God Will Always Get There (Matthew 1:18-25)

God Will Always Get There

Matthew 1:18-25

December 18^th, 2011 (Evening)

Way of Grace Church

I. The Inadequacy of Christmas Spirit

One of my new favorite holiday movies is one you’ve probably seen or at least have heard of. It’s a movie called “Elf”. I won’t bore you with the plot of the movie. It’s probably enough to say that it’s just one of those ‘human raised by one of Santa’s elf who then goes to New York City to looks for his birth father” kind of movies. You know, that kind of movie.

No, the reason I bring this movie up is to highlight a particular scene. Near the end of the film, Santa’s sleigh comes crashing down in Central Park in New York City. You see the reason Santa gives for the emergency landing has nothing to do with bad weather patterns or sick reindeer. No the ultimate problem is an overall lack of Christmas spirit. You see, in the movie, something called “Christmas spirit” is what powers Santa’s sleigh. But since recent years have seen an overall drop in “Christmas spirit”, Santa’s had to resort to using a jet turbine engine to keep His sleigh in the air. But even engines can fail.

And so, in the film, Santa cannot get there, he cannot accomplish his yearly mission, unless there is a serious increase in “Christmas spirit”.

II. The Passage: “To Fulfill What the Lord Had Spoken” (1:18-25)

I want you to keep that idea in mind as we look at part of the Christmas story as recounted by the Bible. Listen to what Matthew 1:18-25 tells us:

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. [19] And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. [20] But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. [21] She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” [22] All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: [23] “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). [24] When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, [25] but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Now there are a number of wonderful things we could highlight in this story, but I want you to think about just one verse, a verse we might move past quickly. It’s verse 22. Matthew tells us All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: All what took place? The fact that Mary, a virgin, has conceived a child in her womb by the power of God’s Spirit. This is what Joseph needs to understand, so he doesn’t label his fiancée as ‘unfaithful’.

But what Matthew is highlighting in verse 22 is that what God predicted 700 years before Jesus through the prophet Isaiah, as recorded in the book of Isaiah, chapter 7, verse 14, what God predicted way beforehand, actually did take place. Isn’t that astounding! And the New Testament is filled with predictions like that were fulfilled perfectly in and through the life of Jesus, the child of Christmas.

You see, unlike Santa Claus, God will always get there. He has and will always accomplish the work He sets out to do. You see, in the 700 years between Isaiah and Jesus, it wasn’t good cheer and holiday happiness and friendliness and hospitality and a generous spirit that kept God’s plans aloft. Those things are nice and I wish you all of them this Christmas.

But the 700 years between Isaiah and Jesus were filled with all of the same things we wrestle with all year long, even at Christmastime: selfishness, envy, anger, unforgiveness, indifference, mistrust, immorality, deception…and the list goes on. But our spiritual ‘poverty’ does not affect God’s spiritual purposes. Our weakness does not change His strength. God will always get there. His plans will not come crashing down. The very first story of the New Testament, this story, confirms that fact.

III. God’s Gift to You

No matter what this holiday means to us individually, the simple fact is that Christmas represents a perfect fulfillment of God’s plan to rescue humanity, and as such, it confirms and commends the absolute faithfulness of God to us.

This evening, God has a gift he wants to give you. You won’t find it under your tree at home. Santa won’t be bringing it. It might not even be on your wish list. It’s actually found right here in verse 21: She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” The name Jesus, or Yeshua in Hebrew, Joshua in English, the name means “God saves”, “God rescues”.

God has a gift He wants to give you. It’s the gift of being rescued. And as we’ve already seen, we can trust God because He is absolutely faithful. He will always get there, in spite of our failures and our struggles and our weaknesses. You see, this isn’t about what you or I can do, it’s about what God has done through Jesus, the most influential life ever lived on planet earth. It’s about what God wants to do in your life.

Do you recognize that you need to be rescued? Do you recognize the symptoms in your life, the symptoms of living a ‘me-centered’ life in a God-centered universe? It doesn’t work, and our lives, our world bear the scars of our brokenness. But Jesus was born to save us from that sin, from that God-neglecting heart. He was, in fact, born to die…to die in our place, to accept God’s verdict for our guilt. But Christmas and Good Friday are always followed by Easter. Jesus also rose from the dead. He beat death, and we can share in that victory.

God has a gift for you tonight, and the only thing you have to do is receive it by faith. Someone once said, “Faith is the empty hand of the heart.” I’ve noticed a lot of Christmas movies and television specials revolve around the importance of faith, the importance of believing. But the object of that belief is always Santa Claus.

But as we all know, Santa Claus can’t rescue us from a heart of despair or a troubled marriage or an addictive behavior or feelings of loneliness or from past guilt or from a life without purpose. Only Jesus can do that. True confession time: I’ve owned a lot of lemons in my life; cars, that is. And whenever I wanted to make a trip in one of those cars, I always wondered, “Will it get me there? Will it make it?” Sometimes it did, sometime I was pushing it out of traffic. Things in this world are like that, even the good things. They are not reliable. Our plans, our devices, our wisdom, will always fail us.

But God will always get us there. I love how the Apostle Paul encouraged his readers with this very truth in Philippians 1:6, And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

I pray God will begin the work in you tonight, and if He has, that your faith will be strengthened in the fact that He will complete it. Christmas is a wonderful reminder of God faithfulness to do just that.