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The Main Event Several years ago, a small country boy yearned to see a circus. When one came to town, his father gave him enough money to go, and boy, did he ever! The next morning, bright and early, he rushed on down the road to see his very first circus. A couple of hours later, he returned extremely excited, but had not spent a single penny. "What happened, son," his father asked, "Didn't you go to the circus?" "Oh, yes," the small boy responded, "It came right down Main Street, and I saw the whole thing—and it didn't cost me anything, either!" His father, trying to remain calm, threw up his arms in exasperation and declared, "Oh, no! You didn't see the circus at all—you just saw the parade! Son, you missed the Main Event!" Many people would probably agree, that with all of the commercialization and marketing that goes on at this time of year, that Christmas has become nothing but a flashy parade of decorations, packages, and parties for some, and a huge hassle for others. If we allow either perspective to dominate our vision, the Main Event is actually missed. Thank God for His Word, for if we will allow it to lead us, it will lift us above the "glitz" and the "grumps", and take us right to the Main Event—the Christ Event! Normally, as the Christmas season begins, we would turn to Luke's account of the birth of Jesus, but this year, let's not! Joseph's side of the story in the Gospel of Matthew, though it is told using far fewer words, contains ideas that must be seen. And the first one is "Love." Though the actual word is not used, it is all through this story: "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily." (Matt. 1: 18-19) But where is the love in that? It actually sounds rather cruel—is he just going to dump her? No, not at all! For all intents and purposes, it appeared that Mary had been unfaithful, and for that, the Judaic law called for her to be stoned to death. But Joseph loved Mary far too much for that, so he was thinking about quietly divorcing her. His thought must have been that if she were no longer "espoused", the law would no longer apply—she would just be branded as promiscuous. And as difficult as that would be, she, at least, would still be alive! This brings us to our second Christmas word, "Judgment." What? How can "judgment" be a Christmas word? Oh, it not only can be, it must be! Sin is choosing something other than God, and the result of it is separation from that God. Even before this baby would be born in a manger and die on a cross, the concept of judgment would be played out in the generation just before Him. Out of love, Joseph was more than willing to live the rest of his life without his beloved Mary. He would pay the price! What a picture of the judgment and justice of God that would require the atonement for sin! Just look at that word—doesn't it speak an amazing truth? "Atonement"—at…one…ment! Even before Jesus would hang on that cross to make it possible for us sinners to be "at one" with a holy God, His "step-father," Joseph, would be a very graphic and loving representation of this in God's heart. Praise God—and, so that he, and we, couldn't miss the point, a.k.a. "the Main Event", an angel appeared to him and said, "Joseph, thou Son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins." (vss. 20b-21) Praise God—didn't I tell you? It was all a picture of God's heart. And notice, Mary didn't even try to defend herself; she didn't butt in before God, trying to justify herself. She evidently hadn't even told Joseph about it at all—that was the Lord's job. After all, she was only His "handmaiden," not His boss. When God put these first two words of Christmas together—Love and Judgment—they brought into focus the third—Grace! God could have sent the entire human race careening to Hell for its sin, but He, instead, showed His divine favor and influence upon the heart—not because people were so good, but because He is! Though there may be many things we might consider to be our enemies, "sin" is the greatest—and many don't even realize it! It is so great, it can't be dealt with from within ourselves apart from God. The answer? God would, by His grace—totally and absolutely unmerited on our part—come within us in order to destroy the power of sin. Yes, that is right! Verse 23 even reiterates what the prophet Isaiah had said seven hundred years before: "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." Praise God—in both the original languages of Hebrew and Greek, the "with" also means "in." God would not just chip away at sin from the outside of a person, simply changing the outward appearance by a legalistic dropping of a few bad habits or a gaining of some good ones. Many today, thinking they are Christian, have merely been awakened to the things of God. They may say some of the right words, and even attend church, but they are merely interested in spiritual things, and ultimately, remain "fruitless"—as evidenced by letting virtually anything get in the way of their pursuit of God and being with His people. The true message of Christmas involves a work on the inside—God actually transforming the heart, the seat of reasoning and emotion, which would then change the entire life. Jeremiah put it this way: "…After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people." (Jer. 31:33b) Emmanuel—He isn't just the perfect example to follow; He is a life lived within! Remember—contrary to the popular opinion that people are basically good, the truth of the matter is, that "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9) God can! And that is why someone once suggested that "grace" can be understood best by the acronym he put with it—G.od's R.iches A.t C.hrist's E.xpense. What an incredible truth—Jesus is God's grace. As we consider the cost of the Cross, we truly should be amazed that the Son of God would love us so much, that He would take our sin upon Himself, and be judged by His own Heavenly Father to be worthy of death! Remember—that is what it is to be "at one" with the Lord. Grace isn't a free ticket out of obedience or a matter of just knowing that Heaven is in our futures, but it is a precious gift of the power of God's Holy Spirit that is intended to shape us and fit us for the Kingdom of God right now. So many today think that since the price has been paid, they are free to be whatever they want to be. No, it actually frees us to be what God wants us to be—dead to self, pride, and our own agendas. A.W. Tozer once said, "Among the plastic saints of our times, Jesus has to do all the dying, and all we want is to hear another sermon about His dying. We want to be saved, but we insist that Christ do all the dying. No cross for us, no dethronement, no dying. We remain king within the little kingdom of Mansoul, and wear our tinsel crown with all the pride of a Caesar; but we doom ourselves to shadows and weakness and spiritual sterility." Even at Christmas, all many people want to do is to hear another sermon about the birth of a baby. No—Christmas is so much more than that! All of the words of Christmas, when we bring them together—Love, Judgment, Grace, Salvation, and so many others—scream out against a limp and fruitless "decision for Christ." This relationship is not just a decision; it is a determined directive right from the heart of God Himself—looking to be taken hold of by all who will die to everything else! Yes, it's a change of the heart that produces a heart-felt obedience. We see it in Joseph, as he obeys the angel in taking Mary to be his wife, and even holding back his intimacy with her in order that others would have no doubt about it—this was God's Child! Let me, in conclusion, illustrate this with something that happened almost 40 years ago. Dr. Christian Barnard, who performed the first successful human heart transplant, said that a frequent post-surgery request by patients was to see the old heart. He often complied by putting the heart in a jar, and often received this response—"Thank you, Doctor, for taking away my old, diseased heart and giving me a new one." This is what Christmas should be about—the Main Event is Emmanuel, God "within" us. The Great Physician has come to rid us of an old and diseased heart, and to give us a new one—His! In this Christmas season, don't turn it all into a three ring circus; simply receive what He came to give—Himself, the Main Event! Copyright (c)
2005 Christ Our Rock Bible Church. |
