[ Back ] [ Home ] [ Next ]

LESSONS FROM THE NATIVITY -

GOD WORKS THROUGH THE WILLING J14bPV07

Luke 1:26-56; Matthew 1:18-25;2:13-15

Bill Adler wrote a book once that consisted of children’s letters to Santa Claus. Here are some of the letters: "Dear Santa: Last year you didn’t leave me anything good. The year before last year, you didn’t leave me anything good. This year is your last chance. – Alfred. Dear Santa: My baby brother would like a cowboy suit. Do you have one with diapers? – Andy. Dear Santa; In my house there are three boys. Richard is 2. Jeffrey is 4. Norman is 7. Richard is good sometimes. Jeffrey is good sometimes. Norman is good all the time. (signed) Norman." - But no one is "good" all the time – that’s why Jesus came.

The first Christmas is a story of the eternal God becoming humbling himself to come and eventually die a cruel death on a cross. Sure the angels shouted his coming. Kings came to worship him. But the true story is about smallness, humility, and willing servant-hood.

Christmas puts values back into proper perspective. To God the purity of Mary, an unknown young woman of Galilee, was a more important qualification than social prominence.

When someone asks you to do something that will cost you how willing are you to say, "yes, you can count on me"? What if it costs you time, your reputation, inconvenience, rejection, or pain? How would you respond? The coming of Jesus into the world was costly, but as recipients of God’s gift of a Savior, we need to appreciate the price that was paid.

The lesson here is that God works through the willing to bless the world. Yes He used the Roman Emperor to declare a tax so that prophecy would be fulfilled, but the blessings we see came from willing hearts. Of course it started with God Himself and says a lot about His nature.

I. God was willing to send His only begotten Son.

A. It was His plan from the beginning.

And I will put enmity between you and the woman. And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. Genesis 3:15 NASV

1. Before God created the world He knew that if He gave humans the power of choice they would want to be in charge and choose their own way. Because of their wrong choices, they would disobey God and not be able to enjoy His holy presence.

2. So God’s plan included providing the means by which we can be in His presence.

3. When Jesus died it was all in the plan. Peter says he was …delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God… Acts 2:23b NASV

4. Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Revelation 13:8

B. He sent Jesus because of love for lost humanity. John 3:16

1. There is one thing God doesn’t want to occur and that is that anyone misses heaven.

The Lord is not slow about His promise…but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. II Peter 3:9 NASV

2. So Jesus came to "seek and save the lost."

For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many. Matthew 20:28 NLT

II. Jesus was willing to come.

A. He was preexistent – the Creator

1. The Son of God was there in the beginning.

In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. John 1:1-2 NLT

2. He was the Creator. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn’t make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. John 1:3,4 NLT

3. He was before Abraham. Jesus answered, "The truth is, I existed before Abraham was even born!" John 8:58 NLT

B. He was IMMANUEL – God with us.

1. This was the promise Isaiah gave in Isaiah 7:14

2. It was fulfilled in Jesus’ birth. All of this happened to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and he will be called Immanuel (meaning, God is with us!)."Matthew 1:22,23 NLT

3. The invisible God is made visible. What an awesome thought: The unlimited, everlasting God stepped into time and space. The Creator came to identify with His creatures so that he could save us!

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before God made anything at all and is supreme over all creation. Christ is the one through whom God created everything in heaven and earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—kings, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities. Everything has been created through him and for him. He existed before everything else began and he holds all creation together…For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ. Colossians 1:15-17,19 NLT

C. He humbled himself to do the Father’s will.

I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. John 6:38 NASV

So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only son of the Father. John 1:14 NLT

1. What a come down, to give up his position as God to become like a slave – and He did it because He loved us!

Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross. Philippians 2:6-8 NLT

III. Mary was willing to be a vessel – Luke 1

A. She was innocent of wrongdoing.

1. Mary prepared herself.

· She was ready for the Lord to use her long before Gabriel appeared to her. This is why she was able to respond in positive humility.

2. God evidently chose her because her heart was pure, she was a "fit vessel". Luke 1:28

3. Mary expressed perplexity. Luke 1:29,34

B. She was open to hearing the Lord.

1. Gabriel appeared to Mary to tell her God had chosen her to bear a son, to whom she was to give the name "Jesus." Luke 1:26,27,30

C. She was submissive, yielding to God’s will

1. Gabriel explained how it would occur. Luke 1:35

2. Mary responded not unlike Jesus would do when facing the cross. Luke 1:38

D. She followed through when things got tough.

1. Mary knew her roll was special. Luke 1:46-55

· Instead of feeling shame for being pregnant and unmarried, she praised God that he had counted on her willingness.

· She focused on praising God and being the bearer of this precious gift.

2. She faced Joseph and the others in her hometown with all their questions.

3. She willingly journeyed with Joseph to Bethlehem when she was 9 months along.

4. She no doubt reared Jesus in the light of all that transpired – wondering all the time at her role in this divine drama.

IV. Joseph was willing to swallow his pride – Matthew 1

A Sunday school teacher asked her class, "What was Jesus’ mother’s name?" One child said, "Mary." The teacher then asked, "Who knows what Jesus’ father’s name was?" A little kid replied, "Verge." Confused, the teacher asked, "Where did you get that?" the kid said, "Well, you know they are always talking about Verge’ n’ Mary."

A. He was an honorable man.

1. Joseph was a "righteous" or "just man." He wanted to do what was right and honored God. Matthew 1:18,19

2. He loved Mary and was perplexed to discover she was pregnant. She apparently hadn't told him the child she was carrying had been supernaturally conceived.

3. He was a gracious man. He didn’t want to disgrace Mary. He sought to show love toward her.

It was Christmas time and a 3-yr old was looking at a wedding picture of family friends. "What is Allie doing?" she asked her mother. "She’s getting married." "Then what’s Scott doing? Getting Josephed?"

B. He was strong enough to consider another possibility.

1. He was a humble man, not arrogant. He could hear another point of view.

2. As Joseph was deciding what to do an angel appeared to him in a dream. Vs20,21

3. His fears were allayed by the angel's words. Assured of Mary's innocence, he married her. Vs 24,25

C. He assumed a role of protector. Matthew 2:13-15

1. What an awesome responsibility, but he willing stepped up.

2. His obvious strength of character is clear. God chose a good dad for baby Jesus.

V. Are you willing for God to work through you?

Around the Christmas season some thieves broke into a home in NYC after a snowfall. The crooks loaded up their car with presents and drove off to their house nearby. The police followed their car tracks in the snow and arrested them with an hour. – More than we realize, all of us are leaving tracks in the snow. What will your tracks show this year about whom you serve?

A. Check out your heart.

1. Do you have to always have you own way, or are you listening to the Lord, willing to allow Him to direct your path?

2. Are you able to understand God’s written will and then do what it directs without a, "yes, but" or "but I feel" response?

3. Are you so full of yourself and your desires that you can’t be empty so God can fill you with Himself? Is it time for a change?

B. Decide to cooperate with God

1. It begins with a realization that He loves you and designed you to be a unique expression of His loving care.

2. Then we need to yield our wills to His will.

· It starts in our minds when we realize who Jesus is and why He came.

· It involves our acknowledging we have sinned. We have failed to be everything we could and should be.

· So we have a change of heart. We repent or turn around. We say, "Lord, I recognize I have been running my own life and haven’t done the best job. I want to change and put you in charge. I believe Jesus is your promised Son and I want Him to be my Lord and Savior. Forgive me of my sins and help me to follow your will."

· We then submit to being baptized - a burial in water and resurrection to a new life. The old person is left in that watery grave and a new person comes forth.

· With sins forgiven and now being adopted into God’s family we have peace, hope and a fresh new start.

Conclusion: Make this Christmas special: Decide to be used of God by being willing and available.

Paul says that the treasure is in earthenware jars. (II Corinthians 4:7) God's Spirit has taken up residence in believers. He wants to use us for His glory.

The first thing Mary did immediately following the angel’s visit was to go to minister to her cousin, Elizabeth, who was in her 6th month of pregnancy, late in life. Luke 1: 39

Mary, who was about to become the most unique woman in history, turned her attention from herself to a need where she could serve. What a lesson for us.

She stayed until John’s birth. Vs 56

This could be the most important Christmas lesson for us. Get our eyes off self.

Put others before yourself.

Be more concerned to assist the fulfillment of what God is doing in another person, than we are in what He is doing with us.

Consider becoming unknown and squeezing in to small places in the lives of your FRANS who need to know the babe of Bethlehem, Jesus Christ.

The following material is provided to assist you in application of the sermon. You may go over this individually, share it with a small group or your family.

OPEN share your "story" with some others.

If told that you (or your parents) were to have a child this year, how would you react?

What is your favorite thing about Christmas?

DIG Look into the Bible's "story" to discover insights that will help your understanding. If sharing in a group, take turns answering the following.

Why does the Gospel of John begin "in the beginning" rather than at Jesus’ birth? What facts about "the Word" can you find in John 1:1-5,10-18?

What is God’s desire for every person? (see II Peter 3:9) Why did Jesus come? (see Matthew 20:28)

Who was Jesus according to the following verses? John 1:1,2,29; Matthew 1:22,23; Colossians 1:15-17

What great example has Jesus given for us according to Philippians 2:6-8? What do you think it was like for Jesus to leave heaven and become human?

How does Mary (Luke 1:34,38) respond differently than Zechariah (vs 12,18)?

What truths about Jesus are emphasized in Luke 1:28-37? What expectations must have been raised in Mary?

How does Joseph’s response to the message about Mary’s condition show his character? Matthew 1:24,25

REFLECT Here you apply the "story" of the scripture to your own life; to take personal inventory and share with others what you will do about it.

What does John’s emphasis on the pre-existent, creative Christ (in John 1) mean to you?

What would it mean to doubt and fear God as Mary did? When were you recently fearful but believing? How did God meet you?

In what area of your life do you need to believe that nothing is impossible with god? What keeps you from believing this?

If an angel today were to reveal God’s plan for your life, what would you do? Would you: ask a lot of questions – wonder if you had any say – rejoice that God could use you – worry about your ability to do it – gladly obey – tell the angel, "I don’t want to know the future" ?

Who do you admire because they truly put the interests of others ahead of their own interests?

What is God calling you to do this Christmas to make it special? Are you as willing for Him to use you as Jesus, Mary and Joseph were?

SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT: Determine to apply the lessons of Christmas. Last week we learned that God will come through, so trust Him. This week we learned that God works through the willing, so be available. Look around you and find an opportunity this year to allow God to meet some needs through you.

Additional insight: Make this Christmas special.

God uses the willing - Are you willing and available for God to work through you?

Do you have to always have you own way, or are you willing to allow the Lord to direct your path?

Are you able to understand God’s written will and then do what it directs with out an, "yes, but" or "I feel" response?

Are you so full of yourself and your desires that you can’t be empty so God can fill you with Himself?

Don’t miss the opportunities to serve this Christmas.

Christmas is an opportunity to speak up. Some will try to silence the real meaning of Christmas. In December, more than any other time, doors open for us to speak about Jesus. It is one of two times during the year when average un-churched people think about church things. You can't shop without hearing some of the wonderful carols of Christmas.

Christmas is an opportunity to create spiritual traditions. You might read the Christmas story as a family. You might help give to a needy family. You might invite over a lonely person.

Christmas is an opportunity to share the Good News. You might invite a friend to be your guest at the Choir presentation on December 23 or come to the Christmas Eve service. You might have a Christmas party and invite your neighbors. Why not have a neighborhood caroling with refreshments following.

Christmas is an opportunity to mend relationships. You'll be spending extra time with family. Use the holidays to reconcile and strengthen relationships. Life is to short to spend it alienated from one another.

As you approach Christmas, remember:

He descended that we might ascend – John 6:38; 14:3.

He became poor that we might become rich – II Corinthians 8:9; James 2:5.

He was born that we might be born again – John 1:14; 3:2,7.

He became a servant that we might become sons – Philippians 2:7; Galatians 4:6,7.

He had no home that we might have a home in heaven – Matthew 8:20; John 14:2.

He was hungry that we might be fed – Matthew 4:2; John 6:50.

He was thirsty that we might be satisfied – John 19:26.

He was stripped that we might be clothed – Matthew 27:28; Galatians 3:26,27.

He was forsaken that we might not be forsaken – Matthew 27:26; 28:20.

He was sad that we might become glad – Isaiah 453:3; Philippians 4:4.

He was bound that we might go fee – Matthew 27:2; John 8:32-36.

He was made sin that we might be made righteous – I Corinthians 5:21.

He died that we might live – John 5:24,25.

He came down that we might be caught up – I Thessalonians 4:16,17.