The Christmas Story

So there's a verse in Matthew's gospel, Matthew Chapter 2, and I just read it concerning Jesus. Just at the very last verse it says:

"And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene."

So it says Jesus would be called a Nazarene and it says that it was as spoken by the prophets. But there is nowhere in the Old Testament where it says that Jesus would be a Nazarene. You won't find that. So what is Matthew saying here?

Well, different people have different ideas, but the point is that Nazareth was an insignificant place. It was a place you didn't boast about coming from. You could boast about coming from Jerusalem, but Nazareth was a place in the north and nobody thought anything of it.

And the point is this: Jesus, though he is God, he became like you and me and became a person of no significance whatsoever. He lived most of his life in obscurity and total insignificance.

It's incredible when you think about it that Jesus is God's answer for your sin and my sin. But more than that, Jesus is God's answer concerning the whole evil—everything that the devil has done. He's attacked the Throne of God and Jesus is God's answer to win the victory over evil.

Do you understand that? So God did two things through the cross: one is that he took your sin and my sin on the cross, but also he overcame principalities and powers and destroyed the works of the devil. So Jesus was victorious over evil.

But the point is that God didn't do it by sending an army. He sent his son to become a baby in an insignificant place to an insignificant family.

Mary's Story

So the story begins with Mary as just a young girl. She's about 16, I don't know how old she was, but she's obviously a really good girl and she's looking forward to getting married. She's engaged, she's betrothed, and she's got a good man, obviously quite a bit older than her, and he's a handyman. It says in the Bible that he's a carpenter, but the word actually means handyman—a man that you call upon when you need something sorted out.

Mary's just an ordinary young lady, and then suddenly everything changes because one day the angel Gabriel comes to her and says, "You're highly favored." And then he says to her, "You're going to have a baby, and that the baby will be called Jesus. He will be the son of the most high."

And Mary says, "Well how can this happen? I've never known a man." And Gabriel says that the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you will bring forth a son. And he says that God will give to him the throne of his father David—he would be King, King of kings of course.

Elizabeth and Zacharias

And then Gabriel says this to her: "Your near relative Elizabeth, she is also having a baby." And the point with Elizabeth was that Elizabeth was an older woman. She had gone past the time of having children, and obviously she and her husband had been praying much for a child.

Her husband Zacharias was a priest, and when he'd been in the temple one time offering incense, the angel Gabriel had come to him in the temple and told him, "Your prayers have been answered." Though they'd given up, God remembered their prayers.

So always remember this: when you pray, you might not get an answer immediately. In fact, you might not get an answer for years, but God remembers those prayers.

The Walk of Shame

When Mary went back to Nazareth, she went back with a baby in her womb. As that began to show, suddenly you can imagine the people in Nazareth—they look at this young girl and they think, "There she was, engaged to a good man, and look, she's gone away and come back in that state."

You can imagine people walked across the other side of the road to avoid her as it began to show more and more. She had to walk the walk of shame because of how the Lord was using her. Because of the way that God had called her, it didn't give her honor in her hometown. She had to walk the walk of shame.

And she could never say to people, "This wasn't any man that did this"—they wouldn't believe her anyway. In actual fact, for the whole of Jesus's life, they remembered in Nazareth that Mary had come back after being away for 3 months pregnant. They passed it on to the Pharisees, the religious leaders, and they would always accuse Jesus of being illegitimate, of being one that was born out of wedlock.

The Birth in Bethlehem

As the time comes for the baby to be born, there's a taxation decree, and Joseph had to go back to Bethlehem to register the family. I think they just wanted to get out of Nazareth because in Nazareth they were walking the walk of shame, and they didn't want this baby born in Nazareth anyway.

They come down to Bethlehem, and the Bible says that there was no room in the Inn—but that word "inn" actually means guest chamber. So probably it could have even been relatives, but they couldn't actually stay in the house because the house was full. But at the back of the house, they would have had a place where you could sleep.

While they're there on that night, suddenly the contractions happen. Mary, obviously a young woman, everything happens fast. The baby's born and everything seems very normal. They wrap the baby in swaddling clothes and put him in a manger—a little trough that's perfect for a cot.

The Shepherds

As they're settling down, not far away in the fields there are shepherds keeping sheep. Those sheep would have been inspected to make sure they were perfect—they would have been taken to the temple and used for sacrifice. They were used to looking at those sheep to check them, making sure there was no blemish.

It's to those shepherds that the angel of the Lord appears and says, "Behold I give you tidings of great joy because today in the city of David, Bethlehem, is born a Savior, Christ the Lord." And suddenly they see a whole host of angels worshiping and glorifying the Lord.

Those shepherds who were used to inspecting the sheep for sacrifice, the Passover lambs, now they say, "Come let us go and see this." And now they're going to go and see God's Passover Lamb—the Lamb that God has given to take away the sins of the world.

Simeon in the Temple

After 40 days, Mary and Joseph make their way up to Jerusalem to the temple to dedicate the baby before the Lord. Instead of a priest coming, there's an old man there—Simeon. He'd been told by the Spirit of God that he will not die until he sees the Lord's Messiah.

Suddenly Simeon goes up and takes the baby in his arms and says, "Now I have seen the Lord's Messiah. I've seen him. Now I can die in peace." But he said, "This is a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy People Israel."

When Jesus was in that Temple, Jesus was the glory that Haggai the prophet was talking about. When Simeon took that baby, he was saying, "This is the glory—the glory of thy People Israel. The glory that they didn't have—here is the glory. It's Jesus."

The Wise Men

Far away, there were wise men who came from somewhere like Arabia. They looked up in the sky and saw something supernatural—a star. They were probably familiar with the writings of Daniel, who spoke about 70 weeks—490 years until Messiah the prince would come.

When they saw that star, they said, "This must be the time that Daniel the Prophet has been speaking about—the time when the King of the Jews would be born, the one who would come to save his people." So they made their way to Jerusalem.

They came into Jerusalem asking, "Where is he that is born King of the Jews?" The whole city was troubled because there was one king of the Jews—Herod—and he was a monster. The religious leaders quoted Micah 5:2, saying the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.

As the wise men went towards Bethlehem, they looked up and saw that star again. They rejoiced because that star was like a GPS—it took them exactly to the house where Mary and the baby were.

Flight to Egypt

The wise men gave gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They were warned in a dream not to return to Herod. Then God warned Joseph to get out of Bethlehem because Herod would seek to kill the child.

The wonderful thing is that they weren't poor anymore—they'd just been given gold, frankincense, and myrrh. God supplied for them. When God sends you somewhere, God will supply for you.

Herod was furious when he found out the wise men hadn't returned. He ordered his soldiers to go to Bethlehem and kill every child under 2 years old. Just because you are walking in the will of God and doing what God wants you to do, it does not mean that everything around you is going to be wonderful—because we are in a spiritual warfare.

Return to Nazareth

When Herod died, the Lord told Joseph it was okay to return to Israel. But when they heard that Herod's son Archelaus was ruling, the Lord told them not to go back to Bethlehem. So they went back to Nazareth—"that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene."

Though Jesus was equal with God, yet he made himself of no reputation. He made himself a totally insignificant person living in an insignificant place. Even when Pilate wrote on the cross "Jesus of Nazareth"—there's a mocking there. Not Jesus of Jerusalem or some great city, but Jesus of Nazareth.

The Gospel for the Poor

The wonderful thing is that the gospel is given to the poor—not just the poor in money, but the poor in spirit. Mary said under the anointing of the Spirit that He sends the rich and the high and mighty away, but He reaches out to the humble and the lowly.

"He lifts the poor out of the dust and lifts the needy from the dunghill—the rubbish dump—to set them amongst princes, even the princes of his people."

God takes the poor out of the dust of their sin, their loneliness, their emptiness—and He lifts them to set them amongst princes. God defeated the devil not by some mighty army, but by a baby in an insignificant place to an insignificant family.

God chooses the foolish things of the world—the people that are "not" are the ones that God chooses to be his mighty men. The ones that think they can't do something are the ones that God says, "You're the one I'm going to use because you're the one that my power can work through."

"For God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise."

Father, we just thank you for Jesus. We thank you that Jesus came. At this Christmas time, as we think of this message of Christmas, Lord we just thank you that you had it all planned from eternity past. And Lord, we just thank you that Jesus became totally insignificant so that we can have eternal life. Father, we just say thank you Lord for this wonderful gift, this unspeakable gift of your salvation through your Son. In Jesus' name, Amen.