Introduction

​

I read this week that in our world, a woman gives birth to a baby every minute.  Now if this is true, someone needs to find this woman and stop her.  That’s a lot of babies.

Those stats suggest that the birth of a child is … well … ordinary … isn’t it?  Yet that’s what we’re here to celebrate today.  Christmas … like no other holiday … has the ability to turn the mundane … the ordinary … into something great.

• Take our houses for example.  For 11 months of the year … we will drive by all the ordinary houses in our area … on our way to somewhere else.  Yet at Christmas … we will drive around … just to look at houses … because of the Christmas lights … right.  Christmas turns ordinary houses into great houses.

• Or then there’s Christmas Lunch.  Unless we work next to one of those hipster cafes … that sell things like ‘kale and beetroot salad’ or ‘haloumi and avocado calzones’ … most of us have a sandwich for lunch … don’t we.  But not on Christmas.  Baked turkey … glazed ham … prawns … oysters … and salads galore.  Christmas turns an ordinary meal into a great meal.

And it’s the same with the birth of Jesus.  At Christmas … we celebrate the moment a very ordinary event … the birth of a child … became a GREAT event.  And we see this in the passage that was just read for us.  To begin with … the birth of THIS child is foretold by an angel.  Not an ordinary occurrence.  But what we’re going to look at today is the content of the angel’s announcement.  And the content of his announcement tells us why THIS child is great.  And there are 3 things I want to draw our attention to with regards to this.  We’re going to begin by looking at (i) the virgin birth … followed by how he is to have (ii) The Name Jesus.  We’ll then conclude by looking at how this child is (i) The Son of the Most High.  And we’re going to see how each of these 3 points declares that JESUS … is what’s so great about Christmas.  So let’s dive in.

​

​

The Virgin birth (v. 34)

 

Well our passage begins with a very extraordinary character … an angel named Gabriel … being sent to a very ordinary little backwater town … named Nazareth.  And in the first century … Nazareth was NOT the kind of place you’d want to grow up in.  I heard a few years back that teachers in Blacktown were advising their students to NOT put their address on their resumes.  The reason being they would be discriminated against BEFORE an interview … when employers saw they were from Blacktown.  People from Nazareth got the same kind of discrimination in the first century.

Well when Gabriel gets to this very ordinary town … he finds an otherwise ordinary young Israelite virgin … named Mary … and he says to her:

Luke 1:31 (NIV) You will be with child and give birth to a son

Now at this time … Mary was pledged to be married to a man named Joseph.  Yet they weren’t married yet.  We see this in Mary’s initial response:

Luke 1:34 (NIV) "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"

Or quite literally, ‘since I have not known a man’.  So while Mary is not married yet … she’s certainly old enough to know the basics of where babies come from.  Hence her question.

Luke 1:34 (NIV) "How will this be?”

And this is the first thing that makes this ordinary event … the birth of a child … something great.  It is a virgin birth.  Now it’s pointless focussing on the mechanics of how God orchestrated the virgin birth.  We’re simply not told HOW this happened.  But what we ARE told … is that nothing is impossible with God … v. 37.  I find it fascinating that latest statistics suggest around half of Australians DON’T believe in the virgin birth … even though well over 75% of Aussies believe in God.  Now what kind of a god can create the entire universe out of nothing … but can’t handle creating a little baby out of nothing.  As v. 37 says:

Luke 1:37 (NIV) For no word from God will ever fail."

The real question is not HOW this could happen … but WHY?  And the reason WHY it’s important that Mary be a virgin is to show that this is not Joseph’s baby.  If it were Joseph’s baby … it would be an ordinary baby … and you and I wouldn’t be sitting here today celebrating it.  The virgin birth shows us this is God’s baby.  But this begs the million-dollar question.  Why would God send his eternal Son … and by ‘eternal’ I mean he’s existed forever; why would God send his eternal Son into the world as a human baby?

​

​

Give him the name Jesus (v. 31)

 

Well to answer that … we turn to our second point … found in v. 31:

Luke 1:31 (NIV) You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.

Don’t bother Googling baby names Mary … God has already chosen his name.

Luke 1:31 (NIV) … you are to give him the name Jesus.

Yet it’s not the NAME that’s important perse; it’s what the name means.  Naming children these days has very little to do with meaning.  FYI … the name Brendan means ‘stinky hair’.  True story.  But I’m pretty sure my parents didn’t choose that name because of its meaning; they just thought it was a nice name.  Jesus’ name however has a much deeper significance than just sounding nice.  The name Jesus means ‘the Lord saves’.  And this is WHY God sent his eternal Son into this world as a human baby.  To save it.

Now incidentally … THIS is the thing people find most offensive about Christianity.  Did you know that?  The thing that is most offensive about Christianity to modern ears is that Jesus came to save his people.  And the REASON it’s so offensive … is because it means Christianity is exclusive.  For example … in John chapter 14 … Jesus says ‘no one comes to the Father except through me’.  What he means is … there is only one way to be saved … only one way to heaven.  And that is by having our sins forgiven … through Jesus’ death on the cross.  And for some people today … that’s TOO exclusive.  They argue ‘what about all the other religions and philosophies around the world?  Are they all wrong?’  The answer is … ‘yes … that’s what the Bible says’.  And so in THIS sense … Christianity IS exclusive.

But I want to argue … that in spite of being exclusive in this one area … Christianity is actually the most INCLUSIVE religion or philosophy on the planet.  Let me explain.  You see every other philosophy or religion outside of Christianity says the same thing.  They all say that the way to heaven is to be a good person … to be loving to others … to be disciplined in our behaviour … to be ethical in our dealings.  Every single philosophy or religion outside of Christianity says we have red in our ledger … we’ve done bad things … and that the way we make up for that is by being a good, disciplined, loving and moral person.  There are probably people here today … who are here because they KNOW they have red in their ledger … and they’re trying to make up for it … through coming to church on Christmas.  Now if that’s you … can I say ‘welcome … we are truly thrilled that you’re here’.  But you need to understand that such a philosophy is way more exclusive than Christianity.

Why?  Because what happens to those of us who aren’t good?  What about us failures in life?  What happens to those of us who AREN’T disciplined … and who keep messing up?  What about us nervous wrecks … who have enough trouble just getting out of bed in the morning … let alone walking into a church?  What happens to those of us who struggle to remain ethical in all our dealings?  What about those of us who have failed in marriage … failed in parenting … failed in life?  Do you see that every single other world religion or philosophy excludes an enormous chunk of humanity?  Those who don’t have the strength or the discipline to get their lives together … and be good, loving, moral people.

The thing about Christianity is … it welcomes EVERYONE.  Christianity is the most INCLUSIVE religion or philosophy on the planet … because it says anyone can come.  The only exclusive part of Christianity is HOW we come.  We need to come ADMITTING we’re not good … not loving … not disciplined … and not moral enough to save ourselves.  We need to come admitting that we NEED a saviour.

​

​

Son of the Most High (v. 32)

 

And this brings us to our final point … which is HOW IS IT that Jesus saves us?  And for this we turn to v. 32:

Luke 1:32 (NIV) He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.

So to begin with … Jesus will be great.  There have been many great men and women throughout history.  Your Albert Einsteins … your Florence Nightingales … your Nelson Mandelas … your Mother Teresas.  Yet if you put ALL of these great people in a room with Jesus … they would stand in awe of Jesus’ greatness.  In fact if you multiplied THEIR greatness by about a billion trillion … you might be getting close to how great Jesus is.  Why?  Because he is the eternal Son of the creator of the universe.

Now we might think that puts Jesus on a rung just below God … in the cosmic hierarchy.  But it doesn’t.  Being the Son of the Most High puts Jesus on par with the Father.  Let me read to you 2 verses from John’s gospel.  In John Chapter 5 … the Jewish leaders were harassing Jesus because he healed someone on the Sabbath.  They saw miraculously healing someone as ‘work’ … which was not permitted on the Sabbath according to Commandment 4.  Jesus however paid no attention to such religious foolishness.  And we read:

John 5:17-18 (NIV) Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." 18For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

So while Luke 1:32 tells us Jesus was the Son of God … according to his humanity; according to his divinity … he is God the Son.  And this is what is so great about Christmas.  Everything else we might think about … or discuss in life … is secondary to this little fact.  The thing that is so great about Christmas is that Jesus IS God … coming into this world.

Now before we discuss WHY this is great … I should say something quickly to those who may be a little sceptical about this.  And that is … the disciples were sceptical too.  You see Jesus’ disciples were all Jews.  And the Jews were the last people on the planet to believe that God could take on humanity.  The Greek and Roman religions thought the gods came to earth in human form all the time.  But not the Jews.  They saw God as transcendent … above creation; not part of it.  Furthermore … the disciples all LIVED with Jesus for 3 years.  If Jesus were lying … they would have found it out.  Yet these Jews ALL worshipped him as God.  Why?  Because they saw that the man matched the message.  The greatness of Jesus’ character matched the greatness of Jesus’ communication.

And Jesus’ message was NOT ‘be a good, loving, disciplined and moral person’.  Those who THINK that’s Jesus’ message are simply confusing Christianity with the rest of the world’s religions and philosophies.  Jesus’ message was; you are NOT a good, loving, disciplined and moral person.  And deep down … we all know this.  Humans ALL know we have red in our ledger.  Only the most arrogant would say otherwise.  Jesus’ message was … I’m here to wipe your ledger clean.  And I’m going to do that … by shedding my blood on the cross.

Now you may say … ‘well … how does shedding Jesus’ blood pay for sins?’  Well let me ask you; what do you think the blood of God is worth?  In Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Harry and Professor Slughorn go to visit Hagrid … whose is burying his pet giant spider that had just died.  And Professor Slughorn says the venom of the ‘Acromantula’ … the giant spider … is extremely rare.  So he asks Hagrid if he could take some before they buried him … ‘purely for scientific purposes of course’.  In reality Slughorn wanted to sell it … because it was worth so much.  Friends … what do you think the blood of God is worth?  I’ll tell you.  It’s worth EVERYTHING.  There is NOTHING you cannot purchase with the blood of God.

​

​

Conclusion

 

Now there are 2 things I want to say about this as we close:

The first is to those here today who still think that being a good, loving, disciplined and moral person is going to get you into heaven.  Now don’t hear me wrong.  I’m not saying go out today and be IMMORRAL.  OK … God loves his disciples being good, loving and moral people.  But NOT in order to try and pay for your sins.  If you think your good works are somehow paying for your sins … can I say to you ‘PLEASE STOP!’  Please stop trying to pay for your own sins!  Please stop trying to wipe your ledger clean.  The sole reason Jesus was born as a baby … was because God wants to be close to you.  The God of the Bible is not exclusive … he’s inclusive.  He wants all people to come close to him.  But the way we do it is by admitting we’re NOT good, loving, disciplined and moral people.  It’s by asking God to purchase our sins … with the priceless blood of Jesus.  If you would like to know more about how to do this … please come and chat to me today before you rush off.

The second thing I’d like to say is to those who already HAVE Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.  To you I would ask you to reflect once again this Christmas on the lengths God went to … to draw near to you.  And then realise the cross is not the END of God drawing near to you.  It’s only the beginning.  It’s like a wedding is not the END of drawing near to your spouse.  It’s only the beginning of a lifetime of drawing ever closer to them.  In the same way … God wants to draw even CLOSER to you in 2025.  And the way we do that is through things like Bible reading … prayer … church … Bible study … just to name a few.  They are what theologians call ‘The Means of Grace’.  They are the ways in which God pours his grace and love into our hearts.  So what are you doing … or what are you willing to do MORE of … to let God continue to draw near to you in 2025?

Because the thing that is SO great about Christmas … is that Jesus was willing to give everything … his glory, his power, his angelic servants, his safety, his home … even his blood … to be born as a human baby … to come near to us.  Why would you not WANT to get near to a person that great?