The Purpose Of Christmas - Pastor Joshua Kapchinsky

Granite Creek Community Church Sermons

Today we are going on a different journey through Luke and learning about the real christmas story. We have been on many journeys and each of them very meaningful and this story will be the very reason why we go on these journeys. So in honor of Christmas today I give you the real christmas story. Mary, a young teenager living in the village of Nazareth, was engaged to be married to Joseph, a Jewish carpenter. One day God sent an angel to visit Mary. The angel told Mary that she would conceive a son by the power of the Holy Spirit. She would give birth to this child and name him Jesus. At first, Mary was afraid and troubled by the angel's words. Being a virgin, Mary questioned the angel, "How can this happen?" The angel explained that the child would be God's own Son and that nothing is impossible with God. Humbled and in awe, Mary believed the angel of the Lord and rejoiced in God her Savior. Surely Mary reflected with wonder on the words of Isaiah 7:14: "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." (NIV). So, while Mary was still engaged to Joseph, she miraculously became pregnant just as the angel had said. When Mary told Joseph she was pregnant, he must have felt disgraced. He knew the child was not his own, and Mary's apparent unfaithfulness carried a grave social stigma. Joseph had the right to divorce Mary, and under Jewish law, she could be put to death by stoning. Although Joseph's initial reaction was to break the engagement, the appropriate thing for a righteous man to do, he treated Mary with extreme kindness. He did not want to cause her further shame and decided to act quietly. But God sent an angel to Joseph in a dream to verify Mary's story and reassure him that his marriage to her was God's will. The angel explained that the child was conceived by the Holy Spirit, that his name would be Jesus, and that he was the Messiah. When Joseph woke from his dream, he willingly obeyed God and took Mary to be his wife in spite of the public humiliation he would face. Joseph's noble character was one reason God chose him to be Messiah's earthly father. At that time, Caesar Augustus decreed that a census would be taken. Every person in the Roman world had to return to his or her hometown to register. Joseph, being of the line of David, was required to go to Bethlehem to register with Mary. While in Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to Jesus. Because of the census, the inn was overcrowded, and Mary gave birth in a crude stable. She wrapped the baby in cloths and placed him in a manger.