Christmas at Embassy
Tim Rivers | December 24, 2023
Listen
Transcription
Everyone got your shopping done? If not to worry, we still got a few hours left. It ain't over until it's over y'all, and if it don't work out between now and tomorrow, just give that New Year's gift
Or surprise them on December 27th with a special gift. I promise you they won't complain If it's good. Well, Merry Christmas y'all. I'm so glad that you are here. If you are a guest with us, if you're visiting with us, we want to say welcome to Embassy City Church. On behalf of Janice, myself and the rest of the Embassy City family, we just want to say how grateful we are that you have made the decision to spend your Christmas with us today. If you're watching online, thank you so much for tuning in. I just want to reiterate before we get into this word that next week we will not have service. Now if you show up and there was light, look at this. Isn't that like, God, if you do show up, we will not be here. Now you can have service by yourself out in the parking lot with whoever else showed up, but we will not have service here. But the next week, January the seventh, we're going to kick off the new year in this place and I promise you, you don't want to miss it because it's going to be a good time in the house of God. And then January the eighth, we're kicking off 21 days of prayer and fasting. How many enjoyed it this year?
If you haven't yet make plans to participate in prayer and fasting, and I promise you, your life will not be the same at the end of the 21 days. I promise you, because there's something that happens when you set aside time just to focus on spiritual things. Something happens in your life. So make plans for that. Alright, grab your Bibles. Let's go to Matthew chapter one, the book of Matthew chapter one. I'm looking out here and y'all look good. Come on now. You done put you a Christmas best on looking good. Matthew chapter one, verse number 18.
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 and her husband, Joseph being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 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 as from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife but knew her not until she had given birth to a son and he called his name Jesus. Anybody love Christmas in here?
So for the next little while, I want to preach on this thought, the marvelous wonder of Christmas, the marvelous wonder of Christmas. Heavenly Father, we are so grateful, so thankful that we get to be in your presence and in your house. I pray in the next few moments as we dig into your word, you would give us ears to hear, a heart to receive and a mind to understand what your word would speak to us. Help us to celebrate Christmas and not lose sight of the real reason for the season. And it is you. So do what only you can do. Keep us safely in your arms. Help us to enjoy our time with family and friends and help us to receive every gift that we ask for Jesus' name. Amen. Anybody want every gift that you ask for?
Somebody'll be making some noise right now. Let your family know that you want everything, not just partial blessings. I want everything that God has for me. The Christmas is such an amazing time because I think that Christmas allows us to slow life down and really take inventory of the fact that we made it through the year. Can y'all believe it's December you made it? The inmate thought he was going to take some of y'all out in February, but you made it to March then he thought, maybe I'll take him out in May, but you made it to July. He said, for sure I'm going to get 'em in September. But now it's December and you get to close another year with the goodness of God. Oh yeah.
And it also is a time when we get to stop and consider this story called Christmas. Now, what's interesting about Christmas is that we are highlighting the birth of Christ. But if you think about birth in general, there are 385,000 births that happen each and every single day. That breaks down to about 267 births per minute and four and a half births per second. Don't ask me about the half, although some of your parents are like this makes a lot of sense. I think I got a half that comes out to be 140 million births per year. That's a lot of babies, but no birth has so dramatically changed the course of history and had an impact on the world. Like the birth that we're celebrating this weekend, there are two events that really define history in general and that is the death, beer and resurrection of Jesus. And the second is his birth. Now here's the thing we have to understand. There would be no Easter if there was no Christmas
And if there was no Easter, Christmas would've just been another day. But the birth of Jesus so literally impacted the world that at his birth history and time and chronological order was divided into two parts BC and ad before Christ and ano domini, which means the year of our Lord. So right now, whether you're a believer or not, you are living in the impactful year marked by the birth of Christ. We are now living in the 2020 third year of our Lord. Christmas changes everything. Now here's the thing, when we think about Christmas, the reason why Christmas is so significant and it's such a moment in history is because all of the marvelous wonders that surround the story of Christmas. And we could spend all day today talking about the different marvelous wonders that surround the story. But have you ever just stopped to consider the magnificence of the birth story?
Every birth is amazing. If you're a parent in this place or you've been around a baby that is born, you know that every birth is significant. Every birth is a marvel. It's almost beyond human understanding how that an egg is fertilized by a sperm and then it turns into an embryo and a fetus and then it grows and then out comes a baby. Every baby that's born is a marvelous wonder, but no birth is quite like the birth of Christ because the birth of Christ was the culmination of prophecies that were foretold about him for thousands of years. In fact, the first mention that Christ would be born was to eve. When God looks at Eve after the fall of Adam and Eve and God looks at Eve and he says, Hey, listen, you're going to deal with some consequences of your sin, but I'm giving you hope because one day the seed of the woman will bruise the head of the serpent.
There is a savior that will be born. And then that word from God was further clarified to Abraham when God revealed to Abraham that the Savior to be born will come through the lineage of Israel. And then it was further clarified to Jacob when God said that the Savior is going to be born through the tribe of Judah. And then it was further clarified to Isaiah when Isaiah revealed that Christ would be born through the virgin and then it was further clarified through Micah in terms of the location. Micah prophesied that it would be in Bethlehem, and then it was further prophesied and clarified through Daniel when Daniel began to reveal to us the time period in which the Christ would be born. And then Hosea goes on to clarify and prophesy some more that once the Christ has been born, he will have to escape into Egypt.
Now think about this. All the prophecies, all the predictions, all the words from God were given to different people over a span of 2000 years. Think about how seamless the prophecies had to mesh together in order for the Christ to be born on Christmas exactly through the lineage of Abraham, from the tribe of Judah, from the household of David in the city of Bethlehem, and he escaped into Egypt. This is a marvelous wonder. If you just consider the birth story of Christmas, it's enough for us to celebrate. If you just think about how marvelous and how wonderful just the story of his birth is, it's enough for us to open up presents presence. But let's consider another wonder of the Christmas story because when Jesus was born, he wasn't just a human baby born to a human family, but the Bible tells us that the nature of Jesus, the personhood of Jesus is that Jesus was not just a man, but he was both God and man.
He was God incarnate in human form. Isaiah prophesied about this when he said, for unto us, a child is born and to us, a son is given and the government shall be upon a shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the prince of peace. Now, you may be wondering, how is this even possible? Well, Mary thought the same thing when Gabriel came to her and he told her that she would bear the son of God. She wanted to know how will this happen? And Gabriel begins to tell her that this will be possible because you'll be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit. Meaning then that the wonder and the marvel of Jesus' birth is wrapped in the fact that Mary, who was a virgin, was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and then conceived within her womb the son of God and the son of man. Jesus was both God and man. We call this in theology. We call this the hypostatic union, which literally means that within Jesus was both the nature of God and the nature of man. He was fully God and fully man. They never mixed together, but yet Jesus housed within himself, both natures, both realities, both the divine and the human, which means that Jesus could feel like us and yet he could do something about it.
Think about it. In his humanity as a man, he would grow weary, but as God, he would say, come unto me all you who are weary and I will give you rest. As a man, he would get thirsty, but as God, he would say, if you drink from the water, which I shall give you, you'll never thirst again. As a man, he would grow hungry, but as God, he could say, I am the bread of life as a man. He would weep because his friend died, but as God, he would say, Lazarus, come forth as a man. He would grow weary and sleep in a boat, but as God, he could get up and say, peace be still.
He was not just a man, but he was God and man, it's the hypostatic union. In fact, Colossians chapter one, verse 15 says this about Jesus. He was the image of the invisible God. Hebrews chapter one, verse three calls him the express image, which means the exact copy of God. He was God revealed to us in human form. Philippians chapter two, verse six says it like this, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men. The wonder of Christmas is the fact that Jesus is God. We're not just celebrating another birth of another human. We are celebrating the fact that God himself left his throne in heaven, robed himself in the body of a baby and was born and we could stop right there.
We could stop at the story of his birth and recognize it as a marvelous wonder. We could celebrate and go home. We could celebrate the fact and consider the fact of the marvelous wonder of the personhood of Jesus, and that would be enough to celebrate Christmas. But perhaps I want to focus in on what I would think is the greatest, most marvelous, miracle and wonder of all, and that is when Matthew pins the words echoing what Isaiah said about Jesus in Matthew chapter one, verse number 23, when Isaiah was moved on by God, he wrote about this in, Matthew echoes it and he says this, they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. This is significant because throughout the history of the Bible, there have been many names given to Jesus in his prediction of when he is to come, there were many descriptions given unto the one who is to come.
In fact, in Genesis and Genesis, he's the seed of the woman in Exodus. He's our pass over lamb in Leviticus. He's our high priest in numbers. He's our cloud by day and our pillar by fire by night, and Deuteronomy, he's the prophet like unto Moses and Joshua, he's the captain of our salvation and judges. He's our judge and law giver and Ruth, he's our kinsman redeemer and Samuel, he's the trusted prophet in kings and Chronicles. He's our reigning king and Ezra, he's our faithful scribe and Nehemiah, he's the rebuilder of the broken walls and Esther, he's our Mor Toki and job. He's our day spring from on high in Psalms. He's our good shepherd In Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, he's our wisdom and the song of Solomon. He's the lover of our soul. And Isaiah, he's the prince of peace, and Jeremiah, he's the righteous branch in Lamentations.
He's the weeping prophet in Ezekiel. He's the wonderful four faced man in Daniel. He's the fourth man in the fiery furnace and Hosea, he's the faithful husband and Joel, he's the Baptizer of the Holy Spirit and Amos, he's our burden bearer in Oriah. He's the one that comes mighty to save. And Jonah, he's our resurrection, hope and Micah, he's the babe born in Bethlehem and near him, he is the avenger of the Lord's elect. In Habakkuk, he's God's evangelist and Alia, he's our savior and Haggai, he's the restorer of God's lost heritage and Zacharia, he's the fountain opened for UNC cleanliness and Malachi, he's the son of righteousness rising with healing in his wings. All these are descriptions of the one who wants to come, but everything changed on Christmas because up until this time, they just had descriptions of what they thought God would be based on what he was to them, he was Jehovah Jireh. That's why they called him the provider. He was Jehovah Nisay. He was Jehovah Rafa, but everything changed on Christmas because for the very first time in history, he was not just called something. He was called the one named Emmanuel, which means God is now with us.
Before Christmas, God just existed in the figment of people's imagination. They just described him based on what they thought he would be, but on Christmas morning, God himself took on the form of man, descended down into earth, wrapped himself in flesh. He was born of a virgin named Mary. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes. He was born in a borrowed stable. They laid him in a man. This is God. The wonderful wonder, the mysterious wonder of Christmas is that God is now with us. The marvel of Christmas is not the presents, although I love presents. It's not the food, although I love to eat. It's not Santa Claus, although he's warm and fuzzy. It's not the elf on the shelf, although he's hilarious. It's not. It's the fact that he who knew no sin became sin. The marvelous wonder of Christmas is that the word became flesh and dropped among us. The marvelous wonder of Christmas is that the great I am took on human form and came in the form of certain why, so that he could feel what you feel no longer do. I have to just describe my pain, but Jesus knows what it's like to feel my pain, but we have a high priest that is touched by the feelings of our infirmity. Why? Because he's Emmanuel, and here's what I love about Christmas. Christmas is a reminder that everything that God is, he is with me.
He is Jehovah Jireh. He is my provider. He is Jehovah Niecy. He is the one who is and is to come. He's the alpha and Omega. He's the beginning and the end. He's able sacrifice. He's Noah's rainbow. He's Abraham's Ram. He's Isaac's well, he's Jacob's ladder. He's Moses' Rod. He's David Star. He's the lily of the valley. He's the farest of 10 thousand. He's the honey and the rock. He's the wonderful counselor. He's the mighty God. He's the everlasting father. He's the rose of Sharon. He's the bread. When I'm hungry, he's my water. When I'm thirsty, he's my direction. When I'm left, he's my lawyer. When I'm in trouble, he's everything, and the best part is that he's Emmanuel. He right here with us. I know you came to hear a sweet little message, three points and a poem, but I come to preach and tell somebody that the marvelous wonder is that you don't have to relate to a God who cannot be related to, but you serve a God who descended down from heaven. He left his wonderful throne, the streets of gold, the crystal sea. He walked through the pearly gates and he embodied himself to be among us.
The wonder of Christmas is this, that he wasn't just Emmanuel 2000 years ago,
But he's still Emanuel today. The reason why we celebrate Christmas is because he didn't just come and leave us alone, but he said to his disciples, lo, I am with you always. In other words, he is perpetually Emmanuel. It may have started 2000 years ago when he was born, but he has never left you. He will never forsake you. The reason why you made it all the way to December the 24th is because Emmanuel was with you the whole time in that car wreck. That should have taken you out. Emmanuel was right there in the passenger seat when you got that bad report from the doctor. Emmanuel was right in the hospital room. When your friends left you and forsook you, Emmanuel, what's right there beside you? He knows what you go through. That means any pain that I go through, I go through with Emmanuel, any type of sorrow I face, I face with Emmanuel. Any type of hardship that I go through, I go through with Emmanuel. Every type of joy I go through, I go through with Emmanuel. The job that I got, I got because of Emmanuel. The peace I have, I got because of Emmanuel,
My pep, in my step, I have because of Emmanuel. The world didn't give it. Hey, preaching the word tried to take it away, but he's still Emmanuel. Somebody ought to give Emmanuel some praise in this house. Come on, this is the end of the year. You ought to give God praise for being the manual in your life. Merry Christmas. The Savior has been born. Some of y'all know some y'all giving praise like you know what I'm talking about. I dare you to give God a five second praise based on him being Emmanuel in your life. When I think about all the things that I've been through this year, this I give God praise for being Emmanuel through the storms of life. He's Emmanuel through my highs and lows. He's Emmanuel in the valley. He's Emmanuel on the mountaintop. He's Emmanuel. When I'm alone, he's Emmanuel. When I'm surrounded by friends, he's still Merry Christmas. Oh my Lord. Don't get it twisted. It is not about the Christmas presents under the tree, although I look forward to opening some, but the greatest gift that was unwrapped was actually wrapped when Jesus showed up. Oh, preach. It changed
Everything. The greatest revelation that you can receive during Christmas is Emmanuel, I can walk into 2024 with my blue velvet suit on with confidence no matter what I've gone through, because I'm walking in the 24, the same way I'm walking out of 23 with Emmanuel, God is with us. Somebody ought to be thankful that God is with you. You don't have to do it on your own.
God is with you. Somebody give God praise.
My God, I could preach all day, but we got to go eat. We got to get on these presents, y'all, but this is the last service of this year. I wonder how you going to go out. Hey, this is your last chance here in Embassy City. If you would to praise them, you might as well go ahead and do it, but if you going to praise him, you better praise him. Right? I know this is probably the most unusual Christmas service you've been to, but there should be no time like Christmas where we are reminded of the goodness of God toward us. 10 seconds and give God praise right now, 10 seconds,
9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.
Come on. Give God praise in this place if you love him.
Merry Christmas. Hey, Hey.
I know God is a good God.
Oh my Lord.
I got to go, y'all. I got to go, but I'm telling you, let this Christmas be a reminder that you don't have to do this on your own. You've got Emmanuel. Next time the enemy comes and tries to trip you up, just say, Emmanuel. It may be April of next year. You got to remind them of Emmanuel because here's what I love about God. It's not a historic event, but he's still with us right now, and I would be remiss because there are some people that are tuned in that may be here today that you come to church maybe twice a year, Easter and Christmas, and I'm glad. I'm glad that you're here. I really am, but I would be remiss if I told you I'm beautiful Christmas story and I set you away without giving you the opportunity to make sure that you know Emmanuel for yourself. So if you're in this place, if you could all stand to our feet, if you're in this place and you don't know Jesus as Emmanuel, he's not with you, then this is the perfect time and opportunity to make sure that you shore it up so that you can walk into 24 with the confidence
That Emmanuel is walking with you because 2024 is not going to be without its challenges. Some of y'all are about to walk into a heavy Christmas. Maybe your family's not together. Maybe you've got some awkwardness. Maybe you are dealing with loss during this time and it's tough for you even in the midst of your sorrow and your grief. It's so much better when you have Emmanuel because there is nothing that he cannot feel. So if you're in this place and you're unsure if you know Jesus, Emmanuel or not, I want you to all cross this place. Every head bowed, every eye closed, and if you're in this place and you don't know Jesus as Emmanuel, God with us, God with you, then I want you to pray with me so we can shore it up this Christmas. Repeat that for me. Said, dear Jesus, I recognize my need for you. I recognize for this Christmas, this Christmas, I realize that you are Emmanuel God with us. I believe that you came, that you died, that you were buried, and that you rose again and you did it all for me. Now, Jesus, forgive me of my sins. Come into my heart and be Emmanuel. God with me. I surrender everything to you in Jesus' name. Amen. Come on, let's celebrate all those who prayed that prayer for the first time. When you came in, you received one of these, a little candle. You can go ahead and grab those right now and go ahead and turn it on. The switches on the bottom. I know some of y'all probably twist in this mode. It's okay. No judgment. We all did it. If you don't have a can of there estimates that are coming down the aisle, just wave your hand. They'll make sure that you get one. What we wanted to do is we wanted to close the service out with another moment of worship because as you enter into Christmas, remember God is with you and the trials that you face, any tribulation that you go through, God is with you. He is with you. He is with you. Even when I don't feel it, he's still with me. Even when it doesn't seem like it, he's still with me. Even when I stumble, he's with me. When I make it, he's with me. He's with me always, even to the end of the age. So we want to close this service with worship. Dear Jesus,
One more time. We want to say thank you, thank you.
Thank you Lord for becoming Emmanuel God with us. It's a marvelous wonder of Christmas, and I pray as we gathered around with family or friends, I pray that we would recognize you as the true reason for the season. Help us to enjoy the gifts. Help us to enjoy the food. Help us to enjoy the lasts. Help us to enjoy the good time that we have together while simultaneously recognizing that we would have none of this if it wasn't for you. Should we give your name the praise, the glory, the honor because you are worthy of it in Jesus' name and everybody say amen.
