Neil Silverberg: Okay.
Neil Silverberg: Matthew, chapter 1, verses 18 through 25,.
Neil Silverberg: Matthew 1, 18 through 25.
Neil Silverberg: Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way When His mother, mary, had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit And her husband, joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
Neil Silverberg: But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
Neil Silverberg: She will bear a son and you will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
Neil Silverberg: All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.
Neil Silverberg: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us.
Neil Silverberg: When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus.
Neil Silverberg: Father, i pray that familiar words to all of us would be breathed on by your spirit, so that the wonder, the grandeur of this gospel may hit all of us in a way we've not experienced.
Neil Silverberg: I pray for revelation.
Neil Silverberg: I pray that the birth of the Messiah and the story of how he entered this world would not only once again strike us with grandeur and wonder and worship, but, lord, that Jesus would be born in our hearts afresh in this season.
Neil Silverberg: We ask it in Jesus' name and everyone said amen.
Neil Silverberg: Well, i'm encouraged.
Neil Silverberg: I think there's hope for me as a preacher, because if I can get you that excited about genealogies because I've gotten so many responses the last week If you weren't here last week, go up on the website and listen to it.
Neil Silverberg: I took the first 17 verses of Matthew that no one at Christmas ever reads, because no one can pronounce all the names, and talked about the story of Jesus, that if you want to locate Jesus and understand him, you cannot start with the manger though that's what we do at Christmas But you have to go back to the beginning, to a man named Abraham and into David, and understand that Jesus is a man with a story.
Neil Silverberg: This month of December, we are looking at the incredible events of the Nativity, how it is that the Jewish Messiah came into this world And we're looking mainly at Matthew's accounts, but I'm going to pull this morning from Luke as well.
Neil Silverberg: We won't read from it, but you can read these events in the first chapter of Luke.
Neil Silverberg: Probably one question I've been asked more than others through the years is the question did the Jewish people expect the Messiah to come into the world the way He did?
Neil Silverberg: And the answer, categorically, is no, no way.
Neil Silverberg: Nothing, nothing could have prepared the Jewish people for the way Messiah actually came into this world.
Neil Silverberg: Not that Scripture wasn't abundantly clear for them and predicted the events that we now call Christmas.
Neil Silverberg: It did.
Neil Silverberg: But the problem was, by the first century, jewish ideas about Messiah's coming had been hijacked by triumphalism, the idea that Messiah would come and we'll know it's Him, because He will destroy His enemies and restore Israel to her former glory and set up His kingdom and throne in Jerusalem.
Neil Silverberg: And that is, by the way, the concept of the Messiah as a Jew that I grew up with.
Neil Silverberg: We'd say Mom, how will we know?
Neil Silverberg: when the Messiah is coming, there'll be peace in the world.
Neil Silverberg: My mother and grandmother used to say one day He will return or come, because we didn't believe in two-fold comings and He will destroy the enemies of Israel and peace will reign in the world.
Neil Silverberg: Well, here in the verses we read this morning, matthew gives us an account of how the Messiah comes into the world in such untypical Jewish manner by entering the world through the womb of a peasant.
Neil Silverberg: And I've said it for years, i'm sorry, i hope this doesn't offend you.
Neil Silverberg: I think God is the greatest smuggler that ever lived, because He smuggled His Son into the world 2,000 years ago and the Jewish people still haven't found out about it.
Neil Silverberg: Now, in our verses this morning, matthew reuses a word I introduced to you last week Genesis.
Neil Silverberg: That reading the text that really reads this way, the book of the Genesis of Jesus Christ and Matthew intends for us in our minds to go back to the book of Genesis, where it all starts with God choosing a man named Abram and making incredible promises to Him.
Neil Silverberg: Matthew uses it again now, in the beginning of this section, in verse 18.
Neil Silverberg: Now the Genesis of Jesus Christ took place this way, and Matthew is telling us he used it before to tell us about the family history that if you want to understand the beginnings of Jesus, you have to go back to Abraham, who leads us to David, who leads to Babylon, who leads to Jesus.
Neil Silverberg: That's how he used the word Genesis last week, but here he uses it again to tell us here is how the Jewish Messiah had His earthly beginnings.
Neil Silverberg: This is where it starts.
Neil Silverberg: So we ask the question this morning because I really have one aim in this message this morning I want the glory, the grandeur, the power, the majesty of this truth of the birth of the Messiah into the world to strike all of us.
Neil Silverberg: Maybe we should start this morning by asking why is this significant?
Neil Silverberg: Now I want to answer the question why understanding the birth of Jesus is so significant by using three words what, when and why.
Neil Silverberg: What actually happened?
Neil Silverberg: What were the circumstances that led to His birth?
Neil Silverberg: When did it happen And why is that important?
Neil Silverberg: And it is.
Neil Silverberg: And why?
Neil Silverberg: Why did Messiah come into the world the way He actually did?
Neil Silverberg: Now let's start.
Neil Silverberg: Let me reverse them.
Neil Silverberg: Let's start with when We sang the songs this morning.
Neil Silverberg: I love Christmastime, i love these Jewish songs.
Neil Silverberg: They are, they're so Jewish And I love all of them.
Neil Silverberg: But the question is why was it 2,000 years ago?
Neil Silverberg: Why, at that time Is it that Jesus enters the world?
Neil Silverberg: Paul actually calls that time that Jesus came in the world 2,000 years ago the fullness of time.
Neil Silverberg: Look at this statement he makes in Galatians, chapter 4, when he says when the fullness of time came, god sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, when the fullness of time had come.
Neil Silverberg: Now we in the church today are totally focused on future events.
Neil Silverberg: I'm personally tired of prophecy books that are more focused on tank movements in the Middle East than Jesus Christ.
Neil Silverberg: And we're focused on future events.
Neil Silverberg: What's coming, what's coming.
Neil Silverberg: But when you read the New Testament, you realize that it's focused largely on the first century as that time when God came into the world and accomplished his perfect work.
Neil Silverberg: Now Luke places the events of the nativity in the days of Herod the King, which places it at the very beginning of what we call the first century.
Neil Silverberg: So I have this question for you Why is that significant?
Neil Silverberg: Why is it significant that Jesus came into the world at that time?
Neil Silverberg: The answer to that is found in several places, but the most important place to find it is in the Old Testament book of Daniel.
Neil Silverberg: You will not understand the significance of Jesus coming in the first century as the fullness of time if you don't understand the prophecies of Daniel, the prophet in the Old Testament.
Neil Silverberg: Now here's what happened.
Neil Silverberg: Daniel is a young Jewish man.
Neil Silverberg: He's living in Judah, in Jerusalem.
Neil Silverberg: Some say he was of the royal seed.
Neil Silverberg: When God judged the nation of Judah in around 587 BC, he sent the armies of King Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.
Neil Silverberg: The king came down, he destroyed the temple This is the first destruction of the temple And he carried away to Babylon some of the royal seed.
Neil Silverberg: And included in that captivity was a young guy named Daniel.
Neil Silverberg: And while Daniel is living in Babylon and you know the story if you haven't read it Daniel became a politician, god began to exalt him in the kingdom of Babylon and it started with Daniel interpreting a dream that the king has.
Neil Silverberg: But later Daniel is praying because he's been studying the book of Jeremiah and he learns from Jeremiah that God said 70 years would be the captivity of the Jewish people.
Neil Silverberg: Now, if you were with me last week, you remember that Israel went into captivity and lost their identity.
Neil Silverberg: It wasn't important, but God had to preserve Judah because he has sworn that through Judah the Messiah would come.
Neil Silverberg: And so, even though Judah was dissembled and taken out of their land and brought to Babylon, they went there with promise 70 years would be the length of your captivity and then you would return to the land and rebuild the temple.
Neil Silverberg: So Daniel understands that the time is approaching and he begins fasting and praying.
Neil Silverberg: And God sends an angel.
Neil Silverberg: You all know him, remember his name.
Neil Silverberg: You'll need him in a moment.
Neil Silverberg: His name was Gabriel And Gabriel is sent by God to Daniel.
Neil Silverberg: This is in Daniel, chapter 9, verses 24 through 27.
Neil Silverberg: And God gives Daniel, through Gabriel the angel, an incredible prophecy.
Neil Silverberg: Now everybody, look up here.
Neil Silverberg: I'm not going to assault you.
Neil Silverberg: It's Sunday morning.
Neil Silverberg: I know you haven't had all your cappuccino yet, but you've got to understand this, because this is, without a doubt, the most fantastic prophecy in the Word of God.
Neil Silverberg: If you need proof that the prophets were speaking by the Spirit of God, you don't need to go anywhere else but Daniel 9 to see the exactness of the prophetic Word and how it was fulfilled in history.
Neil Silverberg: And essentially, here's what God said in verse 24 through Gabriel to Daniel.
Neil Silverberg: He said 70 weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and profit and to anoint a holy place.
Neil Silverberg: If you look up at the top 70 weeks, the Hebrew word weeks is not seven-day weeks.
Neil Silverberg: It's really not a good translation.
Neil Silverberg: You would translate that 70 periods of seven or 70 units of seven.
Neil Silverberg: And if you read the context, it's clear that God is not talking about seven-day weeks, but 70 periods of seven years.
Neil Silverberg: That much is clear and everyone agrees on that.
Neil Silverberg: And so, essentially, god tells Daniel 490 years are decreed for God to do.
Neil Silverberg: Everything that we just read and I'm not going to read it again, but it essentially is saying I'm going to fulfill all my promises to Israel and I'm going to do it from a starting point.
Neil Silverberg: For 490 years I'll accomplish it, including folks sending the Jewish Messiah to die for sin.
Neil Silverberg: Now where do we start?
Neil Silverberg: Where did Gabriel tell Daniel he should start the count?
Neil Silverberg: And the answer is with the decree that would go forth from a king to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.
Neil Silverberg: Now again, this is where I'm not going to bore you with all the facts, but most people have gotten it wrong and think it's another king.
Neil Silverberg: It is clearly in the Word of God a king named Cyrus, to whom God promised he would be raised up and rebuild the temple.
Neil Silverberg: How do you like this?
Neil Silverberg: God spoke to Isaiah before Cyrus was ever born and prophesied that this king named Cyrus would be the one to restore and rebuild Jerusalem and decree the Jewish people to return.
Neil Silverberg: There's actually a Jewish tradition that says when Cyrus was on the throne, the high priest brought him the prophecy of Isaiah, had him read his name from 150 years before, and Cyrus got it.
Neil Silverberg: He said there must be a God.
Neil Silverberg: Israel's God is God.
Neil Silverberg: I'm going to do it.
Neil Silverberg: So here's what we know.
Neil Silverberg: Cyrus gave this command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem in approximately 454 BC.
Neil Silverberg: Now what the prophecy said was after 69 of the 70 weeks, which is 69 times 7, which is 483 years.
Neil Silverberg: Don't lose me, i need you to.
Neil Silverberg: If you have a smart phone, i'll give you freedom to calculate And 69 units of 7 years would come, would pass, till Messiah comes.
Neil Silverberg: That's 483 years.
Neil Silverberg: So if you take 454 BC and you add 483 years, you come approximately, and these are approximate.
Neil Silverberg: Don't hold me to, but you come to 29 AD, which is the event.
Neil Silverberg: I believe that Messiah appeared to Israel.
Neil Silverberg: How many know, until Jesus was baptized by John, nobody knew who he was.
Neil Silverberg: He was obscure When he was 30 years old.
Neil Silverberg: He was baptized by John in the year 29 AD and he started his earthly ministry.
Neil Silverberg: This, my friends, is an incredible fulfillment of the Word of God.
Neil Silverberg: Now, that's important because when you ask the question when, when did these things occur?
Neil Silverberg: and why is that important?
Neil Silverberg: Daniel's prophecy was fulfilled, and that is the most important thing.
Neil Silverberg: And, in fact, earlier, daniel interpreted the king's dream which he had when he was asleep.
Neil Silverberg: And remember, king Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a dream and he told his astrologers I want you to tell me the dream and its interpretation.
Neil Silverberg: And they said nobody can do this.
Neil Silverberg: And he said well, i'm going to kill all the wise men in my kingdom if you don't tell me my dream and the interpretation.
Neil Silverberg: And finally, god gave it to Daniel, and Daniel gave it to his friends.
Neil Silverberg: And God and Daniel is ushered into King Nebuchadnezzar's presence and the king was about to kill all the wise men and astrologers.
Neil Silverberg: And Daniel said no need to, there's a God in heaven who reveals secrets.
Neil Silverberg: Here's your dream, o King.
Neil Silverberg: You saw a statue.
Neil Silverberg: The head was of gold, the upper body was of silver, the midsection was of bronze, the legs and feet were a mixture of iron and clay.
Neil Silverberg: The God of heaven, o King, has shown you because you were thinking about what will follow Babylon And, by the way, babylon was the most expansive, glorious kingdom that ever lived on this earth in terms of earthly pomp and glory.
Neil Silverberg: And he said you, o King, are the head of gold.
Neil Silverberg: God has made you king of kings and lord of lords.
Neil Silverberg: All the enemies you've trampled, them all under your feet.
Neil Silverberg: You rule the world, but there's another kingdom coming after you.
Neil Silverberg: It's characterized by silver.
Neil Silverberg: We know from history.
Neil Silverberg: This is the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians, and then there will be a kingdom after that.
Neil Silverberg: By the way, these weren't just arbitrary kingdoms.
Neil Silverberg: This was for the Jewish people to know that they would be living under the dominance of four Gentile world powers.
Neil Silverberg: And the third was Greece.
Neil Silverberg: It was characterized by bronze in the statue, and then there would be a fourth kingdom.
Neil Silverberg: Nebuchadnezzar's dream showed him this kingdom would be a mixture of iron and clay.
Neil Silverberg: This is not a reconstituted Roman empire that we're waiting for.
Neil Silverberg: It is, folks, the Roman empire in which the gospel came into the world.
Neil Silverberg: And watch this.
Neil Silverberg: While King Nebuchadnezzar was looking at the fourth kingdom the legs of iron and clay And, by the way, that's a perfect picture of the Roman Empire It was a mixture of strength and weakness While he was looking at that fourth kingdom, he noticed a stone cut out of a mountain without hands And it struck the statue on the legs and it collapsed and turned to dust and the wind drove it away.
Neil Silverberg: So he says in the days of the fourth kingdom watch this in Daniel 2, 44, and 45, he said in the days of those kings, the kings of the fourth kingdom, which is Rome, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall that kingdom be left to another people.
Neil Silverberg: It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever.
Neil Silverberg: Just as you saw that stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, a great God has made known to the king what shall be after this.
Neil Silverberg: The dream is certain and its interpretation.
Neil Silverberg: Look up here.
Neil Silverberg: This means that in the days of the Roman Empire, god would strike that Roman power and destroy all human kingdoms by establishing a kingdom that will have no end, and that when I was learning prophecy as a young man, they told me the kingdom's on hold.
Neil Silverberg: It never came into the world.
Neil Silverberg: It was offered and the Jewish people rejected it and so God put it on hold.
Neil Silverberg: And my response this morning is salami, bologna, ham and eggs All things, by the way, i've never eaten.
Neil Silverberg: I want you to know that 2,000 years ago a stone was cut out without hands from the mountain.
Neil Silverberg: It struck that statue.
Neil Silverberg: All Gentile powers now are subject to the kingdom of God and it's king, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Neil Silverberg: That's the kingdom you've been introduced in.
Neil Silverberg: You were born again and you never could enter it unless you were born again by an operation of God.
Neil Silverberg: And you are in the kingdom if you're a Christian.
Neil Silverberg: And it wasn't offered and put on hold.
Neil Silverberg: It's here.
Neil Silverberg: It's been growing for 2,000 years.
Neil Silverberg: That's when Jesus was born and why.
Neil Silverberg: When is significant.
Neil Silverberg: But what happened?
Neil Silverberg: What really happened?
Neil Silverberg: What are the events and what are the order of the events?
Neil Silverberg: The story of Messiah's birth really doesn't start with the birth of the Messiah, but the birth of His forerunner, john.
Neil Silverberg: Remember Gabriel, who brought to Daniel, in chapter 9, the revelation of the years.
Neil Silverberg: That Gabriel, after 400 years almost of silence, with no prophetic word in Israel.
Neil Silverberg: That silence is broken by Gabriel, the same angel who is now sent by God to an aged priest named Zechariah, or Zechariah, and Zechariah is married to a woman who's way past the years of bearing a child.
Neil Silverberg: Her name is Elisabeth, and Zechariah and Elisabeth are barren, but the Scripture tells us they both walked in the fear of the Lord and kept the commandments of God.
Neil Silverberg: Zechariah is a priest and in his day, in Herod's temple, the 24 orders of the priesthood which David had established a thousand years before, or whatever it was, were still functioning.
Neil Silverberg: There were 24 orders, and one day, zechariah's order is on duty at the temple and he was selected by Lot to do something he would only do once in his lifetime.
Neil Silverberg: You never could do it again In his lifetime.
Neil Silverberg: The Lot fell to Zechariah, this aged priest, to be the one to go beyond the first veil into the holy place and there to offer the incense.
Neil Silverberg: He would do this while the people were gathered outside worshiping God and praying at the hour that the incense was offered.
Neil Silverberg: If you were a priest in one of these 24 orders, if the Lot fell to you to do it, you would never have that privilege again for the rest of your life.
Neil Silverberg: So Zechariah approaches the altar of incense, he goes beyond the veil and suddenly, as he approaches the altar of incense he sees an angel.
Neil Silverberg: And, by the way, if you are here this morning and you don't believe in the supernatural, just close your Bible.
Neil Silverberg: The whole birth of Jesus is so supernatural, not only the birth but angels and dreams and all kinds of things.
Neil Silverberg: So if you have a problem with the supernatural, you have a problem with God.
Neil Silverberg: And an angel appears.
Neil Silverberg: Zechariah approaches the altar of incense.
Neil Silverberg: He sees an angel on the right side of the altar.
Neil Silverberg: Jewish tradition, by the way, said that if the priest saw an angel on the left side of the altar of incense, he had a message for the nation.
Neil Silverberg: But if they saw him on the right side of the altar of incense, he had a personal message for the priest.
Neil Silverberg: So no wonder the Bible says Zechariah trembled because he saw the angel on the right side.
Neil Silverberg: He knew this angel had a message for him And if you know the history of the Old Testament, sometimes when angels come with messages it's not that grand and great.
Neil Silverberg: So Zechariah is trembling but the angel settles his heart quickly.
Neil Silverberg: By the way, it's Gabriel the one who keeps the exact years and has the plan for fulfilling the years.
Neil Silverberg: God has the plan, but Gabriel is the angel of the covenant, the messenger who is concerned with messianic times and seasons, in the fulfillment of Daniel 9.
Neil Silverberg: And it's Gabriel.
Neil Silverberg: And he says don't tremble, zechariah.
Neil Silverberg: I'm paraphrasing.
Neil Silverberg: I bring you gospel, i bring you good news.
Neil Silverberg: Your wife, who is beyond the years of bearing, she will bear a son and you will call his name John.
Neil Silverberg: Zechariah can't believe it.
Neil Silverberg: He's an aged priest.
Neil Silverberg: His wife is some of the positives.
Neil Silverberg: She was in her sixties, maybe late fifties.
Neil Silverberg: And Zechariah says how can this be?
Neil Silverberg: We're old and we can't bear.
Neil Silverberg: We're beyond the years of bearing.
Neil Silverberg: And that's where Gabriel reveals himself to Zechariah.
Neil Silverberg: He says I am Gabriel, i stand in the very presence of God.
Neil Silverberg: Because you did not believe my words, you will be struck dumb until the time they were fulfilled.
Neil Silverberg: And Zechariah comes out of the temple.
Neil Silverberg: He can't speak and the people understand that he had a vision and he begins to motion with them with his hands.
Neil Silverberg: Six months later, gabriel makes another visit, not this time to the temple in Jerusalem, but to the north, to Galilee of the Gentiles.
Neil Silverberg: For centuries this prophecy stood in the wings of time, waiting fulfillment.
Neil Silverberg: But there will be no gloom for her, who was in anguish In the former time.
Neil Silverberg: He brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Neftali, but in the latter times he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, galilee of the nations.
Neil Silverberg: And it goes on to say the people who sat in darkness shall see a great light.
Neil Silverberg: Those in Judea who lived in Judea frequent in the temple.
Neil Silverberg: They looked at Galilee with disdain because it was overrun with Gentiles and filled with pagan temples.
Neil Silverberg: But that's where Gabriel makes his next stop, six months after delivering the news to an aged priest that his wife would give birth to the forerunner of the Messiah.
Neil Silverberg: And now Gabriel comes to Galilee and to Nazareth of Galilee to visit a young Jewish maiden, amiriam, who may have been as young as 13 or 14 years old.
Neil Silverberg: A woman in her time it was not married by 15 or 16, was considered over the hill.
Neil Silverberg: I am not speaking to the young people in our church, do not take that.
Neil Silverberg: This is not counsel.
Neil Silverberg: You guys need to wait till you're 25, at least Luke tells us.
Neil Silverberg: Miriam was a virgin betrothed to her husband named Joseph, of the house of David.
Neil Silverberg: We take time last Sunday to review Joseph's family history.
Neil Silverberg: And, by the way, betrothal engagement was much more binding in the days of the Jewish people of the first century than it is in the West.
Neil Silverberg: It wasn't a convenient arrangement.
Neil Silverberg: It was covenantal and it took an actual writ of divorce to put away a woman who was engaged or betrothed to her husband.
Neil Silverberg: There are so many questions that I have about this story that Scripture doesn't answer and I will not speculate.
Neil Silverberg: But what we do know is Gabriel walks into Mary's room with the announcement that she is highly favored.
Neil Silverberg: Now we would differ with our Catholic friends.
Neil Silverberg: Mary is not to be worshiped, prayed to or interceding for us, but let's not go so far as to not give her her due.
Neil Silverberg: She deserves great honor.
Neil Silverberg: And as Gabriel startles her with this announcement that she's highly favored, he then gives her the incredible news, the gospel, that of all the women who have ever lived on planet earth, god had chosen her womb to bear the Messiah, and she would do so without knowing a man.
Neil Silverberg: The angel Gabriel told Mary what the name of her son is, as well as he will tell her husband, joseph.
Neil Silverberg: He will be given the name Jesus.
Neil Silverberg: I'll come back to that in a moment.
Neil Silverberg: Mary asks after the announcement, not like Zacharia, in unbelief, but in her innocence how can these things be, since I am a virgin.
Neil Silverberg: That's a legitimate question, since there's never been in human history an account of a woman bearing a child without a father.
Neil Silverberg: And I love Gabriel's answer when Mary, in her innocence, says how will I be able to bear a son of him?
Neil Silverberg: I'm a virgin.
Neil Silverberg: And Gabriel says you will be enveloped in the power of the Spirit and he will overshadow you.
Neil Silverberg: The same words, remember, three weeks ago we talked about Jesus, the tabernacle of God.
Neil Silverberg: The language is reminiscent of that language when the presence of God enveloped the tabernacle after it was born and the shekinah glory enshrouded it over the Holy of Holies.
Neil Silverberg: It's the same idea here The Holy Spirit will overshadow you and therefore the child that will be born to you will be called Holy, the Son of the Living God.
Neil Silverberg: And, by the way, gabriel said, your cousin, elizabeth, is pregnant and she, who was called barren, has now born a child.
Neil Silverberg: In her older years, mary immediately leaves Galilee and goes to the hill country of Judea and visits with Elizabeth.
Neil Silverberg: I love this story.
Neil Silverberg: I'm not going to have time to read it this morning, but when Elizabeth, the mother of the forerunner of Messiah, meets the mother of the Messiah and the babe leaps in her womb and they rejoice together.
Neil Silverberg: And there are songs in Luke, chapter 1, that were sung by both Mary and Elizabeth, extolling God's greatness and grace that he has had mercy and fulfilled his covenant.
Neil Silverberg: And Mary apparently stays for three more months until Elizabeth gives birth to her son and she comes back down to Nazareth in Galilee where she is betrothed to her husband, joseph.
Neil Silverberg: It's apparent by now that Mary is with child and Joseph sees her.
Neil Silverberg: And Joseph had a couple options He could very publicly dismiss Mary and break his betrothal with her, or he could do it privately with a two or three witnesses.
Neil Silverberg: And when Matthew tells us that he was a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, he resolved to dissolve her quietly.
Neil Silverberg: He's telling us that she chose the latter, that he would simply get a couple of witnesses and give her a writ of divorcement that says I now absolve this covenant that we have made because you have violated it.
Neil Silverberg: And I want us to bear in our hearts an appreciation of what Mary had to bear, not only bear the Messiah, but bear the shame or the misunderstanding that bearing a child in her womb would bring.
Neil Silverberg: And this is what Joseph's planning on doing, but then, while he's asleep, an angel of the Lord.
Neil Silverberg: It doesn't tell us I suspect it's Gabriel again How many think we might be on good ground.
Neil Silverberg: He's the one that told Daniel how many years till Messiah comes.
Neil Silverberg: He's the one who showed up and told an aged priest that his wife would bear the forerunner.
Neil Silverberg: He's the one that comes to Miriam when she's 13 or 14.
Neil Silverberg: And the angel appears to him in a dream and tells him, tells her, rather tells Joseph that the child which is born to Mary was born by the Holy Spirit and that he should take her as his wife.
Neil Silverberg: And Joseph arises, obedient to the angel, and immediately marries Mary, thus becoming the legal father of the Jewish Messiah.
Neil Silverberg: And thus what we said last week is fulfilled He, jesus, can be of the royal line, while not physically deriving his lineage from Joseph, which was a necessity.
Neil Silverberg: Now, that's the when and the what.
Neil Silverberg: Let me take a few moments as I close and talk about the why.
Neil Silverberg: Why is the nativity important?
Neil Silverberg: Can I just believe in Jesus without all this And I've had someone say that to me once Can I believe in Jesus without all this virgin birth stuff?
Neil Silverberg: I mean, i like his teaching, i want to follow him, but do I have to believe that he was born of a virgin?
Neil Silverberg: And the answer is yes, if you believe who he really is.
Neil Silverberg: And I have one word answer to tell you as an answer to the question must I believe in all this virgin birth stuff?
Neil Silverberg: Here's my one word answer Immanuel.
Neil Silverberg: All of the New Testament agrees That Jesus of Nazareth is not just a good man, not a great man, not a man, but better than the rest of man.
Neil Silverberg: Jesus of Nazareth is the God-man, the mystery of God.
Neil Silverberg: He is God wrapped up in flesh, who was born into this earth and He is forever the God-man.
Neil Silverberg: And if that is true, this story of His supernatural birth of a virgin must be preserved.
Neil Silverberg: But there is another reason why it's important, because Matthew, right in the middle of the story, inserts this prophecy from Isaiah.
Neil Silverberg: And this begins in Matthew, and if you want to track with me, i'll be in Matthew 2 next week for our final message and we'll end up on Christmas Eve.
Neil Silverberg: But over and over again Matthew will use this phrase this is to fulfill.
Neil Silverberg: This took place, to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet.
Neil Silverberg: And if you're a Jew and you're a member of a generation and a race, the Jewish people, who bore these promises and wondered how will they be fulfilled?
Neil Silverberg: You now, in rapid succession, tells us they'll be fulfilled in the person of Jesus, in His birth, in His life and in His death.
Neil Silverberg: But there's something interesting, because Matthew quotes Isaiah 7.14, and again time I've got five more minutes.
Neil Silverberg: I promise I have purposed in my heart this morning to let you out early.
Neil Silverberg: I have bound myself by an oath to never eat ham again if I don't let you out by 12.15.
Neil Silverberg: This prophecy, isaiah 7.14, if you read it in the context of Isaiah, gives the impression that it was fulfilled in Isaiah's day.
Neil Silverberg: Because the story is Isaiah is I'm sorry the king Ahaz is being attacked.
Neil Silverberg: He's the king of Judah and he thinks that Judah is about to be destroyed and he's got two enemies, israel and Syria, that are coming down.
Neil Silverberg: And Isaiah, the prophet, is sent to Ahaz and he says Ahaz, god sent me.
Neil Silverberg: Ask for a sign that Judah is going to be okay.
Neil Silverberg: I'm paraphrasing Judah will never be destroyed, ahaz, because Judah can't be destroyed, messiah has to come, god will preserve it.
Neil Silverberg: Ask a sign and Ahaz, who's wicked, comes off religious.
Neil Silverberg: He says I will not tempt the Lord with a sign.
Neil Silverberg: And Isaiah says okay, if you won't do it, the Lord himself will give you a sign a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and you shall call his name Emmanuel.
Neil Silverberg: And if you read some of the chapters that immediately follow, you get the impression that some of this was fulfilled immediately in the story of Isaiah.
Neil Silverberg: So here's the amazing thing about fulfilled prophecy, and let me do a play on words to make you understand this.
Neil Silverberg: Not only are prophecies predictions of events, so that when they happen they're fulfilled, but we also need to turn that word on its heels and say in Jesus, all of the Old Testament is filled full, so that the stories might have an immediate context in the centuries they were given, but ultimately they find their fulfillment.
Neil Silverberg: Here's a case in point When the babies at Bethlehem are slaughtered, matthew says this fulfills what was spoken by the prophet, rachel weeping for her children.
Neil Silverberg: And they were not.
Neil Silverberg: But if you read that prophecy, it's a prophecy of the Babylonian captivity.
Neil Silverberg: The women were weeping because they were being dragged off to Babylon, but Matthew says, yes, there was a fulfillment there.
Neil Silverberg: But really all of this has its fulfillment or is filled full in the person birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Neil Silverberg: But the most important thing in the why, why this is significant are these words and with this we will end He will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
Neil Silverberg: The virgin birth is necessary not only because it's history in our Bibles, but because of the perspective that there's only one reason Jesus of Nazareth is born into this world to save sinners.
Neil Silverberg: The English word Jesus is really Latin, the Latin form of a Greek word which came from the Hebrew.
Neil Silverberg: The Hebrew is Yahushua, which is our word Joshua, and the name Joshua means the Lord is salvation.
Neil Silverberg: The shorter word Yeshua is.
Neil Silverberg: It lays emphasis on the verb.
Neil Silverberg: Yeshua is the shortened term.
Neil Silverberg: It means he will certainly save.
Neil Silverberg: The reality of this, in conjunction with a virgin birth, blows our minds, and may God help us over these next few weeks, as Christmas approaches, to once again come and wonder and awe and amazement that God himself was born as a baby, grew up as a man and gave himself on the cross to save sinners.
Neil Silverberg: I believe that we have lost the grandeur of what that means and we have allowed other things.
Neil Silverberg: I was reading a book called What is the Gospel And the author asked this question and I want to ask it to you.
Neil Silverberg: How is it that I let the beauty and power and vastness of the gospel be crowded out of my mind so often and for so long?
Neil Silverberg: Why is it that my thoughts and emotions are often dominated by silly things like whether my car is clean or what's happening on CNN right now, or whether I was happy with lunch today, rather than by thinking about these wonderful things, no truths.
Neil Silverberg: Why do I so often organize and think about my life as if I were wearing blinders rather than in the light of eternity?
Neil Silverberg: Why does this gospel not permeate all the time and all the way to the bottom, my relationships with my wife and children, my coworkers and friends and fellow church members?
Neil Silverberg: The answer to the author's question why we allow these things to crowd out the gospel, it's what Hebrews says.
Neil Silverberg: We have become dole of hearing, so that the good news I've heard it all.
Neil Silverberg: It's just old news.
Neil Silverberg: I've heard it all before.
Neil Silverberg: Thank you, but I want you in this closing moment and I will be praying in a moment that the power of the good news would hit us.
Neil Silverberg: Today.
Neil Silverberg: God sent Jesus to His people to save them from their sins and if you're His people this morning, he has done exactly that.
Neil Silverberg: That's why, folks, christianity differs from any religion in one fundamental way The main personage in Christianity is not our example or our model, though he is certainly that.
Neil Silverberg: The main personage in Christianity is, first and foremost, savior.
Neil Silverberg: Christianity does not start with God saying pull yourself up by your bootstraps, get it together, but it starts with this word believe in a Savior, who alone can save you from your sins.
Neil Silverberg: So I have a question for you How are you living your life today In faith in a Savior who alone can save you?
Neil Silverberg: as a member of a fallen race, or are you living as a person trying to reform himself or herself, trying to make your life better?
Neil Silverberg: I'll entone religion and morality, i'll add some things to my life, try to be less impatient and less arrogant and less lustful, and I'll try to balance it out.
Neil Silverberg: When I listen to what passes for the gospel today, i get the impression that the gospel is a joint effort between God and man.
Neil Silverberg: Let's come to terms.
Neil Silverberg: The term for that is synergistic, but the truth is the biblical gospel is monergistic.
Neil Silverberg: He shall save His people from their sins.
Neil Silverberg: Now don't get me wrong.
Neil Silverberg: Jesus is the model for our living, he is the pattern, but He is first and foremost, a Savior.
Neil Silverberg: I don't need a model or a pattern for a better life.
Neil Silverberg: I need total renovation.
Neil Silverberg: I need to be saved.
Neil Silverberg: And if you're saved this morning, here's the good news.
Neil Silverberg: It's not a past event.
Neil Silverberg: You needed to be saved this morning.
Neil Silverberg: I was saved by a Savior of my past sins.
Neil Silverberg: I am being saved this morning from my present sins and I believe He will keep me and save me to the end.
Neil Silverberg: Glory to God.
Neil Silverberg: If you're in Christ this morning, you're not on probation, you're saved completely by Jesus.
Neil Silverberg: And stop beating yourself up and say but I don't pray, i don't read, i don't do enough, that's a problem.
Neil Silverberg: But it's not God dangling over your sonship and saying get it together or else You're not on probation.
Neil Silverberg: If you know Jesus, he is able, hebrews says, to save to the uttermost Him who draws near to God.
Neil Silverberg: No wonder Paul said in all confidence I am confident that He who began a good work in me will finish it in the day of Jesus Christ.
Neil Silverberg: You know why He can say that He knew who started it.
Neil Silverberg: So this Christmas, before you run out and make all kinds of resolutions as you think of the new year But, by the way, all the ones about losing weight are from God, so don't worry about that.
Neil Silverberg: Sorry to disappoint, but are you trying to renovate your life and reform it so you can feel better because you're living in guilt and condemnation?
Neil Silverberg: come this morning to the fount called Calvary, to the babe of Bethlehem, who was not born as a babe to remain in the manger but to go to a cross and appropriate what He's done.
Neil Silverberg: Stand with me this morning.
Neil Silverberg: There's only one way to be saved.
Neil Silverberg: It is to renounce your own ability to reform your life and receive God's free gift of eternal life in His Son, jesus.
Neil Silverberg: These men and women that are here will pray with you this morning.
Neil Silverberg: If God is drawing your heart to respond to the gospel and you feel the need and desire to run to Jesus Maybe you don't understand it Let whoever you came with they'll wait Come forward in a moment as I close in prayer and pray with these folks And anyone else that needs prayer healing.
Neil Silverberg: You need anything else.
Neil Silverberg: We are here to pray with you this morning.
Neil Silverberg: Let's pray.
Neil Silverberg: Let's pray in the name of Jesus.
Neil Silverberg: Thank you for Jesus coming into this world.
Neil Silverberg: Thank you for sending your Son.
Neil Silverberg: As Paul said it, lord, in the fullness of time, god sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law, that we may become sons.
Neil Silverberg: And we marvel this morning once again in the power of that gospel And I pray this morning for every person at Trinity Chapel as we go through the holidays that it wouldn't just be about mistletoe and gifts and good food and friends And we thank you for those things but it would be about Jesus and the glory of the gospel.
Neil Silverberg: So, father, lift up our heads and our hearts this morning.
Neil Silverberg: I pray you draw sinners this morning that might be here.
Neil Silverberg: I pray that saints might be strengthened in their resolve to know and love Jesus And we just thank you for the gift of Christmas in Jesus' name.