The Joy of Finding Christmas

If you have your copy of God's Word, if you would turn into the book of Isaiah, chapter 7. The book of Isaiah, chapter 7. I understand it's a little bit dark and you may not have your copy with you. I will go ahead and read this. I wanted to read this passage tonight because this is the first time in scripture where the virgin birth was prophesied. There are cultural pundits and theologians and even public opinion columnists for the New York Times who debate every year if the virgin birth is a necessity for celebration of Christmas. Let's read this in Isaiah 7, 10 through 14.

"Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, 'Ask a sign of the Lord.' God let it be deep as sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, 'I will not ask and I will not put the Lord to the test.' And he said, 'Here then, O house of David, is it too little for you to weary men that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel.'" And I thought it was important to read this passage tonight and talk about the joy of finding Christmas. Make haste to find Him faithful. You'll be sure to miss the joy of Christmas this season.

If you meet this Christmas message of the virgin birth as King Ahaz did with hypocrisy and unbelief, I want to give a little bit of background. This is the first time that God proclaimed to the world that He would send His son born of a virgin. You might say this is the first Christmas story. It's in Isaiah and the context here is King Ahaz lives in the palace in Jerusalem. So he is the King of Judah. God's people have a divided kingdom with 10 tribes in the north and two in the south. And the King of Israel in the north, Pekah is his name, and he has joined forces with King Rezen of Syria and they are threatening to attack.

So in response to this threat, King Ahaz pays tribute to the Assyrian king. He pays money to one of God's enemies to provide protection and shelter and comfort. This is big time unbelief. This is your first time to grace life, this Christmas season we've been talking about how God is faithful and as Christians our main task is simply to believe His promises. God sends the prophet Isaiah to admonish King Ahaz to compel him to rely on God and not man. When you face difficulty, what is your first response? When you have an impossible situation, is it to call a loved one? Is it to go to social media and to complain and to bemoan this difficulty?

When you have some sort of unrest in your own family, is your first impulse to seek professional help? God tells Ahaz to ask a sign He's promised King Ahaz since he is a descendant of David that an heir to the throne of David will never cease to perish in Jerusalem. Isaiah even says, "Let it be as deep as she'll or as high as heaven." He's saying, "Ask for anything as deep as the abyss or the highest of heavens." And Ahaz quite piously, really hypocritically gives a nice flowing and glowing religious response.

He says, "I will not ask the Lord of a sign and I will not put him to a test." You do realize he's in the presence of God's prophet and he is testing God. He tested God when he paid the Assyrians to protect him from his enemies. And today, even though your enemies and God's enemies come at you as a child of God, we have the very same temptation that we run to the things of the world and the people of the world for comfort, validation, protection. This is refusal to believe God's sign and rest assured, God is angry. If God offered to give you a sign to prove his faithfulness, what would you ask for?

Like Gideon, you might ask that the dew around a piece of carpet would be dry and everything but the mat would be wet. Perhaps you would ask for another sign. King Ahaz really has no belief in God and therefore has no use for a sign. So therefore, God gives him the greatest of all signs that the virgin will give birth. So the first Christmas message, God's perfect, flawless, qualified son born of a virgin was given to the king of Israel who did not meet it with faith. And like King Ahaz, every year many are invited to mine the depths of God's faithfulness, to look at his faithful word and his promises and they are kept.

And we simply look at the virgin birth and we would say, "I would not grieve the Lord. I will not ask for a sign." And instead of believing God, we anger him. We've been learning that to disbelieve God is evil, that unbelief is the greatest offense. When he promised to send his perfect son to bear your iniquity, your sin, your guilt, we would rather seek refuge in the things of this world. The second major truth tonight, you are guaranteed to find Christmas and to find God when you find him faithful and you find him with childlike faith and true Christmas zeal. I wanted to ask you to turn to Luke chapter 2 verses 11 through 14.

We did not read this during the scripture reading tonight. I wanted to really highlight this, this is a beautiful, beautiful example of discovering Christmas and finding God and finding him faithful. Luke chapter 2, 11 through 14. This is the angelic pronouncement. "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you, he will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God, saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.' When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, 'Let's go over to Bethlehem to see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.' And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger." What's beautiful about these humble shepherds, they did not have the religious pedigree of King Ahaz, who was king of God's chosen people.

Then last Sunday we learned that righteous, faithful, spiritually mature Zechariah was a Levitical priest. He was faithful to light the golden lampstands in the temple. The Levites kept this light burning constantly, day, night, year in, year out. And he lived his life. He and his wife were advanced in age. They were without a child. They had prayed for an heir. They had prayed for a child. And even the great priest greeted the angel Gabriel with unbelief. Yet these humble shepherds believe immediately. First they hear the angelic pronouncement and then a chorus of angels. Theologians debate this.

If you notice scripture it says the angels were saying. It does not say the angels were singing. And although this is debated, many people believe the angels don't sing. That's our job. We will be the ones who sing. We sing this year. Now perhaps the angels have a beautiful song, but it says that the angel chorus was saying, "Glory to God in the highest." Regardless of whether this was an angelic chant or this was put to a melody, we know that it was beautiful. At first it was terrifying. But these humble shepherds greeted this message with faith. They received God's word with joy. Secondly, they received God's word with belief.

There's no record of their doubting. Thirdly, they received God's word with obedience. They said, "Let us make haste to find Christ." If I can ask you, why do you look forward to Christmas every year? You know, some do not look forward to Christmas. Perhaps you've lost a loved one and this is a reminder that Christmas is different this year. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted. He saves those who are crushed in spirit. That is a spiritual sadness that comes out at first and foremost at our own sin. The Lord is close to you when you grieve your sinfulness, when you realize that you've fallen short.

And I have to believe that in the midst of these humble shepherds, in the midst of this great angelic chorus, they saw themselves as sinners. And yet the Lord chose to reveal Himself to them. If I can ask you again, why do you look forward to Christmas? As kids, we look forward to the presents. As teenagers, we look forward to being out of school. And as adults, perhaps we look forward to seeing our kids have great joy. We look forward to seeing family. We look forward to getting on the road and seeing our loved ones.

Are you like these shepherds though who said, "Let us make haste to see this thing." And I tell you the virgin born, King of Kings, who was not just born for you, he died for you. If you're living in your sin, you've never repented of your sin, you've never believed upon Him, Christmas has not been for you. It's clear that the world is now replacing the virgin born Messiah for any number of good things. Listen to the prophecy in Micah in chapter five, verse two. But you Bethlehem, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times.

The origins of Christ are from eternity ago because John tells us in his gospel, "In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God." Poor baby Jesus, cute baby Jesus is God. He's God in the flesh. And this Christmas, if you see Jesus in the manger and that's all you see, well then we are in great trouble. The incarnation, the virgin birth are essential doctrines.

A popular writer in 2001, he was of the Emergent Theology School and he wrote a book and he said, "You know, various elements of our theology, if removed, should not allow us to not be Christians." So for instance, if I, like a trampoline is the analogy he used, if we take one spring out of the trampoline, we can still hop around, maybe even two. And he suggested that the virgin birth and the trinity were simply two springs that could be removed. This could not be further from the truth. You can't take out the virgin birth and still have Christianity. Reason being is because if Jesus was not virgin born, he was a mere man.

He was not the God man. You lose the incarnation entirely. And if he was not the God man, he may have died on the cross, but he did not provide the perfect sacrifice for your sin. Anything less than the virgin birth and the perfect death of Christ on the cross is not a sufficient sacrifice for the gravity of your sin even tonight. Doesn't matter if you're like King Ahaz and you dress up your unbelief with all sorts of pretty religious language. If you do not have the virgin born King of Kings, David's true son, you don't have Christmas. So tonight I want to challenge you to find Christmas by finding him faithful.

When the Lord sent Isaiah to rebuke King Ahaz, he gave a sign that many people still discard and disregard. He promised to send his own son born of a virgin. It was miraculous. It was impossible. But that was the type of savior that you need tonight. That was the type of savior that I need tonight. Isaiah prophesied the first Christmas message and King Ahaz missed it. And today many miss the true meaning of Christmas because they deny the incarnation. They deny the virgin birth. Others like Ahaz cover up their denial with pretty religious piety. The shepherds had no religious pedigree. They had no great birth. They had no great lineage.

Shepherds were the poorest of the poor. The bluest of the blue collar. Last Sunday we heard how Zachariah lit the candlesticks in the temple faithfully. We must see that the candles that we light here tonight will be extinguished. You know your candle that you hold up with your light, your good work, even your representation of Christ will be extinguished. It is only one life and soon will be past whatever only what is done for Christ will last. And truthfully friends, if Christ will not be the light within your heart, then we have no hope.

Tonight we celebrate Christmas Eve to commemorate the faithful Messiah whose flame will never be extinguished.