The Bible is the Word of God and what we read in the Bible is something God wants to communicate to us. In the beginning was the Word, and you use words to communicate. God wanted to communicate. In the Garden of Eden, the voice of God walked. God is a communicating God. God may use the words I now speak to help you discover who He is.
On Friday as I was thinking about what to speak to you, there was a car crash just outside my house. My immediate thought was, was anyone hurt? There wasn’t anyone fatally hurt, but it affected me, because I was thinking about Jesus Christ and life.
I can relay to you all kinds of oddities in the world – the credit crunch, a $50bn fraud in New York, a 13-year-old boy as a suicide bomber ... There are strange things in this world. I want to concentrate on the fact that Jesus Christ is alive today. Christmas is followed by Easter, the time when we remember that Jesus Christ gave His life for you and me.
The angel Gabriel came to Mary, and it was a real surprise to her.
Luke 1:26-31
The meaning of the name Jesus is Saviour. Why is He called that? Because He came to save His people from their sins. Sins are what grips you on the inside, and maybe there’s a habit of life you can’t get free of. You know it’s wrong. There’s almost an automatic default to go wrong until Jesus saves a person from their sin.
For Mary it was a complete surprise. How shall this be?
Mary had a cousin called Elizabeth. She and her husband Zacharias were old and had always wanted to have a child. In Luke 13:1 it was obvious that they prayed for a child. And the same angel who spoke to Mary earlier had spoken to Zacharias :-
Luke 1:13
Zacharias was dumbfounded. Our prayer is heard. Maybe you’ve prayed something this year. You may not be what people regard as a Christian, but maybe something has jolted you this year and you’ve prayed. God heard your prayer. And the words you are hearing now are involved with the answer He is bringing to you. It may be you’re hearing this on a TV programme. You’ve come to your wits’ end and wonder what life is all about. It could be the first Christmas without a loved one who has gone this year and it’s jolted you.
Luke 1:24-25
Mary didn’t know Elizabeth was pregnant. She knew her, knew they had always wanted to have a child. But now they were too old. It was impossible. Suddenly there is a confluence for two women who became pregnant. It was when Elizabeth was six months pregnant when the angel appeared to Mary.
Luke 1:36
That was a shock to Mary. The angel appeared, talked to her about a son she was going to have. And now she was told that her cousin Elizabeth was already six months pregnant.
Luke 1:37
She knew it was an impossibility. They were far too old. But now having confirmed to her what had happened to Elizabeth (she went down and visited her), the angel said with God nothing shall be impossible.
Luke 1:38
His mercy is from generation to generation. How many generations have passed since the events recorded here, I wonder? People are very involved in tracing their ancestry. I wonder if there was anyone in your ancestry who prayed for you. It may well be that you are here tonight because of someone who prayed for you. There was someone who prayed for you as a little child, and God is bringing the answer to that prayer – He’s brought you here to hear that Jesus Christ came to the earth to save you from your sin, to make you new again on the inside.
Luke 1:37
I want to go forward about 30 years to when Jesus Himself was speaking about this very thing.
Matthew 19:25
With God all things are possible. That thing you’ve ruled out, that disease the medical profession has given up on (we’re not against medicine) with men things are impossible, but with God all things are impossible. Things have happened as they have so that God could speak to you, and He’s doing so because He loves you. He’s speaking to you right now by the power of His Holy Spirit because He loves you.
What does that mean? He knows all about you and despite everything inside you which you know is wrong, He has come even now and is saying, “I love you”, and the reason Jesus Christ came to this earth was to give you a new beginning on the inside. The life I begin with is wrong, but when Jesus Christ comes, He comes inside a person miraculously, and as Mary discovered at the wedding at Cana, she said, “Whatever Jesus says, do it – He’ll sort it out.”
So you’re saying to me amidst all the turmoil of the world, that God wants my attention to change me on the inside? Then why doesn’t He just go ahead and do it? He won’t force Himself on anyone. But Jesus Christ died on the Cross, took into Himself the sin of the world and was raised from the dead. He’s alive and I can confidently say by the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ loves you and gave Himself for you.
We’re talking about the baby Jesus and why He came.
What can I do about this? You need to stop putting off your involvement with Jesus Christ. This is life-concerning. We’re not talking about a whim, a resolution which you take up and then drop. We’re talking about your life on the inside being different. We’re talking about a life transformed on the inside. That’s why we’re singing the hymns we’re singing.
Jesus Christ is the answer. Make contact with us. We want to help you. We’re not out to build an empire, but to share the good news of Jesus Christ.
The only religion which has a God who reaches out, as opposed to man having to fulfil conditions imposed by an angry God, is the one of Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for you and me.
Don’t put this off. Please don’t. You know what I mean. You know that Jesus Christ, Christianity, the true life of God, is something you’ve skirted with, and this year the circumstances of life have arrested your attention. That is because He loves you.
We can rejoice because we were bound up in a life that was going wrong, but Jesus Christ came and changed us so that His life is within us. I want to please Him with my life. I want my children and grandchildren to know Him.
Jesus Christ came into this world, and Mary’s attention was grabbed by the angel. “You mean Elizabeth is pregnant?” – with God nothing is impossible. What you’ve said is impossible is possible with God.
Friday, 19 December 2008
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