LUKE 1:26-38, 2:1-15

This is a blessed time of year. Excitement fills the air, a sense of nostalgia pervades our minds, and there is a warmth in our hearts. But let me tell you about a single mother who didn't see Christmas like that. It was 1960. Her abusive husband left her with 6 children ranging from 3 months to 7 years. She had 75 cents in her pocket, a worn out 51 Chevy and no income. After hours of job searching one day, she was hired to work in a truck-stop restaurant. She was to have the 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. shift. She made 65 cents/hour and tips and she paid $1.00/night to a high school girl who agreed to sleep on her couch to care for the children. The tires on her car were so thin she had to air them up to get to, and from, work every day. Christmas was coming and she had no money to buy any gifts for her children, so she got some red paint and repaired and restored some of their old toys to wrap as gifts. Clothing was patched and re-patched and her heart was breaking. Hers was the story of poverty and despair. Hers was a dark time. She prayed for a miracle and she desperately needed help. For mankind, it was a story of poverty and despair and darkness. God knew how mankind needed help and how hard things were. He met that need through a miracle, a mother, a manger and a message. Consider those 4 facts of Christmas this morning.

1. A MIRACLE:
1. The conception of Jesus Christ was not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. It was nothing short of a miracle. Some may wonder why the virgin conception is significant; some deny that belief in it is crucial, others deny that it could even happen. But let me share some of the significance of the event and belief in it.
1. This is a miracle. If we discount it, we might as well discount all miracles; and in discounting all miracles discount also the entire Bible.
2. The integrity of the Bible, Mary, Joseph and Jesus Christ Himself are impugned by those who deny the virginity of Mary.
3. It was essential that Jesus be God to make atonement, and that He become man to identify with our situation. He is thus God in man and man in Whom the fulness of God dwelt. Divine Fatherhood through Virginal maiden brought that about.
2. He began His days in the flesh in a miraculous manner. But His entire life among men was miraculous:
1. He performed miraculous deeds: He raised the dead, healed the sick, cast out demons, walked on water, fed the 5,000.
2. He lived a miraculous life: He was sinless perfection embodied.
3. He died a miraculous death: No one forcefully took His life. John 10:18 records His own statement, "No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father." 
4. He achieved a miraculous resurrection: Romans 1:4 assures us that He "was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, ..."
3. But for those who believe in Him, the greatest miracle is that
1. He gives abundant life: full, rich, free, and meaningful.
2. He forgives all our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
3. He makes us to be new creatures, the old having passed away.
4. He brings us into the family of God as His born-again Children.
5. He gives us the gift of eternal life.

2. A MOTHER:
1. Here we have a delightful young girl who found favor in God's eyes. She was not perfect, but God found in her characteristics that qualified her to be the vehicle through whom He would enter the world. She, herself, would need Jesus to be her Savior! So, what made Mary acceptable for this purpose?
1. She was morally pure. She was a virgin.
2. She was humble: She called herself the "bondslave of the Lord."
3. She was obedient: She said, "Be it done to me according to your word."
4. She was courageous: She was willing to face public censure, family abandonment, the termination of her betrothal, and perhaps even stoning for becoming pregnant out of wedlock.
5. She had faith: She believed the Angel's message and carried out God's purpose.
2. Stop to think about this young mother. The angel called her "Favored one!" Her cousin, Elizabeth, called her "Blessed among women!" But think of the anguish this mother would endure! H. King Oehmig said, "It is hard for us to understand how 'favored' or 'blessed' Mary was. How 'blessed' could it have been for her to be pregnant, with no human father to share the blame, in a community which regarded promiscuity in utter distaste? How 'favored' could she have been to have a son whom her hometown folk later regarded as having 'gone out of his mind (Mark 3:21)? How 'fortunate' would it have been to watch her son be repudiated by the Jerusalem leadership as a blasphemer, and then watch him die, inch by terrible inch, on the gibbet?" Yet here was a girl who said, "yes" to God's will! So may we!
3. How is it with you? If God were looking for a special person for a special reason, would He be able to say, "Hail, favored one!"? Are you of the same character as Mary? Would you, like she, faithfully, trustingly, submit?

3. A MANGER:
1. Let's disown the fairy-tale image of a sweet-smelling, pleasantly lit, warm, snug, roomy place as we often see it in the pictures with pinkish mist and halos surrounding the main characters.
1. This was a cattle feeding trough. Can you imagine laying your newborn into hay mixed with donkey slobber?
2. Far from being commodious accommodations, the place was jammed with the donkeys of travellers who had filled the inn.
3. The odor was pungent with urine, cattle dung and rotting hay.
4. Instead of gentle, caring nurses, flies probably swarmed around in droves, and mice hid in the shadows.
2. Why? What's the meaning of this? Why the manger?
1. Paul wrote, 2 Corinthians 8:9 "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich."
2. He came to the manger to identify with the lowly and humble and to sit in the seat of the outcast and forgotten.
3. Hebrews 2:17 says, "Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people."
3. In Jerusalem, the high and mighty were unaware that a Miracle was taking place in a manger just 6 miles to the south-east. They were so involved with their own agendas that they were oblivious to the arrival of God in that stable. The King of heaven was not born in a palace, but as the Lamb of God He came to a manger.

4. A MESSAGE:
1. And what a message it was! Hear it again from the lips of the angel: "And the angel said to them, Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:10, 11.
1. It is a message of fear not: He comes to calm our fears, to cast out our anxieties and to bear our apprehensions.
2. It is a message that contains Good News: How this world needs Good News! I'm tired of hearing about school shootings, corruption at every level, ...
3. It is a message of great joy: the word for great is "megas" which means "exceeding" or "really big!"
4. It is a message for all the people: rich, poor, young old, wise, foolish, learned, ignorant, people near, people far.
5. It is a message of salvation: deliverance, regeneration, preservation.
6. It is a message of the Lordship of Jesus Christ: "Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2:9-11.
7. It is a message of Glory to God: If the angels gave Him glory, how much more ought we?
8. It is a message of Peace on earth: and may we each devote ourselves to promoting harmony, peace, reconciliation and tranquility.
2. The message can be summed up in these terms:
1. John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."
2. Romans 5:1 "Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,"
3. 2 Corinthians 5:19 "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation."
4. Ephesians 2:17, 18 And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father."
5. Revelation 22:17 "And the Spirit and the bride say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears say, 'Come.' And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost"' 
3. God has sent His Living Word, Jesus Christ, to be His ultimate, paramount and supreme message of love, mercy, help and salvation!

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