Let me wish you a very, very happy Christmas.
In this Christmas message, I want to do really one thing.
! I want you to believe the impossible.
!
It's a miracle.
I want you to believe this morning the impossible.
Because, firstly, you cannot conceive of the Christmas story without understanding that there is a miracle,
a miraculous conception for the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you've got a Bible, make no mistake about it.
Look at verse 19 of Matthew chapter 1.
It's on, I don't know what page it's on, but you can find it.
Matthew chapter 1, and right at the start of verse 18, it says,
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.
When his mother had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together,
she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
And from the very first verse, describing the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ,
it's telling you and I that Christmas is about a miracle.
A true miracle where the ordinary cause and effect of nature has been suspended by the deity, by God.
And it's called supernature.
Or supernatural.
And thus it is with the Christmas event.
And there is no way that you can even begin to understand Christmas or Christianity
until your mind is open to the miraculous.
We all know, don't we, that there are things that are very difficult to believe.
If you're a golf fan, you might remember the Ryder Cup, where there was the miracle of Medina.
If you're a Liverpool Football Club fan, you'll remember that they were 3-0 down in the Champions League final against Istanbul.
Against, no, who was it? Against AC Milan, isn't it?
And they came back and they managed to win.
And it's called the miracle of Istanbul.
And you might have seen the film Sully.
The miracle on the Hudson River.
Where a pilot, Sully, lands a plane of 150 passengers and five crew on a river.
They all survive miraculously.
There are, aren't there, unusual natural events.
I was in the post office on Greenford Avenue this week.
There was a big queue and somebody was there for a Christmas parcel.
It was all very fraught and very tense.
They'd been in a number of times for their Christmas parcel and hadn't got it.
It wasn't their first visit.
There was lots of frustrations and tears and a fair bit of anger.
The postmistress, in a slightly exasperated tone, said,
I will look one more time.
She disappeared into what was a vortex of parcels.
And she returns with the said parcel.
Much to the joy of the woman.
Cue more tears and exasperation.
The man in the queue turns to me and said,
It's a Christmas miracle.
We all know, don't we, that very unlikely things happen.
Things that are difficult to believe.
But when it comes to the conception of the Lord Jesus Christ,
it is impossible to believe because it is an impossible event.
That a woman could get pregnant without the benefit of a man.
Here is a real miracle that the Bible is wanting you to accept.
And what we are dealing with here is, it's not just a one-off,
but actually when it comes to Christianity, there are many miracles
that you must believe in order to be a follower of the Lord Jesus.
If you discount the miraculous,
you will not be able to know the Lord Jesus,
and you will certainly not be able to walk with him.
Because you will not believe the heart of the Christian faith.
Earlier in the service, we just confessed part of the Nicene Creed.
It's 1,700 years old this year.
And it is a summary of Christian belief.
What Christians, every Christian has believed down through the ages.
And it talks about the essentials of the Christian faith.
And they are all, almost all of them, miracles.
What do we believe about God?
We believe that God is three in one.
Tri-unity, or we call it Trinity.
We believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin.
We believe that Jesus Christ died a substitutionary,
he took the place atoning death on Calvary's cross.
We believe that Jesus Christ miraculously paid for my sin,
my wrongdoing on the cross.
How can that be? It is a miracle.
And on the third day, this Jesus who died,
and he was dead, cold in the tomb,
three days later, he rose from the dead.
That is a miracle.
He rose from the dead,
and anyone who wants to follow the Lord Jesus Christ
must believe in that bodily resurrection of Jesus.
But not only that,
40 days after that,
he rose from the dead,
he ascended into heaven,
and he is seated at God's right hand,
and he rules over the universe,
and the Lord Jesus controls every blade of grass,
and every falling leaf from a tree,
and everything,
and every human being.
That is a miracle.
And not only that,
but the Bible tells us that he's coming back,
and he's going to bring perfect peace,
he's going to bring the world that we all long for.
And he'll deliver us from all evil.
And that is a miracle.
And so can you see with me
that every plank of Christianity,
all the cardinal doctrines of Christianity,
they are miraculous.
And so verse 19,
that Jesus Christ was conceived in the womb of a virgin,
it fits.
What a mystery that God intervened.
If you believe in a God,
if you believe in God,
and I assume you do,
that's why you're here this morning,
if you believe in God,
surely it's not too difficult, is it?
It's not too much to believe
that the same God who made the world
can act in his creation.
But it's more than that.
What it's telling us is that God
enters into creation
in the person of his son,
but why?
Why?
Well, it tells us,
you shall call his name Jesus,
for he will save his people from their sins.
Every single one of us
has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,
and are under his wrath and condemnation.
We have no way of earning our way
into his presence and to heaven.
We've lost that opportunity.
And so God sent his perfect son,
his only son,
who is very God of very God.
And because he is God,
his sacrifice of himself
is of infinite value,
and can cover your sin and mine.
And his righteous life
is of infinite value.
And so he can
take his perfect record
and give it to us.
And we enter into heaven
because of his miraculous substitution.
His atonement,
it is the wonderful grace of God
in giving us his one and only son.
It begins with a miracle.
But then secondly,
there's the problem with miracles,
isn't there?
Verse 20,
even good people,
kind people,
just people like Joseph
have a really hard time with miracles.
Joseph had a hard time with miracles.
When Joseph heard,
he was a just man,
he was a kind man.
When he heard that she was pregnant
by the Holy Spirit,
it says this,
it says that he was a just man
and unwilling to put it in shame,
he resolved to divorce her quietly.
Engagement then was different
to engagement now.
Engagement then was something
that you needed a divorce
to take a break from.
A biblical engagement
required a divorce to break.
And so Joseph,
who's made this promise to Mary,
and Mary with her father
has named that promise to Joseph,
she seems to have broken it,
doesn't she,
by being unfaithful to him.
Joseph doesn't want to put her
to public shame.
He decides rather than
doing it publicly,
rather than going to court
and embarrassing her,
he will do it in a kind of
amicable agreement
that won't embarrass her publicly.
He's a good man,
he's a kind man,
but he's going to divorce her.
It doesn't take,
does it,
a genius of logic
to figure out
that Mary has been messing around,
she's been sleeping about.
Unless, of course,
you believe in miracles.
And verse 21,
if you look there,
Joseph is immediately challenged
with the miracle of Christmas.
We'll see whether he believes
the miracle by what he does
after he gets word.
But that night,
in a dream,
an angel comes to him,
again, miraculous,
and explains to him,
and says to him,
Joseph,
son of David,
don't be afraid,
don't fear,
to take Mary as your wife,
for what is conceived in her
is from the Holy Spirit.
Again, it's really clear,
isn't it?
A virgin conception,
a virgin birth,
and she will bear a son,
she's going to have a baby,
and you will call his name Jesus,
for he will save his people
from their sins.
You'll call his name Jesus
because his very name
means that God saves.
He will save his people
from their sins.
And so, Joseph,
you are to take Mary home,
and you are to adopt Jesus,
and you are to rear him
as your son,
and in his circumcision,
you are to give him his name.
And I'm giving you the name.
You're the name in Jesus,
for he will save his people
from their sins.
It's some dream, isn't it?
And he is told that
this child is going to fulfill
what was promised
centuries before.
Behold, the virgin
shall conceive
and bear a son,
and they will call his name
Emmanuel,
which means God with us.
So, Joseph has the dream.
He has the word of God.
And Joseph is faced
with this great dilemma.
What will he do?
And so, the miracle,
the problem with the miracle,
and then the deeper question
is this.
Will Joseph believe it?
And then the question
for you and I this morning
is will you and I believe it?
And you can tell, can't you,
if Joseph is going to believe it
because he'll behave
one way or the other.
If he doesn't believe the dream,
if he doesn't believe the angel,
well, he'll divorce her quietly.
But if he believes
the mystery of the incarnation,
if he believes this miracle,
he will obey the angel.
In verse 24,
we're giving the answer.
Look at verse 24.
And when Joseph woke
from his sleep,
he did as the angel
of the Lord commanded him.
And he took his wife,
but he knew her not,
he didn't sleep with her,
until she'd given birth
to a son.
And he called his name,
Jesus.
Joseph believed the miracle.
So let me ask you,
do you believe in the miraculous?
Do you believe
that God,
in his perfect will
and purposes,
suspends the cause and effect
that we know in nature
in order to accomplish
his deepest and greatest purpose?
Do you believe
that God
acted directly
in his world
on your behalf?
Because he wants you
to be present with him
for all eternity.
That God sent his one
and only son
to be conceived
in the womb
of a sinful woman,
to live a perfect life
that you can ever live,
and to lay down his life
on the cross
for you.
And to be raised
from the dead
for you
and to ascend
into heaven
to prepare a place
for you.
And if you believe that,
well that's going to
affect your life,
isn't it?
It's going to affect
my life.
It's a beautiful thing,
isn't it?
Joseph woke up.
He did as the angel
commanded.
And you can tell
this morning,
whether you believe
this or not.
How can you tell
whether you believe it?
Well,
you will be
one of the ones
who seek
to obey
the word of God.
Not perfectly,
none of us
do it perfectly,
Joseph didn't do it perfectly.
But repentantly
and seriously,
we seek to do
what the Lord commands.
We seek to do it
in our financial lives,
in our sexual lives,
in our relationships.
We seek to forgive
those who've sinned
against us
because the Lord
has forgiven us
so much.
And we believe
in the miracle
of the incarnation.
We seek to honour
the authorities
that God has put
in our lives
because God has
put those authorities
there.
and we believe
in the miracle
of God's
undeserved favour
to us.
And so it goes
into every relationship
and every opportunity
like water
on concrete.
It gets into
every crack.
So the grace of God
and the kindness of God
and the miracles of God
go into every
kind of corner
of our lives
in every relationship
and every opportunity
to obey him.
And those who believe
in the miraculous
rise up and do his will
because they know God.
And they know that God
has sent his son
in order to save them
from their sins.
Do you believe
in miracles?
Do you believe
in the Lord?
I wonder whether
this morning
this Christmas day
you've suddenly realised
that Christianity
is not about
asking you to try harder
and asking you
to do your best.
It is about God
intervening in history
and in your life
and in mine.
And maybe you've been
considering it for a while
maybe you've been in church
all your life
but maybe today
is the very day
when he says to you
come to me
because I am
the miraculous Lord
who can deliver you
from your sins.
And so bring all
your heartache
and bring all
your rebellion
and bring all
your sorrow
and bring your struggles
and bring your confusion
and bring your rebellion
and bring the things
that you can't live
with yourself anymore
and bring all
your regrets
and come to him
and give them to him.
because the Lord Jesus
who came as a baby
says to you this morning
come to me
and trust me
trust me
like Joseph did
many centuries ago
and because of this
Jesus was taken
because Joseph trusted
he was taken to Bethlehem
in the womb of his mother
he was born
in a humble stable
and the angels
cried out
glory to God
in the highest
and peace to those
on whom his favour rests
and to know that
to know that peace of God
to know the miraculous
that is the greatest
Christmas of all
and the best book
I've read this year
is written by a guy
called Rob Parsons
there's an article
on him on the BBC
I want to recommend it to you
it was put up this morning
and Rob and Diane Parsons
lived in Cardiff
and it was 1976
and on Christmas Eve
in 1976
a man knocked on their door
Ronnie Lockwood
he was a homeless man
and Ronnie Lockwood
on that night
asked to come in
he stayed
until 2021
from 1976
to 2021
a homeless man
they'd live with
it's an amazing story
you'll cry your eyes out
if you read the book
it's just beautiful
but it's a beautiful picture
of what God has done
it's a beautiful picture
of the gospel
and that in the miracle
of the incarnation
what God has done
is he's opened up
his home to you
and he says to you today
come in
Jesus says
come to me
and you will find rest
rest
come to me
and you will find hope
all because of the miracle
of Jesus Christ
let's pray
God bless you
!
God bless you
!