grave!
At the Cross He shed His innocent blood to purchase forgiveness for our sins and reconcile us to God!
Col 1:13 “For he has rescued us out of the darkness and gloom of Satan’s kingdom and brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son,”
Not only did He come to earth that first Christmas morn to rescue us OUT of Satan’s clutches, but to bring us INTO the kingdom of His dear Son!
And in that glorious kingdom the Bible promises, “God will wipe away every tear from your eyes, and there will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain.”—Rev. 21:4
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This is the true meaning of Christmas, when God gave the greatest gift possible to mankind!