Sermon for Sunday December 17th, 2006

Are You Prepared For Christmas? by Jeff Strite

Matthew 1:18-1:25

OPEN: A new Christmas movie has just come out starring Matthew Broderick and Danny Devito. Does anybody know the name this movie? That’s right “Deck The Halls”. It’s a comedy about two neighbors who engage in a cutthroat competition to have the most decorated home in the neighborhood. Devito’s character says that his life’s goal is to decorate his home with so many lights that it can be seen from outer-space!
Some people get carried away with their Christmas decorations.

Back in 2001, KFLQ radio station in Albuquerque , New Mexico, reported on the Bugg house in northeast Albuquerque that had become a Christmas landmark. The family traditionally set up thousands of lights and holiday scenes every year. But their endeavor was not just a selfish display of extravagance, for out in front of their home, there was a box where you could make a donation for a local homeless ministry, known as Noonday.
When the lights went on Friday, December 7th, 2001 - things were different at the Bugg’s home. A neighbor had complained that the display was a public nuisance, and convinced the city of Albuquerque to sue to prevent the Buggs from turning on the lights.
The city tried to shut down the display, saying collecting money for the homeless made the home a business. A District Court Judge ruled December 6th that the display could go on, but the barrels to collect money had to go, because collecting for the homeless made the home a business.
Dennis Lihte , director of Noonday Ministry said the display was a great opportunity for residents who did not attend a local church to give to the needy.
The previous year (2000), the display netted the ministry almost $12,000.

APPLY: There’s always going to be someone who wants to be a scrooge, but there will also be lots of people really love the season - in great part because of all the lights and the decorations that go up throughout the community. In fact, many cities even have competitions to see who can do the best outdoor display.

And there is no mistaking how much satisfaction and enjoyment people get by putting up those decorations. This is their way of preparing for the Christmas season.

Preparing for the Christmas season.
What got me thinking about this was the comments of a preacher whose sermon I recently read (Bill Hybells) who wondered how Mary and Joseph would have prepared for their 1st Christmas morning.

For example, they had to prepare for the trip to Bethlehem. I mean, there was
· all the planning
· all the packing
· and then, of course, there was that long trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem
o (approximately 65 miles… by foot. I noted that the distance was about as far as from our church building to the north side of Indianapolis)

So Joseph and Mary would have had many preparations to make for that first Christmas morn.
But long before they set off on that trip, there was another kind of preparation that had been done. And in fact, it was because of that special preparation they’d undergone beforehand (we’re going to talk about this morning) that God ultimately chose them for the honor of being the parents of the Christ child...

How had they prepared?

I. Matthew 1:19 tells us that “… Joseph her husband was a righteous man…”
1st - Joseph and Mary were prepared to be used by God because they were righteous people.

Now, what does that mean? What does it mean to be “righteous”?
1 John 3:7 says “…He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.”
People become righteous because they strive to make the “RIGHT” decisions.
AND they make such decisions because they know that some things please God… and others don’t.

People who are righteous make their decisions
…not because those decisions make them feel good
…or because those decisions help them meet their goals and agendas
…or because those decisions allow them to do what they want to do

Righteous people make righteous decisions because those decisions are the right things to do EVEN WHEN THOSE DECISIONS HURT THEM.

One of my favorite passages from the Psalms tells me exactly that. It’s found in Psalm 15
“A psalm of David - Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?
He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman, who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the LORD, who keeps his oath even when it hurts, who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.”

Look again at verse 4 and 5 – these verses tell us a righteous person is someone who keeps his oath EVEN WHEN IT HURTS, and who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.

A righteous man, a righteous woman, isn’t driven by personal pleasure. They are driven by desire to please God.

What Psalm 15 tells us is that one definition of righteousness is based on how we treat others: If we’re going to be righteous, if we’re going to please God
· We must tell others the truth
· We must not slander people. We must not insult them
· We must keep our word to others - even if it hurts us to do so
· AND if we lend money to others… we don’t look for a way to take advantage of those we’ve loaned to.

Righteousness – in part – is reflected in how we treat others.

Now this concept of righteousness is illustrated in how Joseph treated Mary
Matthew 1:18-19 (LOOK THERE) tells us that “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.”

Now, let’s put this in context.
At this point Mary and Joseph are not technically married… they’re only engaged. They aren’t living together, they’re not sharing the same bed.
But now she’s pregnant and Joseph knows he’s not the daddy.

It doesn’t take a genius to realize that if HE isn’t the daddy someone else has to be. Joseph’s thinking to himself that she’s got to have slept with somebody (he doesn’t yet realize that the child within her is from the Holy Spirit).

As far as he’s concerned:
She has betrayed him
She has publicly humiliated him
She has insulted him before his neighbors

The angel has not yet appeared to him to explain the situation and so all he knows is that he’s not the father of this child… and he’s convinced Mary’s played him for a fool.

Now he had every right (according to Jewish law) to drag her into the public square and have her stoned to death.
· After all, she’s hurt him
· She’s betrayed him
· There’s someone else
o HOW DARE SHE TREAT HIM LIKE THAT!

(pause…) But Joseph was a righteous man
… he’s not the type to strike out in anger
… he’s not the type to get his pound of flesh
… he’s not the type to seek revenge

He was “unwilling” to hurt her or even shame her publicly so he seeks for a way to deal with this matter privately and quietly.

According to Robertson’s New Testament Word Pictures Jewish law allowed Joseph to
“give her a bill of divorcement… without a public trial. He had to give her the writ and pay the fine. So he proposed to do this privately (with only 2 or 3 witnesses)… to avoid all the scandal possible.” Both for himself… and for her.

Joseph’s intention was to deal with Mary’s “sin” against him. But not to hurt her anymore than necessary. He showed his righteousness in how he treated the woman he felt had scorned and humiliated him.

So Biblical righteousness is partly defined by how we treat others, even those we felt have hurt us.

II. But, righteousness is also defined by how we treat God in our own personal lives
Genesis 6:9 talks about Noah and it tells us that unlike the other people of his day, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.”

Noah was righteous because he lived a life of personal purity and integrity. That’s what righteous people are supposed to do.

And that’s what was true in the lives of Mary and Joseph
Mary WAS a virgin… she hadn’t slept with Joseph. She hadn’t with anybody.
Matthew 1:18 says that “before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.”

And even afterwards we’re told that Joseph “…had no union with her until she gave birth to a son…” Matthew 1:25

They kept themselves morally pure throughout their relationship.
They were people of personal integrity.

ILLUS: I recently rented the movie “Superman Returns”. I’m something of a Superman buff and so I couldn’t wait to sit down and watch it. I’d forgotten that this movie had been reviewed back in 2004, in Time magazine by movie critic Lev Grossman. At the time Grossman remarked that the movie had been “bogged down for years, partly because the studio (couldn’t) get an actor to don the tights – (and at the time the movie was) on its fourth director… (and) the lead role (was) still uncast. …
Then Grossman made these remarks: “Superman… is a metaphor for America, but an outdated, obsolete America: invulnerable to attack, always on the side of right, always ready to save the rest of the world from its villainy whether or not it wants to be saved. In the past, every decade has got the Superman it deserves, and don’t worry, we’ll get ours, but he will probably be flawed, more man than super. Americans don’t want to be told what to aspire to anymore, who we should be. Our Superman will want to wallow in who he is and find out why he hurts.” (Time 5/17/04)

And that’s pretty much what I saw as I watched “Superman Returns”. Not so much a hero as someone who was tangled in a bizarre love triangle. This Superman didn’t stand so much stand for truth, justice, purity, or righteousness. He was just a man struggling with his own flaws.

According to the story line: years before, Superman had an affair with Lois Lane and unbeknownst to him, they had fathered an illegitimate child. Shortly after their affair, he had left on an extended trip into space to find the remnants of the planet Krypton, only to return 5 years later to find that Lois is now living with another man, her boyfriend. One of the undercurrents of the movie is that Superman discovers that the boy is indeed his, and he is strongly tempted to destroy the relationship Lois has with her present love interest so that he can move in with the woman we all know he was destined to have.

The Bible tells us that God has destroyed entire cultures because they had fallen prey to that very kind of mindset.
As far as God is concerned – heroes/heroines are those who embrace purity.
They are those who struggle to reach for a righteous lifestyle.
They are people of honor and principle.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 & 7 says “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality… For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.”

God so desires THAT KIND of hero/heroine… that He seeks to reward them.
2 Chronicles 16:9 says “… the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him…"

Joseph and Mary were heroes in the eyes of God. They sought to please Him by doing the right kind of things in their lives… and so God rewarded them. He chose them for the honor of being the earthly parents of the Messiah. He chose them because they prepared themselves for that very 1st Christmas day.

(pause…)
III. We often prepare for Christmas by stringing lights
We do it outside our homes, inside our homes, inside our businesses, inside the church. And we put up these lights because of their beauty. They are pleasing to the eye.

The Bible tells me that we can prepare for Christmas by putting up a different kind of light. Jesus said: “… let your LIGHT shine before men, that they may see your GOOD DEEDS and praise your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:16

That’s how Mary and Joseph made their lives pleasing to the eyes of God. The righteousness they pursued in their lives, was a thing of beauty to Him. And they prepared for that 1st Christmas by living lives that pleased Him.
· They pleased Him by how they determined to treat others - even others that they may have felt had hurt them and offended them.
· AND they pleased Him by striving to keep their lives pure and holy.

But, you see, that’s not how the rest of the world decorates their lives. Their lives are too often darkened by the way that they live and they choices they make.

As Philippians 2:15 tells us Christians that we are to “… become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you SHINE AS LIGHTS in the world” NKJV

IV. But now, there is a problem…
Most of us mess up.
How many of you have messed up in your lives? How many of you have sinned? (I asked for a show of hands, and the response was unanimous).
That’s right. The Bible tells us that we ALL sin. Romans 3:23 says “ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
· All of us have mistreated our neighbors at one time or another
· All of us have slipped in our integrity some time in the past

As Ecclesiastes 7:20 says
“There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.”

But now… wait! If I can’t be completely sinless. If I can’t be entirely righteous all the time, how can I possibly please my God. How can I possibly shine like a light in this world and bring glory to the God that I love?

Well… that’s why Jesus came to begin with.

Even as righteous and pure as Joseph and Mary were they still weren’t righteous and pure enough to stand in the presence of God. They could never have done enough righteous things in their lives to be acceptable to God.

So, when Jesus came, 1 Peter 3:18 says “Christ died for sins once for all, THE RIGHTEOUS FOR THE UNRIGHTEOUS, to bring you to God…”

Or as Romans 5:19 tells us
“…through the obedience of the one man (Jesus) the many will BE MADE RIGHTEOUS.”

It is ONLY thru Jesus that we can ever be attain righteousness in the eyes of God. Because ONLY Jesus can make us righteous by His death on the cross and His resurrection from the grave.

The problem for many of us, is that we have been drawn into thinking about righteousness the way the world does. The world thinks of righteousness as a “cumulative” thing. If you gather up enough righteous deeds… and you successful hide the bad things somewhere out of sight… you’re a righteous person. But if you’ve done too many evil things or bad deeds, you can’t be righteous.
As far as God’s concerned, that’s a false kind of mindset. No matter how many good deeds you may be able to store up, those bad deeds are always lying back the darkness and God still sees them. For God, righteousness is not based on your PAST actions. God figures our righteousness based upon our PRESENT relationship with Him.

That righteousness can never be attained by how many good things you and I can do.
That righteousness can ONLY be gained by becoming His child
Believing that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God
Repentance of our past sins
Confession of Him as our Lord
Baptism into Him
And living a life focused on pleasing Him.

And, if you’re already a Christian, God deals with your sins and failures by what John wrote in his 1st letter.
“My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” 1 John 2:1

God doesn’t want us to sin. He doesn’t want us to get hurt. But when we do sin, we have someone who steps in for us. Jesus becomes our advocate. And it works in this way:
”If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

CLOSE: A Christian comedian by the name of Mark Lowry was once reading about Jesus’ death on the cross and he noted with amazement how Mary (His mother) could be silent.
Lowry noted that if he were being crucified in the middle of town, his mother would have "Pitched a fit", but Mary never said a word.
Lowry wondered if maybe what made the difference for her was remembering back to that 1st Christmas. Remembering touching his little hands and feet and counting his fingers and toes. He said:
"I wonder if she realized then that those were the same fingers that
had scooped out the oceans and formed the seas.
Mary probably counted those little toes- I wonder if she realized that
those were the same feet that had walked on streets of gold and had
been worshipped by angels.
Those little lips were the same lips that had spoken the world into existence.
When Mary kissed her little baby, she wasn’t just kissing another baby -
she was kissing the face of God.

33 years later she’s standing on a hillside watching blood pour from His veins, from the side of her own son... and she didn’t open her mouth.
What a great testimony to the fact that
He wasn’t just a great prophet
He wasn’t just a great preacher
He wasn’t just a great teacher
He was virgin born son of God. He was our Savior.
And... He didn’t just die for us, He died for His own mother.
The baby boy she had delivered on that 1st Christmas was now on a cross delivering her.
Mary needed a savior too. Oh, what a wonderful Savior He is.