Sermon Extras

So This is Christmas Week 3: Matthew 1:18-24

REVIEW> We are asking this honest question amidst the tension of this season, “Why would God want to come here?” To Reveal his Glory, to Restore his creation. 

ILL> As many of you know, we had a fire at our offices last week. It was scary but nobody was hurt and the damage was minimal. What has stood out to me are the firefighters and the first responders. They were there so quickly and so efficiently. The first thing that they did before we got there was kick in the door to make sure that the building wasn’t empty and that nobody was in there. They literally kicked in a door, to go into a building that was on fire to get anyone out. Literally, their job is to rescue people. 

APP> As I was sitting back, helpless watching them do what they do, I, for a quick second said to myself, “Who would want to go in there?!” Which is the exact same question we have been asking over these past weeks. 

CONTEXT> Our passage today tells us one of the answers to that question. Did you see it there, it’s the most Un-Christmas and yet SO-Christmas verse, “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for because he will save his people from their sin.” v21 You see, Before Christmas is a celebration, Christmas is a crisis. 

Crisis- A crisis is a stage in a sequence of events at which the trend of all future events, for better or for worse, is determined.” It’s all right there in the verse, there are people who need saving, and there is a savior! 

Big Idea > To Rescue His People. 

APP> This statement doesn’t actually answer any questions, if anything it should cause more questions. I want to ask two simple questions that will help us learn what this Christmas crisis means. 

1) What is sin? 

• There are a number of words in the bible that are used in reference to sin. They mean “missing the mark” or transgression in a relationship. We always say that it is massively important to let the bible interpret the bible: 
• “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.” 1 John 3:4 The word “lawlessness” here is anomia, which means “an utter disregard for God and His laws.” Most likely when we think of sin, we think of, breaking God’s laws and “doing bad things” so then… the answer must be… doing good things. 

*ILL> For this, we will need to go into the theological deep water with… Calvin and Hobbes (PIC) Hobbes: But maybe good is more than the absence of bad. Calvin: See, that’s what worries me. 

• “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” Isiah 64:6

• “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Psalm 51:5

• “Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement; he is a rebel who must lay down his arms.” C.S.Lewis

APP> Where does all of this come from? There are over 1,100 chapters in the entire Bible, and only 4 chapters are not in the context of sin, the first two and the last two. “But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:5-6

APP> Sin is the self-absorbed desire to reject God in ordered to be God. Sin is the universal human condition

2) What is the solution?

“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus…” Jesus’ name finds its Hebrew roots in the name of Joshua, which literally means, “God saves.” You see in the Bible, your name was your identity. Here, God gives his identity!

“Therefore, the name Jesus, is perfect. Salvation is of the Lord! That’s the name. That’s the meaning of the whole Bible. That’s the whole gospel, complete. You don’t make yourself a Christian. You can’t make yourself right with God. Salvation is not of you. Salvation is not of that or of that. Salvation is completely of the Lord. You can’t make yourself a Christian. You are what you are completely by grace when you’re a Christian. This radical grace comes to you in the ordinary.”- Tim Keller

APP> The solution for a self-absorbed humanity is a self sacrificing God. 

The gospel is the good news that God is rescuing his people through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

•  We fight for glory, Jesus gave up his glory
• We would die to fend for our own, Jesus died to give us life. 

Close> “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:23-24

•  When you think about God saving us by grace, I want you to think of some being rescued from drowning.

• God doesn’t show good advice, God in christ jump in the water (incarnation)

• God gives up his life for ours.