Pastor Robert Morris – What's So Amazing About Christmas?

so I want you to turn to Matthew chapter one and I'm gonna preach a message that came to me in my just my prayer time I had this thought what's so amazing about Christmas I just had the thought it just came to my mind you know what's so amazing about Christmas and immediately the answer was there and I'll tell you in a moment what the answer is for me and it would probably be the same for you but you might not express it in the same wording that I'm using I asked several people and they gave me great answers just no one used the same words that that I was thinking but this is the the words the answer that I'm going to give you in a moment is actually the most amazing fact in the world to me what I'm going to tell you when I answer the question what's so amazing about Christmas to me and maybe two years well it's the most amazing fact in the world it's the most amazing fact ever if you think about it the whole world marks time as according to Christmas in essence the first Christmas the whole world refers to even our history books even when you go to other countries they will talk about before Christ so many years before Christ and so many years ad ad does not mean after death many people think it does but there would be a 33 and a half year gap in the calendar I was actually explaining that to Debbie one time remember Debbie's not good with numbers and I said you know these no it's not she said ad stands for after death that's a no sugar there'd be a 33 and a half year gap in the calendar if that's true and she just looked at me so I said never mind ad means anno domini which are Latin words which mean the year of our Lord so the whole world the whole world marks time as before Christ was born and then once he was born now it's where in the 2017 year of the Lord of our Lord and that amazing so something something amazing about Christmas is it just the the Christmas spirit is it just that it's a good time to get a good deal on something is it just the family gathering which is good is it just the eating which is good is it that the whole world gives at this time well what's so amazing so we're gonna read the Christmas story in Matthew chapter 1 and I'll tell you what's so amazing about Christmas alright Matthew 1 verse 18 says now birth the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows after his mother Mary was betrothed our inward to be engaged to Joseph before they came together in other words before they were married and physically came together she was found I underwent she was found with child of the Holy Spirit then Joseph her husband being a just man and not wanting to make her a public example was minded to put her away secretly but while he thought about these things behold an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying Joseph son of David do not be afraid to take to you Mary as your wife for that which is I underline these again so we could notice it conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit and she will bring forth the son and you shall call his name Jesus so that would be the Greek and Trent from the Latin to our English language but Yeshua in the Hebrew and it says for he will save his people from their sins Yeshua means God is salvation God brings salvation so you're gonna call in Jesus because he's gonna save his people from their sins so all this was done all of this was done then it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the Prophet and this prophet is Isaiah saying behold the Virgin and I underlying that again because it's important to what's so amazing about Christmas the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel which is translated God with us okay so here's what hit me that's so amazing about Christmas and this literally just blows me away and you're gonna be blown away too but as I glanced out of my notes I noticed I have something else before I get there so in a moment I'm going to tell you what's so amazing about Christmas this is the way you build them up you just build them up but okay but be yours volunteer it gives a prophecy from Isaiah Isaiah has the most messianic scriptures a Messianic scripture is a scripture that is foretelling the Messiah Isaiah has the most of any book of the Bible all right so let me go back to where this prophecy was and give you a little background on this prophecy this was at a time when Syria not Assyria but Syria was besieging Judah now we don't use the word besieging a lot but what it means was getting ready for battle building up sieges against them so they could get ready for battle all right and Isaiah gives a has a word a has as the king of Judah and he was not a godly King never a godly King but he gives him a word that says listen this is gonna come to nothing don't worry about this attack from the enemy it's gonna come to nothing and a has doesn't believe it the reason he doesn't believe it is because he's actually doing the back door deal with us area remember again two different nations Syria and Assyria and he's literally gonna sell the people of Israel as slaves so for his own freedom but he's think he thinks he's got it worked out and so Isaiah's given him a word from God and then Isaiah adds this part as the word part of the word okay so that's where I pick up the story Isaiah 7 verse 10 moreover the moreover in other words in addition the Lord spoke again to Ahaz saying as a sign for yourself from the Lord from the Lord your God ask it either in the depth or in the height above but a has says I will not ask nor will I test the Lord sounds like spiritual answer I'll remind you in a moment why it's not a spiritual answer at all then he said here now o house of David it's important as the house of David is it a small thing for you to weary me in but will you weary my god also therefore the Lord Himself will give you a side behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel this where it comes from this is a scripture that was quoted in Matthew 1 alright so he says listen don't be worried about this God's gonna take care of you a has sounds to be real spiritual Chaz manages no I'm not gonna ask for a sign because I'm not gonna test God Oh King James says to you oh and I'm not gonna do that you know that's wrong to do okay he did not say that because he didn't want to test God he said that because he didn't want to trust God because you see if God gives you a word then you're responsible to trust him for that word so he didn't even want to receive the word so Isaiah then prophesized not knowing that he's actually prophesying something that's going to happen 740 years later this is 740 years b.c before Christ so he says while God's going to give you a sign a virgin is gonna conceive and have a child and they'll call his name God with okay here sir thing just think about this how was that a sign to a has and to the people of Judah and the house of David how was that a sign because it wasn't going to happen for seven hundred and forty years well let me tell you how it's a sign it's actually assigned to every generation of believers because here's what he's saying the Messiah is coming and the Messiah comes through the tribe of Judah through the house of David but the Messiah hasn't come yet so the sign a has is there's no way that the enemy can succeed against you because God has a purpose for you and he's not finished with you yet now listen to me very carefully that is the same sign that you and I have today that God has a purpose for our lives and Satan cannot succeed against us until God's purposes are fulfilled for us same sign I'll tell you something else Satan cannot take you out he can't because God has a verse you now I don't want to bring a downer but I do want to bring a very factual statement here's what I've learned 37 years of ministry now Satan can't take me out but I can take me out that's what I figured that when I'm weak and when I'm tempted and when I'm under attack I could do something stupid that could take me out of the purposes of God for my life and so can you it's not just for preachers it's for YouTube so hear me but the good news is Satan can't take me out that's what he's saying this is amazing 740 years before Christ he says you're listening to me tribe of Judah and house of David there's no way that the enemy can take you out right now because the Messiah comes through you and the Messiah hasn't come yet so don't worry about what the enemy's saying about you don't even worry about it so what's so amazing about Christmas here's what's amazing to me about Christmas all right point number one God became human that blows me away I love theology I consider myself a theologian one of the reasons I love it and I hope you love it as well and don't think it's dry and boring it's because it's the story or the study of God the subject of God that's where we get theology ecology meaning the subject of or the study of and fee osteo coming from the Greek word theost God it's the study of God there's no more fascinating study in the world than the study of God God became human this is why Christmas changes everything this is why Christmas the whole world counted down to Christ and now kev county that suits christ the whole world because God became human now notice I underlined the word God here's the reason that I did that because there's an attack today oh and there's always been but there's more today than ever before than I've ever seen it on the deity of Christ well we believe Jesus was a good man and we believe Jesus was one of the prophets he was a prophet like other prophets of other religions no he was is and will be God always God it's the same art it's the same question they had even with Jesus only search and I think he brought it up simply for this purpose so that every generation from now on would have to answer this question Matthew 16 he's talking to his disciples verse 13 when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples saying who do men say that I notice what he says the Son of Man others he was born of a woman okay a human so we're gonna talk about God became human so he was born of a woman says the Son of Man am who-who-who they say I am so they said some say John the Baptist some elijah others Jeremiah or one of the prophets he said to me he said then but who do you say that I am Simon Peter Peter answered and said you are the Christ the Son of the Living God in other words notice son of God and Son of Man you're fully God fully man but you're also fully God by the way the question who do you say that I am he's asking you and your answer determines your eternal destination that's an important question who do you say that Jesus is a good man one of the prophets just one of the prophets that started many of one of the world religions or the Christ the Messiah the son of the Living God so we know he was God because of this if he was conceived by the Holy Spirit it's called the immaculate conception immaculate lot of people to think I don't even know what that means actually you use it you say your house is immaculate simply what it means is clean it means pure it means without spot so he was conceived purely completely purely because he was conceived by the Holy Spirit a woman but not a man now that's important and I go back to the scriptures verse 18 Matthew 1 she was found with child of the Holy Spirit verse 20 that which has conceived in hers the Holy Spirit okay the egg was from a woman but the seed was not from a man the seed was from the Holy Spirit now this is extremely important because the iniquities this is over ten times in the Old Testament the iniquities of the father's go to the third and fourth generation it never says the iniquities of the mothers now ladies don't say I knew it I now have proof but all the bad stuff they got from him well you actually do have a little bit of proof about that but here's the point iniquity is passed through the seed it's passed through the father so he was born of a woman but not of a man why so he could be fully human and fully God the deity and the humanity of Christ God became human that is what is so that's the most amazing fact I know no other religion hateem he would use the word religion because I don't like the word religion is man's attempt to get to God Christianity is God's attempt to get to man so I don't even like using that word but no other religion can say our founder is God he's God God became a man now so he was born of an incorruptible seed if the seed had not been corrupted I'll taste some great news did you know you were born again right when you get saved you're born again I preached a message on just a few months ago did you know when you were born again you were born of incorruptible seed not corruptible the first Peter 1:23 having been born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible through the word which lives the Word of God which lives and abides forever notice Emmanuel God with us so I'm saying God became human and what I'm focusing on here is God then this is it's it's hard to even tell you how much this impacts me I cried today in my office thinking about this this is the most amazing fact I know I know nothing more amazing than this God became a human let me say another way God did not send a messenger Jesus it didn't send a messenger God brought a message himself he became human God became human I said another way God did not send someone to redeem you he came himself I have a friend of mine that's a judge and he told me this story one time kind of blew me away but he said people do this all the time at one time one of his friends came to him said listen I got a speeding ticket I was wondering if you could take care of it for me and so he said yeah I'll take care of it for you so a few weeks later he saw this guy somewhere and the guy said hey thanks for dismissing that ticket for me and my friend the judge said oh I didn't dismiss it he said well what do you mean you didn't dismiss it if you didn't dismiss it how did you take care of it he said I paid it the guy said I I didn't want you to pay it I wanted you to know I wanted you to you know do your judge thing and he said well I'm ask you a question were you guilty were you guilty and I said well yes I was he send injustice demanded that the penalty be paid if I'm a righteous judge I can't dismiss the charges against you but I can pay him myself so many people think that God dismissed the charges against us but he didn't he paid them himself God became human so my second point is real similar than my first but he'll see it's just a little bit different point to the most amazing thing about Christmas is God became human you have to think for a moment to remember the first point okay God became so what's amazing well the first one part yet part is that God became human the second thing that amazed me is God became human he was born he he did he his life was dependent upon other people taking care of him humans the create or became the creation he grew up he went to school he had friends he was a human but why did he become a human this is the humanity of Christ John 1 verse 1 in the beginning was the word now the word is always referring to Jesus and I'll show you why in a moment but many many places tell us that he he is the word of God but in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God okay so that's one way we know Jesus but verse 14 is going to make it real clear to us verse 14 says and the word became flesh and dwelt among us that's Jesus and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten John 3:16 for God so loved the world he gave His only begotten Son as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth first John four verses two and three by this you know the Spirit of God every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh or became a human is of God and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come the flesh is not of God and this is the spirit of the Antichrist which you've heard was coming and is now already in the world second John verse seven for many deceivers are going out in the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh or becoming a human this is the deceiver and I end an antichrist okay why is it important to believe that he actually became a human because if he didn't become a human than he didn't really die for my sins he had to become a human to pay for my sins so the world attacks these two facets of Jesus that he wasn't fully God and he wasn't fully man the son who said people will say well if he was a man or he was a man he was a prophet he was a good man but he wasn't really God well they're wrong and then others will say well he was God only assert but he wasn't really a human but if he wasn't a human that it's simply a grand illusion that he died and it's not Jesus Christ really was Scourge for me and for you he really was nailed to a cross he really did bleed and he really did die here's the good news and he really did rise from the grave he overcame death but he had to become a human to redeem us I'm gonna read you a scripture in Hebrews and sometimes Hebrews is kind of hard to understand Hebrews was written by Hebrew to Hebrews telling Hebrew so they didn't quick that like Hebrews they'd always be just Hebrews you have to think about that later but there's a lot of understanding and understanding Hebrews it's a great great God can open our eyes but sometimes the wording is a little hard to understand so I'm going to read this out of the New Living Translation because it's easier to understand Hebrews 2:14 says be God because God's children are human beings made of flesh and blood Jesus also became flesh and blood by being born in human form God became human for only as a human being could he die and only by dying could he break the power of the devil who had the power of death so this is what's so amazing to think about Christmas is that God became human and he had to become a human so he could die and break the power of death what that means is is that death now has no power over the believer and here's the great thing about it Jesus has already faced it see one of the great things about him being a human is that he knows how you feel this is what Hebrews goes on to say we don't have a high priest that can't sympathize with our weaknesses because he has in every point been tempted just as we are so he knows what it's like to be tempted so when you go to him you can't say to him you just don't know what it's like you can't say that because he could say yes I do I know what it's like to be tired I know what it's like to be tempted I know what it's like to be under attack if you think you're under attack we talked about this last week if you think you're under attack think about how much the Son of God was under attack when he was on this earth so he knows what it's like and he knows what it's like to face death I was some I get tickled sometimes at my generation using social media in other words we want to communicate through text like everybody else I mean you know and so but and we want to use emojis so what they're called and we tried to learn the initials too but we don't really know what they means but I heard about this lady and she texted all the children and she said just one all of you know that Aunt Martha passed away today lol and so her son called her and said mom what do you think lol means she said it means lots of love for some of you thinking okay what's the joke it means laugh out loud so it probably was not appropriate to say Aunt Martha died laugh out loud so for me the most amazing thing about Christmas is God became human fully God fully man now there's a very very famous messianic scripture that we use at Christmas that actually says these two theological ideas about Christ truths about Christ I should say they're not ideas the truth I won't I want to read it to you maybe you're gonna see it differently than ever before it's going to say that he came as a man that he also came as God okay it's in I say again Isaiah 9 verse 6 for unto us a child is born unto us a son is given did you see it unto us a child a human is born unto us a son the Son of God is given he came as a man he also came as the Son of God fully man fully God again the reason I say this is the most amazing thing is because he redeemed us himself he redeemed us himself he didn't say if you do these five things you go to heaven he didn't say if you beat yourself up you'd go to heaven he didn't say any of that he said if you simply believe that I died on the cross for your sins you go to heaven I paid for your sins when I think about him paying for our sins personally I think about what if Adam had not been with Eve when she sent now he was with Eve he didn't protect her he didn't teach her the way should have and he sinned also so they they said and together but I'm just going to use an illustration what if Adam had been on the other side of the garden when he sinned if he had not been with her when she sinned then a conversation like this would have taken place God would have had to go to Adam and say I'm so sorry to tell you this son but your bride has sinned and she's going to die she's going to die okay we know that didn't happen but I think a conversation like that did take place I think God the Father had to say to God the Sun after Adam and Eve sinned I think he had to say I'm so sorry to tell you this son but the bride that I created for you has sinned and she's going to die and I think Jesus said but I don't want her to die and the father would have said what she's going to die she sinned the penalty for sin is death she's going to die and then Jesus said I'll die for I'll die so that she can live and Christmas is the amazing story that God became a human and died for his creation that's what we celebrated Christmas that's what's so amazing about Christmas I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes and I don't want you just to get caught up in all that goes on this time of year I want you to just take some time and think about how amazing it is that the Son of God came into this world as a human in a very humble way lived a sinless life for you so he could fulfill the requirements of the law over us but then died a penal death for us taking our penalty that's where the word would come from so that we could live so don't get so caught up in it that you miss that fact I do want to say too before we pray for people here at a moment you're going to have to answer that question in your heart truly in your heart I'll just with your mouth or with your outward yes I believe in your mind but you're gonna have to answer that question at some point before you die who do you say that Jesus is was he just a good man was he just a prophet or was he the Messiah the son of the Living God we want to pray for you every campus every overflow room if you're especially if you're going through a difficulty right now or if you need to give your life to to the Lord or give your life back to the Lord we want to pray for you so in just a moment we have one more worship song at every campus if you need prayer for any area of your life and I want to emphasize this you don't have to be a member of gateway Church to come for prayer maybe you're a guest from out of town or maybe you've been here a few times or you haven't gone through the classes yet that doesn't matter if you need prayer we want to pray for you so if you're if you need prayer for any area of your life as soon as we stand up at every campus that you just stand up step out and come it's very easy you'll see other people come in the front you just come to the front and just tell someone I need prayer for this all right if you're on our ministry team you come as quickly as you can so you'll be ready in the minister Holy Spirit I pray you'll draw every person at every campus that has any prayer need in Jesus name Amen

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Views: 128,873

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Keywords: Christmas, gatewaypeople, Gateway, Gateway Church, Robert Morris, Pastor Robert, Savior, Dallas, Southlake, Texas, Jesus, Sermon, salvation, christ

Id: eHcJAglXDHo

Length: 33min 33sec (2013 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 16 2017